Table of Contents
What is Business Marketing?
Business marketing is a process through which a business markets and then sells its products and services. Government, private or public institutions, or commercial businesses and organizations use business marketing for the promotion, selling or reselling.
Business marketing also goes by many names like business to business marketing, industrial marketing, and business to government marketing.
Importance of Marketing of a Successful Business
As we know that marketing is important for your business, whether you want to grow your business or increase sales. Here are some of the reasons why marketing is important for your business;
A source of Information
As a business person or a salesman, you know the features and characteristics of your product or service. What value the product or service or can add in customers’ life. But with the help of marketing, you can communicate with your customers and explain to them different features of your product. When your customers are better informed, then it’s highly probable that they’ll buy your product.
Also Read: What is Business Market, Definition, Types and Examples
Equalizes your Business
If you compare today’s social media marketing with traditional TV, Radio and Newspaper marketing of your business. Then you would find a huge gap in terms of finances. Before the era of social media marketing, the traditional type of business marketing has been very costly and expensive. Social media has made it very simple and easy for an ordinary business to market and grow. The only way you can be successful with social media business marketing if you’re certain about your target market, its locations, and demographics. When you have such information, then you can compete in the market with a bigger brand.
Provide Businesses Suitability
Another misconception about business marketing can fix all of your business problems. It is said that marketing is more like the food of your business rather than the medicine. It means that marketing is necessary for your business in terms of communicating, building and maintaining relations with your customers. Marketing is also an ongoing and consistent process of your company. But it doesn’t mean that marketing would fix your problems like low sales, lack of customers’ engagement or supply and distribution issues.
Customers Engagement
In the past and still, customers visit the outlets, shops, and stores of their famous brand, where they talk to the sales personals of the company about the latest product in a certain category. When Companies and brands launch promotional events, then they invite customers to visit and check out the latest products. The purpose is to increase the customers’ engagement with the company, and consumers want to be a part of the brand that they like.
In today’s era of social media marketing, companies can easily increase consumers’ engagements by asking them simple questions like the favorite thing about the brand. How they would like to make improvements in the brand. Such questions can increase users engagements.
Drives Sales
As we know that the ultimate goal of marketing of any business is to increase sales. If a company successfully sells its product, then the profit from the sale would cover its expenses. Therefore, good marketing is necessary for the smooth running of your business. By good marketing. I mean that you should better communicate with your customers about the product or service that you’re offering through marketing. If the marketers of your company convey the exact message, then customers would buy. Remember marketing is bait, and you should use the bait wisely.
Ensures the Growth of Your business
If your business has a good customer’s database, then marketing can also help your business to grow further. By offering gifts to those who invite their friends to buy something, companies use such offers to make their existing share their experiences with their social circles. Social media sharing has made such business marketing much easier.
Also Read: What is Market? Definition, Types and Examples
Types of Business Marketing
A business has to sell its products and services in various markets, here are some of the following types of business marketing as follows;
Business to Business Marketing (B2B)
B2B marketing is where you sell your products and services to the other businesses, instead of end consumers. This type of marketing doesn’t involve emotional selling just like we experience in the business to consumer marketing.
B2B is more like a long term educational type which involves long term contracts and relies on personal connection rather than ads.
Industrial Marketing
Industrial marketing is where you sell your products and services to other industries for further reuse. Like mechanical parts of vehicles and cars, furniture showrooms, and other supplies. In the industrial marketing, we call the seller supplier. Suppliers develop relations with its clients and try to solve their issues, rather than adopting a selling approach.
Services Marketing
Professional service marketing is also the subcategory of B2B marketing which comprises of such firms and businesses that offer professional services to the other businesses. Like human resources, recruitment firms, financial consultations firms, and payroll management firms. These firms specialized in one category offer their services to the other businesses.
