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WHAT IS B2B COMMUNICATION?

The marketing communication process can be very complex but it is based on the universal model used in
all forms of communication which includes a sender, the message, receivers, a medium and, in the case of
two-way communication, feedback.

B2B communication refers to communication between businesses, or business to business communication.

In order to be most effective, you need to put together a business communication plan so that you have a
consistent message. This will allow you to solidify the messages that you want communicated, along with
whom the target audience is and how you want those messages to be delivered. This will also bring your
marketing and public relations efforts will line up with your overall strategic goals.

Marketing Communications are all strategies, tactics, and activities involved in getting the desired
marketing messages. Marketing communications as the process by which a marketer develops and
presents stimuli to a defined target audience with a purpose of eliciting a desired set of responses.
Marketing communications are: adverting, sales promotions, personal selling, PR and direct and interactive
marketing.

Consequently Marketing Communications Plan is the marketing plan which promotional plan incorporates
two or more integrated marketing communications mediums aiming to reiterate the same goals and
objectives. Marketing Communications Plans are considered by many professionals as an excellent way to
effectively communicate with target audience. Business communications comes in many forms. Each one
of them is designed for the same outcome to make a sale.

The purpose of your marketing communications – Any marketing / communications effort has only two
purposes: create a positive, larger-than- life image of your company, and create and facilitate sales
opportunities. It’s all about creating a funnel of qualified leads for your sales team to close. And, if you are
the only sales person , you need to leverage your time with effective marketing: you waste less time and
end up making more money in less time.

The primary step in the marketing communications plan is to analyze the internal and external marketing
environment. There are four key environmental variables that companies have to evaluate. They are:
competition, market analysis, customer analysis and positioning analysis. The next step in the marketing
communications plan is to establish marketing communication objectives that reflect the analysis made in
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the previous step. There are usually five key objectives -creating brand awareness and building brand
equity, providing information, increasing sales, differentiating the brand and influencing consumer behavior.
Based on the marketing communications objectives, companies have to decide the budgeting allocation for
marketing communications activities. Companies usually use-- arbitrary method, affordability method and
percentage of sales method, competitive parity method, objective and task method, and payout planning
method -- to set the budget. After deciding on the marketing communication objectives and the budget
allocation, companies have to design the marketing communications program. The decisions to be taken in
this regard are: selection of communication mix, developing a creative strategy and media decisions. The
final step in the marketing communications plan is evaluating and controlling the marketing communications
programs. This evaluation can be done through the communication audit.

Budget – Most businesses fail because they run out of seed capital or have a dip in cash flow at some
point. All factors must be taken into account. Obviously, a key new product or service introduction will
require more money than an established product or service that “sells itself.” When a business owner
makes marketing mistakes. It’s better to invest in getting help developing your strategy than to waste your
budget on failed marketing campaigns.

Spending Promotional Budget Costs:

• Specialized business pubs: 23%

• Trade shows, exhibits, displays: 18%

• Direct Mail: 10%

• Electronic Media/Internet: 9%

• Publicity/Public Relations: 7%

• General Magazines: 6%

• Dealer/Distributor Material: 5%

• Directories, Yellow Pages: 5%

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Clear communication objectives

Working with task-related budgets is more difficult, but in principle, more fair. Communication media are
viewed as tools to achieve turnover, to secure markets, to gain market share. You start by formulating clear
communication objectives, based on sales and marketing objectives. Then you decide whichever
communication media and actions are needed and finally you work out how much these will cost.

What is difficult – some say impossible – is to accurately estimate the resources that are needed in order to
achieve the targets. It is an exercise that requires significant experience in marketing and communication.
Moreover, once the budget has been established and confirmed in this way, there is nothing stopping you
expressing this as a percentage of turnover or gross margin. This makes the budget easier to compare and
easy to manage.

