Solved: Marketing Strategies Not Working for B2B Business

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! I had a read through your situation and it sounds incredibly frustrating. It's a really common problem, believe me. A lot of brilliant B2C marketers hit a brick wall when they move into B2B because the playbook is just completely different. It's not a stupid question at all to ask if marketing works for B2B – when every channel you try is failing, it certainly feels that way. But it absolutely does work, you just need a different map.

I'm happy to give you some of my initial thoughts and guidance based on my experience running B2B campaigns. Hopefully this can give you a new perspective and some actionable ideas to test out.

We'll need to look at why your B2C mindset isn't translating...

The first and most important thing to get your head around is the fundamental difference in buyer psychology. You've spent a decade getting Fortune 100 enterprises results in B2C. That world often runs on emotion, desire, social proof, and creating an immediate need or impulse. You're selling a product or service directly to the person who will use it, and the decision is often made relatively quickly. Your strategy was likely built around funnels that efficiently move a large volume of people towards a direct purchase or a low-friction conversion.

B2B, especially for a high-value, high-consideration service like staffing, is the polar opposite. You're not selling to a person; you're selling to a business, which is made up of multiple people. The decision-maker you need to convince (say, a Head of HR or a CTO) isn't spending their own money. They're making a strategic decision that affects their team, their budget, and their own professional reputation. The sales cycle is almost always longer, measured in weeks or months, not minutes or days. There's a chain of command, procurement processes, and multiple stakeholders who need to be convinced.

This is why your tactics have been failing. Let's break it down:

-> Cold Outreach (Calls/Emails): You're reaching out to people who, in all likelihood, don't have an immediate, burning need for a staffing agency. Most businesses only look for a new agency when they have a critical hiring need they can't fill, or their current solution has failed them spectacularly. Your message arrives unsolicited and gets deleted because it's not solving a problem they have right now. It's a solution in search of a problem.

-> ABM Display Ads: You mentioned you're getting clicks but no form fills. This is classic B2B behaviour. The people you're targeting might be vaguely interested. They might recognise your brand. They might click out of curiosity. But are they ready to fill out a "Contact Us" form and commit to a sales conversation? Absolutely not. That's a huge leap. They're in the "awareness" or "consideration" phase, and you're asking for a "decision" phase action. The friction is too high and the value proposition isn't compelling enough to make that jump. For high ticket offers and B2B markering, a simple funnel like this just doesn't work well. It's much more suited to B2C or lower-ticket items.

The core issue here is a mismatch of intent. You're trying to force a B2C-style direct response model onto a B2B relationship-building process. For B2B, particularly for services, marketing isn't about getting a sale on the first touch. It's about identifying potential clients, educating them, building trust, and positioning your agency as the go-to expert so that when that "burning need" does arise, you're the first one they think of and call. It's a long game.

I'd say you need to rethink your target audience and platform...

So, if direct outreach and broad display aren't the answer, what is? It starts with getting hyper-specific about who you're talking to and where you talk to them. You need to go where business decision-makers are actively in a professional mindset.

You mentioned that search volume is low, so SEO and paid search are pointless. I'd gently challenge that assumption. While broad terms like "staffing agency" might be low, are you sure there's no volume for more specific, problem-aware, long-tail keywords? For instance, a CTO isn't searching for "staffing agency". They might be searching for "how to hire senior python developers" or "cost of hiring a contract project manager". These are content and SEO opportunities, but you're right that it's a slow burn and might not deliver the immediate leads you're looking for. For paid search, targeting these more specific terms could work, but if the volume truly is minimal, then we need to look elsewhere.

This brings us to social media. But not all social media is created equal for B2B. Running ads on Facebook/Instagram can work in some B2B contexts, especially if you're targeting small business owners. However, for reaching specific decision-makers within larger, more corporate structures (like the ones a staffing agency typically targets), it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack. The targeting options just aren't granular enough. You can target "business page admins," but that could be anyone from a CEO to a junior marketing assistant.

