B2B marketing

Like many professionals, I face a deluge of sales messages every day. It’s easy to tune out emails, display ads, and LinkedIn messages. But a phone call? Love it or hate it, it captures my attention. I set out to discover if B2B telemarketing is dead in 2025, or if it’s due for a comeback. I talked to sales experts and dug into data to find out whether cold calling still has a place in the modern sales strategy. Follow along as I share what I found and the expert tips I uncovered on how to turn conversations into conversions with a phone call. Table of Contents What is B2B telemarketing? Is telemarketing dead? Benefits of B2B Telemarketing B2B Telemarketing Types Tips for B2B Telemarketing [+ Experts and Data] What is B2B telemarketing? B2B telemarketing is an outbound sales tactic in which one company attempts to build a relationship and sell its products or services over the phone to another. It’s better known as cold calling, “cold” because the seller is initiating contact with the buyer instead of the other way around. Is telemarketing dead? To answer my question, I turned to HubSpot’s State of Sales report to see what sales reps say about telemarketing as a lead gen and sales tactic. First, I saw data that confirmed what I already knew: 71% of consumers want to start with self-service tools to do their own research rather than speak to a human. However, this finding doesn’t mean that a lead won’t start their buying journey with research before talking to the sales team later on. Just 19% of sales pros say that telemarketing is their best source of high-quality leads. That lags behind referrals, social media, and email marketing but shows that phone calls still work well for some companies and industries as a first point of contact. I also found this surprising statistic. When HubSpot asked over 1,400 sales professionals about their most effective sales tactic, they reported 1) in-person meetings and 2) phone calls. This tells me that high-dollar deals aren’t done over email or chat alone. Personal conversations — in-person, phone, or video — are key channels for conversion. Leslie Venetz, founder of the Sales-Led GTM Agency, is bullish on phone-based outreach. “Inbound gets fewer results than it ever has before. The same is true with PLG — it’s a very, very crowded market, and our buyers are frazzled, distracted, and overwhelmed. This is why I think we are seeing a resurgence in cold calling. Because so many folks are overly reliant on email right now, I believe cold calling will be a primary channel for revenue generation in 2025,” Venetz says. Based on everything I’ve learned, I believe B2B telemarketing still deserves a place in most company’s sales strategies. It still needs an effective inbound marketing, social media, and email strategy to be effective, so your prospect has some brand awareness. When you pick up the phone, a well-timed cold call can bridge the gap from awareness to interest. (Psst: Subscribe to Masters in Marketing newsletter for weekly insights from top brands. Plus, for one week only, 100 readers can win our limited Kit!) Benefits of B2B Telemarketing What can this 150-year-old channel, the phone call, give us that email and social can’t? Personalized Channel for High-Value Buyers Buying enterprise software or multi-million dollar equipment isn’t like buying a pair of socks off Amazon. The average B2B software purchase takes three to six months and involves four to six decision-makers. For that reason, 57% of C-level executives and VPs still prefer to speak to a sales rep on the phone to ask questions and fully understand the product or service they would be buying. “While Gen Z does not like the phone, it‘s important for them to remember that most of the decision-makers they’re calling on are still in that older millennial+ age bracket,” says Venetz. “Especially if we look at senior level executives, the data repeatedly shows us that they prefer to be reached with a phone call.” The most important factor B2B buyers look for, more than support and integration potential, is the trustworthiness of the organization and sales team, according to Gartner. To showcase your value and build trust, you need to build rapport and a relationship — you need conversations. High Conversion Rate According to Cognism’s State of Cold Calling, the average cold call connect rate is 16.6%, and the average success rate is 4.82%. Compare that to the average conversion rate of 0.80% for B2B display ads, and that number starts to look pretty good. It’s also more than double the cold calling success rate from 2022 — a good indicator that cold calling is gaining traction again. Let’s say that an outbound lead specialist makes 100 calls a day and actually speaks with 55 of them. That translates to 275 prospect convesations a week, not to mention voicemails to many more and about 13 qualified leads or appointments for your sales team each week. B2B Telemarketing Types The goals of B2B telemarketing can vary depending on your company’s size, industry, and sales organization. A sales rep for a small company might manage telemarketing from first contact through lead nurturing and closing. At a larger company, dedicated sales development representatives often focus exclusively on outbound calls with the goal of handing qualified leads off. 1. Lead Generation A lead generation call is when a sales development representative calls a prospect to qualify them as a lead. In a lead gen call, the caller should gather more information about a prospect, like job title, needs, and budget, and confirm their interest in learning more. 2. Appointment-Setting Call An appointment-setting call has a very specific goal: booking a next step, like a demo, tour, or sales call. 3. Lead Nurturing Call A lead nurturing call, also called a sales call, is when a sales team contacts a lead after they have expressed interest in the company’s offerings. Often, a lead fills out