A launch budget is a good example of a task-related budget. When you want to launch a new product line
onto the market, you need to put aside more resources and more creativity than for your normal ongoing
business. For the latter you can probably make do with a maintenance budget, that only needs to ensure
that your existing brand awareness, image and identity are maintained.

Strategic plan – Are there new products to be introduced? Problems to be solved?

Images/perceptions to be altered? Interest/sales opportunities to be created? What do you expect to
achieve through your marketing efforts? Develop a SWOT analysis (identifying your Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) that helps you see problems before they arise.

Strategic communications means using corporate or institutional communications to create, strengthen or

preserve, among key audiences, opinion favorable to the attainment of institutional/corporate goals.

Generally, the goal is to:

Promote "bottom line" favourable public policy outcome.

Reduce cost of doing business

Support marketing/operational effectiveness

Tactical plan – Never forget that the desirability of the product or service itself is by far the greatest single
factor in any marketing/selling effort. How you plan to create demand depends on just how much in
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demand your product or service is already in the market place. The more demand, the more competition,
right? But, competition is good! Why? Because, as you read above, most small business owners don’t take
the time to develop effective marketing strategies. When you do just a few simple things to correct the most
common mistakes in your industry, you’ll soon see yourself dominating your market.

MARKETING COMMUNICATION RESEARCH :

Market research is any organized effort together information about markets or customers. It is a very
important component of business strategy.

Market research is for discovering what people want, need, or believe. It can also involve discovering how
they act. Once that research is completed, it can be used to determine how to market your product.

Questionnaires and focus group discussion surveys are some of the instruments for market research.

For starting up a business, there are some important things:

Market information

Through Market information one can know the prices of the different commodities in the market, as well as
the supply and demand situation. Information about the markets can be obtained from different sources,
varieties and formats, as well as the sources and varieties that have to be obtained to make the business
work.

Market segmentation

Market segmentation is the division of the market or population into subgroups with similar motivations. It is
widely used for segmenting on geographic differences, personality differences, demographic differences,
techno graphic differences, use of product differences, psychographic differences and gender differences.

Market trends

Market trends are the upward or downward movement of a market, during a period of time. The market size
is more difficult to estimate if one is starting with something completely new. In this case, you will have to
derive the figures from the number of potential customers, or customer segments.
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RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ADVERTISING AND INDUSTRIAL MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS:

In a very broad sense, industrial marketers, like consumer marketers, use advertising to communicate their
brand and generate sales leads. However, industrial marketers typically appeal to much more specialized
market niches. Narrowing the definition of advertising, industrial marketers develop company or product-
centric ads that are communicated through space in industry print publications or websites.
Other industrial marketing communications options include: public relations (PR), direct marketing (direct
mail or e-promotions), brochures and company websites, trade shows, and social media.
Advertising typically consumes the largest portion of an industrial marketing budget because it is a
"shotgun" approach to message-targeting. The cost of individual ads reflects a certain percentage of
wasted circulation and ad distribution. This is much more so in print media advertising, than Search Engine
advertising which (in theory) displays ads only to those with a single interest in an advertiser's key words.
Many industrial marketers rely on third party advertising agencies to help them avoid mistakes in
communicating the right message to the right audience using the most cost-effective media.
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MAJOR WAYS OF COMMUNICATION IN INDUSTRIAL MARKETS:

It’s just as important to execute the various components of your marketing communications campaign in
proper sequence as it is to execute them well.

1. CORPORATE IDENTITY – Logo, branding, letterhead, business cards, tagline, signage, etc. Follow
through on all communications projects/materials. Corporate identity, sometimes seen written as CI, refers
to the external “personality” projected by a corporation. The idea of corporate identity integrates the look
and feel of designs and communications, along with the corporation's behavior. Companies of all sizes
invest a great deal of energy in their corporate identities, since the persona of a corporation influences the
way people think about the company. Many firms specialize in corporate identity and public image control.
The first aspect of corporate identity has to do with branding. The logo is often the center of company
branding, since it is an easily recognizable symbol which sets the corporation aside from other companies.
Branding typically also includes a color scheme and a general look and feel across a product family which
makes all products recognizable. For example, a tea company will use related designs for all of its
packaging, allowing consumers to pick its products out from among the competitors.

