The law of attraction is the belief that positive or negative thoughts can bring you what you focus on. It may seem silly to think if you just think about a red Lamborghini one will somehow manifest itself. However, there is truth to the underlying principle. When you focus your efforts on something, you are much more likely to achieve it. Do you really want that fancy sports car? You may have to change your lifestyle and find new ways to make more money. It’s not so much the thinking about something as it is acting to achieve something.
In B2B marketing, the law of attraction means the more you focus on something, the more likely you are to achieve in that area. You attract what you focus on – if you’re willing to act. We’ve outlined below why you should invest in inbound marketing, how it’s a future proof strategy, and what tactics you should commit resources to that ensure success.
B2B Inbound Marketing Provides Consistent Value
Inbound marketing strategy focus on targeting the right prospects and consistently delivering high-quality content that your prospects will find of value. Developing content that understands a potential customer’s goals and challenges, and helps them find solutions, builds trust.
Mapping the inbound marketing sales funnel drives customers through the various stages as they continue their research.
- Attract
Attract more visitors to your website while they are researching their problems - Convert
As visitors find information about their problems and seek information about potential solutions, they can be converted into leads. After earning their trust, inbound marketing provides B2B buyers with the confidence to support their decision making. - Delight
Take care of your customers with content that helps them in their business. Provide excellent customer support and turn them into brand promoters.
The Keys to B2B Sales
Trust and confidence are the keys to B2B sales. After all, would you buy something from a company you’ve never heard of or one you didn’t trust? Of course not. Sales don’t happen without trust. How do you build trust? Demonstrate expertise, authority, and provide solutions.
How do you build confidence in buyers? You do it by providing them with information that demonstrates you can solve their problems. This gives them the confidence to move forward in the buying journey.
Buyers today are finding the process incredibly complex. It can create uncertainty and delays.
When customers have information that builds confidence and trust, closing rates increase. A study by Gartner showed the when information helps customers feel comfortable with their decisions about high-quality deals, the likelihood of the purchase increases 2.8 times. The likelihood of a “high-value, low-regret” deal occurring is 3X.
Investing in Inbound Marketing is a Future-Proof B2B Strategy
Here’s why inbound marketing is a future proof strategy. It delivers the keys – not to Lamborghini, but to the customer – if you consistently provide the high-value content at the right time in the buying journey.
The Content Development Process
Developing the right content takes a practiced hand with a relentless focus on the customer.
- Identify customer pain points, challenges, and hurdles.
- Develop content and resources to help customers find solutions
- Anticipate challenges in the buying journey
- Deliver the right content to the right person at the right time.
Inbound serves to make you an authority in your industry by focusing on intimately understanding the pain points and goals of your target audience. It’s a timeless strategy when you build those resources that you own and control on your website. Regardless of Google algorithms or changes in social media, you can stabilize lead generation over time with inbound.
One of the big advantages of inbound marketing is that you not only generate more leads, but you also generate more sales-qualified leads.
Attracting Today’s B2B Customer
Attracting today’s B2B customer is very different than the marketing practices of the past. They’re not picking up the phone to call or responding to blind emails. Lately, they haven’t been attending trade shows either.
They’re doing online research before ever connecting with a sales rep. By the time you get a chance to make your pitch, they are way down the sales funnel. If you haven’t been in front of them during the research phase, you’ve lost the opportunity.
Another thing that’s changed is the intensity of this research. They aren’t just doing initial research at the top of the buying funnel. B2B buyers are engaging with online content at every stage of the buying journey. 83% of B2B customers continue to research right up to purchase.
Building an inbound strategy to attract today’s B2B customer works in many ways like SEO. The investment you make in creating quality content for each stage of the funnel accelerates growth as you build up more content. These act as 24/7 lead generators.
During challenging times for business, such as during the pandemic, one thing has become clear. While buying power may change, the search for information and self-education continues. When money is tight and the risks are high, the research phase will be even more intense.
Inbound marketing serves to capitalize on the long-term potential of attracting prospects with helpful information that draws them in. Establishing your brand as a go-to resource of knowledge infuses that trust and confidence. When they are in the final stages of making a purchase decision or need help in the process, you become the most natural place for them to turn.
The Cost of Inbound Marketing
It’s difficult to give you an exact price on inbound marketing because it depends on the brand, industry, product, competition, and marketplace.
There is, however, one important thing to think about. When you do outbound marketing, such as traditional advertising or direct mail, you typically only get one shot with B2B buyers. Even with customization, you may not hit the right buyer at the right time. You may not catch them at all. Then, after you’ve done it, it’s no longer working for you.
When you invest B2B inbound marketing, it continues to work. By creating content at every stage of the buyer journey, you are ensuring you’ve got the right content available. There’s always someone in the Awareness phase while others are further down the funnel. Inbound marketing continues to work well after traditional marketing approaches have run their course.
Another advantage of inbound marketing is the perceived value. It’s not about spending time and money to hit mass audiences. In fact, less can be more when investing in inbound marketing. By targeting the right messaging to B2B buyers more likely to do business with you, your ROI will be higher. With inbound marketing, think value more than cost.
If you’re looking to learn more about the cost to invest in B2B inbound marketing, you can find a more in-depth discussion about the cost of inbound marketing and how to figure out what you need to spend.
B2B Buyers Are Searching. Are You Being Found?
93% of online experiences start with a search engine. Think about that for a moment. If they wanted to go directly to your website, they’d just type in your URL. If they’re searching, you need to be found! Inbound marketing can help propel your company higher up the search rankings to do just that. If you can provide answers to their questions, you can position your brand as an industry leader.
Inbound marketing also plays a significant role in SEO. Search engines like fresh content that answers questions. Their job is to serve the most relevant answer to the query. When your inbound marketing content provides that answer, it helps your SERP (Search Engine Ranking Position). By embedding the keywords B2B buyer search for, the likelihood someone will find your website improves as well.
Attract More B2B Buyers with Inbound Marketing
Do you know how they say opposites attract? In B2B marketing, it’s absolutely not true. The law of attraction means doing business with people you trust and have confidence in. Inbound marketing builds trust, confidence, and continues to work long into the future. That attracts higher quality sales leads and higher conversion rates. It’s about as future proof as you can get.
Riverbed Marketing is a dedicated team of hardcore B2B inbound marketers. We’re obsessed with delivering on your commitments and growing your business. With more than three decades of combined experience across hundreds of digital marketing campaigns, Riverbed Marketing builds (and paves) strategic roadmaps to customize your inbound marketing strategy to attract your B2B buyers.
Contact Riverbend Marketing today and schedule a free diagnostic call.
