Promotion tools on the b2b market. Why is it difficult for B2B companies to promote online? Decide what kind of PR is effective for your project

» Anna Feoktistova wrote a column for the site about promoting a complex technological product in the media, social networks and blogs - billing for telecom operators. Feoktistova reviewed both Russian and foreign resources and noted the strengths and weaknesses of different types of content marketing.

Marketing Director of Latera Anna Feoktistova

We at Latera have been developing billing for Hydra telecom operators for many years, and recently launched a new project - the Hydra OMS order management system. These are completely different products, but there is something that unites them - their complexity in the eyes of the average Internet user.

Promoting such projects is more difficult and more interesting than just another “food designer” or “Uber for something.” Today we will talk about what methods of content promotion in Russian and English we tried, and what results we managed to achieve.

The sales cycle for such a complex product takes months and sometimes years. For example, even ordering a demo version of the system most often does not happen on the first visit: 80% of “demos” are ordered either from a direct visit to the site or from organic search engine results for targeted queries like “billing hydra”. In such a situation, it is almost impossible to track conversion from any specific marketing actions. But some general observations can be made.

Our company has existed for almost ten years, but for many years we have not carried out targeted promotion work. We had a blog on the website and an email newsletter, to which several thousand people subscribed. The materials were prepared by the company's managers and technical specialists, so all this was of an irregular nature.

To fix this, we decided to take advantage of the capabilities of the Rockin'Robin media hub and attracted its specialists as experts in creating thematic content for B2B companies.

The project has been going on for almost a year. Here's what we tried during this time.

Promotion in RuNet

From the very beginning, our main promotion efforts were focused on the home RuNet market. Here we managed to work with several channels and tools for creating and distributing content. Below are all the steps we took and a description of the results of the work.

Step 1. Blog on Habrahabr

Perhaps the most obvious way to promote technical products on the RuNet is through Habrahabr and, to a lesser extent, its younger brother Geektimes. Its monthly audience historically consists of technology enthusiasts and IT professionals and is larger than many prominent business media outlets combined. A variety of companies maintain their blogs there - from global giants like Google or Intel to unknown young projects.

Thanks to the collective intelligence rating system for publications, even small startups can get good audience coverage and outperform multinational corporations in the overall ranking.

On the other hand, Habrahabr has always been a difficult resource to work with. More than a dozen projects can tell stories about how readers mercilessly criticized and downvoted materials that everyone inside the company liked. Therefore, it was necessary to develop an approach that would allow us to talk about our billing without incurring disfavor with the audience.

To do this, we decided to use the format of explanatory texts, in which we “attacked” the main doubts that arise among potential customers who are thinking about purchasing our product. For example, many of these companies are not sure that it is worth spending money on a product created by someone else if you can create your own solution. In practice, with “home-written” software, a variety of problems that are not obvious at first glance almost always arise. We talked about them in our material, which caused a real storm of discussion (and was almost downvoted).

We honestly talked about the technical difficulties we face and how we deal with them. Everyone is interested in reading how a combination of several rare circumstances led to a large-scale failure, the consequences of which we were able to overcome. In addition, such stories help potential customers see that we are able to work in a stressful situation and are not trying to hush up problems.

In addition to technical materials, so that the audience did not get bored, we published entertaining and simply useful articles translated or adapted from English - readers also liked them and some of them collected tens of thousands of views.

In addition to solving the problem of “keeping the user engaged while we write a complex technical article,” such materials could be used to express their views on technology. For example, this is how we explained our choice of the MongoDB DBMS for the Hydra standalone RADIUS server.

Result: We published our first article on Habrahabr at the end of August last year, since then we have published 25 publications. They were viewed more than 300 thousand times. Some of these materials served as the basis for columns in specialized media. Several clients came to us from Habrakhabr, including large ones.

