Marketing is a important department in business. Convincing customers that your product is better than that of your competitor is not exactly the easiest job. However, there are several ways that you can market a product.
Multiple marketing strategies can be employed in today’s world. One of the biggest currently is business to business marketing, which is commonly referred to as B2B marketing. This kind of marketing has ensured that businesses benefit from other business.
Think of it this way: A business takes up the job of supplying certain products to another business directly. For instance, how you every stopped to wonder how a company like Price Waterhouse Coopers is able to provide brand new computers for each of its thousands of employees? It is not possible for the company to send a manager to some computer shop and place an order for that innumerable lot of computers. However, they still need to get the computers in order for work to keep running. Will they contact HP or Samsung to supply them with the computers directly from the factory? This is where B2B marketing comes in to save the day.
How Does It Work?
Business-to-business involves the sales of one business’ products or services to another company. At the most basic level, B2B marketing relies on the principles that govern consumer marketing, but the execution is a little different. Typically, when you go to the shop to buy something like a phone, you are going to check the price, the popularity and status of the phone you wish to procure. There are many other emotional triggers that will influence your buying as a consumer. Nevertheless, B2B buyers do not rely on this to make their decisions.
The main focus is on the price of the products or services and the profitability that the buying business is going to enjoy. Some products and services that have recently moved very fast thanks to B2B marketing. This article seeks to explore how these products are able to survive in the humongous and ruthless B2B market. There are some things that you just cannot market through this type of marketing. Currently, the fastest moving services and products in the B2B market include:
1: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
There has been an increase in the demand of these services over the past few years. This is thanks to the increase in the number of websites and blogs. People are creating blogs on what seems to be a daily basis nowadays. This is probably because more and more people are waking up to the revelation that there is a lot of money to be found online. As such, many businesses are contracting companies that provide SEO services to cover this aspect of their business.
It is easy to assume that B2B marketing is limited to multinational corporations only. This cannot be farther from the truth. Small and medium sized businesses are also taking part in this kind of business transactions. For instance, while a large corporation is able to hire in-house SEO professionals, few small business are able to do the same. Therefore, they seek out the services of the companies that provide these services.
2: Online Marketing and Reputation Management
If you thought public relation officers are only for governments and major corporations, then you are wrong. Websites also need someone to market them and their products. The thing about the internet is that it has billions of people on it at any given time. This means that the likelihood of a company’s or individual’s reputation being tarnished is very high. As your website grows and becomes more popular, you will have people doing negative reviews of it — often your competitors. In a bid to counteract this, you will need to hire an online marketing agency that will keep your reputation spotless.
3: Database Administration Services
Many businesses are realizing just how important an asset data is today. This is why companies across the globe are setting up huge databases to store as much data as they possibly can. In a bid to ensure that the data that is stored in the databases is safe and clean, a database administrator has to monitor it. You can never keep a database administrator busy enough. They will walk into the office at nine in the morning and by noon they are done with their work. To save on costs, many companies prefer to hire database administration companies to provide them with these services.
4: Telecommunication Services
The best example of a company that is big on B2B marketing when it comes to telecommunication services is Sprint. This mobile service provider is a leader when it comes to B2B marketing. The company provides wireless, data and voice services to both consumers and businesses.
Recently, the VHA (health-care purchasing network) extended the Sprint’s contract for another three years. Telecommunications services are on high demand because there is no business that can function without communication lines. There are those companies that are looking for internet supply only, while others are in search of voice services to add onto this.
5: Plastics
Coca Cola is the biggest consumer of plastics in this world. The company has several drinks for its customers to purchase. However, they do not make the bottles themselves. The plastic bottles are molded and delivered by Coca Cola to bottle the drink. Plastic is being used by electronic manufacturers, auto manufacturers and in so many other industries. Being a raw material, it makes sense that plastic moves faster thanks to B2B marketing.
It is safe to close by mentioning that the success of a B2B marketing campaign is not based on broadcasting the product over the TV or radio.: B2B marketing success comes as result of nurturing your company in the industry and making your company’s product appear as a staple.
Image: Flickr / TopRank Marketing