Five Low Cost B2B Marketing Ideas For Marketing Managers

I know what you might be thinking – low cost B2B marketing solutions only offer a quick fix when it comes to generating leads and increasing ROI, and to create long-term growth and actual conversions, a large budget is required.

A larger budget will never hurt any marketing department, but that doesn’t mean that the most effective marketing ideas are the expensive ones. In a world where success is underpinned by ROI (and not just by the number of likes and followers your brand has), finding B2B marketing tactics that pay for themselves is an incredibly important part of a marketing strategy. Read on for five low cost B2B marketing ideas that are affordable and effective at maximising ROI.

1) Galvanise old marketing data

We’ve discussed the importance of marketing data in a previous blog: without high quality data, it’s impossible to create targeted marketing campaigns. Data really is the lifeblood of modern marketing, but that doesn’t mean you need to invest in a new database for every new campaign. Data enrichment is a low cost option and takes your existing list of contacts and galvanises it with fresh criteria such as job title, location or company. It might not sound like a huge improvement, but even with a few extra fields, you’ll be able to produce more personalised content and marketing messages, as well as segment your data and campaigns better.

2) Upcycle old content

And by this I don’t mean repost a blog you wrote last year with a different picture. Having content on your website has become a non-negotiable part of the B2B marketing mix, whether you choose to write blogs, record podcasts or offer video tutorials. The key is consistency and regularity when it comes to posting. All very well if you have a dedicated team of content producers, but what if your marketing department is also doubling as the content team and can’t, at times, manage to write an original blog twice a week? Take old content and upcycle it into something else. A blog about Marketing Trends in 2016 can be turned into a podcast discussing whether those trends came to fruition. A series of blogs can be turned into an eBook or an infographic. Luckily for you, not everyone in your target audience will have read every piece of content, so it will still be interesting to many.

3) Make your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) game strong

Content and SEO go hand in hand, with SEO providing the keywords and links for the content on your website. The aim is for your website to appear as high up in search engine results as possible. Nowadays it’s no longer good enough to appear on the first page, you need to appear at the top of the first page. This might sound like an impossible feat, but having a content-based SEO strategy in place will make a huge difference – and it’s almost free to implement. In the last point I mentioned that regular content creation is so important – that’s because search engines favour websites that produce original and relevant (i.e. containing the keywords your audience are searching for) content regularly. The good news is you don’t need a website overhaul to implement an SEO strategy, you can build on the content already on your site.

4) Upsell to existing customers with an email marketing campaign

Email marketing built on quality data is one of the most effective (and cost effective) marketing tools out there. Easy to implement, an email campaign is also 100% trackable, and you can use the data about past campaigns to improve future campaigns. It’s especially effective in B2B marketing, with many B2B industries having higher than average open rates, according to the 2016 UK Email Marketing Benchmark Report. Upselling to current customers brings the cost of email marketing down further, as the cost of acquiring a new customer is greater than selling to an existing one. Reward loyal customers with exclusive offers, or send out a survey asking them for their feedback.

5) Leverage social media to drive more traffic to your website

It’s a misconception to think that because you’re a B2B brand, you’re off the hook when it comes to cultivating a strong social media presence. Your target audience might be professionals, but they’re still spending a portion of their day on social platforms. First identify where you’re audience is spending their time on social media: is it on LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ or perhaps an industry specific forum? Once you’ve identified this, formulate your social media strategy around this. Use social platforms to share your content, and to strike up conversations with your stakeholders. Your presence on social media will help drive traffic to your website, and once they’re there you’ve got an opportunity to coax them down the sales funnel through calls to action and content offers.