7 Business to Business Marketing Examples That Work

Business to business (B2B) marketing is the process of promoting products or services to other businesses that can benefit from them. B2B marketing can help you reach decision-makers, generate leads, increase sales, and build long-term relationships with your clients.

But how do you create a B2B marketing strategy that stands out from the crowd and gets results? Here are seven examples of B2B marketing campaigns that you can learn from and apply to your own business.

Key Takeaways

B2B marketing is the process of promoting products or services to other businesses that can benefit from them.

B2B marketing can help you reach decision-makers, generate leads, increase sales, and build long-term relationships with your clients.

B2B marketing requires different considerations and strategies than B2C marketing, such as focusing on logic, ROI, firmographics, and longer sales cycles.

B2B marketing can be done through various channels, such as content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, trade shows, and events.

B2B marketing can be improved by providing value and relevance to your audience, building trust and credibility, demonstrating your expertise and solutions, and creating a community and a brand personality.

1. HubSpot: Inbound Marketing Certification

HubSpot is a leading provider of software for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service. One of their most successful B2B marketing strategies is offering free online courses and certifications on various topics related to inbound marketing, such as content creation, SEO, social media, email marketing, and more.

By providing valuable and relevant education to their target audience, HubSpot establishes itself as an authority and a trusted source of information in the industry. They also generate leads and nurture them through email campaigns, webinars, and other resources. Additionally, they create a community of certified professionals who can showcase their skills and credentials on their resumes and social media profiles.

2. Slack: Customer Stories

Slack is a popular collaboration platform that enables teams to communicate and work together more efficiently. One of their most effective B2B marketing tactics is featuring customer stories on their website and social media channels.

By showcasing how real businesses use Slack to solve their challenges and achieve their goals, Slack demonstrates the value and benefits of their product in a compelling and authentic way. They also highlight the diversity and versatility of their product, as they feature customers from different industries, sizes, and locations.

3. Shopify: Shopify Plus Blog

Shopify is an e-commerce platform that allows anyone to create an online store and sell their products. Shopify Plus is their enterprise-level solution for large and growing businesses that need more scalability, customization, and support.

One of the ways Shopify Plus attracts and engages its B2B audience is through its blog, where they publish high-quality content on topics such as e-commerce trends, best practices, case studies, success stories, and more. They also use the blog to showcase their features, integrations, partners, and experts.

The Shopify Plus blog helps them position themselves as a leader and an innovator in the e-commerce space, as well as educate and inspire their potential and existing customers.

4. Mailchimp: Annual Report

Mailchimp is an email marketing platform that helps businesses connect with their customers and grow their audience. Every year, they publish an annual report that showcases their achievements, milestones, insights, and stories from the past year.

The annual report is not only a way to celebrate their success and thank their customers, but also a powerful B2B marketing tool that showcases their brand personality, values, culture, and creativity. They use data visualization, animation, video, audio, and interactive elements to make the report engaging and fun to explore.

The annual report also helps them highlight their product features, updates, integrations, and resources that can help their customers grow their businesses.

5. Adobe: CMO.com

Adobe is a software company that offers a range of products for creative professionals, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and more. One of their B2B marketing initiatives is CMO.com, a website dedicated to providing content for chief marketing officers (CMOs) and senior marketing leaders.

CMO.com features articles, videos, podcasts, infographics, and reports on topics such as digital marketing, customer experience, data analytics, leadership, innovation, and more. They also feature interviews with CMOs from leading brands and organizations around the world.

By creating CMO.com, Adobe establishes itself as a thought leader and a trusted source of information for its target audience. They also showcase their expertise and solutions for the challenges and opportunities that CMOs face in the digital age.

6. Salesforce: Dreamforce

Salesforce is a cloud-based software company that provides customer relationship management (CRM) solutions for businesses of all sizes. One of their most famous B2B marketing events is Dreamforce, an annual conference that attracts thousands of attendees from around the world.

Dreamforce is not just a conference; it’s a festival that combines keynote speeches, breakout sessions, workshops, networking events, exhibitions, entertainment, and social impact activities. Dreamforce is a way for Salesforce to showcase its products, services, partners, customers, and vision for the future. It’s also a way to create a sense of community, loyalty, and excitement among its audience.

7. Zoom: Zoomtopia

Zoom is a video conferencing platform that enables online meetings, webinars, and collaboration. One of their B2B marketing events is Zoomtopia, an annual user conference that celebrates the power and potential of video communications.

Zoomtopia features keynote speakers, product announcements, customer stories, industry insights, and networking opportunities. It also features entertainment, wellness, and fun activities to keep the attendees engaged and entertained.

