The Difference between B2B and B2C Marketing Automation
When you operate a B2B business, you have to develop the mindset that B2B business customers have different expectations and behaviour compared to customers. As they run businesses themselves and want to maximize their profits, B2B businesses prefer to look for better deals, especially those that benefit their niche.
When it comes to marketing for B2B companies, the main goal is to develop better relationships to satisfy longer sales cycles. Achieving these goals will be easier with marketing automation.
What Is Marketing Automation?
Marketing automation is a powerful tool that enables businesses to automate their marketing processes from the initial contact to the final sale. This tool, basically a software application, has a wide range of features that facilitate the entire team's work, from software and IT to marketing and customer service.
HERE ARE SOME OF THE METHODS OF MARKETING AUTOMATION:
1. Lead Nurturing
Lead nurturing is creating a sequence of automatic marketing messages for prospects. The process starts with the initial contact with the prospects. If the connection is made through email, the most common medium for B2B sales, the mail system would automatically create a mail to the prospect.
The marketing automation system would keep adding emails to the prospect’s inbox, each containing exciting information about your company, product, services, and more. The system would also ask a series of questions that the prospect would have to answer before sending the next email.
Lead nurturing aims to build trust and make the prospect feel comfortable before the actual sales pitch begins.
2. Multi-Channel Campaigns
If you’re a B2B company, you know that marketing is not a one-way street anymore. Today, a B2B company must have a multi-channel campaign that would reach prospects through phone, direct mail, email, social media, and many more.
Multi-channel campaigns are an excellent way to create a consistent marketing message that reaches the prospect through several channels. This is an efficient way to reach active prospects on different channels.
3. Lead Scoring
Lead scoring is a method of evaluating prospects based on their interests, needs, and preferences. While lead nurturing would hint at the prospects’ potential, lead scoring will give you a better idea of how they would react to your product.
Lead scoring evaluates the contact information of the prospects to determine their needs. It also analyzes the prospects’ online behaviour to determine their interest of the prospect in your product. The scoring can be done manually or partially automatically by using marketing software.
What Are the Benefits of Marketing Automation for B2B Companies?
Here are some of the benefits of marketing automation for B2B companies:
1. Save Time on Repetitive Tasks
The most important benefit of marketing automation is saving time on repetitive tasks. While marketing automation is not a substitute for human intelligence, the automation can do specific tasks– like sending follow-up emails to prospects or prospects who have shown interest. This will free your team to focus on other tasks.
2. Measure the Success of Your Marketing Activities
Another great benefit of marketing automation for B2B companies is measuring the success of your marketing activities. The software of marketing automation can also monitor marketing campaigns and offer reports on the campaign's performance.
3. Better Lead Qualification
Marketing automation can help B2B companies improve their lead qualification process. The system would have a better understanding of the lead and their interests. This means that there will be fewer leads that don’t have enough interest in your product.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Marketing automation is an effective tool that can help B2B companies streamline their marketing activities. With marketing automation, your team can focus on more important things, like finding the right prospects and nurturing them to purchase your products.
Automate B2B marketing with us at Tangoo Marketing. As a sales automation agency, we help business owners and sales teams optimize their time with sales generation solutions. Contact us today to start!