This document provides tips for effectively reaching B2B audiences through digital marketing. Unlike B2C, B2B involves selling to multiple decision makers within an organization. The document recommends targeting individuals likely to champion a brand, such as those frustrated by an existing solution. It also suggests identifying hurdles in the purchasing process and places to target ads. Additional tips include searching for competitors and addressing common issues, using remarketing segmented by audience and progress, and advertising on industry sites where competitors are listed. The overall message is that B2B requires a different approach than B2C due to its multi-person decision making process.
2. • Founder of Neptune Moon
LLC
• Working in marketing for over
20 years, in digital since the
beginning
• Particular experience in and
passion for B2B
3. • How to better define B2B audiences
• Where to put your ads to most effectively reach these
audiences
• Prioritizing the allocation of resources
4.
5. • Nearly all of the PPC platforms are skewed for B2C
• Almost all of the “conventional wisdom” or “best
practices” are aimed at B2C
• B2B is not the same as B2C – particularly when it comes
to audiences & how you define them
• Since the process is different, the approach needs to be
as well
8. B2B selling is generally a one to many (more than one) interaction
9. • Even though decisions are generally not made by an
individual in a vacuum, we still need to target
individuals
• Understand the process a target company uses to find
products or services and ultimately purchase one of
them
10. • Many B2B campaigns will focus on the person who has
approval or purchasing authority (a carry over from
classic B2C thinking)
• Might not be the best approach (or the most cost
effective)
• Cultivating brand champions within target organizations
should be your goal
11. • Tons of advice out there for creating super detailed
audience personas for B2C
• Often really, really detailed about customer targets
• B2B needs personas, but not quite that detailed
12. • Gender
• Age
• Profession/Job/Industry
• Job stability & satisfaction
• Marital status
• Education level
• Income level
• Health or medical status
• Interests
• Philosophy
• Political affiliation(s)
• Religion
• Pet Owner
• Parent
• Caregiver
• Geographic location
• Metropolitan/Suburban/Rural
• Traveler
• Foodie
• Credit score level
• Comfort with risk
• Social media use
• Willingness to splurge
• Own a car
• Values experiences or things
• Responsibility threshold
• Charitable donations
• Buys insurance
13. • Identify potential brand champion candidates
• Identify most likely hurdles you’ll encounter during their
internal process
• Identify places you can put your ads to specifically target
these people
14. • Industry
• Job title/position within organization
• Role in purchasing process (research and/or purchase
authority)
• Gender (either if it skews or what split typically is)
• Age or level of technical comfort
• Where do they seek information
• Do they belong to any professional or industry groups
• Typical roadblocks encountered
17. • A lot of advice still recommends targeting upper
management
• Might be ultimate decision maker, but not generally ones
bringing options to the table
• The right hyper targeted campaign can be impactful
18. • Probably under pressure about something to save time
or money for the company
• Very busy and not necessarily doing their own research
• More sway than an end user for actual purchasing
19. • Probably the most overlooked segment
• Often the ones frustrated by something and looking for
a solution
• Will hound their superiors if they find something they
want
• BONUS - They do actual searches for stuff
20.
21. This is page one of
search results on Reddit
for “Project Management
Software”
22. This is page one search
results for “Project
Management Software”
on Quora
23. • Search for your client/company and competitors
• Create offers and ads that address top issues
• Strike where competition is weakest
• Know what potential customers will see about you and
fix any problems
• Fastest method – search for company/product + reviews
24. Sticking with the Project
Management Software
theme – if you search for
Basecamp Software Reviews
the results are incredibly
enlightening.
25. • Especially effective when targeting end users
• Top of funnel or beginning of the process terms are
most trafficked
• Comparison or “reviews” are also generally popular
types of searches at this stage – this is where the
Quora, Reddit & Review info is awesome
26. • Due to longer sales cycle, using remarketing to stay in
front of prospects just makes sense
• SEGMENT it though – use ads that are appropriate to
how far they got down the funnel and by audience type
27. I still see this ad, despite being a LIFETIME MEMBER
28. This is actually very easy inside
AdWords.
I like to use the full conversion
path in my criteria to help weed
out visits that don’t really
represent conversions.
Use the description field to add
notes about the segment you’re
creating
29.
30. • The whole point of segmented remarketing is to put the appropriate
message in front of users based on their progress toward conversion.
• Don’t throttle the placements for this (but do use common sense on no-
brainer exclusions).
31.
32. • Google Display Network (GDN) managed placements can
be amazing
• Find industry related and industry adjacent sites to
advertise on where your targets would be
• Remember those review sites? You can target many of
them
33. I love the Ghostery browser
extension for this!
Super easy to use – click on its
icon from any page you’re
visiting and see ALL the tags for
all the things!
34. • Search for your competitors’ citations (organic listings)
using a tool like WhiteSpark or Bright Local
• Advertise where they have listings or citations
• Make sure you are listed or cited there too
35. Plug competitor citation URLs (example below gathered from citation reporting tool)
into GDN and add available and applicable ones as managed placements
42. • What role does search play in the typical purchasing
process for your target industry?
• Does this role differ by target audience or industry?
• Ask existing clients this question
• Satisfaction is largely a product of expectation –
understand what exactly 100% success can be
43. • Take a hard look at your ideas about your target audience(s)
• Start building remarketing lists even if you’re not actively
using it yet
• Get friendly with GTM so you can segment your
remarketing
• Put yourself where competitors are listed
• Challenge your assumptions and try something a little weird
or crazy every once in a while
44. You can find me on Twitter @NeptuneMoon – I tweet a
lot…
Blog: www.neptunemoon.net
Web site: www.neptunemoon.com
LinkedIn: Julie Friedman Bacchini