This is where LinkedIn comes in. It is, without a doubt, the single best platform for the kind of targeted B2B prospecting you need to be doing. Why? Because the entire platform is built around professional identity. Users self-report their job title, their company, their industry, their seniority. This is data you can use to build incredibly precise audiences. You're not guessing who the decision-makers are; you're targeting them directly. You can stop shouting into the void and start whispering in the right ears.

We'll need to look at LinkedIn as your primary channel...

Forget everything else for a moment and let's focus on building a robust strategy on LinkedIn. This is where your marketing efforts can and should pay off. It's not about just boosting a post; it's about building a multi-layered campaign that guides a prospect from stranger to lead.

First, let's nail the targeting. This is the most powerful part of LinkedIn Ads. Think about your ideal client. Not just the company, but the specific person who makes the hiring decision. Who is it?

• Is it the Head of Human Resources?
• The Talent Acquisition Director?
• For technical roles, is it the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) or Head of Engineering?
• For smaller companies, is it the CEO or Managing Director?

On LinkedIn, you can target these exact people. You can layer targeting options to create a perfect image of your ideal client persona. For example, you could target:

This audience is now incredibly specific. Every pound you spend is going towards getting your message in front of the exact people who can actually hire you. You can even take it a step further. Using tools like Apollo.io or by simply building a list manually, you can create a list of a hundred dream companies you want to work with. Then, you can upload that list to LinkedIn and target the decision-makers only at those specific companies. This is the kind of precision that makes B2B marketing work.

Next, you need to choose the right ad format for your objective. LinkedIn offers several, each with a different purpose:

-> Sponsored Content (Image or Video Ads): These appear directly in the newsfeed. They are your workhorse for generating leads. An image ad with a powerful headline can grab attention quickly. A video ad, maybe a 60-second clip of one of your clients giving a glowing testimonial or you explaining a common hiring mistake, can be incredibly persuasive. It builds trust and qualifies the lead before they even click. You need to test both formats to see what resonates.

-> Conversation Ads: This is an interesting one. It's like a paid, automated version of a cold InMail. It can feel a bit more personal, allowing you to create a 'choose your own adventure' style interaction with buttons that lead to different outcomes (e.g., "Tell me more about X service" or "Download your guide"). It can be effective for starting conversations but can also be perceived as spammy if not done well.

-> Lead Gen Forms: This is probably the most significant tool you're not using. Remember how your ABM ads got clicks but no form fills on your website? LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms solve that. When a user clicks your ad's call-to-action, instead of being sent to your website, a form pops up right within LinkedIn. Crucially, it's pre-filled with their profile information (name, email, job title, company). All they have to do is click "Submit". This drastically reduces friction and can increase your conversion rate massively. The leads might be slightly less qualified than someone who fills out a form on your site, but you'll get a much higher volume of them to start conversations with. From our experience, this is one of the most effective ways to generate B2B leads.

You probably should adjust your offer and funnel...

Having the right platform and targeting is only half the battle. The other half is the offer. As we discussed, "Contact Us" is a terrible offer for a cold or even lukewarm audience. It offers them no value, only the prospect of being sold to. You need to flip the script. You need a compelling, value-first offer that helps your prospect, solves a small problem for them, and establishes your expertise.

Instead of asking them to talk to you, offer them something of genuine value for free. This is your "foot in the door". For a staffing agency, this could be:

• A high-value guide or whitepaper: "The 2024 Tech Salary Guide for London" or "5 Critical Mistakes Companies Make When Hiring Remote Developers". This positions you as an expert and captures their contact information in exchange for valuable information.
• A checklist or template: "The Ultimate Interview Scorecard for Technical Roles". Something practical they can use immediately.
• A free, no-obligation strategy call: Frame it not as a "sales call" but as a "Free Talent Strategy Review". Offer to spend 30 minutes with them looking over their current hiring process and providing actionable advice.

