Looking Ahead to B2B Recovery – 5 Ways to Connect with Your Audience

In my first blog about The Road to B2B Revenue Recovery, I wrote about where to start. Today, I want to look ahead to the post-B2B recovery landscape and focus on how you can use communication and marketing to overcome the obstacles that may get in your way.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted much more than the public’s health. It has taken quite a toll on B2B businesses as well.

Here are just a few of the ways B2B is affected by the virus and subsequent lockdowns, etc.

  • Supply and demand. A staggering 83% of B2B companies report supply chain disruptions throughout the year.
  • Production delays. There is a fear that demand will increase before there are supply chains in place to satisfy it and may not be able up the demand.
  • Increased prices. In some cases, product delays have resulted in increased prices due to limited supply. What’s more, it may also cause downstream price increases to end-users.
  • Competition shifts. While some B2Bs may experience less competition from unestablished companies, the competition from strong companies may increase.
  • As many as 40% of businesses stand the risk of closing altogether.

As a B2B owner or decision-maker, you can’t control most of these factors. However, there are steps you can take to counteract their impact on the road to B2B recovery. The most important of these is communication.

Being creative in how to communicate will help your company connect with its audience and help ensure they are still there for you, not the competition when the recovery does begin.

We recommend using digital strategies to communicate with your audience before and after the B2B recovery. Relying on digital communications makes sense in our new less-traveled world where video meetings are the norm.

5 Creative Digital Communication Strategies for B2B Recovery

1. Create Online Events

When you can’t go see your customers, you can get them to come to you through the use of online events such as webinars. B2B webinars allow you to talk to a specific audience about your company, product or service. When done well, webinars are a smart way to build trust and strengthen relationships through meaningful conversations. However, the trick is pulling them off successfully, so your audience will keep coming back for more.

2. Participate in Virtual Trade Shows

Trade shows have consistently been one of the more powerful weapons in a B2B marketing arsenal. They provide a great opportunity to make a lasting impression and talk to customers one-on-one. While the pandemic has temporarily shut-down the trade show industry, that doesn’t mean the opportunity to reach your audience in this way is done. Until there is a B2B recovery, we recommend virtual trade shows as an effective means of connecting with your audience. We can even help you make sure your virtual trade show is a success.

3. Use Video

The use of videos in social media and other types of digital marketing is on the rise – and for good reason. Consider these statistics from Social Media Today:

  • Tweets with video see ten times more engagement than those without
  • LinkedIn users are 20 times more likely to share a video than any other type of post
  • Video generates more engagement than any other content type on Instagram

At Nichols Brand Stories, we’re experts at using video in a variety of ways to boost interest and interaction for our clients, ranging from kitchen equipment manufacturers, steel producers and more.

4. Produce SEO-Rich Content

Just because your virtual trade show is over, that doesn’t mean your job is done. To make it a real success, you need to follow up. After all, if your original goal was to increase leads, you need to make the most of them.

I advise everyone to find out more about virtual trade shows. It can be a fun new way to stay connected with clients or gain new ones – especially in these strange and trying times. To find out more about virtual trade shows or about Nichols Brand Stories, please contact me anytime at ksaylor@nichols-co.com.

5. Connect through Social Media

This year, social media become even more important to B2B companies. Social media allows B2Bs to communicate with current and potential customers. We expect this trend to continue long past the B2B recovery.

However, that doesn’t mean you should just post anything on any platform. To make the most of the posts leading up to B2B recovery, some social media makes more sense than others.

Whether you’re posting to promote your business or going live with a special event, keep in mind how you write your posts. Keep SEO top-of-mind for maximum effectiveness.

We Can Help with Your B2B Recovery Strategy

We don’t know when the full B2B revenue recovery will kick into high gear. However, in the meantime, it’s important to continue to communicate with your customers. Using creative digital communication strategies now will allow you to hit the ground running once the recovery begins. If you need help with crafting messages or overall communications, please reach out to me anytime. Before long, we’ll all be on our road to B2B revenue recovery.