The Role of Internet Marketing Plan for B2B

Media technology has been changing rapidly in the past few years and the acceleration shows no sign of letting up. This mandates change in all sectors and industries but particularly in the role the of an Internet marketing plan for B2B. Why? Because of the huge impact it has on the bottom line and because the competition is striving to keep up with you.

Although tech changes are making this possible, it's important to realize that unless a shift occurs on the human side, it's all for naught. Mindsets and corporate cultures must change and resisting change to the new norm is folly. This article illustrates some points that will bring your  marketing staff and management up to speed on changes in this competitive marketplace and help them to collectively develop a strategy.

Inbound Marketing vs Outbound Mass Marketing

Outbound mass marketing has long been the standard, and with good reason; old technology didn't allow for a better option. But today inbound marketing has come into its own and can give your business the edge over your competitors. The distinction between the two types of marketing might seem nebulous but the basic theory is that the inbound method puts the focus on "drawing" leads in using new technology such as personalized social media rather than the outbound methods that focused on marketing "pushing" techniques like cold calling which has often been seen as intrusive spam.

The new technologies for your Internet marketing plan for B2B include social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, etc). On platforms like Twitter, hash tags are an economical way to capture a search audience. On Google+, a media representative can join all circles applicable to your company's product or service and make posts to promote them. As an extension, posting a YouTube video of your product or service and linking to it from social platforms will greatly increase the chance of it going viral, which is the goal.

Get Ready for Mobile Devices

The days when the Internet was chained to your desktop are long gone. Today people are not only getting their news on mobile devices, they are also conducting marketing business on cell smart phones, tablets, Kindles, and more. This is great news for Internet marketing because it gives you access to more customers, more of the time. In fact, statistics show:

• In the US, 56% of adults use smart phones.
• The use of mobile to access media has tripled since 2009 and is accelerating.
• 36% of smart phone owners use them to research products and services.

Customer Analysis and Data Acquisition

New technologies have also provided some very powerful tools for the B2B Internet marketing sector to streamline business processes and achieve a much greater Marketing ROI. In the old days companies would buy mailing lists (by mail, ironically), and engage in brain-numbing sessions of cold calling from a bank of marketing reps. No more. Today, previous "data silos" which were stand-alone prospect sources, can be aggregated and merged together in databases in which queries can yield a list of prospects for a specific interest in a product or service, which identifies customers.

This is a great tool no matter whatever you want to call it; be it smart content, dynamic content, or a  personalized experience. The good news is that you don't have to make these changes in-house if you don't care to. Like most other activities today, this work can be outsourced.

There's no doubt about it; your Internet marketing plan for B2B can change. To learn more about how inbound marketing can benefit your business, have a look at "20 Marketing Trends & Predictions eBook"