Marketing your products or services to other businesses offers many different challenges that marketing directly to consumers. Here are some steps to help you optimize your B2B marketing efforts.

Understand your target market. Make sure you clearly identify your audience and customers. Find out who are the key decision makers. You can waste a lot of time and effort by trying to sell to those who do not have the power to make buying decisions. Maximize your resources by targeting the true decisions makers. If you are not talking directly to the decision maker ensure that all information and collateral stands on its own with a clear message. The decision makers may only see your summary so make sure it communicates your message clearly.

Make sure your marketing plan is aligned with your strategic business plan. It sounds simple but in many organizations this does not happen. Marketing plans may get reorganized on a near daily basis due to reductions in budget, re-focusing of ideas, or changes in sales initiatives. By keeping in touch with your strategic business plan you will reduce your risk and also make better decisions. This will help you to deliver your marketing communications with maximum impact.

Almost all B2B websites are not utilized to their maximum potential. Rather than thinking of it as an on-line catalog see it more as a strategic competitive weapon. It is usually the first view of your company that many people receive. What do they see when they first look at your site? A global leader or another follower?

Today the search engine results page for your company name is the new digital front page for your company. When you do a search for your company