I primarily work with B2B clients, so I’m getting very well-versed in B2B marketing analytics. Every month, I report on the marketing for the prior month, and I turn those marketing analytics into stories and actions. Believe it or not, B2B marketing analytics doesn’t have to be boring. I use various tools for my analytics, including but not limited to Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Looker Studio for automated dashboards (which makes light work of reporting on marketing analytics), Semrush, and so many more. In this article, I’m digging into B2B marketing analytics, including what it is, the essential data to collect, and how to set up B2B marketing analytics — and I’ve shared tools, too. As I said, there’s no one way to report on B2B analytics, so I spoke to B2B marketers who manage analytics for B2B companies daily. I got their insights on their favorite tools and what they love about them. Table of Contents What is B2B marketing analytics? B2B Marketing Data to Collect How to Set Up B2B Marketing Analytics B2B Marketing Analytics Tools What is B2B marketing analytics? B2B marketing analytics is data that helps you understand your product, service, and/or audience. Marketers use marketing analytics to understand if marketing promotes a product or service successfully and increases sales. Through data, marketers can create stories that lead to actions on how marketing can refine campaigns to get closer to company and marketing goals. B2B marketing analytics includes: Collecting data. Measuring and analyzing data. Using data to make data-driven business decisions. Collecting data and knowing what to measure is no easy feat. Marketers talk about analysis paralysis, which describes the feeling of overwhelm when you have so much data at your disposal that you struggle to make decisions. The clue is in the name, but marketing analytics is not the same as business analytics. However, business goals and performance should be considered when measuring marketing. B2B Marketing Data to Collect The best and worst thing about digital marketing analytics is that you can track everything, which can be overwhelming. The key is to track what you need. The metrics you need should be things that help you understand your customers and your business so you can make data-driven decisions that improve your business. To find out what metrics B2B marketers are tracking, I reached out to marketing managers who shared the B2B marketing analytics they track and why. Revenue and MRR Revenue and monthly recurring revenue (MRR) are obvious metrics to follow. Revenue, in particular, is the one metric that is crucial to all businesses. For Ivan Burban, head of marketing at Coupler, revenue data is the most important. Burban describes MRR growth as the “north star metric.” When I asked him why tracking revenue and MRR is important, Burban said, “Understanding data from all marketing channels [gives] insights into how your activities impact MRR traction.” Burban notes that teams can see how marketing channels performed during the period and how successful acquisition/retention efforts were. “This also allows you to push well-performing activities, experiment, and cease non-performing efforts,” he says. For example, he told me they invested in PPC for a few months and analyzed its performance. When it became clear that it didn’t boost their MRR growth even though they were spending substantial resources, they paused advertising and focused on developing a partner program. I love what Burban is saying here, particularly the importance of understanding data from different marketing channels. Most B2B marketing analytics tools allow you to view and compare revenue from channels. With this functionality, you can see what’s working and what needs improving. Pro tip: For larger marketing teams with online and offline marketing efforts, I’d like to note the importance of media mix modeling here. While revenue data in the screenshot above is incredibly useful, it doesn’t always tell the whole picture. I wrote an entire article on media mix modeling, which details the relationship between marketing and sales, even if it’s not directly obvious in reports. It’s definitely worth a read. Considering the above (that the revenue graphs don’t always show the full picture), I wanted to know how Ivan Burban makes sense of data. He says, “To decide on action points, you also need to evaluate customer data (CLV and retention rates) and data per marketing channel (for instance, the conversion rate for your landing pages and blog).” In any case, Burban notes that revenue-related data is the most useful since it helps to prioritize marketing activities and understand the overall marketing state. Burban agrees that revenue in isolation is not enough; you need to measure more to understand the full picture. Engagement Metrics Although revenue is the one metric that spans all businesses, engagement metrics were the most spoken about metric. Of all the B2B marketers I spoke to, over half of them mentioned