Restrictions: good technical content cannot be cheap - it is impossible to create it without the involvement of qualified engineers, and they still have to do the main work at some point. Putting the creation of such texts on stream is not an easy task, but in addition to this, the blog should have its own editorial policy, which would imply the publication of various types of articles that solve different business problems. In addition, a blog on Habrahabr is a paid service, the cost of which may scare off many (this is 60 thousand rubles for three months in prices as of August 1).

Conclusion: this promotion channel should be used if the company is ready to produce quality technical content. “Ready” is not just “we have smart engineers and interesting projects,” but there are also people who can be trusted to collect the invoice and turn it into the final text. If you have someone within the company who writes interestingly, this will help you act faster.

Step 2. Working with online media

In parallel with the blog, we were engaged in targeted work with online media, which theoretically could be read by representatives of our target audience - managers and employees of telecom operator companies.

Here we decided to act in two directions - to work with thematic resources that write a lot about telecoms, and to publish more general “business” texts in business publications. This way we were able to convey to an audience outside of Habrahabr our strengths in terms of developing, implementing and supporting a complex telecom product that solves real-life problems well. We were also able to explain why this was needed at all and express our opinion on important topics - for example, organizing work within the company and building interaction with customers.

The first type of media group included the resources Nag.ru (a well-known site in the telecom industry) and Roem.ru, and the second - “Secret of the Firm”, “General Director”, website, Rusbase and others.

Over the course of several months of work, we published a couple of dozen texts in the media, in which we talked about what to look for when choosing billing, what metrics to use to assess the effectiveness of a business based on a subscription model, why you don’t need complex products on your own, and what will happen to the Russian Internet after the adoption of the Yarovaya package.

Result: Our media articles received a good response - in some cases they received more than a hundred comments. In our opinion, such placements helped to increase the notorious “brand awareness” of our company outside the established telecom community, and within it to acquire new supporters and, as a result, clients.

If we compare the “exhaust” from working with the media with blogging on Habrahabr, then the blog brought us more customers. In the case of the media, traffic turned out to be significantly lower, and we received any significant traffic only from the industry Nag.ru. At the same time, publications in the media have a positive effect on the “visibility” of the product in search engines - links to articles pop up on Google for queries like “billing hydra”. And even though this is often not the first page, but the second, third or fourth, when it comes to choosing an enterprise product for hundreds of thousands and millions of rubles, customers are ready to look through it.

Restrictions: working with the media turned out to be difficult - often our materials were rejected without much explanation (“we have another speaker writing on this topic” - as an option), sometimes they directly said that it was better to “act through the commercial department”, in some cases they were completely ignored . The situation is similar to that described in this article - it takes perseverance and fortitude not to give up when you fail.

Conclusion: In the field of b2b media, this is a good content marketing channel that can bring real sales. However, like “Habrakhabr”, you need to “be able to cook” it, and even in this case no one gives any guarantees of success. You can’t just go and get on the pages of RBC, Forbes or CNews (more precisely, you can, but it’s very, very expensive). On the other hand, good results can be achieved through targeted work with carefully selected thematic online publications. We are following exactly this path.

Step 3. Blog on the website and Facebook

We have had a blog on our website for quite some time - it was initially filled by company executives in their free time. Really interesting texts were published there, some of which caused lively discussions among telecom people - in thematic mailing lists, Telegram chats, and so on.

The only problem here was that the director has something to do besides the blog - so articles appeared when he had free time (which he almost never has) and the appropriate mood. Thanks to the experience we gained in creating content ourselves, we were able to more clearly formulate our vision of content marketing and quickly convey our wishes to the contractor.

You can buy everything online – from matches to an island in the ocean. But is it worth going into online sales for b2b companies? How realistic is it to sell rolled metal or CNC machines through a website?

Difference between b2b and b2c markets

How to sell a car? It depends on who.

The human client needs to sit in the car. See what's under the hood. Consult your wife. Hear about the favorable price and quality of service.

It is important for the purchasing organization to find out about the leasing conditions and the cost of wear and tear. Understand the nuances of the contract and the conditions for further cooperation. Most likely, the car will not even be looked at.

