According to the analytical report Accenture , today 61% of B2B transactions start online. At the same time, 57% of buyers of the B2B market did not even see company representatives, but only found out about them on the network.

Just imagine, if your company is not on the World Wide Web, you lose more than half of your customers!

But, alas, Ukraine, like all countries of the post-Soviet space, is still partly in the “dashing 90s” business processes. Here the main task of even large manufacturers is to quickly find dealers offline to sell the entire volume of accumulated products through them. Against this background, one should not describe how the sites look, sometimes, even of very well-known companies in the market.

Complicates the situation for entrepreneurs and foreign economic policy. According to IMF group Ukraine, since 2014, the volume of exports has been relentlessly falling by 3-10% annually. And such a regression is permanent.

Indicators are falling, the company is losing profits, but it is not in a hurry to compensate for such losses. So, if the UK online market is estimated at 52 billion dollars, the German market at 35 billion dollars, then the Ukrainian market is only 1.5 billion dollars (given our area, population and prospects). After all, the average business does not understand how to work with clients through the network, and most importantly – why.

Problems are critical, and they need to be corrected in a timely manner. The key tool in this is Internet marketing for the B2B market.

From analysis to implementation: why do B2B companies know their target audience 

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But how to understand who your customer is, where he lives, and most importantly – how exactly he receives his order , so as not to “drain” the budget on unnecessary advertising tools? We already mentioned this separately in our material on CA segmentation .

In short: every year the buying process in the business-to-business segment is becoming more and more complicated. There are several reasons for this:

  • difficulties in exchanging information within the company (29.57%), 
  • difficulties in understanding information (32.62%),
  • disagreement on price (37.96%),
  • disagreement on ROI (22.71%),
  • differences in product capabilities (22.87%)
  • lack of information on sales representatives (12, 96%).

If you are a seller, you always need to know with whom to discuss the terms of cooperation, who makes the final decision, which main decision criteria for promotion of B2B services . And, ta-dam – yes, it is this snag that is addressed by analysis and segmentation of the target audience.

Developing a customer journey map – your “treasure map” 

E-commerce statistics in the sphere B2B promotion on the Internet from BigCommerce shows that most buyers now place your orders via websites (80%), email (77%) or mobile phone (72%). 

But which channel is most effective for you, where can I get the most applications with minimal investment? All this will show map of your client’s path .

So, according to BigCommerce, B2B vendors are now acquiring new customers through the referral program (63%), social networks (42% ) and content marketing (36%)

And, according to MarTechAdvisor , a personalized approach to the client is ready to provide sales growth with B2B promotion > at least 19%. And, yes, this personalized approach can be implemented thanks to the knowledge of “contact points” with customers.

From the air to the numbers: we transfer the experience “to paper” 

According to BuyerZone, Today, more than 91% of companies with 11 employees have implemented various types of CRM in their work. But, alas, this is Western statistics, and it is not enough for Ukraine: we have only 1 out of 10 companies using automation tools in business processes.

Although, according to Innoppl Technologies 65% of companies noted an increase in the level of sales and fulfillment of plans precisely after the introduction of systems Automation.

Search engine optimization – the first step in touching the target audience

If you rely on the analysis of the Ukrainian e-commerce market, you can see that today 39% of traffic on the site It is generated thanks to organic search. At the same time, the market is moving away from the classic “buy cheap Kiev windows with delivery” to personalized offers with promoting B2B website . The more deeply you know which search queries reflect the needs for services or products of your potential business partners, the higher the chance that they will buy from you! 

But search engine optimization is not just keywords. If, upon request, in the search for the name of your company, only an old, unfinished site without identification marks and addresses comes up, customers will leave you.

But posting business information at least on Google Maps will not only convince potential customers that your business is real, but also increase offline sales (at least 13%, yes).

Content marketing is the axis of becoming an expert with B2B Promotion

How to promote a B2B company on the Internet

According to Content Institute marketing 89% of B2B marketers use content marketing to promote their business in the digital environment. However, only 28% of them are in the mature phase of this process. Publishing a couple of blog articles is not content marketing, but publishing second-rate material wherever possible is not an effective way of working.

