B2B Software.
You work with consumers (Business to Consumer, B2C) regularly.
You disseminate content to people who consume information and you sell your goods and services to consumers.
This post is about how you can work with companies.
You rock at B2C marketing– you direct your content at consumers and you do it well.
They eat it up– they digest your content and buy what you sell.
How are you doing marketing to other businesses?
You need to branch out. Expand your focus so you can expand your success.
These B2B marketing strategies will tell you how.
There are many types of B2B software.
B2B software is a huge part of B2B marketing strategies.
This post will explain how to use B2B software in your B2B marketing strategies.
All the B2B software described in this post are free except one tool which only costs $6.00 per month.
By the time you’re done reading this post, you’ll know how to establish relationships with brands, how to use businesses to generate traffic and social shares, and how to use businesses to further your exposure and financial opportunities.
Let’s get started. Bring on the B2B software.
What is B2B?
B2B, also known as Business to Business, refers to businesses that provide products and services to other businesses.
This is in contrast to B2C marketing or Business to Consumer in which businesses provide products and services to consumers.
How to Use B2B Software to Boost Your Marketing Success
LinkedIn Company Page
Businesses find you here.
Since LinkedIn Company Pages is a relatively new LinkedIn innovation, odds are strong other businesses don’t have company pages.
Would you like to see mine?
linkedin.com/company/mostlyblogging
Use your LinkedIn Company Page as your business’s showcase in the same way that local businesses might use Google My Business pages.
LinkedIn Groups
Growing your network builds awareness about you.
Do this by promoting your web content in relevant LinkedIn groups.
These groups have tens of thousands of members! What promotion for you!
LinkedIn Posts
By creating original content and posting it on LinkedIn, you come to the attention of like-minded content creators.
To discover how to write attention-grabbing LinkedIn posts, click here.
Entrepreneurs offered me opportunities on LinkedIn:
On LinkedIn, I was approached by an event planner who wanted me to join with other influencers to host an offline blogging event with photographers, bloggers, and other influencers. He wanted me to charge tickets.
Also, on LinkedIn, I was asked to guest post.
These are just some of the opportunities I’ve received on LinkedIn over the years.
When it comes to free B2B software, LinkedIn has a strong reputation as a business networking site.
Therefore, if you’re looking for B2B software, LinkedIn should be your first choice.
Your Facebook Business Page helps your fans learn about new content, promotions, services, and discounts.
If you’d like to see the Mostly Blogging Business Page, click here.
If consumers can find you on Facebook, so can businesses.
Not wanting to just sit around and “hope” Facebook generates business, many marketers use Facebook ads. You can pay to promote your exposure.
With three billion people on Facebook, this opportunity should not be overlooked.
This popular social media site has been called a marketer’s playground.
Make sure your bio clearly states your industry and gives your email so brands can contact you.
I receive queries on Instagram regularly.
Look what I received in my email box:
“We came across your Instagram page and after showing it off to a Runway Fashion Label in New York City, they were instantly interested in working with you.
They have over 178,000 followers via @chicnyc on Instagram and have been featured at New York Fashion Week alongside Michael Kors, Tommy Hilfiger, Giogio ARMANI & more.
They would like to offer you a Royal Ambassadorship with their fashion label, Chic NYC Runway. Would you have any interest? “
Like on Facebook, you can sponsor content on Instagram resulting in more visibility for you.
Hashtags
I find the easiest way to reach other businesses on Instagram is through the use of hashtags.
My favorite hashtags: “#digitalmarketing” and “#marketingdigital.” I also like to use “#entrepreneurlife.”
Tagging
Another way to reach businesses is with the @ symbol.
When the Krispy Kreme Donut Company gave away free donuts, I tagged the company using the @ symbol.
When a car company hosted a special day, I tagged the brand in an Instagram Story using the @ symbol.
Although neither company shared my Instagram content, they could have which would have resulted in extending my brand and more massive exposure for me. Krispy Kreme alone has 1.5 million Instagram followers.
Many people will share if you tag them.
I recently shared a marketing success in an Instagram Story and shared it with the Infinity Blog Awards, a marketing organization.
They shared my Instagram Story with their 500+ followers.
Each Saturday, the I Brand Your Biz account offers to promote brands, and I share the admin’s work.
