There’s an invisible yet increasingly invaluable link between businesses worldwide and their ability to serve customers effectively: SaaS SEO agency. Business-to-business marketing is marketing products/services to other businesses through various strategies and content. Championing the streamlined process of B2B marketing are B2B marketing consultants.
B2B companies have positioned themselves as “problem-solvers” within the commerce chain, helping other businesses automate or enhance their processes. This approach fosters a spirit of collaboration, encouraging businesses to work together towards common goals rather than competing.
A quintessential example of a B2B transaction would be the brokerage between wholesalers and online retailers. To provide a clearer understanding, here are some elaborate examples categorized by their function:
- Company Websites: Their target audience is typically clients and employees of other businesses. They could be seen as mini-trade forums. For instance, a clearing agency might offer logistics companies access to an exclusive platform for managing imports and exports at a negotiated rate.
- Product Supply and Procurement Exchanges: These platforms allow company purchasing agents to source supplies from various vendors, including popular e-commerce sites like Aliexpress. By catering to a niche market, these e-procurement sites fulfill specific needs efficiently.
- Specialized/Vertical Industry Portals: accelerating growth with SDRs that provide dedicated information, product listings, discussion platforms, and other features for specific industries. For some, with the intent of widening their reach, buying and selling are also supported. For example, Royal Brinkman, a leader in professional horticulture, offers products, knowledge, and consultancy services, enabling horticulture enthusiasts to flourish.
- Infomediaries: Information sites that provide insight about a particular industry to companies and their employees, for example, specialized search websites and trade organizations.
Several B2B companies fall into more than one of these categories. The ability to offer various services makes them more attractive to customers. B2B, however, is easily confused with B2C, which is business-to-consumer. B2C applies to the direct relationship between businesses and customers.
Key differences between B2B and B2C
- Decision-Making: B2C transactions are typically made by individuals or households based on emotion or spontaneous decisions. In contrast, B2B decisions involve multiple stakeholders and are driven by rational and calculated considerations.
- Sales Cycle: The B2B sales cycle is lengthy and complex, hinging on the relationships between companies to achieve long-term objectives. Meanwhile, B2C sales are more straightforward, product-driven, and aimed at satisfying immediate needs.
- Brand Emphasis: B2C companies heavily focus on brand identity to attract a broad consumer base. However, B2B marketing prioritizes the services offered and strategies to reach potential business clients, rather than brand identity alone.
Great examples of businesses that have achieved success in the B2B world are:
- Amazon: Though it is a primarily B2C platform, it has a dedicated B2B medium called Amazon Business. It provides an all-rounded package of methods of approving workflows, multi-user accounts, paying by invoice, etc. Amazon Business practices innovation by constantly renewing new features and marketing adjustments to the current experience. For a stellar experience, users can subscribe to Business Prime for star benefits.
- Royal Brinkman: As mentioned above, Royal Brinkman is devoted to distributing information on professional horticulture from a massive database. Being an online platform, it favors personalization and segmentation of customers’ needs. B2B customers can connect to content through several stages of their commerce journey.
- EcoEnclose: Sustainability is its core corporate responsibility. EcoEnclose provides businesses with environmentally friendly packaging according to their sustainability values. It offers a smooth B2B experience through product segmentation, user-friendly navigation, and quality images per item. Its in-depth details on every sustainable packaging option make the company distinguishable from its competitors.
- Boards and More: An exceptional wholesaler of kitesurfing and paddleboarding, Boards and More has a corporate yet attractive web design that allows visitors to navigate while looking for information quickly. The appealing design includes meticulous product data, such as information about the connection of items with other spare parts, which are similarly available on the website.
- Quill: Quill is popular worldwide for its office and educational supplies for small and medium businesses.
- Broekhof: Embracing Artificial Intelligence, Broekhof utilizes a chatbot with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) data. The company aims to save others from the cost of hiring customer service support by providing an already automated system.
These examples only begin to explore the vast world of B2B marketing, highlighting the innovative strategies and solutions that drive success in this sector.
The global B2B commerce market is projected to reach $20.9 trillion, underscoring the significant impact of B2B marketing strategies. To fully grasp how B2B marketing consultants can transform your company, delving into B2B marketing research is the next logical step.
Understanding B2B Marketing Research
B2B marketing research aims to uncover insights into your marketplace by surveying a representative sample of its participants. Participants may include existing customers, former customers, potential buyers, lost prospects—individuals who switched to another company—and influencers. It can also extend to current and prospective employees in a competitive employer market.
Specific goals should accompany marketing research; otherwise, it would be in vain and a waste of resources. Businesses consider researching to find solutions to customer pain points, monitor competitor activity, and explore new revenue growth avenues.
Types of B2B marketing research
- Brand Research: Helps marketing consultants understand how competitors and clients perceive the company. Objectives often include identifying opportunities, strengthening the brand, and differentiating the business.
- Client Research: Focuses on understanding the customer base to adjust marketing messages, services, and operations effectively.
- Client Satisfaction Research: Investigates client satisfaction with your products and services.