So, if you rely on a new report “ B2B customer experience ” then 86% of buyers often they feel overwhelmed if they are attacked on all fronts – they provide more than ten types of content for sales, and 42% feel overwhelmed when they are given more than 5.

How not to “kill”, but to hook the customer and lead to a purchase? A comprehensive content management strategy based on the needs of your target audience. To at least start somewhere with content- B2B promotion strategy – services, consider : according to the same customer experience report, the most relevant for B2B customers is:

  • technical specifications (53.51%);
  • case studies (48.78%);
  • “white” books (33.84%);
  • video (38.41%);
  • infographics (31.10%).

E-mail marketing is the most “killer” in B2B 

How are dashing 90s businessmen used to work? That’s right, with a notebook, a bunch of phone numbers and a bunch of directories. We are sure that you have an impressive database of potential, existing and “lost” customers formed over the years. What to do with them? Call days and nights? – not everyone can say that when it’s convenient for you. Visit in person? – Well, well, that’s how they “wait” for days.

E-mail marketing preserves a fine line of privacy when the client doesn’t seem to be bothered, and at the same time, they correctly send important information exactly when it is convenient for the client (they read your letters when there is time and mood). And it works!

According to Institute report content marketing , 79% of marketers consider email the most conversion tool for generating demand when B2B market promotion . And this is the least expensive tool: to drive the customer base in one place and work with it, sending one letter, but immediately to the mass of recipients. Although, there are some nuances here, but about them another time.

Social networks and B2B: yes, they interact

Numbers are our everything, we will start from them. According to the same Accenture study, 58% of companies consider social networks as one of their working channels in the process of promotion in the B2B market for interaction with suppliers.

At the same time, social networks occupy a confident 3rd place (after e-mail and blog) as key levers of influence on the audience.

So, in the outgoing year in Ukraine, SMM conversion based on really estimated results has already reached the same level as paid advertising – on average, 0, 6% At the same time, the average sales receipt through social networks is sometimes even higher than in e-mail marketing – $ 68.2 versus $ 55.3.

As far as Facebook claims, the average user spends about 53 minutes a day online. Could this be your client? Yes. Can he even catch a glimpse of your company? Naturally. Do you need this to be positive, convincing information? Sure.

Targeted advertising in social networks, which is supported by “weighty” positive reviews, can shorten the customer’s purchase path by at least 11%. 

Fast and confident? Contextual advertising to help!How to promote a B2B company on the Internet

Paid search takes a confident second place in terms of traffic generation to the site – 28.5% of potential customers can get to your site precisely because of the contextual advertising. And this is really a lifesaver if you need to catch up with the audience quickly (for example, for seasonal sales), and SEO and other tools, to put it mildly, are still in the embryo stage.

Is it worth talking about the conversion volume if B2B services promotion through the context will be carried out when all the tools are already running?

Forming our ball – a comprehensive strategy for B2B promotion channels 

B2B sales statistics from Marc Wayshak showed that 54% of agents now find contact with potential customers more difficult than five years ago.

Clients in the business-to-business sphere have become too demanding: the most significant factors in the purchase process were:

  • reputation of the supplier (53%);
  • price (47%);
  • customer loyalty (43%);
  • ease of purchase (38%).

Creating a comprehensive strategy with phased convergence will allow you to evaluate both possible barriers and opportunities, as well as prospects. At the same time, day after day, existing in the network and implementing the strategy, you give customers more and more information about yourself and your product (yes, this all corresponds to 3 of 4 points above).

You can only improve indicators when they are measured 

How to promote a B2B company on the Internet

Can you say that sales are falling or growing if you do not measure them?

The same goes for B2B promotion on the Internet : analyze or lose the last shirt.

End-to-end analytics systems, Call-tracking – must have! Measure, optimize, compare indicators with the set, upgrade the strategy and carry out really large-scale sales in a few clicks (well, almost).

About how Pirogov.Marketing worked with companies in the business-to-business sphere and what results we achieved thanks to just such an approach, you can look in B2B promotion cases our company.

Do you want the same? We are ready to develop an individual digital strategy specifically for your company in the field of B2B. Let’s just talk to highlight the “kernel of truth” and determine where to start!

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