There is a lot of talk about how to reach individual customers who spend time on Instagram or go to certain places. Image-building activities B2B looks a bit different than in the case of retail customers. How and what to implement?
What is PR and B2B image activities?
Public Relations are methods of building a positive image of the company in the eyes of customers. In the case of B2C, the clients are private individuals. In the Business to Business sector, the recipients are companies, but also people are behind them - policymakers, directors and vendors. A positive image in the case of an individual client may be associated with many different values, perceived by the client as attractive - we wrote about it in more detail in the text entitled Emotional branding, i.e. the lovemarks theory. It's easier in the B2B sector. What matters here is:
- professionalism,
- favorable parameters (price, quality, speed),
- additional factors, such as family atmosphere, interesting company history, prestige, etc.
Out of these three groups of factors, the last one is the most discretionary, but also the least important from the entrepreneur's point of view. While retail clients sometimes make decisions on an impulse and are driven by emotions or impressions, business owners are unlikely to allow themselves such outrages. If the business relationship is to be long-term, it must be based on the real benefits that B2B customers experience.
Therefore, B2B image activities must be based on the three above-mentioned points. Communication strategy in this case, it should be tailored to the real strengths of the company. However, they must address these practical features, such as convenient delivery, low prices or a wide offer. Additional factors (e.g. atmosphere, mission), which are at the center of the narrative intended for the B2C client, come in third here.
Channels that are most effective in B2B
Continuing the principle described in the first paragraph, we come to the point that which channels are best to communicate with business clients. At the beginning, it is worth mentioning strictly business platforms, such as industry magazines or LinkedIn. Here, image-building activities should be based on concrete facts, because the recipients are only people "from the industry". They carry out the activities themselves public relationsso they are also sensitive to attempts to manipulate or bend the facts. In these places, it is best to focus on really important information from the point of view of potential customers and the industry, such as:
- forecasts for the future,
- summaries,
- new products in the offer,
- interviews with specialists,
- descriptions of technology, machine park, production process.
Image-building activities in social media
Communication on generally available platforms will look slightly different. It may seem that social-media is not a serious place for B2B image activities for a powerful company. Remember, however, that decision makers or CEOs are just like you, who also spend their time on social media. In addition, the company is more and more often assessed through the prism of the effectiveness of image-building activities on the Internet, the number of recipients and their involvement. For practical reasons - during a pandemic, also cooperation between companies was often established at a distance, based on presentations in the virtual world.
Maintaining positive relations with magazines or industry portals for you may not be important if you have highly developed social-media. Remember, however, that associations or editorial offices of trade magazines often stand behind the organization of trade fairs, certification or awarding prizes. Therefore, it is worth maintaining at least correct relations with representatives of these bodies, and it is best for them to constantly know about the news inside the company.
It would be good to have both professional and social media coverage. Remember that the people you want to reach with your offer spend their time in both of these places. The data from MagePlaza show that, for example, in the marketing industry, instead of using traditional channels, decision-makers use what they read on microblogs (72% of respondents), on social media (80%) and what they will hear in podcasts (87 percent). More on this in the article: Modern marketing - channels, rules and patterns
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How to build good B2B relations?
What advises in this area PR agency? In addition to presentations in industry portals or magazines, B2B image activities should include building good relationships. So what exactly? " Relationship Marketing is a "management concept assuming long-term, multilateral, beneficial cooperation of enterprises with entities from the closer and further environment in order to maximize the value of the relationship from the point of view of the final buyer, (...) an original management method and a way of contacting a commercial enterprise with various interest groups... " - writes M. Mitręga in the work "Internet and relationship marketing" from 2003.
By breaking it down into easy-to-apply actions, it is about, for example:
- regular outings, conversations, e-mail exchange,
- taking care to provide customers and potential customers with useful content that can help them (templates, reports, e-books),
- gifts and greeting cards,
- taking care of bonuses for regular customers and updating the offer regularly.
A very common problem is a situation where the company does not care about its regular customer. After years of putting up with the lack of interest from business partners, this one will eventually move away to a friendlier, modern competition. However, it would be enough to take care of image-building activities and positive relations for the client to stay with the company.
On the other hand, good relations with existing clients make it easier to obtain references and recommendations. Also, like in the B2C sector, many business owners need to get to know a partner first before deciding to sign a contract with them. Image-building activities are aimed at, among other things, constant reminding about the company's offer, so that at the moment of making a decision, the potential customer will have confidence in it.
What does not work for B2B image activities?
We have already mentioned numerous B2B image activities that have been successful in company-company contacts for years. What is not worth investing in? Since the most effective message is to the right audience, this is you will have the opposite effect if you target your marketing to people who will never be your customers. Often, the personal ambitions or preferences of the business owner are at stake. For example: the head of a drill company buys an ad at a favorite gym or on breakfast television run by a friend. Despite large expenditures, such advertising can bring practically zero profit. Therefore, it is worthwhile to perfectly recognize your target group at the beginning.
Continuing the example with drills - selecting a dozen or even several specialists who deal with orders for such machines for construction sites, would bring much better results. Organizing a trip, dinner or gift package for them could bring spectacular results. Although, in theory, per-person expenses seem very high.
Among other things, we deal with such analyzes for our clients on a daily basis at Commplace. We encourage you to contact anyone who wants to improve the image of their company in the coming year.