engagement metrics. For this reason, engagement metrics are listed here as the second metric. Dominick Tomanelli is a marketing expert, co-founder, and CEO of Promobile Marketing. He knows a thing or two about B2B marketing analytics. Tomanelli leaned into engagement metrics as data B2B marketers must track. For Tomanelli, engagement metrics are “the most valuable data.” He particularly likes to analyze how target audiences interact with campaigns. He explains, “For example, it’s not just about how many people see a campaign but how many take the next step — signing up for a service, requesting more information, or even spending extra time engaging with the content.” In B2B, these micro-actions are key indicators of intent. “If a decision-maker clicks on a demo request or spends significant time exploring a product page, that tells us we’ve hit the mark. It’s about quality over quantity. I’d rather have ten engaged leads than a hundred passive impressions,” Tomanelli says. As a B2B marketer myself, I agree with Tomanelli. Engagement metrics are particularly important in B2B because sales cycles can be long. Marketing might get a conversion, but by the time the prospect has vetted

When I worked in-house at a SaaS company, marketing felt like an endless challenge. We covered all the basics: paid campaigns, blog content, and email marketing. On paper, it looked like we were doing everything right. But users weren’t converting, and growth stalled. Something was off. It wasn’t a lack of effort but a lack of alignment. We didn’t fully understand how customers found and engaged with our product. I needed better insights into their journey, so I met with the product team to dig into feature usage, trial behaviors, and key friction points. This collaboration transformed our strategy. For example, many trial users hit a wall right after signing up. They struggled to get started, so we built educational content and onboarding flows designed to guide them. This simple change boosted activations and drove long-term conversions. I’ll share the strategies and metrics that helped us turn things around in this post. Whether your goal is to grow trial users or win enterprise accounts, these tactics will help you build a scalable and sustainable SaaS marketing engine. Table of Contents What is B2B SaaS marketing? 10 Effective B2B SaaS Marketing Strategies 6 B2B SaaS Marketing Benchmarks to Measure Success What is B2B SaaS marketing? B2B SaaS marketing builds strategies that drive brand awareness, user acquisition, and customer retention for cloud-based software products. Compared to other industries, B2B SaaS relies heavily on digital touchpoints to attract, educate, and convert customers across a longer buying process. Your goal is to show potential customers how your product solves their business challenges. Effective SaaS marketing goes beyond generating leads. It involves collaboration between product, marketing, and sales teams to remove friction and improve the customer experience at every stage. In my experience, three key factors shape successful SaaS marketing: Customer pain points. What specific problems does your product address? Clear, targeted messaging is critical. Buyer personas. Who are you targeting? Different personas, from end users to decision-makers, have varying priorities. Sales cycles. Are you offering a freemium model, a trial-to-paid conversion, or a longer enterprise cycle? Your marketing tactics should reflect the customer journey. Recurring revenue models, evolving user needs, and fierce competition create unique challenges for SaaS companies. Marketing must consistently provide value — through both product and communication — well beyond the initial sale. Learn more about how to create an effective SaaS marketing plan here. 10 Effective B2B SaaS Marketing Strategies The most effective SaaS marketing strategies connect your product’s strengths to your customers’ goals. Collaborating across teams is essential. The product team offers insights into feature adoption and usage trends, while customer success can provide feedback on pain points and wins. Coordinating these efforts can help you design strategies that resonate with customers at different stages. Below are key strategies I’ve found highly effective in B2B SaaS marketing. 1. Growth Loops Growth loops generate compounding results by integrating referrals and virality directly into your product or marketing processes. Unlike a funnel, which ends with a conversion, a growth loop (or flywheel, as we like to call it at HubSpot) creates a feedback cycle where users generate new users. For example, Slack promotes growth through team invites. A single user invites their entire team, creating multiple new accounts. Similarly, platforms like beehiiv incorporate a viral loop — emails sent through the platform display a “Publish on beehiiv” badge that leads recipients to the website. Why it works: Organic growth through referrals builds a strong foundation for both acquisition and retention, reducing reliance on paid channels. 2. Website and Homepage Optimization Your website — especially your homepage — often forms a potential customer’s first impression of your SaaS product. If visitors don’t find what they need quickly, they may leave. In my experience, a strong homepage needs to address three core questions: Desire. Does this product solve a problem that matters to me? Role. Can I see how this product fits my needs and goals? Belief. Is this product trusted and used by others like me? I think Webflow’s homepage effectively speaks to user desire by showcasing how the platform empowers creativity. Source Notion builds trust with detailed customer studies and testimonials that highlight success stories. Why it works: Clear messaging that anticipates user questions builds trust, reduces decision fatigue, and encourages next steps. 