Would you rely on ONE supplier for your entire business model? 😬
I’m guessing probably not…
But many growing B2B businesses are doing just that with their digital marketing tactics. They’re concentrating on Facebook as their main channel for connecting and communicating with customers, and neglecting the rest.
As we’ve seen recently, that tap can be turned off in an instant🚰 and there’s not much you can do about it.
So we’ve been thinking about a few ways you can keep the conversation flowing without relying totally on Facebook – or LinkedIn, or Twitter or Instagram or even TikTok for that matter.
Engaged and targeted email lists are absolute gold dust for marketers. With a bit of time, effort and budget you can segment the contacts in your email list enabling the creation of really targeted email campaigns.
A huge benefit with email marketing is that you own the data. You can export your (opted-in) email list and take it to another platform if your email provider bumps up your rates, shuts down or you just decide you don’t want to use them anymore.
And thirdly, you have direct access to your subscribers’ inbox – often the first place people head when they start their day.
Sending out regular, insightful and valuable emails to your subscribers is a great way to build rapport over time. Some email marketers even monetise their newsletter by charging people to receive a ‘premium feed’ on a platform like Substack.
Another cost-effective way to build an audience, writing articles for a blog is the foundation of most effective content strategies. Once you get the hang of getting your thoughts into words, your articles can give your audience a window into your thoughts and opinions on industry topics, as well as an insight into the culture of your business – a great way for them to decide whether they want to partner with you.
This is especially important in B2B marketing, where sales cycles are often longer and there is a greater emphasis on service and knowledge.
Best of all, a blog is multiple pieces of content just waiting to be set free. Grab the best quotes and turn them into images for Instagram, publish a section on Facebook and LinkedIn or do a quick video summing up what your piece is about – all linking back to your own website where the blog is hosted. Once people are there, you can invite them to sign up to your email list, either by offering a free piece of content or the chance to join your newsletter.
You can capture their details using a form like this:
This is an example of an embedded form. Offer your readers a free download in exchange for their email address. Make sure it’s a high-value piece of content to make it worth their while!
It’s one thing to write a blog, but you also have to promote it. Many content experts say that content marketing is 20% creation and 80% promotion! Make sure you have a thorough marketing plan in place to drive traffic to your blog articles.
If you’re less ‘wordy’ and more of a talker, consider starting your own podcast. This is a popular content format right now, so beware of jumping in just for the sake of it. But if you’re a compelling speaker and you have the means to record and edit audio, it should definitely be on your consideration list.
If you’re wary of just adding another podcast to the pile, remember you don’t have to do the same thing everyone else is doing. Mix up the format – if everyone is doing 30min interviews with industry leaders, consider doing a daily five-minute show that tackles one specific challenge. If you have a network of interesting contacts, try to get them involved as a guest or co-host. If there’s something about your work that’s interesting or quirky, use it – for instance, you could record a quick episode in the car while you’re personally delivering a customer order, if that’s your point of difference.
You don’t need to be restricted to just Apple or Spotify – you can embed the audio on your blog, send it out via your email newsletter and cut up the audio into bite-sized chunks for social media. You can even monetise your podcast via Patreon if it really takes off.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is closely connected to your blog and your website. Making sure your website is well-optimised for search engine robots is a fruitful long-term strategy.
There are two aspects to SEO – on-page and off-page. Let’s look at both quickly.
On-page SEO:
On-page SEO refers to the SEO tactics that are on your website – things that you can actively control.
It includes things like:
On-page SEO isn’t just for Google – it’s better for your customers too. Having a website that’s easy to use and keeps prospects engaged means people will spend more time on your site learning about your business, which Google will favour.
Go for quality over quick fixes. Google’s bots are getting more and more sophisticated, so the old “SEO hacks” don’t work anymore. The best thing to do is make decisions that are best for your end user, and will keep them engaged on your site for as long as possible.
Your ‘technical SEO’ also has to be solid. Double-check that:
Off-page SEO:
Off-page SEO is a little trickier, and harder to control. It’s about your brand’s reputation and authority in your industry.
The biggest off-page SEO tactic is link building. This is where you have other reputable brands linking back to your website – and another reason why it’s so handy to have a good selection of blog articles for other sites to link to.
The ‘holy grail’ of link building is to get a link from a .gov or .edu link, because you can’t just go out and buy one of those domains. You have to earn those links – so that means you need someone within your business who can reach out to these websites and build a natural relationship with them that leads to linking between sites.
Additionally, linking TO those high authority sites is a good idea, because Google sees this as you being more reputable. For example, if you’re talking about crime rates, linking to a .gov site gives you more authority on the subject, as you’re citing official sources.
You can (and should) also do a lot of internal link building – that is, linking between blogs and pages on your own website. If you’re writing a blog and you reference something you’ve written about before, link to it! This tells Google that your site is an expert about one key theme, and all your content is connected.
We’re a big fan of creating mutually beneficial relationships with other businesses that have a similar audience as you but aren’t competitors. You can share the marketing load while both getting the benefits!
Reach out to other businesses and ask if they’d be interested in co-creating some content or doing some joint marketing. What you do will vary depending on your industry and business size, but here are a few ideas:
Be sure to use the detail from tactics 1-4 to squeeze the most value out of any joint marketing you do.
And whichever of these tactics you decide to pursue, here’s your golden rule: Be across as many channels as is practical for your time and budget, but make sure a good portion of that activity is on channels you own.
