Most B2B organizations experience similar customer life cycles; lead generation, cultivation, conversion and retention. There are specific techniques that work to effectively drive whether a marketing technique succeeds or fails during each of these life cycles. Digital marketing can play a tremendous role in attracting and converting prospects into paying clients if the right techniques are employed. Reach is the first part, and often the most difficult, in the buying process.

How can you use digital marketing techniques to reach new customers? With traditional marketing techniques, new customers are reached when the presumably read published messages or advertisements. One of the challenges to traditional marketing techniques is measurement. With digital marketing, reach can be more easily quantified as web page clicks can be tracked and measured. In addition, these techniques can often be launched at a lower cost the printed materials.

Some of the best digital media options for gaining new customer reach include:

• SEM/SEO
• Advertising
• Blogs
• PR

Search Engine Marketing/Search Engine Optimization

The goal of search engine marketing is to improve your company’s website page rank on major search engine, causing your information to appear higher when potential customers search for similar products and services. First and foremost, your website needs to contain information that is both relevant and valuable to your target audience. Next, you need to identify the potential topics and phrases your target audience will enter into a search engine when searching for your products and services. Finally, you need to incorporate targeted keywords and phrases into your site’s content.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Pay-per-click ads place your organization’s message in front of targeted prospects in the form of small text ads. One of the biggest advantages to this form of marketing is that you don’t pay unless someone clicks on your ad. While there are significant advantages to this form of advertising, it is important to keep in mind that many B2B target customers aren’t less likely to click on ads than to read other forms of online marketing.

Blogs

A corporate blog incorporated into your website is a proven way to offer ongoing value to your prospects and your current clients. Content should be uploaded regularly that provides answers to common questions, updates on products and services, how-to’s, tips and industry resources. In addition, gaining recognition on other top blogs can work to reach new prospects, as you will be reaching a broader scope of online content readers.

Online PR

In similar fashion to print PR, begin with the release of newsworthy press releases on popular platforms such as PRweb. In addition, you will need to promote your organization and events via blogging platforms to reach a broader prospect audience.

Your business can reach more customers by incorporating the above digital media techniques into your current annual marketing plan.