The difference between b2b and b2c markets is colossal. And in the speed of decision-making, and in the amount of the transaction, and in the role of emotions. The decision to choose a tractor is made rationally and over time. About buying pizza - quickly and emotionally. If you arrange a battle between a marketer working with goods of daily demand and a marketer promoting financial consulting, it will last for several days. We have collected in a table some of the differences related to online sales.

The specifics of markets are obvious, but when it comes to the Internet, questions arise. How to understand that this person wants to buy a milling machine? Can a pizza consumer be our target audience with the characteristics “top manager, 30-50 years old, works in production”? How do business users behave online? Therefore, sometimes online promotion in the business market is used intuitively. But the tools that show results in the b2c market do not work.

The main mistakes in internet marketing in the b2b market

Wrong goal setting

The success of trade in consumer goods lies in reducing transaction costs. The online store pays for itself by saving on renting a sales area and paying sellers. It is important to reduce the cost of attracting applications online.

It would be a mistake to set such a goal when selling B2B goods or services through a website. The role of the salesperson when dealing with business clients is not limited to invoicing. When selling complex products and services, it is necessary to demonstrate competence in the professional field. The client needs to be convinced that the product solves his professional problems. Therefore, the goal on a b2b website may be to receive a warm contact (after downloading a price list or demo version) and enter into direct communication.

Why is it important to set a goal correctly? In b2b there may be 3 requests per month, but each one is worth a million. Therefore, if you get carried away with reducing the costs of attracting applications, you can lose 3 million. Of course, you need to understand the maximum allowable cost of an action on your site.

Overlaying offline segmentation on online users

The basis for offline segmentation may be the volume of product consumption, industry, frequency of requests, etc. The buyer of the machine can be a person of a certain age and position. You go to the top manager of the plant with one commercial proposal, and send another to the “investigator”.

It is not always possible to track socio-demographic characteristics online. It is also impossible to understand the volume of consumption of goods upon request - the manager of a construction corporation and the “investigator” will enter the same request “milling machine” or “accounting program”. Therefore, it is better to segment online users based on additional criteria, at the intersection of online and offline characteristics.

Why is it important to segment? To show each audience the offer they need, increasing traffic conversion and thereby increasing the cost effectiveness of online marketing.

Measure results using b2c market metrics

Measuring only the volume of traffic or conversion to applications is hardly enough. In the b2b market, sales are long and multi-stage, which means the result must be measured accordingly.

Set up deep analytics, build a long funnel and track results taking into account the specifics of the purchase. Without losing a client after a phone call.

For example, in the b2c market one of the performance indicators is ROI (the ratio of the amount of profit to the amount of investment). For b2b, this metric will not be indicative - it is difficult to take into account all the costs over the six months that went into making the deal happen. Much more valuable for understanding efficiency will be the conversion rate from requests to transactions.

Why is it important to choose the right metrics? To understand which channels brought you more targeted visitors in what period. And invest in effective ones.

How to “set up” an online marketing system in a b2b company

Surely you are working on promoting goods/services on the Internet. You know which channels are effective. But sometimes it’s a good idea to do some cleaning and check how well everything is working. And is it possible to improve the performance? By the way, one of the first rules of a systematic approach to Internet marketing is to regularly audit indicators and, based on the data obtained, adjust not only tactics, but also promotion strategies.

Let's go over the main points that are good to monitor regularly.

Adequacy of Internet promotion goals

Global business goals of the company;

Product features;

Selected tools.

Global goals for a b2b company on the Internet will most likely be focused in the areas of information, positioning and building trust. Internet sales will be the second level goal.

At the level of product goals, the adequacy of the method of consumption of your product is important. For example, when choosing rolled metal, the consumer monitors the Internet and sends requests to several companies to conduct a mini-tender. This means that the goal for rolled metal products may be to get into the first selection list. What is needed for this? A simple and understandable application form with the ability to attach a tender request, a quick response to a request and receiving contacts for further communication.

