Post by lizaseo11 on Nov 9, 2024 8:29:44 GMT
According to an analytical report by Accenture , today 61% of B2B transactions begin online. At the same time, 57% of B2B buyers have not even seen a company representative, but only learned about them online.
Just imagine, if your company is not on the World Wide Web, you are losing more than half of your clients!
But, alas, Ukraine, like all countries of the post-Soviet space, is still partly in the business processes of the "dashing 90s". Here the main task of even large manufacturers is to quickly find offline dealers in order to sell the entire volume of accumulated products through them. Against this background, it is not worth describing what the websites look like, sometimes, even of very well-known companies on the market.
The situation for entrepreneurs is also complicated by foreign economic policy. According to IMF group Ukraine, since 2014 the volume of exports has been steadily falling by 3-10% annually. And this regression is permanent.
The indicators are falling, the company is losing profits, but it is in no hurry to compensate for such losses. So, if the UK online market is estimated at $52 billion, the German market is $35 billion, then the Ukrainian market is only $1.5 billion (with our area, population and prospects). After all, the average business does not understand how to work with clients online, and most importantly, why.
The 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 shopify website design Analysis to Implementation: Why B2B Companies Need to Know Their Target Audience
But how do you understand who your client is, where they live, and most importantly, how exactly they receive their order, so as not to “drain” the budget on unnecessary advertising tools? We have already mentioned this separately earlier in our material on target audience segmentation .
In short: every year the process of buying in the business-to-business segment becomes more difficult and confusing. There are several reasons for this:
difficulties in exchanging information within the company (29.57%),
difficulties in understanding information (32.62%),
price disagreements (37.96%),
disagreement on ROI (22.71%),
disagreement on product capabilities (22.87%)
lack of information about 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, what are the main criteria for making a decision when promoting B2B services . And, ta-da - yes, this is the problem that is solved by target audience analysis and segmentation.
Developing a customer journey map – your “treasure” map
BigCommerce's B2B e-commerce statistics show that most shoppers now place their orders via websites (80%), email (77%) or mobile (72%).
But which channel is most effective for you, where to get the maximum number of applications with minimal investment? All this will be shown by your customer journey map .
Thus, according to the same BigCommerce, B2B vendors now acquire new clients through a referral program (63%), social networks (42%) and content marketing (36%)
And, according to MarTechAdvisor , a personalized approach to the client is ready to provide a minimum 19% increase in sales in B2B promotion . And, yes, this personalized approach can be implemented thanks to knowledge of the “touchpoints” with clients.
From air to numbers: transferring experience “to paper”
According to BuyerZone, today more than 91% of companies with a staff of 11 employees have implemented various types of CRM in their work. But, alas, this is Western statistics, and it does not concern Ukraine much: only 1 out of 10 companies uses automation tools in business processes.
Although, according to Innoppl Technologies, 65% of companies noted an increase in sales and plan fulfillment precisely after the implementation of automation systems.
Search engine optimization is the first step in reaching your target audience.
If we rely on the analysis of the Ukrainian e-commerce market, we can see that today 39% of website traffic is generated thanks to organic search. At the same time, the market is moving away from the classic “buy windows Kiev cheap with delivery” to personalized offers when promoting a B2B website . The more deeply you know which search queries reflect the needs for services or goods of your potential business partners, the higher the chance that they will buy from you!
But SEO isn't just about keywords. If a search for your company name only returns an old, unfinished website with no identifying marks or addresses, your customers will leave you.
But posting information about your business, at least on Google Maps, will not only help to convince potential customers that your business is real, but will also increase offline sales (at least by 13%, yes).
Content Marketing — the Axis of Expertise Development in B2B Promotion
According to the Content Marketing Institute , 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 articles on a blog is not content marketing, but publishing second-rate material everywhere is not an effective way to work.
So, according to the new B2B Buyer Experience report , 86% of buyers often feel overwhelmed when they are bombarded on all fronts – presented with more than ten types of sales content, and 42% feel overwhelmed when presented with more than 5.
How not to “kill” but to hook the client and lead to a purchase? A comprehensive strategy for working with content based on the needs of your target audience. To at least start with something a content strategy for promoting B2B services, consider: according to the same report on customer experience, the most relevant for B2B clients is:
technical specifications (53.51%);
case studies (48.78%);
“white” books (33.84%);
video (38.41%);
infographics (31.10%).
Email Marketing Is the Most Killer in B2B
How did businessmen of the "dashing 90s" work? That's right, with a notebook, a pile of phone numbers and a bunch of catalogues. We are sure that you have an impressive database of potential, current and "lost" clients that has been formed over the years. What to do with them? Call around day and night? - not everyone can say that when it is convenient for you. Visit in person? - well, well, they "wait" for you for days.
E-mail marketing maintains a fine line of privacy, when the client is seemingly not bothered, while at the same time, important information is competently presented exactly when it is convenient for the client (after all, they read your letters when they have time and are in the mood). And it works!