Branding is more than you’re your logo, or the colors and pictures you choose on your website. When you
position yourself in the market correctly, you differentiate yourself from other businesses offering similar
products / services. Your brand needs to show your Unique Selling Proposition within each marketing
message.

The branding of some corporations is very familiar to many consumers, demonstrating how powerful the
look and feel of company products can be. Most consumers around the world, for example, recognize the
classic script font and red and white color scheme of the Coca-Cola label, or the yellow and red color
scheme of McDonald's. Consistency of branding is a large issue, as consumers may reject products with
entirely different design schemes.

Communications is also an important part of corporate identity. Communications include things like
advertisements, press releases, news features, and phone service. Usually, a company focuses on
providing uniform communications which present the corporation in a positive light. These communications
also encourage consumers to think of the company when they need a specific product or service.
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Finally, corporate behavior and ethics are a crucial component of corporate identity. Since some
consumers actually base their buying habits on how companies act, many companies focus on presenting
a very specific image. For example, a company may promote its use of green energy, the rejection of
sweatshop labor, or products manufactured in a specific country. Publicly scrutinized members of the
corporation are also generally expected to behave impeccably, ensuring the consumers think of the
company in a good light.

2. PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY/ILLUSTRATION – You need good photos or illustrations before you can do
anything. This seemingly basic requirement is often overlooked. A picture says 1,000 words. The right
picture can grab the readers’ attention enough to get them to read. Pictures of human faces or animals can
also create a desired emotional reaction, even before reading a single word of copy in the promotion.

Product photography plays an important role in marketing and communication, especially in the e-
commerce sector. Product photography is essential in the sense that objects are made to look as attractive
as possible so as to appeal to an audience. There are many reasons why photos are taken. This article will
concentrate on one aspect, the business point of view.

Product photos are widely used in advertising. Some products might be cosmetics, clothing, stationery,
jewelries, shoes, foods among others. Advertising is a form of communication intended to persuade an
audience for a cause so as to initiate and action. Worldwide advertising cost amounts to several billion of
dollars. Advertising is closely related to the creation of visuals. Professional photographers are recruited to
take quality photos of products.

3. WEB SITE – All of your leads / interested parties will go here, so make sure your web site is ready for
them! Site must make it easy to locate products/info and download quickly and easily. You need good
copywriting and professional navigation, but you don’t need fancy graphics – web sites in the B2B world are
for information, not showing off. No Flash is necessary. Your web site exists to help sell your products or to
generate leads to sell your service. Make sure the information is current. Above all, develop a video with
testimonials from satisfied clients. Adding a video introduction from you, the business owner, goes a long
way in building rapport, too.

Social Media and the web in general give you a way to connect with individuals in a way that we have
never seen before. Your reach far exceeds anything you can physically imagine. Through linking and
connecting with other web sites and social media web portals not only can you get your message across
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but you can share with real human faces, express and receive real thoughts and options. Open your
business up to real dialog, two way conversations with a huge group of potential consumers.

A few key points about the basic requirements needed for a successful website :

Interesting

• It shouldn’t just be a place to find copies of paperwork such as minutes; it can be used to reach an
objective such as gathering reactions to a proposal (such as building a village hall).

Up-to-date

• Although websites are inexpensive to run and keep up-to-date the task of keeping one up-to-date is
often neglected. Set dates in your diary to make amendments and stick to them. Keeping your website full
of fresh information that’s up-to-date will encourage visitors to revisit.

Easy to navigate

• Websites need careful planning from the start to ensure that the layout remains simple, effective and a
positive experience for visitors.

