As the name suggests, B2B marketing refers to the marketing of products or services to businesses and other organizations. It bears several key distinctions from B2C marketing, and is geared towards consumers.

In a broad sense, B2B marketing content tends to be more informative and direct than the B2C. This is because business buying decisions, as compared to consumers’ decisions, depend more on the final revenue impact. Return on investment (ROI) is rarely a consideration for the layman – at least in a monetary sense – but it is the primary focus of corporate decision makers.

In the modern environment, B2B marketers often sell to buying committees with the various key stakeholders. This makes the landscape complicated and challenging at times, but as data sources become more robust and accurate, the ability of B2B marketers to form commissions and reach buyers with relevant personal information has greatly improved.

Any company sells to other companies. B2B can take many forms: Software as a Service (SaaS) subscriptions, security solutions, tools, accessories, and the office supplies, you name it. Many organizations fall under the B2B and B2C umbrellas.

B2B marketing campaigns target any individual(s) who have control or influence over purchasing decisions. This can include a variety of titles and jobs, from novice end users all the way to C-suite.

Here are some of the most popular marketing tactics and content formats among businesses to consider in your strategy:

Blogging: A mainstay for almost any content team. Blogs that are updated regularly provide organic visibility and drive incoming traffic to your site. Your blog can contain any number of different types and formats of content.

Search: SEO best practices change as often as the Google algorithm (a lot), which makes this a tricky space to work in, but any B2B marketing strategy should take into account. Lately, the focus has been shifting away from keywords and metadata, and more toward signals of researcher intent.

Social media: Both the organic and paid should be in the mix. Social networks allow you to reach and interact with potential customers wherever they are active. B2B buyers are increasingly using these channels to research potential sellers to make purchasing decisions.

White papers, e-books, and charts: Standalone assets that contain valuable information, these downloadable documents can be either portals (meaning the user must provide contact information or perform some other action to access) or without portals. It is often used as a lead generation tool between businesses.

Email: While its effectiveness is somewhat waning in the age of spam filters and the shock of inboxes, email isn’t going away anytime soon.