According to a report by the Content Marketing Institute , 79% of marketers consider email to be the most convertible tool for generating demand when promoting on the B2B market . And it is the least expensive tool: drive the customer base into one place and work with it, sending one letter, but to a mass of recipients at once. Although, there are some nuances here, but we will talk about them another time.
Social Media and B2B: Yes, They Interact
Numbers are our everything, and 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 on 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.
Thus, in the outgoing year in Ukraine, SMM conversion according to actually assessed results has already reached the same level as paid advertising - on average, 0.6%. At the same time, the average sales check through social networks is sometimes even higher than in e-mail marketing - $68.2 versus $55.3.
According to Facebook, the average user spends about 53 minutes a day online. Could that be your customer? Yes. Could they even get a glimpse of your company? Of course. Do you want it to be positive, compelling information? Of course.
Targeted advertising on social networks, which is supported by “weighty” positive reviews, can shorten the customer’s path to purchase by at least 11%.
Fast and confident? Contextual advertising to the rescue!
Paid search takes a confident second place in terms of traffic generation to a site - 28.5% of potential clients can get to your site thanks to contextual advertising. And this is really a lifesaver if you need to quickly attract an audience (for example, for seasonal sales), while SEO and other tools are, to put it mildly, still in their infancy.
Is it worth talking about the conversion volume if the promotion of B2B services through contextual advertising is carried out when all the tools have already been launched?
Forming Our Tangle - A Comprehensive Strategy for B2B Promotion Channels
B2B sales statistics from Marc Wayshak found that 54% of agents now find it more difficult to reach potential clients than they did five years ago.
B2B customers have become increasingly demanding, with the most important factors in the purchasing process being:
supplier reputation (53%);
price (47%);
customer loyalty (43%);
ease of purchase (38%).
Creating a comprehensive strategy with step-by-step convergence will allow you to assess both possible obstacles and opportunities, as well as prospects. At the same time, day after day, existing online and implementing the strategy, you give customers more and more information about yourself and your product (yes, this all corresponds to 3 of the 4 points above).
Performance can only be improved when it is measured.
Can you tell if sales are going down or up if you don't measure them?
The same goes for B2B promotion on the internet : analyze or lose your shirt.
End-to-end analytics systems, Call-tracking — must have! Measure, optimize, compare indicators with the set ones, modernize the strategy and conduct really large-scale sales in a few clicks (well, almost).
You can see how Pirogov.Marketing worked with companies in the business-to-business sector and what results we achieved thanks to this approach in our company’s B2B promotion cases .
Want the same? We are ready to develop a custom digital strategy specifically for your B2B company. Let's just chat to find the "grain of truth" and determine where to start!
Just imagine, if your company is not on the World Wide Web, you are losing more than half of your clients!
But, alas, Ukraine, like all countries of the post-Soviet space, is still partly in the business processes of the "dashing 90s". Here the main task of even large manufacturers is to quickly find offline dealers in order to sell the entire volume of accumulated products through them. Against this background, it is not worth describing what the websites look like, sometimes, even of very well-known companies on the market.
The situation for entrepreneurs is also complicated by foreign economic policy. According to IMF group Ukraine, since 2014 the volume of exports has been steadily falling by 3-10% annually. And this regression is permanent.
The indicators are falling, the company is losing profits, but it is in no hurry to compensate for such losses. So, if the UK online market is estimated at $52 billion, the German market is $35 billion, then the Ukrainian market is only $1.5 billion (with our area, population and prospects). After all, the average business does not understand how to work with clients online, and most importantly, why.
The 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 shopify website design Analysis to Implementation: Why B2B Companies Need to Know Their Target Audience
But how do you understand who your client is, where they live, and most importantly, how exactly they receive their order, so as not to “drain” the budget on unnecessary advertising tools? We have already mentioned this separately earlier in our material on target audience segmentation .
In short: every year the process of buying in the business-to-business segment becomes more difficult and confusing. There are several reasons for this:
difficulties in exchanging information within the company (29.57%),
difficulties in understanding information (32.62%),
price disagreements (37.96%),
disagreement on ROI (22.71%),
disagreement on product capabilities (22.87%)
lack of information about 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, what are the main criteria for making a decision when promoting B2B services . And, ta-da - yes, this is the problem that is solved by target audience analysis and segmentation.
Developing a customer journey map – your “treasure” map
BigCommerce's B2B e-commerce statistics show that most shoppers now place their orders via websites (80%), email (77%) or mobile (72%).
But which channel is most effective for you, where to get the maximum number of applications with minimal investment? All this will be shown by your customer journey map .
Thus, according to the same BigCommerce, B2B vendors now acquire new clients through a referral program (63%), social networks (42%) and content marketing (36%)
And, according to MarTechAdvisor , a personalized approach to the client is ready to provide a minimum 19% increase in sales in B2B promotion . And, yes, this personalized approach can be implemented thanks to knowledge of the “touchpoints” with clients.
