As growing number of people go online, partly due to the ongoing pandemic situation, business owners and marketers are even more hungry to be discovered more. That should not come as a surprise. One of the primary effects of the pandemic was an approximately 7% of people used Internet more as compared to 2019*. The underlying user intent may vary, the reach offered by digital platforms is undeniable and will only grow stronger.
What does this mean for a B2B product or services company?
With a long sales cycle, high level of competition, varying degrees of product differentiation, marketing maturity and budget limitations, B2B companies are continuously looking to find means to reach, attract and retain new customers. All this effort is further amplified by the need to retain the existing customers. Undoubtedly, it’s a difficult task at hand for the marketing teams. Let’s look at a combination of difficult choices faced by the B2B marketers:
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Organic vs inorganic: The discomforting choice
While digital marketing has proven its relevance over the past decade and a half, it is still limited by answering the hardest question posed to a marketer – who is viewing my link (whether paid or organic)? There are a plethora of tools and systems that can help you determine that to a good degree. However, their promises are not fulfilled due to growing privacy concerns and associated laws.
So, I can reach my audience, back it up with measurable KPIs, receive engagement from them (in the form of click-throughs), determine my visibility through website traffic, track if they convert through form submissions and more. But, solutions to a problem creates more problems. The hardest one being – should I invest my marketing dollars on organic or inorganic initiatives? Unfortunately, there’s no golden ratio for marketers to determine an answer to this question.
I would leave you with something to ponder on: are you committed to your niche from a short to medium term or long-term perspective? Answer to this question can help you move closer to your marketing sweet spot.