About 5.77 million people are employed in the UK public sector. If you run a business catering to these individuals, you will need to engage in B2G marketing outreach.
Here, we’re going to define B2G and discuss what exactly these marketing strategies entail. Read on to learn how you can grow your business by targeting your public sector audience.
How to Define B2G Marketing: The Basics
The first question you might ask when hearing about B2G marketing is, “what does B2G stand for?”
B2G is an acronym for “business to government.” Therefore, B2G marketing encompasses any and all marketing strategies that a business uses to target a government audience. It is also called “public sector marketing.”
This audience can be any corporation or entity in the public sector. This includes those working for the NHS, UK educational institutions, emergency services, housing, or social care.
Examples of B2G marketing might include:
- A manufacturing facility that sells medical equipment to government-owned hospitals
- Businesses that give equipment to the police force
- Contractors that build structures for higher education institutions
- A SaaS business that sells software solutions to public sector offices
- Companies that distribute food and necessities to homeless shelters
Basically, if you are aiming to sell products to any government institution, you are a business operating within the B2G category.
How Is It Similar to B2B Marketing?
B2G marketing is often considered similar to business-to-business (B2B) marketing. This is because the UK government purchases and uses several of the same goods and services as privately-owned businesses do.
This means that you will market in similar ways to B2B businesses. You will revamp your website with top-notch design strategies. You’ll use search engine optimization, Google Ads, and social media.
However, B2G marketing is different because it targets government agencies. The recipient makes all the difference here.
Because the target audience is such a critical consideration for any marketing strategy, B2G marketing strategies will look very different than most B2B ones. This is true despite their similar backbones.
How to Tailor Your Marketing Strategy
So, how can you create a marketing campaign that meets the specific needs of B2G audiences?
After creating an engaging website, you will want to leverage social media channels to boost your visibility. Decision makers in the public sector still have an online presence.
Create official accounts on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. You also may be interested in TikTok if you’re targeting younger audiences in the government sector.
Use LinkedIn
LinkedIn is probably the best channel because it is employment-oriented and made nonprofessional connections. You can use InMail to directly talk to other users on the platform. You don’t need to connect with them first.
This means that you can maximize your outreach to those working for the government. Officials and employees running public sector pages won’t know you, after all, and may be reluctant to accept random requests.
Leverage Thought Leadership
UK government employees work with sensitive information. They perform important outreach and create life-saving programs. After all, their fundamental purpose is to do what is best for British citizens from all walks of life.
That’s why government employees will seek out B2G businesses that position themselves as market leaders. Offer valuable online content such as blog posts that boost your credibility. Make sure that government leaders know why your goods and services are specifically fit for public sector consumption.
Show that you understand the challenges that public sector consumers face. Demonstrate the specific ways that you resolve their pain points with real-world examples. This will boost your reputation and credibility so that more people work with you.
You can use many content formats to position yourself as a thought leader. Videos, blog posts, and social media posts are great choices, just as they are for B2B businesses. However, you also may want to provide denser content in the form of webinars, podcasts, and ebooks.
Go to Specialist Events
Your B2G marketing campaign doesn’t need to start and end online. Public sector-focused events happen in person across the UK regularly.
The Public Sector Show is a good opportunity for this, as is the Digital Government event. Both of these are run by the Crown Commercial Service (CCS).
You can also look into other CCS events for more ideas.
At these specialist events, you can participate in and lead discussions about current events. You can position yourself as a thought leader in real life. This will get you face time with your target B2G market and boost your real-world reputation.
Those behind government-sector decisions will be more likely to trust you and work with you. You can maximize your impact by choosing current topics and sharing insights with them alongside other speakers. This will let you reach audiences that have not ever heard of your company before.
2023’s Top Trends in B2G Marketing
It’s also important that you get in on some of 2023’s best B2G marketing trends. Doing so will position you above businesses that look behind or have outdated information.
Visual content is becoming important in all marketing areas, and B2G is no exception. People process visual data 60,000 times faster than text and remember 90% of what they see. Infographics, images, and especially video content can help maximize your impact.
You also will want to balance the use of big data that’s vital for decision-making with a human connection. The people behind government-sector decisions are human beings who want engaging content and human-to-human interaction. Show them the facts and figures, but engage with them as you would anyone else.
Finally, make sure that you diversify your content. You want to leverage both your owned media assets and user-generated content to show your target audience what they need. This will get more people interested and keep them engaged via multiple channels.
Get Started With UK Public Sector Marketing
Public sector marketing has many similarities with B2B outreach, but they’re far from the same thing. Now that you know how to define B2G marketing and make the most of your next campaign, it’s time to get started.
Cadence Marketing is excited to help you increase your brand outreach, generate engagement, and gain new sources of revenue. Book a 30-minute meeting with our experts to discuss some ways that we can help your business with its specific needs.
