Common Inbound Marketing Mistakes Made in B2B

B2B inbound marketing is an effective way to bring qualified leads to your business. The methodology is rooted in attracting customers by creating valuable content tailored to their specific needs and wants.

Inbound marketing has become a popular strategy for B2B marketers in recent years, as it offers a more targeted and cost-effective approach to lead generation than traditional outbound methods. However, not all B2B marketers are successful with inbound marketing. Many make common mistakes that can undermine their efforts and reduce their ROI.

Here are some of the most common mistakes B2B marketers make with inbound marketing. If you are committing any or some of these, it is time to stop.

1. Ambiguous or unclear buyer persona

You know what your ideal buyer persona is. It is a fictitious representation of your ideal customer, and it is vital to have a clear buyer persona. A clearly defined buyer persona helps to create effective and personalized messages speaking directly to your customer’s goals and challenges.

When you understand the pain points of your buyers and deep dive into the problems they are facing, you are likely to solve their problems and gain credibility faster. It helps you bring them further down the sales funnel.

The mistake B2B inbound marketers make is that they carry vague perceptions of their buyer person. For example, they might define buyer person solely based on the job titles. Hence, they carry an unclear picture of who their ideal customer is.

2. Brand messaging is not customer-centric

One potential mistake B2B marketers commit is that they boast too much about their brand, products, and services. It may sound harsh, but your customer is not interested in hearing about what you offer him. He wants to know how your product or services can solve his problems.

That’s all you should focus on when crafting your message for the audience.

A quick suggestion: Draft your brand message keeping in mind, “their problem, their pain point, your solution”.

3. Considering content only for advertising

While content marketing helps you to advertise your products and services, content is not just for advertising. You must use content to inform your audience so they can make an informed decision. Follow the practice of ‘give before you ask’.

Create content that speaks with your target audience, asks them questions, and eventually offers solutions. In short, try to offer help through your content and let your audience believe that the information is coming from a trusted source. Once this trust is established, the distance between you and your customer will decrease considerably.

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4. Undermining SEO

Irrespective of the industry you market for, SEO plays a vital role in determining your brand’s digital position. Any customer looking for any kind of solution online will feed keywords in the search bar to get a page full of websites and links. If your brand can help this user, you must rank first on the SERP. Ask yourself, do you rank on the first page of SERP?

No one goes to the second page and so, SEO becomes more important. However, the good news is that with simple and minimal efforts, you can increase your odds of surfacing in search results – follow the right search engine optimization practices.

Know that 70% of marketers think SEO is more effective than PPC ads.

5. Failing to build a well-organized sales funnel

A sales funnel is a term describing the journey of your target audience they cover to become your customer. An ideal sales funnel has four stages, awareness, interest, desire, and action. Any sales funnel would have three divisions – Top of the Funnel, Middle of the Funnel, and Bottom of the funnel. The closer any user gets to the bottom of the funnel, the more likely he is to make a purchase.

B2B marketers often make the mistake of hopping from the top of the funnel to the bottom without giving time to nurture their relationship with the user. If you want to build an effective sale funnel, you must slow down and allow some time to nurture the leads through videos, blog posts, lead magnets, and more.

6. Leaving your customer confused

Has it happened that you visited a website but took too long to find the information you were looking for? Imagine if the same thing is happening to your customer, it will add to his frustration. Some of the confusing B2B inbound marketing mistakes brands make are:

• Vague CTAs
• Cryptic brand messaging
• Difficult to navigate website

Clarify your goals before creating content for your audience. Allow them to find anything they are looking for.

Final Word

Now that you learned about the common inbound marketing mistakes you might be committing, it is time to take action. Correct your mistakes and put the right systems in place to ensure that you do not continue making the same mistakes repeatedly.

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