Business to Government Marketing (B2G)
Business to government marketing also falls in the subcategory of B2B types of marketing. It is where the government has contracts with the local business and other clients. Establishing a contract with the government is a lengthy procedure, which involves a lot of documentation, filling out forms, sending bids and its approval; bidder must fulfill many requirements and finally being awarded the project. Then your business would be able to work with the government.
Business Marketing Strategies
When we talk about the marketing strategies of your business, then more reach, visibility, customers’ engagement, and exposure come to our mind. Here are some of the following tools and strategies that businesses use for marketing;
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is one of the most effective ways of getting more exposure to your brand. It is because all of the major social media platforms have over a billion users. You just have to do your homework, find your target market and customers. Compose an attractive message to communicate with your audience, and then post it. If you can’t do it, then you can also hire social media managers to manage your brand page if you have the resources. Even you can use the paid advertisement tools of social media to reach more audience.
Use Email Marketing
Email marketing is the direct and automated type of marketing. It’s only possible when you have the email list of all of your target customers who have previously attended your event. If you do have the list, then you can send an automated soliciting message to all of your previous attendees. It could be your new product, an event, or an update. The purpose is to invite them again. It would not only increase customers’ loyalty, but it would also give a personal touch.
Newspaper and Magazines
Marketing through newspapers and magazines is an old traditional type of marketing. It is effective, but costly. However, marketing of many business and companies still rely on the advertisements of newspapers and magazines. There are different newspapers in different regions, and they have different reach. When it comes to choosing a newspaper or a magazine for ads, you should keep these things in mind.
Keep in Content Marketing
Content marketing means marketing of your products and services through written, video and audio content. In content marketing, you use an indirect approach and convince your target customers. You don’t directly tell them to buy your product, but the way you describe the features and utility of your product. Consistency conveys the same message. Through content marketing, you manipulate the mind of your customer into believing that he’s making his own decision. Instead, it is you in the background who is triggering it.
Local Marketing
Pamphlets, banners, and posters fall in the category of local marketing. The magnitude of this type of marketing is low, but they are good and effective at a local level.
Work with Influencers
Interviews and shout out videos by some actors and influencing members of the society are also the type of marketing. Where they advertise and promote certain products and services by sharing their personal experiences. Their followers check out the product after watching and listening to their leader.
LinkedIn Can Also Help You
LinkedIn is a professional networking platform. If you maintain a good professional activity on this platform and promote your product and service, then LinkedIn marketing could equally be helpful to your business and company. But the functionality of marketing on LinkedIn is completely different than other social media platforms.
Also Read: Marketer Job Description and Characteristics
Business Marketing Examples
Here are some of the examples of business marketing as follows;
Slack
Slack is a specifically designed tool and a platform for business and startup teams to work and communicate with one another. Business partners and team members can communicate and share files at a single platform.
Spotify
Spotify is a musical media platform, which allows you to listen to hundreds of songs for free. It creates a separate personalized musical playlist on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis which they have to discover and check it out. You would be able to know the personal choices and preferences of people with Spotify, and you can market effectively with such information.
Conclusion
After reading the whole article, you must have got a clear idea about the importance of business marketing. Its different types and various strategies of business marketing, and they vary from business to business. Therefore, you must know about your business category and apply the marketing strategies accordingly.
FAQs
What are the 4 types of marketing strategies? ›
What are the 4Ps of marketing? (Marketing mix explained) The four Ps are product, price, place, and promotion. They are an example of a “marketing mix,” or the combined tools and methodologies used by marketers to achieve their marketing objectives.
What are the 7 strategies of marketing? ›The 7 Ps of Marketing
These seven are: product, price, promotion, place, packaging, positioning and people. As products, markets, customers and needs change rapidly, you must continually revisit these seven Ps to make sure you're on track and achieving the maximum results possible for you in today's marketplace.
The 5 P's of marketing are part of what is often referred to as a “marketing mix”. A marketing mix is the actions brands take to market their products and services by using a specific framework with the five biggest components of successful marketing: product, place, price, promotion, and people.