3. Content Marketing and SEO In my experience, content marketing and SEO play a major role in building awareness and generating organic leads. When people have a problem, their instinct is often to search for answers. Your content needs to show up and provide those answers, which builds credibility and trust. For SaaS businesses, this means focusing on three types of landing pages: Feature pages. Explain your product’s core features. Use case pages. Highlight real-world applications for different roles or industries. Comparison pages. Show how your solution compares to competitors. SEO has become more complex with AI-generated summaries and greater content competition. Even with these changes, I’ve found that the basics — relevant keywords, clear structure, and content that solves user problems — still matter. Well-targeted blog content helps attract potential customers at the discovery phase, guiding them toward becoming leads. Why it works: SEO content builds long-term visibility and attracts leads actively searching for solutions. A strong mix of targeted pages and supporting blog posts creates a steady pipeline of potential customers. 4. Community Marketing Building a community can take your marketing to the next level. Whether it’s a Slack group, a webinar series, or a newsletter, a strong community offers value and builds loyalty over time. For example, I like how Clearscope runs webinars with industry experts that attract marketers looking to level up their SEO skills. These webinars consistently attract marketers and build brand credibility. Why it works: People tend to trust and advocate for brands they feel connected to. Building a community helps create these relationships, leading to increased word-of-mouth referrals and long-term customer loyalty. 5. Email and Newsletter Marketing Email marketing is more than transactional updates or onboarding messages. A well-structured newsletter

One of my favorite things to do is watch college football. And if you think I’m going to compare optimizing B2B conversion rates to football, you’re absolutely right. Just like each player of the team needs to work together to score a touchdown, the parts of your B2B conversion strategy need to work in harmony to catch website visitors and turn them into paying customers. If there’s a weak link in your strategy (like a player on the team not performing at their best), you’ll need to tweak it or pull it from the roster. For this post, I sat down with Daniel Lynch, President and Owner of Empathy First Media, to discuss optimizing B2B conversion rates. Settle in as we go over the differences between B2B CRO and B2C CRO, and I’ll share some of his tips to help you plan a winning conversion strategy. Table of Contents What is B2B conversion rate optimization? B2B CRO vs. B2C CRO B2B Conversion Rate Optimization Strategies What is B2B conversion rate optimization? Before I go too far into it, let’s take a moment to define B2B conversion rate optimization. B2B conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a strategy to improve the number of desired actions on your website and landing pages. Ideally, your desired action, whether it’s a new sign-up in your forms, a new subscriber to your channel, or a click on a demo link, leads to a new conversion. I like the way Lynch puts it. “In my opinion, where conversion rate optimization is going for B2B is not just the form fill,” he explained. “Instead, it’s the first impression of what your brand offers. Like customizing it to that person and then having very detailed automated responses with sequences and chatbots. Then, using conversational artificial intelligence data enrichment to foster those conversations.” Lynch said conversion rate optimization should really be dubbed “conversation rate optimization.” He said, “A conversation rate optimization is more than just a conversion. The conversion can be a vanity metric. But, conversations are what the goals should always be with marketing.” CRO boils down to understanding the customer journey, identifying ways to improve it, and making it more appealing to potential customers to start a conversation. As your customers journey through your sales funnel, they come in contact with elements designed to grab their attention and spur them to action. Those touch points include: Sales and landing pages Sign-up forms Pop-ups Call-to-actions (CTAs) Compelling content and copy Free trials and freemium tools Making an effort to optimize each of these things can help convert a lead to a loyal customer. You’ll want to track and analyze each part of your conversion strategy to fully understand where you need to make changes to encourage more clicks or sign-ups. Thankfully, there are tons of conversion rate optimization tools that can help you analyze your sales funnel and optimize your strategies. These tools can help you make appropriate, meaningful changes, as changing the wrong strategy or tweaking the wrong layer of your funnel could negatively impact your CRO. You also don’t want to make a ton of changes at once. Instead, consider using a conversion rate