The result: I stood out and came to her attention despite the fact she has over 40,000 Instagram followers. We subsequently discussed collaborating on a project.
Planned Collaborations
Instagrammers have shared my content before and I reciprocated by sharing theirs.
Get a buddy. Plan to share each other’s work. This extends your brand if you and your buddy are in the same niche.
Moss Clement and I spent most of 2018 sharing each other’s Instagram content.
Email Marketing
Email list
Many email services exist with all levels of pricing. Some are free for the first several hundred subscribers.
Most charge based on how many subscribers you have.
Professional email signature
If you want businesses to contact you, have a business signature at the end of your email.
You can have a signature at the end of your email on a desktop and at the end of your email on a mobile phone.
This is the email signature I made using NewOldStamp.
NewOldStamp is an example of B2B software you can use to make your professional signature.
This signature is interactive. For example, the links you see in the signature work.
Instructions for using NewOldStamp as B2B software to build your brand can be found here.
Pricing: NewOldStamp costs $18. per quarter.
Join Agencies
At agencies, you’ll be matched with other companies.
Many of these agencies are free to join but give you compensation when you promote the brand.
Activate, Influence.co, and Valued Voice are all examples of agencies that match bloggers with brands.
Look at what greeted me at the Influence.co website:
Cold Calling
So far these strategies have told you how to generate sales leads without cold calling: use B2B software.
When you think of “cold calling,” you probably groan.
Cold calling is calling on someone without their request in order to sell them a good or service.
Look at the many reasons you need to collaborate with businesses:
- Businesses sponsor posts.
- Businesses sponsor ads.
- Businesses host giveaways on your site resulting in a traffic boost for you when people share.
- Businesses ask you to be their brand ambassadors.
Where do businesses find me?
They find me on Google so SEO and static pages matter. Make sure you implement search engine optimization strategies so brands can find you on Google.
If you need effective SEO strategies, the Mostly Blogging Academy can help.
How to establish a relationship with a business:
Offer to review the B2B software that is used in your niche.
I won’t provide a template that could sound insincere.
Write from the heart.
Tell the company you use their tool and really do use their tool.
Explain you are reviewing their tool on your blog and really write a favorable tool review.
I have a Hire Me Page with positive testimonials from happy brands I previously collaborated with in case the brands I reached out to were undecided.
Ask the company if they’d be willing to host a giveaway on your site by providing a prize.
The prizes could be premium tool codes or free electronic gifts.
Most if not all of the brands I’ve worked with provided premium tool codes. These should be tools people in your niche use.
Would you like to see the last time I collaborated with a brand to host a giveaway?
The PixTeller company gave premium codes to their new animation tool to my randomly drawn commenters.
Consider these comments from Lorna:
“I’m on page 1 for four different keyword variations, and it’s led to being being published in a magazine with another guest post coming up.”
Although Lorna isn’t being paid for her contributions, this increased exposure could lead to financial opportunities.
Collaborate with Businesses
Once brands get to know you either through Google searches or your cold emails, you won’t have to “cold call” anymore.
Brands will know you and be delighted to collaborate with you again going forward.
For example, each year, marketers Ivan and Viktor ask me to collaborate with their individual companies at Black Friday time.
I promote their holiday discounts on my website and they promote my Mostly Blogging Academy on their sites.
If you enter into a cross-promotion such as this, make sure you send a graphic with your promotional content.
Graphics are eye-catching and engaging.
Use WebTalk
WebTalk is a social networking site for business people.
On WebTalk, someone told me he wants me to market his upcoming projects. I plan on turning it down. I’m a teacher, not a salesperson, but it could be lucrative.
If you’re looking for B2B software to grow on WebTalk, WebTalk does power a social networking app. For the iPhone, the app is called “EventWave.”
Here are instructions on how to use WebTalk.
Host Giveaways
As explained above, I hosted a giveaway with the PixTeller company.
I have done giveaways with companies many times.
I promote B2B software and the software developers provide the giveaways prizes. Win-win.
I even hosted more than one giveaway with the PixTeller company.
Here is an example of the first PixTeller giveaway we organized together.
For example, I used to collaborate with Fotor, the graphic design company.
Here are the steps we took:
First, I published a blog post about Fotor.
