Business-to-customer relationships are almost always the center of attention when you talk about marketing. There are huge amounts of data available online to help you understand how your business should be targeting the customers. It will guide you on how you need to find your target market and then target it properly. Contrary to that, B2B relations are not discussed that much when they are equally important or more important at times. B2B relations are business to business relationships and matter a lot for businesses to not only to build an image, keep providing great products and services but also increase sustainability.
The take on business to business relationships has to be different because you are dealing with different types of people and entities. You are talking about corporations that require you to be professional. Even a small mistake in such a relation can result in unpleasant circumstances. If you have a target on your b2b relations and you want to make sure that by the end of the year you are sitting in peace, you might want to have a look at the tips given below for effective b2b marketing.
1. Improving Relations Through Blogging
You can improve your relations with your partners through blogging. This particular method not only gives your business benefit but strengthens the relation between you and your partner company. When you write blog posts you can always refer to your partners so when your visitors read the post they recognize your partners too. Now, once your partner realizes that you have talked about them in your post they will feel obliged to talk about you in their content. This particular exchange of good gesture can be greatly benefitting for both businesses. Keep the quality of your content high though.
2. Social Media Interaction
You can also go for social media interaction in order to strengthen your bonds with your partners. When your partners share content on social media there is no restriction on you that you can’t comment on those posts. See a few YouTube videos to find out how different celebrities comment on each other’s videos and get thousands of likes for doing so. By sharing your thoughts on your partner’s content you can get the attention of their followers and benefit from a potential traffic. Just make sure that you are making a comment that does not cause any controversy.
3. Consider Content Recommendation
Content recommendation is a method in which an advertisement will be placed on your website that belongs to your partner but this particular advertisement is unique in that it looks like a part of your website. This particular ad conforms to the form and factor of your website. When you look at the web page it will seem as if the content is a part of your website but it is actually an ad. Such content recommendation can even be fitted within a written post on the website. It’s best that you go for content that is still relevant to your website’s content.
4. Use Mobile Platform And Applications
Mobile applications have become a great way for businesses to convey their messages to their audiences. This is done by introducing ads within the applications. This method can really prove to be a great method for both the companies i.e. the one with the application and the one with the advertisement in the application. Think of your partner that makes gaming applications for iOS and Android platforms. These platforms really have downloads of the most famous games in hundreds of millions. That’s a huge audience for you to target.
What you can do is sponsor some section of the game or application from your partner and have your name appear there. You could do this as easily and simply as promoting the name of your business on a wall or street sign that appears within the game somewhere. There are many different ways in which you can join the venture with your partner and find a way to not only market yourself but sponsor some part of the application to take away some burden off of your partner’s shoulder. Of course, it will be an exchange of good gesture and business ideas.
5. Making Your Partners Appear In Your Presentations
This is done quite commonly by some of the biggest companies of the world. When you are doing something with your partners as a joint venture, it is your moral responsibility to introduce your partner to the world. There are many examples that can be given for this type of B2B marketing. Think about the introduction of the first iPhone where Steve Jobs introduced the CEOs of many different companies on the stage to speak to the audience for a few moments. The same strategy is often seen with all new releases by Apple. This seems quite unnoticeable but has a great impact on your B2B marketing.
LG, Samsung and all other big companies of the world are now doing this. They join hands with other companies and let the CEOs and authorities of those businesses appear in their presentations to strengthen their B2B bonds. Just recently LG announced its latest phone that comes with a separate module from Bang & Olufsen. The name B&O already appears on the separate module when it is attached with the phone but LG still chose to have the personnel from B&O come on stage during its yearly presentation to create a great B2B relationship.
6. Create Social Media Groups
Think about professional social networking platforms such as LinkedIn and other similar ones. These platforms allow you to create groups and communities where you can add people, companies and businesses that are somehow related to each other. Having a group of partners included on your profile is a great way to show your support for your partners and make them visible to others that visit your profile. In addition to that, your partners will then add you to their circles and groups, making you visible to their partners, consumers and followers. The more consistent you are with this strategy the better results you will obtain.