optimization planner to help make small, meaningful, and measurable changes. B2B CRO vs. B2C CRO Let’s face it: Conversion rates vary across markets. Even though over 60% of B2B and B2C leaders are leveraging AI tools for marketing, the marketing and conversion strategies that work well for each market are very different. This means you can’t really use the same B2C tactics to optimize your B2B conversion rates. Logically, it’s still marketing, and it seems like the strategies you’d use for B2C sales should apply, but the B2B market is a whole different ball game. Here’s why. Target Audience As marketers, you and I both know how important it is to understand our target audience. You’ve likely spent time creating an audience persona to gain a deeper understanding of what makes your audience tick. But, when it comes to B2C marketing, the audience persona is likely just one individual. Instead of appealing to a broad group of people, B2C marketers can get oddly specific in their personalized marketing strategies. This is often easier because you really only need to influence one person to convert a sale — the individual buyer. In B2B sales, though, the target audience is a wide range of people, from the CEO to the director of marketing to the content marketing manager. For instance, let’s pretend your company sells engagement software designed to make connecting with customers easier. To really drive home the benefits of your software, you need to think about how it improves the workflows of each department within an organization. This means you need to segment your audience into subcategories. Going back to the engagement software example, your sales team will use that software differently than your marketing and customer support departments. So, to really nail down how to connect with these groups, you’ll need to think about how your software can best serve them and tailor your approach to speak to those solutions. Segmenting your audience isn’t just a good idea for companies — it’s a great strategy to bring in more revenue. 70% of companies use segmentation to better market to their customers. And, of those who use this strategy, 80% of those businesses see an increase in their profits. So, if you want a better ROI and optimized conversion rates, consider segmenting your target audience. Decision-Makers and Research As I mentioned, in B2C sales, a purchase is usually an individual decision. However, in B2B sales, the decision to make a purchase is a group activity. With more stakeholders involved, there are more decision-makers. If those decision-makers are anything like me and have to research a product from all angles before purchasing, it means there will be double or triple the research notes before the group as a whole decides to purchase a product or service. With more people helping to make a

If it feels like the “B2B marketing funnel” concept has been around forever, you’re not far off. In 1898, advertising pioneer Elias St. Elmo Lewis created the AIDA model, laying the foundation for the funnel we marketers use every day. While the idea of selling something to someone is as old as humanity, the modern funnel framework helps standardize — and improve — a buyer’s experience. What does it take to build a funnel? And how do you know it’s working? Let’s join other marketing experts and find out. Table of Contents What is the B2B marketing funnel? B2B Marketing Funnel Stats B2B Marketing Funnel Stages How to Create a B2B Marketing Funnel B2B Marketing Funnel Example What is the B2B marketing funnel? The B2B marketing funnel is a framework that charts the journey a business-to-business buyer takes to purchase a product or service. It gives marketers a structure on how they understand their audiences’ needs and then position content and experiences to meet those needs. Typically, selling to businesses usually takes much more time, requires more complexity, and involves more buyers and sellers than consumers require. You might see more of a funnel take shape with larger consumer purchases, like cars or housing. But, people aren’t often meeting in committees for weeks to buy paper towels or ground beef. In a B2B selling process, you’re managing more user needs and touch points. That’s where the marketing funnel framework helps standardize a company’s approach. It defines specific stages and the activities that nurture potential buyers at each stage. Over time, data and feedback help you optimize your funnel to deliver more compelling buying experiences — and help close more deals. B2B Marketing Funnel Stats The B2B buying committee grew to an average of 11 members in 2024 — with some as large as 20 buyers or more. (The Drum) Over 43% of marketers noted that focusing on the customer and their experience with your brand became more important this past year. (HubSpot) 34% of marketers say that Millennials (age 28-43) are the most difficult audience to reach with marketing content. Right behind them is Gen Z. (HubSpot) Top marketing trends teams are currently exploring (HubSpot) Using social media DMs (direct messages) for customer service. Creating content that reflects your brand’s values (e.g., social responsibility) User-generated content. Brand content bylined by or featuring industry experts (e.g., blogs, videos, media with first-hand expertise from your brand). 