Where does television feature in your B2B marketing mix?

Connected TV (CTV) has changed the way people interact with their TV. Global advertising spending is expected to recover faster than expected. This increase in spending is driven by digital marketing, and the growing popularity of smart TVs is why digital ads are making a comeback in the B2B market.

Additionally, while the net is rapidly gaining traction, conventional media is still an effective way for businesses to generate brand recognition, reputation, and promotions. Not only outdoor marketing (OOH), but also TV advertisements are always effective for B2B brand promotion. So how can you use TV spots and CTV technology in your B2B marketing plan? Since World TV Day 2022 took place this week on November 21, let’s explore this key question and understand the possibilities marketers can explore.

The rise of connected TV and its potential for B2B marketers

TVs connected to the Internet are called “connected TVs”. This can be accomplished in several ways, including via Wi-Fi, USB connectors, or HDMI connectors. During the pandemic, the popularity of smart TVs skyrocketed and one study indicated that over 80% of all homes have, at a minimum, a smart TV.

B2B marketers can use CTV to develop personalized video marketing programs that provide customers with a unique experience. Connected TVs allow consumers to browse the Internet and use applications, allowing them to watch movies, browse websites and shop online. This gives advertisers a unique chance to reach customers with personalized video ads. These ads can improve engagement and website traffic, resulting in a substantial increase in conversions.

Opponents of B2B television advertising often cite the industry’s long history of selling through personal relationships and trust. According to them, TV is simply not the way B2B transactions are done. Such assertions lack vision and foresight. Television builds trust with customers for whom other marketing methods are ineffective.

First of all, television is generally recognized as the first brand-building medium, renowned for building credibility. Second, TV creates its own sense of energy and purpose – among your internal stakeholders.

With the airing of advertisements, they feel a greater sense of worth and employees are excited to watch their work and efforts on TV.

What are the benefits of TV marketing in B2B?

By adding television to any B2B marketing strategy, you can:

• Target a specific audience: In B2B media buying, CTV enables precise targeting at an individualized level, based on third-party database characteristics such as organization size, industry, job description, intent and other categories. Similar to other digital media platforms, you can leverage existing first-party information to target and remarket pre-existing users as well as lookalikes. Even in traditional linear TV, running ads during the right timeslot allows you to reach a consistent and repeatable audience base.

• Integrate your omnichannel presence: With the increase in the number of remote workers, B2B marketers have understood that they must be present wherever their prospects and customers are; and they constantly watch/consume CTV – businesses need to take advantage of that.

• Properly track attributions: B2B marketers who are dissatisfied with attribution issues in multi-touch communications may find relief here. Site accesses and registrations can be traced directly to an impression on CTV.

• Maximize long-term returns: Granted, CPM costs on CTV are higher. However, if you consider exact targeting and reducing waste, your rates will be significantly reduced, along with quality and cost per lead.

• Make your B2B marketing mix sustainable: Early testing indicates that CTV is particularly effective at communicating with younger audiences, such as Millennials and Gen Z, who are increasingly joining the buying groups of your target accounts.

• Get a first mover advantage: The format is still in its infancy, so now is the time to experiment with targeting possibilities, incentives and innovative campaigns while the contest is still being prepared.

• Easily explain complex offers: Commercials on CTV cannot be accelerated. Therefore, you can count on the entire 20 or 30 seconds to get your message across in a medium with far greater retention than most other digital platforms.

Best practices for using television in your marketing mix

If you’re new to using TV for B2B marketing, remember these ten best practices:

1. Study the TV viewing habits of B2B decision makers

If your company emphasizes marketing/promotion to other companies, you understand the importance of getting the attention of important decision makers within those companies. What are the basic demographics of your target market and what do they like to watch on TV? Are they more interested in broadcasting or do they prefer OTT?

Develop a buyer persona similar to what you might do for a B2C business. In this case, you need to profile your customers based on the company’s demographics, target market, and geographic location, and most importantly, you need to determine who makes the buying decisions.

2. Learn to distill your value proposition into a compact message (or hire someone who can)

TV spots are short and crisp. With 15, 30, and 60 second steps, there’s little time to get an entire message across. Instead of trying to cram too much information into your concept, make it easy to understand, concise, and simple. Focus on demonstrating who you are as a business and what you intend to offer. Write an informative script without excessive verbosity. You want potential customers to believe they can count on you. Over-stimulation will cause the opposite result to what you want.

3. Obtain data on TV viewing slots

Part of knowing your target demographic is knowing when they are most likely to watch your TV ads. Times that don’t conflict with the workday, such as early morning or late evening, can provide the necessary reach. Media professionals know all the demographics about when to work with which audiences. This information is critical to the success of any TV marketing strategy.

4. Enjoy morning and evening news

Professionals and managers who influence purchasing decisions are among the most likely to consume television news at any given time of day. In addition to standard advertising, consider sponsoring local news networks to promote your business.

5. Reuse TV content, but with the right positioning

Once the ad/commercial is ready, run it on TV and promote it on social media. Figure out which websites your target audience frequents and implement your marketing strategies there. Many businesses use Facebook as part of their advertising efforts, so you need to engage with them and encourage them to do the same.

Be committed to your brand identity and maintain a consistent messaging footprint across all channels. Make sure your ad is designed to fit any screen resolution and platform or device – you want your message to reach decision makers, wherever they are.

6. Get expert help

Media experts and advertising agencies specialize in generating and placing ads in places/platforms where the chances of them being seen by the target audience are highest. Consider using their services which will offer the necessary marketing technologies and data repositories.

Conclusion: TV can be a valuable asset for B2B marketers

Realizing that businesses are in dire need of new and innovative ideas, you are now able to communicate with them via the widespread reach of television.

Connected TV’s audience targeting possibilities make it an interesting medium for B2B. It allows marketers to approach particular users based on their purchase intent, job title, hobbies, industry, and more. Additionally, it offers retargeting based on first-party data for the B2B market.

Moreover, the benefits of these ads go far beyond simple targeting. CTV offers more accurate estimation and attribution, allowing B2B marketers to access data that was previously difficult to obtain with linear television. Marketers can proactively discover who is interacting with and watching their CTV ads. Then they can optimize and retarget as needed.

In many situations with B2B campaigns, marketers try to increase brand recognition and recall so that their prospects become familiar with the product or service being offered. By leveraging a channel that targets audiences that cannot ignore ads, the advertiser has a higher likelihood of demonstrating product value and influencing recall.

That’s why B2B marketers need to take note of World TV Day and invest in TV. This also includes OTT media, which dominates advertising consumption.