An example of an application that allows you to quickly get into a mini-tender:

Goals and metrics in terms of tools are determined depending on the life stage of site development. For example, at the initial stage of promotion there is no data on the quality of traffic sources. It is difficult to predict which channel will bring quality visitors. Therefore, goals can be set in terms of traffic volumes. After the analytical period, it is advisable to revise the goals.

If you already know the average cost of an application, you can move on to more complex metrics. For example, a leasing company may set a goal “to secure the nth number of applications without exceeding a certain percentage in the total amount of executed leasing contracts.”

Segmentation by online criteria

There can be many types of segmentation in a network, for example:

by stage of the client’s life cycle (potential, current, lapsed);
by type of consumption (through tenders, wholesale, working with companies from the state register, etc.);
by type of queries (multiple low-frequency, branded, general);
by behavior online or on a website (for example, those who viewed a certain set of pages and downloaded a price list);
by interests (pizza, economics, design);
by client CID (user identification based on the browser used).

The greatest effect is achieved by segmentation that takes into account your knowledge of offline customers with an attempt to model their online behavior.

Unfortunately, the volume of applications from a website in the b2b market is usually small, so it takes time to accumulate statistics on the quality of segments (which segments produce higher quality applications). However, it is important to determine the value of each segment (what is the volume of buyers and the average check) and estimate the volume of demand (for example, by the frequency of requests).

In the future, segmentation will not only allow you to work effectively with each segment. But to complete the most important task is to expand exactly the segment that brings the greatest profit, find an online audience with similar characteristics and show them your offer. Finding new clients and reaching new audiences is the most difficult and sought-after task for b2b.

All applications are "qualified"

Often a potential client gets lost during the phone call. The goal of online promotion was formally achieved - the client was brought to a personal conversation and an appointment was scheduled. What happens to him afterwards is often unknown.

However, how can we evaluate the effectiveness of working with the Internet if we do not know what quality of audience we bring to the sales department? An order for rolled metal can be for 20,000 or 20,000,000 rubles. Who do we need more?

Promotion of services in the b2b segment has its own characteristics that must be taken into account when developing a promotion plan, namely:

· Difficulty of access to decision-making audiences (enterprise managers, top management, department heads);

· Difficulty in organizing and conducting research of various types;

· A long chain of decision-making, in which more than one link is involved;

· Limited exposure to traditional and mass media of advertising - there are industry and highly specialized sources;

· “Connections” play a big role, as well as the company’s overall reputation in the industry market.

Promoting b2b services is different from promoting regular consumer services and products. The difference between marketing strategies is determined, first of all, by the composition of the target audience. Let's consider some features of promoting services and goods in the b2b sector.

· The need to concentrate on a narrow circle of consumers. This feature has its pros and cons. A fairly narrow circle of consumers of specialized services and goods makes it possible to run promotion companies at significantly lower costs. When addressing a mass audience in the b2b sector, one cannot hope for just a few sales, since the number of clients in this sector is initially small, so companies must reach, preferably, 100% of the target audience, while encouraging a significant number of those reached to make a decision.

· Appearance of information materials. In the first place in all information materials about a company in the b2b sector is the content, whether traditional handouts or electronic ones - accuracy, reliability, completeness of information, ease of use. But it is also worth paying attention to the stylish, but at the same time strict design.

Marketing concept of the company

To stimulate sales of services and goods in the b2b sector market, it is necessary to constantly introduce new and improve existing promotion tools. Internet promotion was chosen as the optimal method of promotion, taking into account the specifics of the project. At the moment, Buteykis and Partners has a functioning website, which, however, requires significant optimization.

Promotion goal: increasing the number of customers.

· Increase awareness of potential clients about the company;

· Increase brand awareness;

· Strengthen the level of trust in the company.

Stages of implementation of the promotion concept:

1) Identify the target audience of the project and determine promotion channels;

2) Conduct an analysis of demand for services;

4) Optimize the official website of the project;

5) Prepare PR materials for Internet promotion.

The target audience. The Buteykis and Partners company operates in the b2b sector. The main target audience is representatives of the business environment, heads of enterprises and projects running their business in Moscow. With the expansion of the project, it is possible to increase the coverage of clientele in other regions.

Promotion channels. The Internet was chosen as the main promotion channel. More specifically, this is:

* Search engine optimization (SEO) - website promotion to the top of search results;

* PR materials for the official website and thematic sites.

Most ecommerce resources on the RuNet are aimed at selling services or goods to the end user. They write articles and longreads about this, give recommendations and advice. Simply because our daily consumption is significantly larger than the segment of business goods and services; there is often more money in B2C, and most importantly, the effect of marketing activities in this market segment is immediately visible.

If you are starting to work with a B2B project for the first time, then it will be useful for you to know what you should not waste time on when promoting a site in the B2B space, and where it is more appropriate to direct your efforts.

General and unchanged in the promotion of B2B and B2C websites

The technical methods of internal optimization will remain the same in both cases. Because options such as proper configuration of host factors, the absence of pages with a 404 response code, broken links, etc., ease of use of the site both on a computer and on a mobile device, valid layout (html code without errors) are important for everyone types of audiences.

It is also important that the content of both B2B and B2C sites is unique, not “spammy”, useful for the user, and provides an answer to the request that led the user to the site. The schemes for working with meta tags, headings and semantic core remain unchanged - from the selection of basic queries to grouping and defining a landing page.

Clear and concise information about each service, easy to understand

The main differences between SEO work for the B2B market

The target audience

B2B clients can be segmented according to the following criteria:

by business size: small, medium, large.
by type of organization: budgetary or commercial organizations.

Small business. If your client is small private companies (small or medium-sized businesses), then you should direct your efforts directly to the company owners, their partners and assistants. This is your audience with whom you will communicate. For them, the price of a product or solution is important (they try to find it cheaper, more economically), delivery speed and often versatility.

Everyone loves discounts, and so does the B2B client.

Special conditions, quick payment, short terms + high quality - everything to attract the attention of an entrepreneur

Big business. If the scale of your business allows you to work with large clients, then you need to take into account that the structure of medium and large-sized companies, as a rule, includes many different divisions. It makes sense to spend time and “split” the audience into specific functional blocks and people who represent the company - the sales department, the purchasing department, managers, decision makers. Why? All of them are involved in the decision-making chain at different stages.

How does such a business find partners and suppliers? The possibilities of reliable long-term relationships are important to them; they are looking for companies that can not only sell, but also provide a range of services for connection, turnkey setup and subsequent maintenance (equipment, products, etc.), provide special conditions, the opportunity to buy leasing goods or services. Price in this case is not always the determining factor in the transaction. Often companies decide to buy a product at a higher price, benefiting in the future on the price of service, convenience of service or, for example, on leasing terms.

Budgetary organizations. If your client is a budget organization, then get ready for tenders. To conclude a contract with such a company, you need to “get comfortable” on specialized sites and prepare in advance the appropriate documentation that can be posted on the site. This way, potential clients will find the information they need faster.

The main purpose of a B2B website

The main goal of a business in the B2C sphere is to go to the site > select > buy.

Quick sales in the B2B segment are almost always an exception, since the purchasing decision is made not by one person, but usually by several managers. The purpose of the purchase is determined not by a person’s personal preference, but by business necessity; and making a purchase decision often drags on for months.

Therefore, the tasks of a website that is aimed at selling goods and services to businesses is to establish long-term communications after the “first touch”. For B2B clients, the company’s reputation, meeting deadlines, competent and complete documentation, and guarantees are important. There are no spontaneous purchases in this sector. The selection and ordering process takes place over a long period of time through comparison and coordination.

Grab points for “first touch”:

official documents, contracts, certificates, licenses, awards, company statuses;
a list of known partners or clients of the company;
participation in exhibitions and events that are significant for this market segment;
reviews written on company letterhead and signed by company heads;
phone number and email of the company, located in the visible part of the template (most often, in the header);
contact information of employees, sorted by sections;
options for quickly obtaining wholesale/special prices, conditions for wholesalers, trial batches of products;
Possibility of prompt delivery.