90% of marketers report their experiences are at least somewhat personalized, with moderate or serious increases in sales coming from personalization. (HubSpot) Email marketing remains the highest-performing channel for 42% of B2B marketers, just behind in-person events and webinars. (Content Marketing Institute) Email marketing reigns supreme, with 34% of marketers using it in their strategies. (HubSpot) Website/blog/SEO (search engine optimization) is returning the biggest ROI for more marketers. (HubSpot) 67% of B2B marketing teams say they make top-of-funnel content the most often. (Databox) 65% of B2B buyers say short-form content like blog posts and infographics is the most engaging. (DemandGen Report) 56% of marketers say their biggest hurdles in measuring content success are the difficulty attributing ROI to content efforts and accurately tracking customer journeys. (Content Marketing Institute) B2B Marketing Funnel Stages The stage names may be different, but the intent is the same: to lay out a path for a prospect to go from unknown to sold. Let’s see what’s happening each step of the way. I’ve asked several marketers to weigh in here and share marketers’ most common pitfalls in funnel design and deployment. Top of the Funnel (Awareness Stage) You may see this stage called “top-of-funnel,” “TOFU,” or “awareness,” but it’s all the same thing. This stage marks the beginning of your prospect’s journey with your company’s marketing. The goal of TOFU is to help the lead realize they have a problem and start looking into solving that problem. For instance, managing content teams usually means managing a bunch of hyperlinks and floating deadlines. Perhaps you’ve used a spreadsheet or a super-long Google Doc to do that. Marketing content should show that this pain exists and explain why you can fix it for these stressed-out content teams. Remember: In a B2B marketing funnel, you have several buyers working in concert within a company. You need a few different appeals to reach buyers, living the pain, managing the pain, and deciding on spending money to solve the pain. Middle of the Funnel (Consideration Stage) At the middle of the funnel (MOFU), leads are evaluating different vendors, comparing solutions, and seeking educational content. They want to know their options and figure out the best one for their business. The goal of MOFU is to stand out from the competition as the best option for your buyer. That doesn’t mean just saying you’re “the best.” Rather, it’s about showing that you’re able, willing, and qualified to solve their problem. Eugene Mischenko, President of the E-Commerce & Digital Marketing Association, feels that MOFU content often misses that problem-solving mark. “One common mistake is failing to provide targeted, value-driven content that aligns with the prospect’s needs and decision-making criteria,” said Mischenko. Mischenko notes that marketers either bombard prospects with overly promotional content or neglect them altogether, assuming the initial lead magnet or sales pitch is enough to push them down the funnel. “This can create a disconnect and leave prospects without the information they need to make an informed decision,” Mischenko says. It’s that balance between too much and too little that Mischenko cautions marketers to assess deeply. “The key to addressing the challenges of the middle funnel is understanding that this stage requires education, trust-building, and alignment with the prospect’s needs,” he said. “Providing tailored, insightful content and maintaining consistent, non-intrusive communication are essential to moving prospects toward a confident purchasing decision.” Sai Sathish, a B2B marketing leader at ConsaInsights, shares a similar sentiment. “The key is understanding that B2B buyers need evidence-based reassurance and personalized support during evaluation. Success comes from mapping content and interactions

Effective B2B marketing is challenging to get right. Between creative demands, budget limits, and channel decisions, marketers have a lot to juggle when developing their marketing strategy. However, the biggest determinant of effective marketing is your audience. That includes whether you understand your audience in the first place and how you communicate with them from there. The crux? If you’re not properly targeting your buyer persona, your promotions and advertisements will likely fall flat. In fact, you might as well not be marketing at all. While similar in some respects, marketing to businesses is not the same as marketing to individual consumers. That’s why an entirely different marketing method — B2B marketing — exists, and that’s why I built this guide. By the end of this article, you’ll better understand B2B marketing, the most effective B2B marketing strategies, and how you can tap into and convert your business audience. And if you already know all that? I also share data-backed trends you can expect to see in the B2B space in 2024. For this section, I’ve spoken to some incredible B2B marketers who share their expert insights and tips. Table of Contents What is B2B marketing? B2B vs. B2C Marketing B2B Marketing Strategies Types of B2B Marketing B2B Marketing Trends to Watch in 2025 [New Data] B2B Marketing Examples HubSpot is an example of a company that engages in B2B marketing. HubSpot’s customers are other businesses, not individual consumers. Therefore, you can classify all of our marketing efforts as B2B. If you’re a new marketer in the B2B space or a small B2B business owner learning the ropes, B2B marketing can seem tricky at first. But don’t worry — you’ll soon learn it’s not so different