Your funnel should be built around this value exchange. The goal of your LinkedIn ad isn't to get a client; it's to get someone to download your guide or book a strategy call. You're moving them from one stage of the funnel to the next, not trying to skip all the steps. A professional copywriter who understands B2B can be a massive help here. The copy on your ads and landing pages needs to be persuasive and focused on the prospect's pain points, not your agency's features.

This approach transforms your marketing from an interruption into a welcome resource. Once you have their email address from a guide download, you can then enter them into a warm email sequence – the very thing that wasn't working before. But now it will, because they know who you are and you've already provided them with value. The context is completely different.

You'll need a solid testing framework...

None of this is a "set it and forget it" solution. B2B marketing, like B2C, requires rigorous testing and optimisation. You need a structured approach to figure out what works. I often talk to clients about a ToFu/MoFu/BoFu (Top of Funnel, Middle of Funnel, Bottom of Funnel) approach, which you're likely familiar with from B2C ecommerce. We can adapt this for your B2B LinkedIn strategy.

-> ToFu (Top of Funnel - Awareness): This is where you target your cold but highly relevant audiences (the ones we built earlier). The goal here is not to get a client, but to make them aware of you and your expertise. Your offer here should be very low friction, like the guide or checklist we talked about. You're measuring success by Cost Per Download or Cost Per Lead from a Lead Gen Form.

-> MoFu (Middle of Funnel - Consideration): This is your retargeting audience. You'd create an audience of everyone who downloaded your guide, or everyone who watched 50% of your video ad. These people are warmer. They know you. Now, you can hit them with a different ad, maybe a client testimonial video, a detailed case study of how you helped a similar company, or an invitation to a webinar. The offer here is a bit higher commitment, designed to build more trust.

-> BoFu (Bottom of Funnel - Decision): This is your smallest, most qualified audience. You'd retarget people who have engaged multiple times – maybe they downloaded a guide AND visited your website's pricing page. These are the people who are most likely ready to talk. Now you hit them with the direct offer: "Book a Free Talent Strategy Call". The call to action is direct and clear.

By structuring your campaigns this way, you're guiding prospects along a journey, not just yelling at them with one single message. You need to constantly split test your creatives, your headlines, and your audiences within each stage of this funnel. Turn off what's not working and scale up what is. This is how you systematically improve performance. It takes patience, but it works. I remember one client in the medical recruitment SaaS space who came to us with a Cost Per User Acquisition of over £100. By implementing a structured testing framework like this on their Meta and Google campaigns, we were able to reduce that down to just £7. It proves that even in the hyper-competitive recruitment space, a methodical approach can deliver incredible results.

I know this is a lot to take in, but your problem is solvable. You have the marketing mind; you just need to apply it to a new rulebook. The frustration you're feeling is the friction of trying to fit a B2C peg into a B2B hole. By shifting your mindset, focusing on a platform like LinkedIn, creating real value with your offer, and building a structured funnel, you can turn things around.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you in a table below to give you a clear, actionable summary to get started with.

Implementing a strategy like this is a significant undertaking. It's not just about flicking a few switches; it's a complex process of strategic planning, audience research, creative development, campaign management, and constant, data-driven optimisation. It requires a deep understanding of the platform's nuances and a lot of time to manage effectively.

While you can certainly start testing these principles yourself, working with a specialist who lives and breathes B2B paid advertising can often accelerate your path to success and help you avoid costly mistakes. We've done this for many B2B clients, from software startups to industrial service providers, and we know how to navigate the complexities to get results.

If you'd like to chat further and get a more personalised look at how we could apply this framework specifically to your staffing agency, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation. We could review your current situation in more detail and map out a potential strategy together. Feel free to let me know if that's something you'd be interested in.

Hope this helps give you a new direction and a bit of renewed optimism!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh