Why is contextual marketing important for B2B?
Understand contextual marketing and its importance in your B2b efforts.
Contextual marketing is a highly targeted way of focusing advertising efforts. Many consumers are used to seeing digital banner ads – so much, in fact, that many people have gone blind to them, not registering their presence or relevance. Contextual advertising, however, gives B2B businesses a chance to get in front of customers with the most possible interest in their products. Contextual ads are based on users search history and online behavior, giving “context” to the ads that users are exposed to. It’s a better way to target audiences and increase conversions. Here are some ways that contextual targeting works and examples of benefits that businesses have seen.
Advertising Customization
Context marketing programs like Google AdSense will display your businesses ad to users who have done any number of actions that indicate they may be interested in your brand, service, or product. If you work for a furniture company, for instance, your banners could be displayed on any website a user visits after searching for “office furniture” or for your brand name. You can also set it up to where ads reappear on websites after a customer visits your page. This kind of targeted customization means that your ad spend gets more relevant use, as it’s appearing in front of people who already have an interest in your brand or who are potentially in the market for a product like the one offered by your brand.
Exposure Increases Brand Awareness
Now that your brand is being displayed over various websites to customers who you already know are interested in your brand or products and services similar to your brand’s, you have the advantage of growing prominent brand awareness through increased exposure. Seeing your ad time and time again may be what your customer needs to eventually click through to get more information, make a purchase, etc.
Plus, when it comes to B2B marketing, you’re focusing mostly on delivering business solutions to other businesses and not just individuals. But you need to market to individuals in a business – and where do people at modern businesses spend most of their time? In front of computers, visiting websites where your ads could appear. This kind of brand messaging and awareness focus is very useful for marketing B2B products.
Solutions vs. Selling
Having your ads appear to customers who have already mentioned a product or service like yours online, searched for the product that your company provides, or searched for a product like yours means that your ad comes across in the context of their interest. They see it less as a company trying to make a sale and more as a solution to research and help fix their problem. Since nobody wants to be sold a one-size-fits all solution (people see themselves as unique), having a more targeted marketing approach, like contextualized marketing, can help your business stand out as the answer to their needs.
Has your business tried contextual marketing? Do you think that it’s a winning solution for customizing and targeting B2B messages?