from typical consumer marketing, and I’ll go over everything you need to know so you can create an effective B2B marketing strategy. B2B vs. B2C Marketing B2B and B2C (business-to-consumer) marketing are very different. B2B and B2C marketing differ in their respective strategies and applications, as well as in their audiences and how they communicate with them. B2B marketing targets the needs, interests, and challenges of individuals who make purchases on behalf of, or for, their organization (rather than for themselves), thus making the organization the customer. Here are a few examples of B2B companies: A coworking space that leases office spaces to remote teams and freelancers (like Spaces). An on-demand order fulfillment, warehousing, and screen printing service (like Printful). A marketing software company that sells social media management tools, lead generation software, and other marketing tools to businesses and organizations (like HubSpot). B2C marketing targets the needs, interests, and challenges of individual consumers who make purchases on behalf of, or for, themselves, thus making the individual the customer. Here are a few examples of B2C companies: An ecommerce company that sells office supplies to remote or self-employed individuals (like Poppin). A store that sells t-shirts and other clothing and accessories (like Target). A music platform that sells streaming subscriptions (like Spotify). For more context, let’s take a look at this chart comparing B2B and B2C customers.   For B2B marketing For B2C marketing Goal Customers are focused on ROI, efficiency, and expertise. Customers are seeking deals and entertainment (which means marketing needs to be more fun). Purchase Motivation Customers are driven by logic and financial incentives. Customers are driven by emotion. Drivers Customers want to be educated (which is where B2B content marketing comes in). Customers appreciate education but don’t always need it to make a purchase decision. Purchase Process Customers like (if not prefer) to work with account managers and salespeople. Customers like to make purchases directly. People Involved in Purchase Customers often have to confer with decision-makers and other members of their chain of command before making a purchase decision. Customers rarely need to confer with others before making a purchase decision. Purchase Purpose Customers make purchases for long-term solutions, resulting in a longer sales cycle, longer contracts, and longer relationships with companies. Customers aren’t necessarily looking for long-term solutions or long-term relationships. As much as they differ, B2B and B2C companies intersect in many ways. While Poppin sells office supplies to remote or self-employed individuals, they also design corporate office spaces and branded supplies. On the flip side, Printful offers order fulfillment and warehousing to businesses. They also fill ecommerce printing orders for individuals. Also, as distinct as the B2B and B2C marketing audiences can be, B2B marketers can always learn from B2C campaigns, too. I can tell you from experience that there are nuances to consider. For example, logic and financial incentives may drive B2B purchase motivation. However, anyone who understands sales — whether for B2B or B2C — knows there are typically at least some emotions at play behind any purchase. In B2B, that could be fear (i.e., are we falling behind our competitors?) or frustration (i.e., our current systems and processes are slowing us down). It could also be a feeling of hope (i.e., if we invest in this new software, we can become more efficient and stay ahead of our competitors). B2B Marketing Strategies As I said above, marketing depends on its audience. While B2B and B2C marketing vary, not every piece of B2B marketing material is alike, either. In this section, I’ll cover various B2B marketing strategies you can implement to reach your specific business audience. Some of these strategies are preparatory, such as identifying your audience, while others are ready to be executed, such as creating a B2B website. 1. Understand the B2B buyer’s journey. Before we dive into actual strategies you can implement, you need to understand the B2B buyer’s journey. This information will help you create and implement marketing strategies that meet prospects at every stage of their purchase process. Because of the higher price point of B2B products, B2B sales cycles tend to be a lot longer than B2C cycles. Nurturing these prospects via marketing takes a similarly long time, too. That means you must use specific tactics at every

Effective B2B marketing is challenging to get right. Between creative demands, budget limits, and channel decisions, marketers have a lot to juggle when developing their marketing strategy. However, the biggest determinant of effective marketing is your audience.  