The Key To B2B Marketing: A Beginner’s Guide To Advertising and Sales

Running a freelancing business requires much thought about planning and executing strategies designed to acquire new clients. Digital marketing is a competitive industry and getting in front of the right people is tough, irrespective of the difficulties of closing a sale. There are a multitude of channels one can use to advertise a digital marketing service. At its core, use of these channels requires carefully configuring a plethora of variables and a strong website; the destination of advertisements that broadcast your business’s services. Once you have created appealing advertising copy and are running ads, it is a matter of waiting for inquiries to come in and speaking convincingly about your efficacy via email and telephone calls in order to convince a lead to pay for your service.

Digital Marketing Channels

There are a variety of channels marketers can use to produce advertisements and sell their service to the right people. Google Ads and Meta are the primary distribution networks to find prospective clients. The Google Ads network is made up of Google Ads, YouTube and display advertising services located across a plethora of digital publications. The Meta Network includes Facebook and Instagram. It follows that marketing specialists can attract leads using a mix of video, image and text content. If you have a library of these assets, it will save you significant time getting started and, if you do not, start designing right away!

The Basics of Configuring Digital Advertising

After your business website is ready for customers, it is simply a matter of choosing a platform and beginning work setting up ads. The process is initially focused on writing/uploading persuasive content and consecutively involves choosing an audience to display your ads to.

Google Ads

Configuring Google Ads is a complex task. Users must decide if they want to advertise in Google’s search engine, on YouTube, on Google’s network of publishers or a combination of any of the above. Next, users must upload advertising assets, write advertising copy and identify an audience to market their service to. Google is a little more fussy than Meta when it comes to choosing an audience. Namely, it requires choosing keywords that people search in Google’s search engine in contrast with choosing demographic profiles. Your business advertisements will be placed in the results of queries made with these (and, potentially, related) search terms. By identifying high-volume search terms, you maximise your chances of reaching a larger audience. However, more-popular terms are more expensive to advertise upon than less-popular variations.

Meta Ads

Compared to Google, using Meta’s advertising network is easier. This is because Facebook or Instagram account holders can choose an audience based on demographic profiles or interests, rather than strategically-chosen Google search terms. Ad copy can be written on an ad-to-ad basis or users can choose to boost existing posts – videos, images or blogs they have posted previously. Once an audience has been selected, users must choose the goals they want their campaign to achieve: likes, follows, website visits or inquiries. Following that, it is just a matter of sitting back and waiting for leads to come in.

Digital Advertising Requirements

Aside from a budget, the most fundamentally-important thing to have when running digital advertising campaigns is a website. A website shows your audience that you are trustworthy and emphasises your business’s value through display of its products and/or services. When consumers interact with your ads, they will undoubtedly end up on your website via the ads themselves or your social media profile(s), so it is crucial to ensure that your website is fully-functioning and aesthetically appealing to increase the potential for lead generation.

How To Attract Leads

The number one tactic used to attract leads from your advertising campaigns is to write convincing, relevant copy that is indicative of the benefit your service offers customers. This, of course, can be highlighted with beautiful images or videos. Indeed, research shows that advertisements including an image or a video are 80% more effective at driving conversions than static ads containing only text. Video ads tend to perform better than image-based ads in terms of engagement, but image-based ads enjoy a better click-through-rate. Regardless of the multimedia you choose to augment your ads with, it is imperative that advertising copy contains information about your service that your target market needs and calls to action: to ensure they do not forget to engage with the ad! Calls to action are also extremely important to include on your website advertisement: to make it as easy as possible for visitors to call or email you.

Closing Sales

After your ads have been running for some time, you will undoubtedly be receiving inquiries from interested viewers. Ideally, your ads will lead your prospects on to your website where they can call or email you. When you are responding to these sorts of inquiries, you must communicate in a way that is authoritative, responsive and absolutely charming! Closing a sale involves investigation, objection handling and closing.

Investigation

Asking questions about potential clients’ business is fundamentally important to making sure that you are able to deliver results for them. Any marketing genius knows how to use their tools, but understanding how to best convey the value of a client’s business is only possible after due diligence investigating what they do. Ask about their past experience with marketing providers, their business goals and their ideal consumer. This information will make it easier for you to do your job if and when they sign up to your service!

Objection Handling

After you have a sound knowledge of your prospect’s business, you will undoubtedly face roadblocks to closing such as: ‘My past marketing provider did a terrible job’, ‘I don’t know enough about what you are offering’, ‘I’m not sure where I am on my journey’ or ‘I don’t have the budget’. You may even get objections like ‘I don’t have my Facebook login details’! Handling these objections is a matter of listening, retorting with questions and responding by talking around the problem – emphasising your own value in the process. Don’t debate the point your prospect is making, simply inform them why you are equipped to handle their needs.

Closing

After you have built a rapport with the lead, it is time to offer hard facts. Let them know exactly how much you charge for your service, what is included in the provision of service and how you will be taking payment. When it comes to crunch time, ask positively-inclined questions like ‘Does that sound good to you?’, ‘Are you happy with going ahead today?’ and ‘May I send you a contract?’ There might be some more objections you must face at this point, but if all goes well you will have your prospect’s consent to close the sale and gain a new client!

After a sale has closed, it is in your best interests to do a great job on the work you have promised. Be sure to review your contractual obligations frequently to ensure you do not miss anything! Customer lifetime value is, perhaps, the most valuable metric when building a marketing business, so do everything in your power to keep your clients happy! Do not be afraid if they have concerns during your employment, the nature of online business means these are normal. Just do a good job, be professional as you communicate with your new client and manifest good results!

Samuel Shilson-Josling is the founder of Red SEO – an Australian freelancing company in the marketing sector. Samuel knows SEO inside out and upside down and, with a Masters Degree in marketing, is a talented writer and experienced blogger.