6 Biggest B2B Marketing Challenges

If you run a B2B business then you should know the biggest B2B marketing challenges faced by every B2B marketer.

Setting up B2B best practices in the face of ever-changing industry trends can feel like a rollercoaster. Moreover, many decisions require approval from decision-makers within the organization.

You risk wasting your brand’s marketing dollars if you do not address the pain points of your marketers. B2B marketing is easier said than done. You need the right approach to manage marketing challenges.

Use this guide to familiarize yourself with the challenges of B2B marketers and learn how you can do better.

B2B Marketing Challenge #1– Engagement with Target Prospects

A Chief Marketer survey found that the biggest challenge plaguing B2B marketers is – getting targeted prospects to engage. 

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The question is, how do you engage your leads till they are ready to purchase? 

Start by devising an intake or inquiry form that includes qualifying questions. Use these questions to distinguish between warm prospects and leads not likely to make a purchase. You should have a deeper understanding of B2B SaaS marketing problems to keep your prospects interested in your questions.

Find out more about your prospects’ needs. Leverage the data from the qualifying questions to prepare your messaging. 

Consider questions like:

• What are the key challenges you experience right now?
• What results do you hope to achieve?
• How will your company benefit by achieving the desired results?

Rank your prospects based on the answers.

Depending on the position of your prospects in the sales funnel, retarget them with ads based on their past behavior.

A prospect in the middle funnel will have already expressed interest in your services or products. 

Re-engage them via general ads on the category. 

If the users are one step away from the purchase, show ads featuring the product they were viewing. 

Provide an incentive in the form of discounts or free shipping.

Experiment with different content formats like brochures, ebooks, and infographics.

B2B Marketing Challenge #2– Account-Based Marketing

The account-based approach can supercharge your B2B marketing. But its implementation is difficult. That’s because it requires marketers to narrow down the prospects considerably. 

So, how can your B2B marketers benefit from this account-based marketing (ABM) approach?

Begin by identifying suitable targets for your business. Without knowing the type of clients your organization caters to, your lead generation efforts will not yield results.

Create a buyer persona and define other factors that make it the perfect fit for your business’ services or products. 

Once you create a suitable customer profile, focus on the personalized content marketing part, which is the most effective marketing tactic for ABM.

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• Target personalization variables other than the name, place of work, or job title of your prospects.
• Try to find out more about their problems and use this information in a way that shows prospects you’re here to help. 
• Tweak your content marketing to address your buyers’ needs and concerns.
• Conduct market research to choose the most viable channels to distribute the content. 
• Compare the outcomes of different channels to determine the most effective one. 
• During the next campaign, redefine your targets and focus your budget to spend less on other channels.

B2B Marketing Challenge #3– Poor Website Optimization

B2B marketers rely on their websites to generate traffic and convert prospects into customers. Problems ensue when the website is non-functional and laggy.

Ensure your website is user-friendly and useful for your marketers by:

• Working on the SEO of your website
• Engaging your target audience with quality content
• Designing easy-to-read yet eye-catching pages

Remember Google rewards websites that:

• Meet their purpose
• Have high-quality main content and supplementary content
• Establish trust

Here are some actions you can take:

• Replace technical jargon and keep the copy clear and concise
• Update your website regularly
• Add new content in the form of:
  • Infographics
  • Tip sheets
  • Blog posts
  • Videos
• Ensure fast page load times for your website. Test the site’s load performance with Test My Site Tool from Google.

Once you optimize the website, B2B marketers will notice a rise in metrics. Beginning with increased traffic, they will get more low-value leads followed by high-value leads. Ask them to use the right strategy for converting those leads into customers.

By following some easy strategies for website optimization, you can easily overcome one of the toughest B2B marketing challenges.

B2B Marketing Challenge #4– Conversion of Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) to Sales

According to HubSpot, lead generation is the biggest marketing challenge for 61 percent of businesses. The problem lies in focusing more on the quantity of leads rather than quality. Remember, the final goal of lead generation is customers, not leads.

Prioritize your leads to fix this problem. See how your lead expresses interest in moving from one buyer stage to another.

Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs), for example, are warm leads. They download information on your company’s product/service to move to the next stage. At this decision stage, they become Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) or hot leads.

Unfortunately, converting MQLs to SQLs is easier said than done. Your MQLs might be low quality or your benchmarks unrealistic. But speed is the biggest hurdle.

Why?

B2B buyers in 2020 are active. Most of them:

• Pursue multiple options
• Collect request for proposals (RFPs)
• Read reviews
• Compare requirements

All this points to how these buyers are self-directed and hate wasting time. So, if you take too long to revert, your MQLs might:

• Consider it a red flag that your business’ operations are not fast enough and your support won’t be either
• Move on and engage with competitors who respond quickly

So what do you do?

Make your purchases as frictionless as possible. Make ease and speed your USP. Plug operational gaps so leads do not get ignored.

If you agree on MQL criteria and are satisfied with your quarterly volume, get MQLs to sales fast.

• Have a plan in place
• Hire people with sales experience and organizational skills
• Measure progress with metrics like ramp time, close rate, and quota participation rate
• Rinse and repeat to evolve your efforts with your business

Remember handing MQLs to sales should be almost instant; it should not take you three days.

B2B Marketing Challenge #5– Customer-Oriented Training

Training is expensive and time-consuming. But it is important to build customer confidence. According to CSO Insights, sales training increases business revenue by 106.7 percent.

Make training a priority and set aside resources for B2B marketer training.

• Communicate with your team
• Create rules and set of policies for new hires.

Instill Buyer Confidence

89 percent of customers encounter high-quality information during a sale. They struggle to make sense of all these details. Finally, they choose a course of action that is smaller or less disruptive than planned.

Use your training to help customers make large-scale purchase decisions. 

How?

• Build customer confidence in themselves
• Reiterate their ability to make proper decisions
• Engage customers with specific information
• Keep your customers informed about the content they encounter

To that end, hone your listening skills and practice empathy during training. Step into the role of domain experts who engineer actionable solutions for buyers.

Develop Your Vision

Do you lack a clear, future-looking vision for the company? That’s a problem 1 in 6 B2B marketers face. Fix this in training by highlighting the importance of a fully-validated communication strategy.

Learn to build enduring B2B relationships with prospects:

• Tailor your messages to address various stages of the buying cycle
• Nourish your prospects throughout the journey using a communication strategy

Only 17 percent of mainstream businesses have the knowledge and skills to support B2B marketing operations. So, the training process must be ongoing instead of a one-time thing. Check current training methods and suggest necessary adjustments.

The right training transforms your business from a faceless entity to a reliable, personal, and relatable brand. Show customers that you wish to build a continual business. Use customer-focused training to stay a step ahead of your competition.

B2B Marketing Challenge #6– Establishing Brand Identity

Do you want to reach a bigger audience with your B2B marketing campaign? After all, no longer is it reserved only to large corporations with larger budgets!

But brand identity challenges hamper your prospects. 61 percent of B2B transactions now begin online. So, you have a larger pool of competitors. In 2020, even budding startups can launch a dynamic B2B marketing strategy. This is due to webinars, social media, and free events.

Your business may get lost in the fray if you don’t stand out. Overcome brand identity challenges to distinguish your brand and business from the rest.

Humanize Your Brand

Take a page from the B2C marketer playbook and tell your story.

• Tap into your business buyers’ emotions to drive growth
• Weave engaging, relevant content to build connections
• Help customers understand why you do what you do

So, spruce up new and existing content and use language devices to hit those emotions.

Get people to interact with your brand on leading social media sites for reasons like:

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Highlight Long-Term Value

Overcome brand identity struggles by offering quality products or services to B2B customers. But remember to provide a memorable experience and both personal and professional benefits.

If necessary, rebrand for maximum impact. For example, fix outdated logos and shed stigmas associated with your business.Show off your brand vision by creating your personalized digital business card, and be proud of your brand personality. It will translate into a better business model and strategy.

Concluding Remarks

The biggest B2B marketing challenges can be solved by keeping the various problems at the front and centre of the conversation. Take on your B2B marketing struggles head-on and fulfil your business goals. Apply the solutions discussed in this article and optimize your B2B marketing strategy.