Content

• The content that you put into your website is an important and crucial part of building a successful
website. Avoid putting lengthy documents onto the home page and concentrate on using headlines that are
interesting. Take a look at many news websites to see how they place a paragraph from an article on one
page with a link to the rest of the article elsewhere in the website. This way it’s possible to place several
items of interest on the homepage of a website.

• Content should be interesting and can be light-hearted

4. WEB TRAFFIC GENERATION – How to generate targeted traffic to your site. There are two
approaches, short term and long term. An example of a short term approach is designing a landing page
with Google Analytics embedded in it, then design a pay-per-click campaign, assign a daily budget, and
test to see if within a week or so you have made more money than you spent.
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A long term approach is to set up well written professional profiles on all the social networks, grow your
network to many thousands, and ask and answer questions within groups of which your ideal client is likely
to be a member.

Don’t dismiss the efficacy of growing your business with a well written social network profile. I’ve personally
had prospective clients read my answers to questions posed on social networking sites, read my profile,
check out my verifiable testimonials, and then pick up the phone and call me to sign up for business
coaching. Plus, I’ve been fortunate to have both the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswire writers
contact me as a small business expert—all based on my well written professional profile on sites like
LinkedIn.com and Biznik.com. Just imagine if you had your industry news organizations calling you or
clients calling you, simply because you had a compelling profile!

5. LITERATURE / CATALOGS – Provide first-class brochures that your salespeople are proud to present.
Your literature is a reflection of the professionalism, or lack thereof, of your company. You need as much to
capture the mind share of your salespeople as you do the attention of your potential customers.

Catalog marketing is a specialized branch of direct marketing. The two disciplines share many of the same
characteristics. Like direct marketing, catalog marketing is based on interactivity, or one-to-one
communication between the marketer and the prospect or customer. Catalogs always include response
devices, and catalogers are able to measure the response to any and every mailing they make. It is safe to
say that most at-home shopping takes place through catalogs.

Catalogs offer consumers a wide range of products of either a generalized or specialized nature. In this
respect they share some of the characteristics of retailers. Like retailers, catalogers employ buyers to select
merchandise. Catalog buyers attend the same trade shows as retail buyers. The layout of a catalog is
planned in a way that is analogous to the layout of a retail store: space is at a premium in both locations,
and merchandise is arranged so as to maximize sales.

Therefore, it's not surprising that there is a definite trend for more and more retailers to issue catalogs.
Retailers who have compiled databases of their customers can then build mail-order sales through catalog
mailings to maximize their market opportunities.

6. FOLLOW-UP SYSTEM – Use telemarketing to follow up on leads. Your telemarketing people must be
capable of connecting with prospects and getting the information you need to close sales.
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Developing good Telemarketing communication skills is essential in sales. Building strong business
relationships rely on good communication to survive and prosper in a sales environment. Prospecting for
new business in today's highly competitive industry is critical for sustainable growth. This requires a "Must
Have Ability to sell your Ideas to the prospective customer. Remember, people will make their mind up
within the first 10 seconds whether they like you. Literally, within the first two minutes, people decide
whether they like, want or need your product or service. As a sales person, most of us have to deal with
difficult people at some stage or another when making a sales call, so it is essential that we know how to
deal with them effectively, to get the best outcome. When using the phone for lead generation, it is
inevitable you'll come in contact with irate customers who are having a difficult day themselves and will take
their anger out on you, If you are faced with difficulties situations like this as a common part of your day-to-
day sales calls it will gradually have an effect on your results, you will become nervous, anxious and
stressed.

7. ADs – Target any ads to a very small niche. You’ll need to do your psychological profile of your Ideal
Client first, to know where their “eyeballs” are going to be through the day. For B2B, industry journal
advertising gets your company and products in front of a huge audience. It’s very cost effective in that
sense. Advertising will not, typically, generate hot leads, but it will get people to your web site.

Establish a campaign or “look” unique to your company. Carry this through on all ads for at least a year.
This is key for any branding strategy. And remember this: You only get one shot, so you have to stop them!
Make them want to take action, and help them get in touch with you. Frequency is important, and so is
impact. Take advantage of editorial calendars in journals and map out your schedule accordingly.