If you’re not properly targeting your buyer persona, your promotions and advertisements will likely fall flat. In fact, you might as well not be marketing at all. By the end of this article, you’ll better understand B2B marketing, the most effective B2B marketing strategies, and how you can tap into and convert your business audience. What is B2B? B2B stands for “business-to-business,” a business model in which businesses sell products and services to other companies instead of consumers. The purpose of B2B marketing is to familiarize other businesses with your brand name, demonstrate the value of your product or service, and convert them into customers. HubSpot is an example of a company that engages in B2B marketing. HubSpot’s customers are other businesses, not individual consumers. Therefore, you can classify all of our marketing efforts as B2B. B2B vs B2C Marketing B2B and B2C (business-to-consumer) marketing differ in their respective strategies and applications, as well as in their audiences and how they communicate with them. B2B marketing targets the needs, interests, and challenges of individuals who make purchases on behalf of, or for, their organization (rather than for themselves), thus making the organization the customer. Here are a few examples of B2B companies: A coworking space that leases office spaces to remote teams and freelancers (like Spaces) An on-demand order fulfillment, warehousing, and screen printing service (like Printful) A marketing software company that sells social media management tools, lead generation software, and other marketing tools to businesses and organizations (like HubSpot!) B2C marketing targets the needs, interests, and challenges of individual consumers who make purchases on behalf of, or for, themselves, thus making the individual the customer. Here are a few examples of B2C companies: An e-commerce company that sells office supplies to remote or self-employed individuals (like Poppin) A store that sells t-shirts and other clothing and accessories (like Target) A music platform that sells streaming subscriptions (like Spotify) For more context, let’s take a look at this chart comparing B2B and B2C customers.   For B2B marketing For B2C marketing Goal Customers are focused on ROI, efficiency, and expertise. Customers are seeking deals and entertainment (which means marketing needs to be more fun). Purchase Motivation Customers are driven by logic and financial incentives. Customers are driven by emotion. Drivers Customers want to be educated (which is where B2B content marketing comes in). Customers appreciate education but don’t always need it to make a purchase decision. Purchase Process Customers like (if not prefer) to work with account managers and salespeople. Customers like to make purchases directly. People Involved in Purchase Customers often have to confer with decision-makers and other members of their chain of command before making a purchase decision. Customers rarely need to confer with others before making a purchase decision. Purchase Purpose Customers make purchases for long-term solutions, resulting in a longer sales cycle, longer contracts, and longer relationships with companies. Customers aren’t necessarily looking for long-term solutions or long-term relationships. As much as they differ, B2B and B2C companies intersect in many ways. While Poppin sells office supplies to remote or self-employed individuals, they also design corporate office spaces and branded supplies. On the other hand, Printful offers order fulfillment and warehousing to businesses and fills e-commerce printing orders for individuals. Also, as distinct as the B2B and B2C marketing audiences can be, B2B marketers can always learn from B2C campaigns, too. I can tell you from experience that there are nuances to consider. For example, logic and financial incentives may drive B2B purchase motivation. However, anyone who understands sales — whether for B2B or B2C — knows there are typically at least some emotions at play behind any purchase. In B2B, that could be fear (i.e., are we falling behind our competitors?) or frustration (i.e., our current systems and processes are slowing us down.) It could also be a feeling of hope (i.e., if we invest in this new software, we can become more efficient and stay ahead of our competitors.) B2B Marketing Strategies As I said above, marketing depends on its audience. While B2B and B2C marketing vary, not every piece of B2B marketing material is alike, either. Some of the B2B marketing strategies I’ll cover in this section are preparatory, such as identifying your audience, while others are ready to be executed, such as creating a B2B website. 1. Understand the B2B buyer’s journey. Before we dive into actual strategies you can implement, you need to understand the B2B buyer’s journey so you can create and implement marketing strategies that meet prospects at every stage of their purchase process. Because of the higher price point of B2B products, B2B sales cycles tend to be a lot longer than B2C cycles. Nurturing these prospects via marketing takes a similarly long time, too. That means you must use specific tactics at every stage to drive them toward a purchase decision or a demo request. In other words: B2B marketing is not as easy as setting up ads on Instagram and hoping for clicks.  The B2B buyer’s journey is divided into three stages: Awareness Stage. The prospect has become aware of a problem and begins educating themselves. Consideration Stage. The prospect researches solutions for their new problem. Decision Stage. The prospect is ready to make a purchase or formally begin a buying process. After understanding the buyer’s journey, take this opportunity to create a customer journey map for your company — or, if you’re a new marketer at a B2B company, ask for one for reference. A customer journey map is a customized version of the buyer’s journey that shows how your brand interacts with prospects during each phase. With that information, you can understand which marketing strategies, such as content marketing, will be most effective at each stage. 2.