Understanding B2B Marketing

It's important to understand the key characteristics of B2B Marketing.


1. Longer Sales Cycles: B2B transactions often involve more complex decision-making processes and longer sales cycles compared to B2C transactions. Multiple stakeholders within the buying organization may be involved in the decision-making process.

2. Relationship-driven: Building strong and lasting relationships is crucial in B2B marketing. Trust and credibility play a significant role, as businesses want to work with reliable partners.

3. Niche Audience over mass: B2B marketers focus on specific industries, businesses of certain sizes, or those with specific needs. LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a valuable tool for identifying potential prospects by searching for firmographic data.

date published

Dec 27, 2023

date published

Dec 27, 2023

date published

Dec 27, 2023

date published

Dec 27, 2023

reading time

5 min read

reading time

5 min read

reading time

5 min read

reading time

5 min read

Now let's map out the B2B customer journey!

Stage 1: Awareness

During this initial stage, it is essential to generate awareness and attract potential clients. To secure Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL), marketers must collaborate with the sales team to identify the desired target leads and the key message necessary to draw them in. Here are some actionable steps:

  1. Select Owned Media Channels: Enhance lead capture through pinpointing optimal locations for lead acquisition, such as your product landing page, sign up page, contact page, or freemium offering page. This approach aids in filtering out undesirable low-intent leads, ultimately enhancing the efficiency of your lead generation efforts and reducing your cost per lead.

  2. Design an Interactive Landing Page: Use a lead form to filter out low-intent leads and redirect high-intent leads.

  3. Create High Quality Targeted Content: Develop content that addresses the challenges and needs of your target audience. This could include blog posts, articles, and educational resources.

  4. Utilize Social Media: Leverage platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter to enhance brand visibility. Share industry knowledge, engage with your audience, and participate in relevant discussions.

  5. Implement SEO Strategies: Apply best practices in search engine optimization to boost organic search rankings. Improve website content, use relevant keywords, and focus on providing valuable information.

  6. Engage in Influencer Marketing: Collaborate with industry influencers to expand your reach. Influencers can lend credibility and draw attention to your brand.


Stage 2: Consideration and Evaluation

As potential clients progress through the journey, concentrate on building trust and guiding them towards a decision:

  1. Nurturing Leads: Use personalized email campaigns and lead scoring methods to nurture leads. Adapt content to specific challenges and preferences.

  2. Thought Leadership: Display industry expertise through whitepapers and case studies. Position your brand as a thought leader, offering valuable insights.

  3. Account-Based Marketing (ABM): Apply ABM tactics to target high-value accounts. Personalize your approach for specific businesses or decision-makers.

  4. Data-Driven Decision Making: Examine data using advanced analytics tools. Utilize insights to fine-tune your strategies and make informed decisions.


Stage 3: Conversion and Retention

Closing deals is only the beginning. The focus should be on building strong relationships and encouraging repeat business. This can be achieved through Sales Funnel Optimization, which improves the customer's journey by removing any hurdles. Additionally, Personalized Marketing Automation tools like Hey Gen and Vidyard can help engage potential customers effectively with personalized content and lead nurturing.

1. HeyGen

Key Features:

  • Personalized Email Campaigns: Hey Gen allows you to create and automate personalized email campaigns tailored to specific segments of your audience. You can use customer data to send targeted messages that resonate with individual leads.

  • Lead Scoring and Segmentation: Implement lead scoring techniques to prioritize and segment your leads based on their engagement level. This helps in delivering content that aligns with their interests and behavior.

  • Dynamic Content: Create dynamic content that adapts based on the recipient's preferences and interactions. This ensures that each lead receives content that is relevant and valuable to them.

  • Multichannel Engagement: Hey Gen supports multichannel engagement, allowing you to integrate email campaigns with other communication channels. This creates a cohesive and consistent experience across various touchpoints.

2. Vidyards

(Image from Vidyards)

Key Features:

  • Personalized Video Content: Vidyard specializes in video marketing and allows you to create personalized video content for your B2B audience. Personalized videos can significantly increase engagement and convey complex messages in a more digestible format.

  • Video Analytics: Gain insights into how leads interact with your video content. Track viewer engagement, analyze drop-off points, and use this data to refine your content strategy.

  • Integration with Marketing Automation Platforms: Vidyard seamlessly integrates with marketing automation platforms, allowing you to incorporate personalized videos into your automated workflows. This ensures that leads receive relevant video content at different stages of the buyer's journey.

  • Interactive Elements: Enhance viewer engagement with interactive elements within your videos. Vidyard allows you to add clickable calls-to-action, forms, and annotations directly in your videos, guiding leads to take specific actions.

CRM Systems: Use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems like Hubspot for effective lead management and client retention.

Now let's map out the B2B customer journey!

Stage 1: Awareness

During this initial stage, it is essential to generate awareness and attract potential clients. To secure Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL), marketers must collaborate with the sales team to identify the desired target leads and the key message necessary to draw them in. Here are some actionable steps:

  1. Select Owned Media Channels: Enhance lead capture through pinpointing optimal locations for lead acquisition, such as your product landing page, sign up page, contact page, or freemium offering page. This approach aids in filtering out undesirable low-intent leads, ultimately enhancing the efficiency of your lead generation efforts and reducing your cost per lead.

  2. Design an Interactive Landing Page: Use a lead form to filter out low-intent leads and redirect high-intent leads.

  3. Create High Quality Targeted Content: Develop content that addresses the challenges and needs of your target audience. This could include blog posts, articles, and educational resources.

  4. Utilize Social Media: Leverage platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter to enhance brand visibility. Share industry knowledge, engage with your audience, and participate in relevant discussions.

