Successful online marketing in the B2B environment

April 2019

How do companies benefit from your audience marketing offer?

Today's businesses need to reach their audiences through multiple channels to communicate their messages, build customer loyalty and generate revenue. Online channels usually have high priority. However, the online approach in the B2B sector is difficult. Data from one's own CRM systems usually only covers a fraction of the target group and high-quality target group data from common providers for data-driven advertising is only available to a limited extent. However, quality is decisive to taking a targeted approach and thus achieving a successful online marketing campaign.

Here we provide support in this regard with our audience marketing offer. We provide our customers with high-quality business-to-business target group data, which we generate from the information that people leave on our various event websites. As these sites are used very intensively for planning or research, the audiences created reflect the interests and preferences of the users in a quality not otherwise found on the market in this form. Using these trade fair audiences, advertisers can now address the desired target groups from various industries in a personalised manner. Through this specific targeting, companies minimize wastage and can use their campaign budget more efficiently. This benefits both the company and the target group, as the company reaches its target group and the recipients receive information that is precisely tailored to their interests.

You're quite new to the market. The first pilot project was realized in 2017. What has happened since then and how have you expanded the offer to date?

Last year, we used the time intensively to create the necessary infrastructure and the technical prerequisites to be able to offer the processed data as audiences for various industries. Our customers have several options in this regard. We can either offer a full service through a highly specialized partner. This ranges from planning and implementation to fine tuning and monitoring success. Or we simply provide the data if companies want to use the data in-house or through their own agency. We thus adapt to the needs of our customers.

Are there examples of other successful projects?

A renowned company from the automotive industry recently carried out a successful campaign based on our audience data. Another major player in the heating technology sector accesses our database all year round to be able to tailor online marketing activities precisely to its target group. But we also use the available data in-house to specifically generate interest in our own events — with success!

How satisfied are you with the demand and how has interest developed recently?

We are still just starting out with this offer. But we are very satisfied with the initial projects and the interest from a wide range of industries. Customers have been very open to the offer in most of the conversations we have had thus far. I am therefore certain that we can tap into enormous potential as we explain the offer more. Many companies want to invest in online marketing measures in the B2B sector, but do not yet have the right tools at hand to do so. Our audience marketing offer could be a solution in this regard.

What further plans does Messe Frankfurt have for audience marketing?

After a promising start, it is important for us to create a solid customer base. We are on the right track in this regard. As far as the product is concerned, we are constantly working on improving and expanding it. We are in the process of expanding our audience marketing offer to other industries and refining it further in the three areas of "Industry", "Demographics" and "Interests" so that our customers can make their approach even more targeted. As an internationally active company with global customers, it is also our aim to roll out our offer in other markets. We are working at full speed on this.

Thank you for your insight, Ms Bergmann.