Digital marketing has moved to the forefront, even more so as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Marketing your business online presents great opportunities for small businesses to grow and expand their businesses. Online marketing means that small businesses can reach a larger audience, promote their brand and increase sales.
What is digital marketing?
SEO and digital marketing expert, Neil Patel, describes digital marketing as advertising that is delivered through digital channels. These digital channels include social media, web search, email and more.
Since business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) have different target markets, their approach to key business processes such as marketing, their sales funnel and strategies are also bound to differ.
6 Digital Marketing Channels B2B Services Should Invest In
1. Social media marketing
Hubspot describes social media as the action of creating content to promote your business or product through social media platforms. As a business owner, you need to realise the positive impact social media can have on your business. In an article by SME South Africa, it is highlighted that social media leads to brand promotion and sales conversion, at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing.
2. Paid search marketing
Paid search marketing, sometimes referred to as search engine marketing (SEM), is a digital marketing strategy that is used to increase the visibility of a website on search engine results pages (SERP). Optimizely notes that SEM previously referred to both organic and paid search, however is now used to talk about paid search.
3. SEO
SEO stands for search engine optimization. According to Moz, SEO is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of website traffic. With SEO, you need to understand your target market and what they are searching for. Small businesses can implement SEO practices when they build their website.
4. Affiliate marketing
According to Pat Flynn, affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting other people's products. B2B businesses can use affiliate marketing to advertise their business on trusted and reputable websites that speak to their target market and in return pay them a percentage of the sales that they make.
5. Email marketing
Email marketing is, according to Mailchimp, the process of integrating email within your marketing efforts to promote your business’s products and services. In an article by SME South Africa, it is highlighted that email is a powerful method for growing sales and maintaining a relationship with your customers.
6. Lead generation marketing
Lead-based marketing is perhaps one of the most effective and favourable forms of marketing, especially for small businesses. Sometimes referred to as lead generation, it is the process of attracting leads - individuals who have shown interest in your business’s product or service offering - and converting them into sales prospects - qualified contacts who have been moved further along the sales process and are ready to become customers.
Let Serv Help With Your Lead Generation Efforts
Serv is a B2B Marketplace that connects SME service providers with businesses seeking professional services.
Our Lead Matching program matches prospective leads with service providers listed on serv.co.za
As a B2B service provider, you can list your business for as little as R125 per month and start getting exclusive premium leads today. Subscribe and also get access to a listing in the Business Directory, links to your Websites & Social Media, access to Reviews & Testimonials, and Premium Support and Analytics.