What is the most successful marketing strategy? ›If you are looking for the overall most effective marketing strategy for small business, content marketing is the winner. Content marketing encompasses blogs, videos, social media posts, podcasts, webinars, and more – basically, any type of content you can distribute online falls into this category.
What is basic marketing strategy? ›A marketing strategy contains the company's value proposition, key brand messaging, data on target customer demographics, and other high-level elements. A thorough marketing strategy covers the four Ps of marketing: product, price, place, and promotion.
What are main marketing strategies? ›- Segmentation. Your existing and potential customers fall into particular groups or segments, characterised by their 'needs'. ...
- Targeting and positioning. ...
- Promotional tactics. ...
- Monitoring and evaluation. ...
- Marketing plan.
- Specific—state clearly what you want to achieve.
- Measurable—you must be able to measure and monitor your results and progress.
- Achievable—take your skills and resources into account.
- Relevant—focus on areas that will improve your business.
The 4 C's of Marketing are Customer, Cost, Convenience, and Communication.
How do you promote your business? ›- Take advantage of local listings. ...
- Use social media. ...
- Create engaging content. ...
- Optimize your website's SEO. ...
- Create press releases. ...
- Get involved in an online community. ...
- Use high-quality visuals. ...
- Pay for advertising.
To start with, there are two main types of marketing strategies. These are: Business-to-business (B2B) marketing. Business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing.
What is type of marketing? ›
Several marketing strategies include content marketing, search engine optimization, social media marketing, email marketing, retargeting, influencer marketing, database marketing, event marketing, and product marketing.
How do you attract customers? ›- Ask for referrals. ...
- Network. ...
- Offer discounts and incentives for new customers only. ...
- Re-contact old customers. ...
- Improve your website. ...
- Partner with complementary businesses. ...
- Promote your expertise. ...
- Use online reviews to your advantage.
Walmart also uses basic marketing. The brand maintains its low price strategy to attract new (and maintain old) customers. Most people who shop at Walmart choose to because of their extremely low prices. The company doesn't use gimmicks, but just lets the pricing speak for itself.
Which marketing is best for small business? ›- Earned Media/PR. ...
- Content Marketing. ...
- Partner Marketing. ...
- Social Media. ...
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ...
- Email Marketing. ...
- Affiliate Programs. ...
- Referral Marketing.
A good marketing plan is a marketing plan you can track, so use objective measurable numbers to track your progress. Not just sales—include measurements like users, views, visits, inquiries, leads, posts, likes, follows, calls and so forth.
What is the most effective business strategy? ›The most effective type of business strategy consistently is changing and optimizing the strategy to reach more consumers. Identifying the needs of new generations of consumers can help your strategy show greater results by the ability to adjust.
What are the six strategies to attract customers? ›- Offer quality products. Good quality is the most important reason cited by consumers for buying directly from farmers. ...
- Cultivate good people skills. ...
- Know your customers. ...
- Use attractive packaging. ...
- Let customers try samples. ...
- Be willing to change.
- Set Objectives. Start with setting marketing objectives. ...
- Do Your Research. The market research you do will drive the decisions you make when deciding upon your marketing strategy. ...
- Make Decisions. ...
- Write It Down. ...
- Summary.
- Outbound marketing. When a marketing strategy is referred to as "outbound," it's focused on how the message is being delivered. ...
- Personalized marketing. ...
- Direct mail. ...
- Partner marketing. ...
- Telemarketing. ...
- Public relations (PR) marketing. ...
- Word of mouth marketing. ...
- Stealth marketing.
Direct Marketing
Direct marketing promotes your company or product to an audience without using a go-between service. The various types of direct marketing usually target leads with a good chance of becoming customers.
What are methods of marketing? ›
There are many different marketing strategies you might want to consider: creating posters & leaflets, engaging media, organising events, encouraging word of mouth, and using special offers and discounts. But first, think about your potential customers - who will shop at your co-op?