Payment options and loyalty programs

In the B2B segment, there is virtually no online payment for products and solutions. Usually these are non-cash payments that occur after a series of approvals. Therefore, the “Buy” button will not be required; it will be replaced by the “Order” button, “Ask a question” or a chatbot consultant from the sales department.

Loyalty programs have their own specifics - these are discounts or a special price for volume, additional discounts, for example, for options for placing goods in a more favorable area for the end buyer and other conditions.

Working with search query selection and content

In the B2B segment, you have to more carefully “minus” requests. Most often, most information requests are excluded. Key phrases will contain more specific terminology, professional slang accepted in a particular area of business.

For example, promotion in search results of a company that produces desserts, jams, fruit drinks, etc. for sale to restaurants, cafes and other sectors of the food industry is complicated by the fact that there are practically no direct requests aimed at attracting wholesale buyers.

Transactional (commercial) requests such as “buy jams wholesale”, “toppings wholesale”, “buy fruit drinks wholesale”, “jams doy packs”, “juices nectars wholesale”, “jam jam from the manufacturer”, etc., are much less than commercial ones requests for a single purchase.

Only one request directly indicates an interest in buying jam in bulk; the rest of the requests are most likely not related to the desire to buy in bulk.

And even more information requests related to recipes or questions about the benefits and harms of sweet products. Yes, you can write articles on similar topics (which syrup to choose for coffee, what toppings are and where they are used, the benefits of raspberry jam), but the traffic attracted can hardly be called targeted for a manufacturing company that wants to sell in bulk.

One more moment. When we prepare content to attract the B2B audience segment, we must remember that the information will be read by a professional in his field of business. It’s simply not possible to order such articles from a copywriter. It is necessary to select someone who will be familiar with this area of business and will be able to write an article in a “qualified language”. As a rule, the article should be less personal, less emotional, and more instilling confidence in the company and profitable opportunities for solving current business problems.

The list of equipment will only be understandable to a specialist

Only a specialist in a narrow field can write this; a “general profile” copywriter is unlikely to even be able to make a high-quality rewrite of such material

Working with building external link mass

You can use the same types of online platforms for the B2B and B2C markets, but the meaning and “message” should be different. For B2B business, it is important to work with the brand and reputation of the company as a reliable partner for long-term cooperation, which means you should pay attention to large business media, specialized business portals and news platforms. The effectiveness of social networks and crowd marketing in general is low in the B2B market compared to B2C.

Press release from the Roliks printing house on the profile portal pechatnick.com

Summarizing

Today, an SEO specialist is three in one: SEO skills and knowledge of marketing (studying the target audience, setting and achieving goals set for the site in terms of sales), and project management (interaction with specialists in related professions) are required. If a person has the necessary knowledge and skills for each stage of SEO work, he will be able to “adapt” to optimize a site from both market sectors.

The b2b market is a part of the market or economic space in which activities are aimed not at the ordinary consumer, but at companies that further interact with the end consumer. His work is completely different from the standard consumer market, so the tools, strategic direction, and sales techniques are radically different. There are practically no similar approaches.

The main motivation for purchasing something on this trading platform is to increase capital. The object of earnings is the product. The client invests money by purchasing a product in order to subsequently make a profit.

The significant differences in such a market include the following indicators: On a b2b platform, the buyer and the end consumer are not the same person. The assets of a firm or company are used as funds to purchase goods. The decision to purchase goods lies with a specific person with specific interests. Decisive factors for such a person may be:

Individual convenience in working with the supplier;
Personal ambitions;
Friendly relations;
Many other reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the goods.

This is the main difference - the end consumer pays attention to the product itself, and the person responsible for purchasing goods is influenced by extraneous factors. To some extent, emotions take over. Photo taken from hostcomp.ru

Decision making is no less important. The more expensive it costs a company to purchase a product, the more responsible people vote for the decision. That is, the interests of all participants in the process must coincide. One person may succumb to emotions or become a “victim of advertising” for a particular product, but a group of people still relies on other factors. For them, the main thing is to make a profit related to the purchased product.

