With the shift to work-from-anywhere, B2B advertising has drastically changed. Before, B2B targeting centered on in-office advertising via IP targeting. Now, with many B2B professionals working from home, what’s a feasible and effective strategy to reach the modern B2B consumer?
The simple answer: a B2B digital advertising strategy that leverages an omnichannel approach similar to that of B2C. Why? While B2B decisions affect corporations, the people making these decisions are just that: people. As such, they require a digital marketing strategy that reflects their shopping habits and provides targeting approaches for a seamless buying experience.
Today’s omnichannel consumers no longer rely on one channel to browse and buy products. Whether B2B or B2C, they move along their buyer journeys in a combination of both online and offline channels. Because of this, the advertising experience has to follow them as well.
Blurred Lines
As we enter a new age of remote work, the lines between working and personal life have blurred. Prior to the pandemic, many business professionals left their work at the office. During those times, digital marketers would typically place time restrictions on their B2B ad campaigns as there was no sense in spending money when consumers weren’t in the office or on their commutes. They weren’t in the working frame of mind, so it wasn’t the best strategy for advertisers to place business-related ads in those moments.
Now, in a new age of remote work, many people work in the same setting where they do the rest of their daily activities. Additionally, working hours have become more flexible and diversified to meet employee needs. This new landscape and work style offers a great opportunity for B2B digital advertising. Today’s B2B marketers now have more channels and more opportunities than ever to reach their customers.
This also means that marketers should reconsider legacy tactics that may no longer be relevant to today’s B2B customers. Consider that 60% of all B2B technology buyers in 2021 are Millennials. As such, advertisers need to enlist tactics that speak to this demographic. They’re much more likely to respond to podcast advertising, social media, and email B2B targeting strategies.
Ready to learn how to target B2B customers in a remote work context? You can start by following these steps.
1. Seek out a strategic partner with effective data solutions.
When considering partnering with a B2B digital advertising agency, ensure that they have strategic data partnerships in place to reach your audience. Ideally, find a partner that doesn’t rely solely on IP targeting methods to reach business professionals. In the past, IP targeting saw B2B advertisers relying on a client list of company names and matching IP addresses to company routers for ad placements. Now that remote work is more prevalent, relying on company IP addresses alone is no longer beneficial.
When it comes to data solutions, quality is key. At Digilant, we have an exclusive partnership with Dun & Bradstreet, giving you access to a wide range of professional targeting segments. D&B uses 100% deterministic data, which ensures the accuracy of 240 million-plus business profiles. Bombora, another partner, aggregates a wide range of B2B intent data as well as demographic and firmographic data. It also collects data from a combination of anonymized publisher registration data, proprietary IP-to-company mapping technology, and offline data sources.
2. Match your solutions to your goals.
B2B companies historically looked at digital channels just as an entry point for commercial orders. However, today’s consumers now look to find, interact, converse, browse, and shop for products and services via B2B digital advertising channels.
Consider what stage of the buyer funnel you want to reach with different messages and implement solutions that allow you to do just that. For example, to generate awareness, you might use account-based marketing, behavioral targeting, app ownership, or lookalike audiences. To increase consideration, CRM targeting and search engine optimization are great options. To drive conversions, consider using adaptive segmentation or an algorithmic optimizer.
3. Don’t be afraid to test and try.
Consider implementing surge reports and company surge analytics in your media mix. These options help you understand demand surges so that you know where to best invest your marketing dollars.
There are other “newer” tactics worth trying. Consider advanced audio advertising and LinkedIn advertising. Within LinkedIn advertising, try video ads (at least one for each stage of the buyer’s journey), dynamic ads (hyper-personalized for your audiences), and carousel ads (which give you a chance to tell an interactive, action-inducing story). All these options also offer clear digital advertising performance metrics that allow you to evaluate which aspects of your marketing mix are performing the best.
Digilant’s B2B Digital Advertising Solutions
With more B2B customers working from home than ever, it’s time to start viewing B2B customers as people rather than IP addresses. By targeting them and following them through the buyer’s journey just as you would a B2C customer, you can keep them engaged and interested in your company all the way to conversion.
Interested in learning more about how to effectively reach B2B audiences in today’s new normal? Get in touch today!