Business marketing has many similarities with consumer marketing, in that you’re matching the product/service strengths with the needs of your customer (be it a consumer or another business), you’re positioning your price to meet market demands, and you’re communicating certain talking points that are designed to demonstrate value to your audience. However, business to business marketing to government agencies, institutions, resellers and other companies is different because you’re appealing on a more personal level through more direct sales channels. There are many reasons to consider business to business article marketing as part of your overall internet marketing strategy.

Social networking has emerged as a valuable tool for brand building. Many of the most successful brands use business to business article marketing published on sites like Facebook and Myspace to enhance their image and separate themselves from the competition. According to a 2009 survey conducted by Razorfish, an internet marketing firm, “brands with an online presence were overwhelmingly likely to have had a measurable influence on whether consumers or businesses purchased products from them.” Most people decided to “follow” or “friend” the business and make a purchase to gain access to exclusive discounts or other promotional offers. Moreover, “Nearly two-thirds of respondents told Razorfish that their first purchase from a brand had been as a direct result of their experience with the brand in an online environment,” the survey stated. Therefore, article promotion should center on announcing these special offers.

Another important reason to add business to business article marketing to your overall strategy is the undeniable truth that search marketing is still generating the bulk of business-to-business leads. The 6th Annual B2B Marketing Benchmark Report 2009-2010 (conducted by Marketing Sherpa) sums it up by saying, “During the most difficult economic times that the search marketing industries has seen in its decade-long life, search marketers are more relevant than ever. The Web itself is getting ’smarter.’ Web 1.0 was mostly static with publishers communicating to consumers. Web 2.0 is two-way, with consumers talking back to publishers. Web 3.0 uses information from the consumer to tailor the experience to individuals.” A true article marketing expert understands current trends and knows just how to use programs that analyze online article submissions to see what keywords bring traffic to a website, as well as what keywords bring business owners who are most ready to buy, what messages are bringing in the most targeted traffic, what messages are scaring people off and where are they going and what are they looking for once they leave the site without buying.

Business to business article marketing is part of an $85 billion/year industry. The growth of business to business marketing in general is attributed to the increasing number of entrepreneurs present in this country. More retirees, students and stay-at-home moms are finding ways to bring in additional revenue through resale businesses or running their own companies. The freedom to set one’s own hours and pay rate is attractive for many individuals, which has increased the number of small business service providers that specialize in niches like article marketing services, search engine optimization, accounting, document preparation and social media advising.