- Client Journey Research: Maps out potential clients’ paths to developing trust in your products/services, aiming to smooth the buying process and improve closing rates.
- Client Persona Research: Identifies the final decision-makers and the messages they need to hear.
- Market Research: Involves studying competitors, identifying services to offer, and exploring opportunities.
With your prioritized goals in mind, determine the research area, then proceed with the research.
Carrying out B2B market research
- Identifying Your Research Topic: Decide between exploratory research, which is open-ended and aims to gather general insights, and specific research, which is structured and focused.
- Choosing Participants: Ensure your sample represents your target audience to gather useful results. Use various channels to reach potential participants.
- Engaging Your Participants: Use personalized approaches and offer incentives. Avoid conducting research during peak times to prevent skewed results.
- Deciding on Your B2B Market Research Questions: Choose questions based on your end goals, whether open-ended or closed.
- Choosing When to Conduct Research: Aim to connect your results to specific instances. Set a clear timeframe.
- Data Collection: Involves both qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative data offers in-depth insights through direct conversations, while quantitative data provides a broader overview through surveys.
- Data Analysis: Analyze collected data to draw conclusions. Use tools like MS Excel and IBM-powered SPSS for quantitative data, and review transcripts and recordings for qualitative data.
Based on the research results, B2B marketing consultants can then show clear recommendations for a company. Marketing research methods are just a few pieces of the puzzle in unlocking and running a successful B2B company. In the long run, the complete picture comes into full view once fitting strategies are implemented.
12 Effective Strategies Used by an Effective B2B Marketing Consultant
A B2B marketing consultant devises practical strategies to enhance marketing efforts, aiming to connect with, engage, and convert the target audience. Here are proven strategies and a surefire approach to help clients prioritize and address their customers’ needs:
- Create an “intent funnel”: 90% of businesses use content marketing regularly to connect with their audiences. The key for B2B brands lies in demonstrating industry knowledge, thereby strengthening their search engine presence. B2B marketing consultants focus on keywords throughout the customer’s journey, aiding in research, decision-making, or converting engaged customers.
- Capture emotion through advertising: Contrary to the belief that B2B decisions are purely logical, evidence suggests all buying decisions have an emotional component. Even B2B clients seek an emotional connection, valuing case studies, statistics, and evidence. Incorporating storytelling in marketing campaigns, by addressing relatable topics, can drive customer acquisition.
- Experiment with personalized content: Hyper-personalization is a key emerging trend in business marketing; all customers want experiences tailored to them. Ideally, you want strategies to be more specific to each user you want to connect with by using dynamic assets to change advertising elements. For instance, third-party apps or add-ons for your Shopify or WordPress stores allow you to create pop-up offers, deliver unique messages, and provide different offers based on location, such as discounts on delivery.
- Leverage User-Generated Content and Case Studies: More than 92% of B2B buyers say they are more likely to make a purchasing decision after reading a trustworthy and encouraging review. User-generated content promotes credibility by sharing sample reviews and testimonials across several channels, success stories on the website, and video testimonials on YouTube. Case studies elaborate on exact problems and solutions. For example, RingCentral, a leading communications company, cleverly allows users to search through case studies by industry, allowing access to relevant content.
- Invest in analytics and testing: Sensibly, the only way to know if a B2B campaign is delivering growth is to measure it. Investing in tools for analysis, such as Google Analytics, can accurately track activity across different channels. Social media platforms also offer analytical features to monitor visitors and time spent on a page. Furthermore, A/B testing on emails shows what emails get the most clicks and opens. B2B businesses should constantly keep an eye on their campaigns through evaluation and tracking.
- Take advantage of B2B influence marketing: Collaborating with influencers is more popular with B2C marketing, but it can also be applied to B2B. Lead generation campaigns endorsed by micro-influencers on LinkedIn generate a conversion rate of up to 20%, even more when paired with a lead management tool like Refrens. Working with well-known experts in your industry is sure to make waves.
- Include a referral system: Have your existing customers work for you by building traction toward your business. Ensure you capitalize on and incentivize your satisfied customers. 78% of B2B referrals create viable leads for a business.
- Expand your content marketing strategy: 80% of online customers appreciate customized content created by a business that educates them on products and solutions. Outside of publishing blogs, you can incorporate video marketing and podcasts that are captivating and easier to consume. Interactive content is another grand idea. Including quizzes and surveys doesn’t have to be dull; make it exciting for your customers.
- Create a mobile app: B2B e-commerce mobile apps are critical to the future of their industry. Regarding meeting customers where they are, what better way than on their mobile devices? Apps boost engagement, repeat sales, and unlock new opportunities by integrating referral systems and push notifications.
- Use training resources for marketing: B2B marketing research shows that 74% of customers will switch brands if purchasing or onboarding is too tricky. Provide webinars, blog posts, etc., with simplified images and instructions illustrating how they can navigate services.
- Leverage technology for new experiences: Lately, the technology space is an environment of immersive interactions, from AI chatbots to virtual and augmented reality. Incorporating these elements into your marketing strategy would be great for testing and demoing products.
