If you run a B2B business or you are a CMO of a B2B business and you spend your marketing budget on social media or any other paid media with no intention of hosting events, you're wasting your company's marketing budget.
We are at an era where everyone feels like the best way to market or advertise is on social media - which obviously yields positive ROI's in most cases but what is not spoken of is the fact that social media is not a guarantee of a positive ROI.
We are at an age where marketers automatically believe that social media is the only way to pour their marketing budgets on, and the worst of all is relying on "influencers" which I think is all a facade.
No one can measure what an "influencer" brings to the business or sales, it's all based on assumptions on which that "influencer" may potentially have based on the followers he/she has. And corporates and brands fall for that facade, but that is discussion for another day back to the main subject of the best marketing strategy for B2B businesses...
I find it sad that a whole marketing team for a B2B business will implement the same marketing strategies which B2C businesses survive on. Social media works best on B2C, but not so much on B2B's. There are gains by leveraging on social media but they do not surpass gains which can be brought by event hosting.
The best marketing strategy for B2B businesses is not solely on social media or any other paid media but on hosting events - On which social media is used as a vehicle to promote or advertise the events which will be or are being hosted by that organisation.
Because in South Africa, we obviously tend to follow trends from Europe and America, both American and European B2B businesses are investing their marketing budgets into investing in industry related events, and that has proven to yield more results compared to any other form of marketing.
If you may be curious enough, I implore you to look at the most viable strategies of marketing B2B businesses, and you shall find that events are at the top of the list. I will not list the stats here, but all I can say is that if are in a B2B business - hosting industry related events is one of the best marketing strategy you can implement.
As a marketer, you cannot rely on strategies which are used by your competitors, or businesses that are not in your field.
My research based 2 cents is that: the best marketing tool for any B2B business at this current state is not on leveraging on social media but on hosting industry related events. Maybe in my next blog I will give the stats and examples of local companies that are excelling at using this particular tool,and how they go about executing it.
Please leave a comment and let us engage in this further, especially if you are in marketing or adverting. or if you have a keen interest in marketing businesses.
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