8. PUBLIC RELATIONS/PUBLICITY – The main goal of a public relations department is to enhance a

company’s reputation. Staff that work in public relations, or as it is commonly known, PR, are skilled
publicists. They are able to present a company or individual to the world in the best light. The role of a
public relations department can be seen as a reputation protector.

The business world of today is extremely competitive. Companies need to have an edge that makes them
stand out from the crowd, something that makes them more appealing and interesting to both the public
and the media. The public are the buyers of the product and the media are responsible for selling it.

Public relations provide a service for the company by helping to give the public and the media a better
understanding of how the company works. Within a company, public relations can also come under the title
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of public information or customer relations. These departments assist customers if they have any problems
with the company. They are usually the most helpful departments, as they exist to show the company at
their best.

PR also helps the company to achieve its full potential. They provide feedback to the company from the
public. This usually takes the form of research regarding what areas the public is most happy and unhappy
with. People often have the perception of public relations as a group of people who spin everything. Spin
can mean to turn around a bad situation to the company’s advantage. It is true that part of the purpose of
public relations is to show the company in a positive light no matter what. There are certain PR experts that
a company can turn to for this particular skill.

The public often think of PR as a glamorous job. Public relations people seem to have been tarred with the
image of constant partying and networking to find new contacts. The reality is usually long hours and hard
work for anyone involved in public relations.

There are certain skills necessary to work in the world of PR. These include a very high level of
communication skills, written and verbal. The PR person must also be very adept at multitasking and time
management. He or she may also have some form of media background or training in order to understand
how the media and advertising work. Organizational and planning skills are also important in public
relations.

9. DIRECT MARKETING – It’s expensive to mail a printed piece to a huge audience. That’s what the wide
circulation of a trade publication is for. But direct marketing is very easy to manage. You can target your
recipients, check the leads yourself, and follow up easily. Success is easy to quantify. You’ll want to hire a
professional copy writer for your sales letter, post card, or brochure. Write the first draft, focus on success
stories and the benefits (the emotional release of solving the problem) and then turn it over to the
copywriter to make it sing.

With any direct marketing effort, always make an offer. Without “something in it for me,” people will not
respond. It’s called a “Call to Action.” But don’t just give stuff away. Make them respond to receive the offer.

Creative execution is critical. It must stand out. Newsletters, both print and electronic, offer another
excellent way to communicate current information and generate exposure. There are often services within
an industry (real estate, for example) that provide a weekly newsletter that they send to your list on your
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behalf, with your branding and photo and personal letter. Then they add plenty of news and stimulating
articles that will be salient to your ideal clients. They can be either printed/mailed or electronic. Just look at
your average client acquisition cost to see if postage and printing is a relatively small expense compared to
the lifetime value of a new client.

Newsletters should be sent on a regular basis to key customers/prospects, sales channels, even editors.
Most people want to receive personalized information. This means that you could have a different
newsletter for a different product or service category. Let your browser choose which information will best
suit their interests. They are far more likely to both subscribe as well as open and read the newsletter when
it comes. You’ll also want to utilize the service of an auto-responder service, like VerticalResponse.com or
others, making the capture of contact information and regular sending of newsletters that don’t go into
spam folders a much easier task.

10. Trade shows – Pick the key trade shows in your industry and use a modest, well-organized booth. Get
a hospitality suite, sponsor a press breakfast, host a seminar. Do something unique – focus on a key new
product or product family. Focus on shows that will allow you to personally speak to enough qualified
buyers to make it worth the cost. One little important point of how to write business at trade shows: do a
major phone campaign to all the registered attendees prior to the show. Find out if they are willing to set up
an appointment for a presentation. If you can present before the show, you can even close the deal at the
show.