Then, I randomly chose 5 commenters to give a Fotor premium account. My readers run online businesses and need premium graphics to accompany their web content. Therefore, this prize was valuable to people in my niche.
The reaction was extremely favorable. I received more comments than usual.
I also collaborated with Wonderfox, a video converter company. They gave away free site licenses to my readers. We randomly chose from commenters as well. Again, interest and response were high.
I think B2B giveaways differ from consumer-oriented (B2C) giveaways.
Here is my reasoning: Businesses have a need for the items being given away. The business people need the tool, or whatever is being given away, to operate.
Business’s financial success could depend on having these tools. When businesses give away to consumers, the value of the item is different emotionally. Consumers want the item but they don’t need it to survive like the B2B software awarded in B2B giveaways.
You can use Pinterest to attract the interest of businesses in your brand.
Do this through pins.
First, your pins contain links to your sites. You can change the direction of the link to go to Amazon or anywhere your business growth will be accelerated.
Make sure your logo or watermark is visible but not overpowering the pin.
Finally, business accounts are entitled to rich pins that make your pins stand out on Pinterest.
Buffer predicts Pinterest will be one of the three best sites for social commerce with Facebook and Instagram being the others in 2020.
Don’t overlook this strategy.
Sponsored Content
You have heard that content is king.
One of the marketing trends for 2020 is that businesses will be selling LESS.
Instead of the traditional obviously salesy approach, businesses will market more subtly going forward.
They will become thought leaders in their industry by creating informational content for their would-be-consumers.
They will need bloggers to create this content for them.
Consider these comments from Kevinson Libama, a successful professional freelance writer as he explains how to generate income from B2B content creation:
“You should target the best B2B companies (business to business) out there who are likely to be in touch with individual clients who own websites and need content.
In a nutshell, pitch SEO, content marketing, and web design agencies because they handle the content needs of nearly all websites on the internet.
There are thousands of these agencies online. You can pitch 50-100 of them, but even if only 1-2 of them respond, you’ll get massive work that would last you forever.
I wonder why people complain there’s no work. You just don’t know where to look. This is the secret to finding direct clients with a constant flow of work.” Source.
How can the businesses find you?
Many find me on Google.
Make sure you have well-optimized sales pages that can rank well on Google.
As I explained earlier, I have a Freelance Writer for Hire Page.
There are many ways you can put yourself out there as a freelancer.
Testimonials
Make sure you have testimonials of happy customers and clients.
For B2B, I have mine on my Freelancer for Hire page so brands can read testimonials from brands I’ve worked with before that were pleased.
This social proof gives them an incentive to hire me as well.
Other marketers, such as Mark Newsome, ask happy clients to make video testimonials.
This user-generated content will convince brands you’re a marketer they want to partner with.
Wrapping Up: B2B Software Tips
Let this detailed guide serve as your checklist for how to generate B2B income in 2020.
You can easily boost your effectiveness by following these strategies for working with businesses.
Use this list of B2B software as an action plan for boosting marketing success in 2020.
Don’t forget to use measurement tools to make sure you’re getting a strong return for your time invested and see if these strategies are working.
Takeaways: B2B Marketing Strategies
Did you notice any themes? I did.
- Social media plays a huge role in marketing success.
- You can’t just rely on your readers for your online success. You need companies.
- You don’t need much of a budget to succeed as a marketer online. All these tips effectively help you progress as a marketer and none of these tips cost more than $6.00 a month.
Readers, do you have additional B2B marketing strategies? I look forward to your answers in the comments section.
Please share so other marketers and bloggers who want to market but don’t know how to do so discover these B2B software strategies.
I look forward to your views in the comments section. Can you suggest additional examples of B2B software that will boost marketing success?
This post was made possible by the support of our readers.
Janice Wald is the founder of MostlyBlogging.com and co-founder of the Mostly Blogging Academy. She is an ebook author, blogger, blogging coach, blogging judge, freelance writer, and speaker. She won the Best Internet Marketer Award and the Best Blogger Award at the 2021 Infinity Blog Awards. Wald was also nominated as 2019 Best Internet Marketer by the Infinity Blog Awards and in 2017 as the Most Informative Blogger by the London Bloggers Bash. She’s been featured on Small Business Trends, the Huffington Post, and Lifehack.
