There’s a lot of talk about the differences (and similarities) between B2B and B2C marketing. Some say the tactics differ greatly; others say that in the end, you sell to people, so B2B isn’t that different to B2C.
Both marketing strategies include a lead funnel. This visual represents lead stages, starting from the initial ones, where you get more or less qualified leads, to the later ones, where leads become more and more interested in your services or products but also decrease in number (hence the funnel).
Based on each stage, you have different tactics to engage with your leads, that engage with different types of content and take certain actions, which can be summed up like this:
Let’s take a closer look at each of the 4 stages, starting with Awareness and Conversions.
In these stages, someone who hasn’t been in touch with your business visits your website or social media pages (becomes aware of your brand) and then takes action to give you their contact details (converts from a stranger to a lead), using the tactics and call to actions mentioned below.
Also, take into account that the content they will be looking for varies based on their stage. So, a lead who has a first interaction with your brand may be more interested in thought leadership pieces than in sales pieces. In comparison, a lead in the closing stages will care more about special offers than a letter from your CEO.
Single Grain wrote an interesting piece about the right content for each stage.
The next 2 steps in the lead funnel are meant to get your leads to buy from you (Close) and become so engaged with your brand that they recommend it to others (Delight), each with their designated call to action.
This should give you an idea of the stages that leads go through and what your marketing tactics should be to engage with them at every step.
Use the funnel as your starting point. As you start to understand the lead flow, how they progress through stages, and what information your clients are after, you can improve performance through lead nurturing, something we’ve written about before.
If you want to see the lead funnel (but mostly the lead nurturing) in action, you can also check out this case study on lead nurturing.