Business is about relationships. Money comes from people making decisions. All of your communications,
write, audio, video, or in person, needs to communicate the benefits of doing business with you. Apply the
Law of Reciprocity and “show up giving” when first talking to your prospects. You’ll be amazed at how many
prospects respond.

Benefits of Trade Shows:

 Formal exhibition of products

 Opportunity to make lots of contacts at once
 Good for customers to ask questions and compare competitors
 Introduce/demonstrate products
 Build awareness
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 Make personal contacts

 Parity with competitors

LATEST TRENDS IN COMMUNICATION:

Latest Trends in Communication are countless. The followings are few of my practical observations:

a) Using Emotions Effectively to Communicate :

Energy that moves oneself is Emotion. Amazing and Powerful tool that human generate time to time and
situation to situation. A simple smile can change the moments in a split second. Same way emotions like
sadness, happiness can quickly touch and activate the mind. Whether in Management or media,
capitalizing human emotion at large and small levels have become the famous trend right now. Most of the
advertisements have moved from decision making people to emotions of human beings.

b) Living in Digital Age :

Whatever we imagine, it becomes reality day by day in the digital area. Using the digital space in the
human communication is becoming a luxury in communication journey. People started doing innovative
communication due to technology.

c) Pictorial Representation has increased :

The amount of Pictorial representation has increased drastically. More Picture forms, signs, Gesture,
Postures are used in most of the communication that we use these days. It is not surprising because, More
than 80% human communication is based on non-verbal expressions. Remaining 20% is only words and
other than non-verbal expressions. Hence more apt pictures, signs are becoming the powerful tools for
expression in corporate and also in communities too.
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FUTURE OF MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS :

Major announcements of mergers and alliances between hardware, software, Internet and
telecommunications companies are stealing headlines on a daily basis. The “new breed” of technology and
communications companies means that businesses and consumers alike can expect quantum leaps in on-
line and interactive services. The new media that is emerging forces us as communications professionals to
ponder how it will reshape the future of marketing communications.

Businesses, of course, will be the first to adopt new communications technologies because they have more
capital than the average household and are constantly seeking a competitive advantage in reaching new
and existing customers. Consider that the Internet already has created a powerful business-to-business
channel for the more than 40 million workers on-line, representing a potent economic force.

According to a new report from Gartner, companies will learn to embrace social media in the future not only
for external marketing and brand-building but also for internal communications.  Earlier this month, Gartner
released its five predictions for social software in 2010 and beyond.  They are:

1. By 2014, social networking services will replace email as the primary vehicle for interpersonal
communications for 20% of business users.
2. By 2012, over 50% of enterprises will use activity streams that include micro blogging, but stand-
alone enterprise micro blogging will have less than 5% penetration.
3. Through 2012, over 70% of IT-dominated social media initiatives will fail.
4. Within five years, 70% of collaboration and communications applications designed on PCs will be
modeled after user experience lessons from Smartphone collaboration applications.
5. Through 2015, only 25% of enterprises will routinely utilize social network analysis to improve
performance and productivity.
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CHALLENGES IN MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS:

The wide availability and use of technology has created more complicated issues for institutions to face
each year. How do you maintain control of your message as FaceBook and YouTube attract growing
audiences?

According to the recent survey top Challenges are :

 Branding and messaging

 Rethinking and expanding communication outreach approaches and formats
 Incorporating new media and/or technology strategies
 Economic downturn in general
 Appealing to a wider range of prospective Customers.
 Budget cuts or insufficient funding
 Decentralization within the marketing department
 Internal organizational struggles and staff turnover.

CONCLUSION:

Marketing communications is the most visible of any of the marketing mix variables. It is of vital importance
that any communication activity is set in the context of the overall marketing strategy. It involves the setting
of its own objectives and budget which should be soundly based on the target audience as should the
marketing communication mix decisions. Marketing communication research should be used to establish
the effectiveness of the communications strategy. All marketing communication practitioners should be
ready to capitalize on any future developments in the field of communications.
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