General communication methods. In the b2b market space, the main participants in the process are the sales specialist and the buying company. The success and execution of a trade transaction depends on the skills and professionalism of the manager. The main thing here is not the advertising campaign or PR activity, but the manager. And advertising in this case will not be appropriate, since it is troublesome and expensive to advertise in order to attract several buyer players in the b2b market.

Communication and work with corporate clients is more subtle; it requires high communication skills in dealing with several people representing the interests of one company. Therefore, a sales manager must be a highly qualified professional.

To attract the maximum number of customers, promotion methods were developed and implemented. Below is a detailed description of the most effective channels for attracting the target audience, among which are:

Having our own sales department. This department in any developing company is a key link. This channel is one of the most expensive, but very effective.
Website creation. Having a business but not having a website is very rare and nonsense. But here we are not talking about an online store or a standard corporate website, but about a one-page resource, the purpose of which is to persuade customers to make a purchase. The structure of a one-page site is much higher than the structure of a classic website. But this works ideally if you trade one group of products.

To increase conversion, the website should be supplemented with online chats and feedback options. You can also post interesting cases that demonstrate a high level of professionalism. It also doesn’t hurt to have customer reviews (videos and texts). On the website you need to place everything that interests a potential client.

Event marketing is an important way of promotion within the b2b market. It promotes the proper building of friendly and business relationships between partners. Event marketing activities include:

Various exhibition events;

Seminars;
Conferences;
Webinars.

In this case, you can remain a winner due to low competition, and therefore, having shown yourself as well as possible, you can form a certain number of clients.
Photo taken from the site msk.podvijka.ru

Availability of partners. Sales growth in any business directly depends on the development of relationships with partners. In order to acquire reliable and correct partners, it is necessary to compile some kind of database, including the largest and most important of them.
Attracting telemarketing. This direction consists of communicating with clients via telephone. For this purpose, special call-centers are created, where a program is written for each client - the topic of conversations. With their help, the client base is called and a special list of warm clients is compiled, with whom work is subsequently done. To reduce waste a little, you can use the services of regional call centers, as they are several times cheaper than those located in big cities.
Creation of tender platforms. Tender is not an easy process. Some companies take part in tenders with great pleasure and successfully win them. But where there is corruption, it is better not to participate in tender programs, as practice shows.
Application of all types of advertising. Advertising in the media, on radio, and on television is acceptable. The most important is still advertising in print media, in the press, despite the fact that fewer and fewer people read the press. The main thing is that the printed publication is of high quality.
Connection with social networks. The social media audience is huge and growing, so this needs to be taken into account. Each social network has a specific audience attached to it. We are talking about demographic characteristics. The most popular social platforms are:

Facebook;
In contact with;
Classmates;
Instagram;
Twitter.

The most productive is Instagram, since once you post there, you can publish it on other social networks.

New direction - E-mail marketing. This vector of advancement is in the process of development, but the prospects are already noticeable today. High-quality E-mails can be sent using Getresponse, E-mail, Unisender, Pechkin and others. In addition to good mailing, it also provides excellent analytics.
Availability of a YouTube channel and other platforms. A place to post video content. In the near future, video content will take the place of books and printed publications, so this is a bet for the future.

As mentioned earlier, having your own website is necessary. But it often happens that after using a key query, the user ends up on a competitor’s website. To eliminate such situations, you need to optimize the site in such a way as to become accessible and have certain advantages. It is worth paying attention to both the content and the structure.

