3 B2B Investments Companies Should Make in 2020

Companies are aware that their brand is a critical asset in determining the value of their firm. The more that clients, employees and investors value your brand, the better chance you will have to grow sales, attract quality employees and have access to low-cost capital.

Important B2B Investments to Consider

Your digital assets, especially your website, social media presence and paid media, play an important role in how your brand is perceived online. In fact, as the world becomes more and more digital, many would argue that a company’s online presence is the most important investment to make when it comes to growing your business. The content available on your website, the story you tell through social media and how your brand competes in search engines are crucial to finding success as a business owner in 2020 and beyond.

The consistency and longevity of your success will be dependent on the ongoing quality of your digital assets. To maintain this quality, you must invest in your digital assets when you can so that they continue to increase in value. Making these investments will pay dividends now and, more importantly, in the future when it may be more difficult to make such investments.

B2B Investment #1: Your Website

Digital marketing and the importance of a structurally sound, user-friendly website for B2B companies came of age while the economy emerged from the economic crisis in 2008 and 2009. During that time, most companies’ top priority was to generate leads and close sales. As a result, many B2B companies began investing in their number one salesperson: the website.

B2B Metal Manufacturer Sees 28.5x ROI on New Website in 18 Months

As the B2B space has evolved, purchasing decisions are nearly 70% made before a potential customer engages with a sales representative. If your website does not clearly communicate who you are, what you do and how you can help your ideal customers answer their questions, find solutions to their problems or achieve their goals, you are behind the times. Learn how you can optimize your website here.

Once your website is set up for success, leads won’t magically appear. While your website will remain important to your long-term vitality and need to receive continued investment, it’s not a field of dreams. You have to establish and build brand awareness online to drive traffic to your website through other B2B investments such as organic search, social media, email and paid media.

B2B Investment #2: Social Media

As millennials begin to move into decision-making positions, social media is going to become a crucial part of the B2B buying process. If your brand doesn’t already have a social media strategy, here are a few tips to get started. If your brand is already using social media to engage with prospects and customers, here are a few ways you can take your social media strategy to the next level.

B2B Investment #3: Paid Media

To successfully compete online, you have to pay to play. With so many companies in the B2B space investing in their digital assets, the market is becoming saturated. Here are five benefits of using Google Ads for pay-per-click advertising. Some campaign ideas for B2B PPC are:

• Products or services
• Geographic locations you serve
• Seasonal promotions
• General brand awareness

Conducting in-depth research and enlisting experts to help get your campaign off the ground and continually achieve the overarching goal will ensure you are successful.

If You Haven’t Made These B2B Investments, Now Is the Time to Catch Up

If you have under-invested in your digital marketing infrastructure, now is the time to catch up. With new priorities rising to the top of the “must-do” list, many companies believe they don’t have the time to implement a robust digital marketing strategy. They often don’t realize that by leveraging the talent pool of a digital agency, they can make digital investments with terrific ROIs without the need to invest a lot of their own time.

Additionally, through using marketing automation software, they will increase the productivity of the sales and marketing staff, which often is not considered when calculating economic returns from digital upgrades. However, these operating improvements in the marketing and sales process increase ROI. Just like all of your long-term assets, your digital assets must always be a priority and with the right partner. Time commitment should never be a reason to delay your investment.

With a data-driven and customer-centric strategy, your digital assets can expand your brand’s recognition around the world. The data gathered in your marketing automation platform can be used not only by marketing but across your company in sales, human resources, operations and management. Every day that you wait to invest in your business, your company loses important opportunities to build brand value, attract top talent, create and nurture long-term client relationships and gather important information on your website visitors.