Zoomtopia is a way for Zoom to showcase its product features, updates, integrations, and use cases. It’s also a way to connect with its customers, partners, and influencers, and to foster a sense of community and belonging among its users.

Tips

Use data and facts to support your claims and arguments.

Use storytelling and emotion to connect with your audience and make your message memorable.

Use clear and concise language to communicate your message effectively.

Use calls to action to guide your audience to the next step in the buyer’s journey.

Use visuals and multimedia to enhance your content and make it more engaging.

Business to Business Marketing Examples

Business to business (B2B) marketing is the process of marketing and selling products or services to other businesses, rather than individual consumers. B2B marketing can be challenging, as it often involves complex and lengthy buying cycles, multiple decision-makers, and high-value transactions. However, B2B marketing can also be rewarding, as it can lead to long-term and profitable relationships with customers.

In this post, we will look at some examples of successful B2B marketing campaigns across different channels and industries, and what we can learn from them.

Digital Marketing: HubSpot

HubSpot is a leading software company that provides tools for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service. HubSpot’s digital marketing strategy is focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content that attracts and educates potential customers.

One of the key components of HubSpot’s digital marketing strategy is its blog, which covers topics such as SEO, social media, email marketing, web design, and more. HubSpot’s blog attracts millions of visitors every month, who can also access free resources such as ebooks, guides, templates, and courses.

Another component of HubSpot’s digital marketing strategy is its social media presence, which includes platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. HubSpot uses social media to share its content, engage with its audience, showcase its culture and values, and promote its products and events.

HubSpot’s digital marketing strategy demonstrates how B2B marketers can use content and social media to build trust, authority, and awareness among their target audience.

Email Marketing: Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a popular email marketing platform that helps businesses create and send personalized emails to their subscribers. Mailchimp’s email marketing strategy is based on segmentation, personalization, and automation.

Mailchimp uses segmentation to divide its email list into different groups based on criteria such as industry, location, behavior, and preferences. This allows Mailchimp to tailor its email content and offers to each segment’s needs and interests.

Mailchimp also uses personalization to make its emails more relevant and engaging for each recipient. Mailchimp personalizes its emails by using dynamic content such as names, company names, product recommendations, and more.

Mailchimp also uses automation to send timely and relevant emails based on triggers such as sign-ups, purchases, birthdays, and more. Mailchimp’s automation features help Mailchimp save time, increase conversions, and nurture relationships with its customers.

Mailchimp’s email marketing strategy shows how B2B marketers can use segmentation, personalization, and automation to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time.

Trade Shows: Caterpillar

Caterpillar is a global manufacturer of construction and mining equipment. Caterpillar’s trade show strategy is aimed at showcasing its products and solutions in a live setting, where potential customers can see them in action and interact with them.

One of the most impressive examples of Caterpillar’s trade show strategy was at CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2020 , the largest construction trade show in North America. Caterpillar had a massive exhibit that featured more than 30 machines , including new models and technologies. Caterpillar also had a live demonstration area where visitors could watch the machines perform various tasks and challenges.

Caterpillar also leveraged digital technology to enhance its trade show experience. Caterpillar used augmented reality (AR) to allow visitors to explore the features and benefits of its products in a virtual environment. Caterpillar also used live streaming to broadcast its demonstrations and presentations to a wider audience online.

Caterpillar’s trade show strategy illustrates how B2B marketers can use live events to showcase their products and solutions in an immersive and interactive way.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q1: What is B2B marketing?
A: B2B marketing is the process of promoting products or services to other businesses that can benefit from them.

Q2: What are some B2B marketing channels?
A: Some B2B marketing channels are content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, trade shows, and events.

Q3: What are some B2B marketing best practices?
A: Some B2B marketing best practices are providing value and relevance to your audience, building trust and credibility, demonstrating your expertise and solutions, and creating a community and a brand personality.

References:

https://www.infosys.com/about/knowledge-institute/insights/Documents/future-customer-engagement.pdf

https://press.aboutamazon.com/2022/9/amazon-business-2022-state-of-business-procurement-report-highlights-opportunities-in-e-procurement

https://archive.org/details/ecommerceformula00plan/page/26

https://doi.org/10.1002%2Fsmj.249

https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/B2B2C-business-to-business-to-consumer

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/small-business-commissioner-role

https://blog.hubspot.com/agency/b2c-campaigns-b2b-marketers-learn
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2021/06/02/b2b-marketing-strategies
https://www.marion.com/best-b2b-marketing-strategies-examples-how-to-do/
https://www.techradar.com/news/5-best-b2b-marketing-examples-of-all-time