Among the many promotion channels, marketers have identified the most effective:

Content marketing. Creating the correct information field. This could be a blog, useful advice, or communication with readers in question-answer mode. Self-promotion doesn't hurt either.
E-mail marketing. This type of mailing is not spam. For example, a site visitor registers by leaving his email, and then from the site he receives news about the arrival of goods, discounts, promotions, etc. Instructive information contained in electronic messages is also useful and effective. It all depends on what the company does.
Viral advertising. A high-quality and interesting video is edited, which also contains advertising. Then it spreads on the network, and then it’s a matter of little things – it rapidly spreads among people through social networks and other platforms. The main thing is that it is something worthwhile and memorable.
Contextual advertising product. These are advertisements for a specific circle of readers and viewers who are united by interests related to the advertised product. Contextual advertising can be of two types:

Search engine;
Thematic.

Photo taken from the site prodvizheniesajtov.ru

Media advertising. Advertising using video and static images on banners. It is easy to analyze such advertising and make further plans according to the results obtained. Placement takes place on thematic sites and portals visited by the target audience.
Smm promotion. If a company participating in the b2b market is focused on long-term projects and is moving step by step towards achieving its business goals, then Smm promotion is an ideal option. This improves the company's image.

Inexpensive ways to promote goods and services

Among the low-budget channels for promoting products, you can make a whole list:

Mention of the company. If there is information about the company on the Internet, you can post a link. Effective and inexpensive.
Take part in webinars. They are often free, and this makes it possible to advertise your products without paying. It will be seen by a wide audience. You need to write a small but attractive program and draw up an action plan.
Cross promotion. The two companies agree on mutual advertising for each other. A convenient and easy way of advertising, consisting of a relaxed dialogue.
Creating a blog. Create a blog and comment on it. This must be done with irreplaceable regularity, adhering to a pre-drawn plan. If the comments are bright and memorable, this will first attract the attention of visitors to you, and then to your company and products.
Take note Google+. Create a personal account and design it in an interesting way to attract the attention of your audience. The most interesting information on the Internet is always heard and visible.
Live communication for advertising purposes. Recently, due to the rapid development of computer technology and progress in general, people have somehow forgotten about the simplest thing - live communication. In the process of communication, you can tell others about your type of activity, offer something, or unobtrusively advertise something. After all, even among strangers who are around us in everyday life, there may be many potential clients.
Don't ignore all kinds of competitions and conferences. There are many competitive programs for firms and enterprises on the Internet. This is a great opportunity to introduce yourself to a large audience and show what your company is capable of.
Using a social platform - Twitter. To some extent, it is an excellent marketing platform. To achieve a positive result, you need to choose the right subscribers and start active communication, making comments, while unobtrusively mentioning your company.
Look at marketing from a different perspective. For some reason, it is generally accepted that the goal of marketing is to acquire new customers, while not remembering the old and current ones who also need attention. The maximum benefit of marketing comes from working with your existing customer base. This has been proven by specialists in this vector.
Friendship with strong competitors. They are the ones who dictate the rules of business and have a good client base. The focus should only be on the strong. Having made friends and helped a competitor, you can count on the fact that he will definitely help you - this is the rule of business, honest business.
Don't forget about such a little thing as a hashtag. It is also effective as a billboard, only on the Internet. Now they are available on all social networks. Come up with your own hashtag related to your company and leave it after each publication.
Compiling a database of E-mail addresses. They are necessary for advertising mailings that help to stir up interest in the site or product in question.
Issue a press release. Although they are no longer relevant, they are still important for the marketing sphere. For just a few dollars you can create one using PRWeb. You can do without material costs, then the PRLog.org website can help you. The only downside of the site is the language - English, but everything is fine. If you decide to create a press release in Russian, use the B2Blogger resource.
Creating a business blog. This is a platform that you can completely dedicate to your products. But you can’t overly advertise on a blog. After all, readers love to visit a high-quality and interesting resource, not an advertising one.

So, by using free methods of promoting goods and services, you can achieve good results. The main thing is to approach this correctly and then you will achieve some results:

get new clients;
determine your position in the market;
discover new ways to sell goods.

Golden Rule: “Marketing should not drain your budget, empty your wallet, or cost you thousands of dollars. Marketing is an art, the art of attracting attention and arousing interest. Marketing can only take up your time.”