  5. Implement SEO Strategies: Apply best practices in search engine optimization to boost organic search rankings. Improve website content, use relevant keywords, and focus on providing valuable information.

  6. Engage in Influencer Marketing: Collaborate with industry influencers to expand your reach. Influencers can lend credibility and draw attention to your brand.


Stage 2: Consideration and Evaluation

As potential clients progress through the journey, concentrate on building trust and guiding them towards a decision:

  1. Nurturing Leads: Use personalized email campaigns and lead scoring methods to nurture leads. Adapt content to specific challenges and preferences.

  2. Thought Leadership: Display industry expertise through whitepapers and case studies. Position your brand as a thought leader, offering valuable insights.

  3. Account-Based Marketing (ABM): Apply ABM tactics to target high-value accounts. Personalize your approach for specific businesses or decision-makers.

  4. Data-Driven Decision Making: Examine data using advanced analytics tools. Utilize insights to fine-tune your strategies and make informed decisions.


Stage 3: Conversion and Retention

Closing deals is only the beginning. The focus should be on building strong relationships and encouraging repeat business. This can be achieved through Sales Funnel Optimization, which improves the customer's journey by removing any hurdles. Additionally, Personalized Marketing Automation tools like Hey Gen and Vidyard can help engage potential customers effectively with personalized content and lead nurturing.

1. HeyGen

Key Features:

  • Personalized Email Campaigns: Hey Gen allows you to create and automate personalized email campaigns tailored to specific segments of your audience. You can use customer data to send targeted messages that resonate with individual leads.

  • Lead Scoring and Segmentation: Implement lead scoring techniques to prioritize and segment your leads based on their engagement level. This helps in delivering content that aligns with their interests and behavior.

  • Dynamic Content: Create dynamic content that adapts based on the recipient's preferences and interactions. This ensures that each lead receives content that is relevant and valuable to them.

  • Multichannel Engagement: Hey Gen supports multichannel engagement, allowing you to integrate email campaigns with other communication channels. This creates a cohesive and consistent experience across various touchpoints.

2. Vidyards

(Image from Vidyards)

Key Features:

  • Personalized Video Content: Vidyard specializes in video marketing and allows you to create personalized video content for your B2B audience. Personalized videos can significantly increase engagement and convey complex messages in a more digestible format.

  • Video Analytics: Gain insights into how leads interact with your video content. Track viewer engagement, analyze drop-off points, and use this data to refine your content strategy.

  • Integration with Marketing Automation Platforms: Vidyard seamlessly integrates with marketing automation platforms, allowing you to incorporate personalized videos into your automated workflows. This ensures that leads receive relevant video content at different stages of the buyer's journey.

  • Interactive Elements: Enhance viewer engagement with interactive elements within your videos. Vidyard allows you to add clickable calls-to-action, forms, and annotations directly in your videos, guiding leads to take specific actions.

CRM Systems: Use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems like Hubspot for effective lead management and client retention.

Align and opitmize marketing strategy with sales flow

An optimized sales flow involves streamlining the entire process from lead generation to conversion, with a focus on efficiency, customer satisfaction, and continuous improvement.

  1. Remarketing: Incorporate remarketing campaign into sales strategy. Implement remarketing campaigns to target users who have visited your landing page or complete a form but did not make a purchase. This helps re-engage potential customers and reminds them of your products or services.


  2. Analytics and Data Analysis: Utilize analytics tools to track the performance of your digital marketing efforts. Analyze data to identify areas for improvement, understand customer behavior, and make informed decisions.

  3. Feedback Loop Implementation: Establish a feedback loop between marketing and sales to exchange insights and observations. Regular communication helps both teams adapt and refine strategies based on the evolving needs of the market and the performance of ongoing campaigns.

B2B Sales & Marketing Key Metrics:


When it comes to understanding the performance of a business, there are several key metrics that can provide valuable insights. Here's a brief explanation of each one:

  1. ROI (Return on Investment): This is a measure of the profitability of an investment. It's calculated by dividing the net profit from the investment by the cost of the investment, and then multiplying the result by 100 to get a percentage.


  2. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): This is the total cost of acquiring a new customer, including all marketing and sales expenses. It's calculated by dividing the total costs associated with acquisition by the number of new customers acquired in the period the money was spent.


  3. LTV or CAC Ratio (Lifetime Value to Customer Acquisition Cost Ratio): This ratio compares the value of a customer over their lifetime (LTV) to the cost of acquiring them (CAC). A higher ratio indicates that the value of a customer is greater than the cost to acquire them, which is a positive sign for the business.


  4. Annual Churn Rate: This is the percentage of customers who stop using a company's product or service during a given year. A lower churn rate is better, as it means more customers are staying with the company.


  5. Lead to MQL Conversion Rate: This measures the percentage of leads that become marketing qualified leads (MQLs). A higher conversion rate suggests that the company's marketing efforts are effective at turning potential customers into leads who are ready to be contacted by sales.


  6. Visitor to Lead Conversion Rate: This is the percentage of website visitors who become leads. A higher conversion rate indicates that the website is effective at capturing the interest of visitors and turning them into potential customers.


  7. Monthly Unique Visitors: This is the number of distinct individuals who visit a website during a given month, regardless of how often they visit. More unique visitors generally means more potential customers, which can lead to increased sales.

    However, interpreting these metrics and implementing strategies based on them can be complex. That's where Sapiens comes in. With our expertise, we can guide you through this process, helping you understand what these numbers mean for your business and how you can use them to your advantage.


    Don't navigate these waters alone. Contact us today and let us help you turn these metrics into actionable insights for your business.

    👉 Download our B2B marketing blueprint here!


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