- Invest in psychology: Neuromarketing, or consumer neuroscience, enables marketing consultants to understand how customers think and feel. Researching factors that influence B2B purchasing decisions helps build impactful building campaigns. Such factors include a sense of trust that can be gained by adding testimonials and reviews.
Implementing these strategies with the support of a B2B marketing consultant can lead to remarkable results. This guide has outlined essential steps to leverage these benefits effectively. And now, we’re set to explore the “icing on the cake”: Strategic Pete, who embodies the culmination of these efforts.
Hiring a B2B Marketing Consultant: What the Engagement Actually Looks Like
The strategies above are what the work consists of. This section is about buying it: what a B2B marketing consultant owns once engaged, why B2B changes the shape of the job, what it costs, and the questions that separate a strategist from a vendor.
Why B2B changes the job
Three things make B2B consulting a different discipline rather than the same one applied to different customers.
The buying committee. You are rarely persuading one person. A typical deal involves a champion who wants the problem solved, a technical evaluator looking for reasons to say no, and a finance signatory who cares about neither. Marketing that speaks only to the champion produces enthusiasm that dies in procurement.
The sales cycle. When a deal takes six to twelve months to close, this quarter’s pipeline was created by work done three quarters ago. Any consultant who promises a revenue change inside ninety days is either selling to your impatience or has not understood your cycle.
Sales alignment. In B2B, marketing hands its output to people, not to a checkout. Most of what looks like a marketing problem — leads that sales dismisses as unqualified, deals that stall after the demo — is a definition problem between two departments that have never agreed what qualified means. A consultant who never asks to sit in on a sales call is diagnosing half the system.
What the consultant owns, and what they do not
A B2B marketing consultant owns the strategy: who you target, what you say to them, in what sequence, at what budget, and how you will know whether it worked. In practice the first month is usually spent on the parts nobody enjoys — reconciling what the CRM says against what the sales team believes, working out which channels genuinely produced closed revenue rather than form fills, and finding where the handover to sales leaks.
They do not own execution unless that is bought separately. Writing the sequences, producing the content, running the campaigns and building the pages is a different purchase with a different price. If what is actually missing is throughput rather than direction, an agency or a specialist freelancer is the cheaper and better answer, and a good consultant will say so.
What it costs and how it is scoped
B2B strategy work is bought in three shapes. A fixed-scope diagnostic — an audit of pipeline, channels and positioning ending in a written plan — has a price agreed before it starts and is the right first purchase when nobody can say what is working. A monthly retainer buys senior direction on an agreed plan: reviewing the numbers, reallocating spend, keeping agencies and internal teams pointed the same way. Fractional leadership buys ownership, with authority over budget and positioning and accountability for a pipeline number, and it is the only one of the three that carries the result rather than advising on it.
Our breakdown of what marketing consultants charge and how each model is priced puts figures against all three. The thing worth deciding before you look at any of them is which of the three you are actually buying, because the most expensive mistake here is paying for ownership and granting only the authority of an adviser.
Four questions that separate a strategist from a vendor
- What number are you accountable for, and over what period? In B2B the honest answer references the sales cycle. “Pipeline created this quarter” is a real answer; “leads” usually is not.
- How will you tell qualified from unqualified? If the definition comes from marketing alone, sales will not accept the output whatever its volume.
- What in our current spend would you stop? A consultant who only adds has not read the numbers. The first return in most B2B engagements comes from ending something.
- What do we own when this finishes? Ask for the artefacts by name: documented processes, a working reporting setup, an agreed qualification standard. A presentation is not a handover.
If the answers point toward senior ownership of the whole function rather than advice on part of it, that is a fractional CMO engagement rather than a consulting one. The quickest way to find out which of the two fits is a short conversation about your pipeline rather than a proposal. If you would rather hand this to a specialist, read about our consulting engagements.
B2B Marketing Consultants: Conclusion
Examples and strategies remain merely suggestions until implemented. B2B marketing consultants offer assistance in making informed decisions and building a super team of leaders to meet your desired goals. Some of the benefits you can expect to see with their help include:
- With business research backing you, you can effectively target customers and encourage engagement with your brand, resulting in a positive ROI for your business
- Having up-to-date insights on customers’ mindsets at your fingertips
- Reeling in more significant customers
- Learning to monitor your performance
At Strategic Pete, we transcend traditional B2B marketing consultancy by weaving a tapestry of enduring partnerships and unmatched expertise. Our mission is to alleviate the obstacles in your path, enabling you to steer your company’s helm with unwavering focus and confidence. Armed with a diverse arsenal of tools, unparalleled emotional intelligence, and a team of zealous professionals, we stand not just as consultants, but as architects of your success.
Let us be the silent force that propels you forward, making Strategic Pete not just a choice, but your strategic advantage in the marketplace.
If you would rather hand the whole programme to one team than brief a consultant, that is what our B2B marketing agency does — strategy, demand generation and video from the same people.
