Many businesses supply goods and services to other businesses.

The marketing strategies used by companies that sell to other businesses (B2B) are likely to be different from those that sell to consumers (B2C).'

In B2B marketing, one approach is to distinguish between outbound and inbound marketing strategies.

outbound marketing strategies

• direct marketing material at potential customers whether they are expecting it or not

• includes direct mail, email, sponsorships, targeted adverts in specialist publications or trade shows

DRAWBACKS:

• people are increasingly ignoring adverts

• many people object to cold calling and other intrusive methods

• persistence in the use of these could damage the brand’s reputation

• many of the leads obtained using these methods are poor quality (waste of resources)

• it has also been reported that outbound leads cost significantly more to acquire than inbound leads

inbound marketing strategies

• attracting potential customer to websites when they are looking for suppliers or solutions to problems

• requires effort and resources to build up enough useful content on websites to change visitors into leads

DRAWBACKS:

• recruitment of experienced inbound marketers can be difficult, and it can be tricky to keep the strategy up to date with rapidly emerging trends

hybrid strategies

(a combination of outbound and inbound methods)

It is reckoned that inbound strategies take at least 6 months to generate results, so some outbound methods can be employed in the short term. Once inbound methods start to generate meaningful leads some of the less effective outbound methods can be dropped.

• developing customer loyalty

• communication

• customer service

• customer incentives

• personalisation

• preferential treatment