From air to numbers: transferring experience “to paper”
According to BuyerZone, today more than 91% of companies with a staff of 11 employees have implemented various types of CRM in their work. But, alas, this is Western statistics, and it does not concern Ukraine much: only 1 out of 10 companies uses automation tools in business processes.
Although, according to Innoppl Technologies, 65% of companies noted an increase in sales and plan fulfillment precisely after the implementation of automation systems.
Search engine optimization is the first step in reaching your target audience.
If we rely on the analysis of the Ukrainian e-commerce market, we can see that today 39% of website traffic is generated thanks to organic search. At the same time, the market is moving away from the classic “buy windows Kiev cheap with delivery” to personalized offers when promoting a B2B website . The more deeply you know which search queries reflect the needs for services or goods of your potential business partners, the higher the chance that they will buy from you!
But SEO isn't just about keywords. If a search for your company name only returns an old, unfinished website with no identifying marks or addresses, your customers will leave you.
But posting information about your business, at least on Google Maps, will not only help to convince potential customers that your business is real, but will also increase offline sales (at least by 13%, yes).
Content Marketing — the Axis of Expertise Development in B2B Promotion
According to the Content Marketing Institute , 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 articles on a blog is not content marketing, but publishing second-rate material everywhere is not an effective way to work.
So, according to the new B2B Buyer Experience report , 86% of buyers often feel overwhelmed when they are bombarded on all fronts – presented with more than ten types of sales content, and 42% feel overwhelmed when presented with more than 5.
How not to “kill” but to hook the client and lead to a purchase? A comprehensive strategy for working with content based on the needs of your target audience. To at least start with something a content strategy for promoting B2B services, consider: according to the same report on customer experience, the most relevant for B2B clients is:
technical specifications (53.51%);
case studies (48.78%);
“white” books (33.84%);
video (38.41%);
infographics (31.10%).
Email Marketing Is the Most Killer in B2B
How did businessmen of the "dashing 90s" work? That's right, with a notebook, a pile of phone numbers and a bunch of catalogues. We are sure that you have an impressive database of potential, current and "lost" clients that has been formed over the years. What to do with them? Call around day and night? - not everyone can say that when it is convenient for you. Visit in person? - well, well, they "wait" for you for days.
E-mail marketing maintains a fine line of privacy, when the client is seemingly not bothered, while at the same time, important information is competently presented exactly when it is convenient for the client (after all, they read your letters when they have time and are in the mood). And it works!
According to a report by the Content Marketing Institute , 79% of marketers consider email to be the most convertible tool for generating demand when promoting on the B2B market . And it is the least expensive tool: drive the customer base into one place and work with it, sending one letter, but to a mass of recipients at once. Although, there are some nuances here, but we will talk about them another time.
Social Media and B2B: Yes, They Interact
Numbers are our everything, and 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 on 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.
Thus, in the outgoing year in Ukraine, SMM conversion according to actually assessed results has already reached the same level as paid advertising - on average, 0.6%. At the same time, the average sales check through social networks is sometimes even higher than in e-mail marketing - $68.2 versus $55.3.
According to Facebook, the average user spends about 53 minutes a day online. Could that be your customer? Yes. Could they even get a glimpse of your company? Of course. Do you want it to be positive, compelling information? Of course.
Targeted advertising on social networks, which is supported by “weighty” positive reviews, can shorten the customer’s path to purchase by at least 11%.
Fast and confident? Contextual advertising to the rescue!
Paid search takes a confident second place in terms of traffic generation to a site - 28.5% of potential clients can get to your site thanks to contextual advertising. And this is really a lifesaver if you need to quickly attract an audience (for example, for seasonal sales), while SEO and other tools are, to put it mildly, still in their infancy.
Is it worth talking about the conversion volume if the promotion of B2B services through contextual advertising is carried out when all the tools have already been launched?
Forming Our Tangle - A Comprehensive Strategy for B2B Promotion Channels
B2B sales statistics from Marc Wayshak found that 54% of agents now find it more difficult to reach potential clients than they did five years ago.
B2B customers have become increasingly demanding, with the most important factors in the purchasing process being:
supplier reputation (53%);
price (47%);
customer loyalty (43%);
ease of purchase (38%).
Creating a comprehensive strategy with step-by-step convergence will allow you to assess both possible obstacles and opportunities, as well as prospects. At the same time, day after day, existing online and implementing the strategy, you give customers more and more information about yourself and your product (yes, this all corresponds to 3 of the 4 points above).
Performance can only be improved when it is measured.
Can you tell if sales are going down or up if you don't measure them?
The same goes for B2B promotion on the internet : analyze or lose your shirt.
End-to-end analytics systems, Call-tracking — must have! Measure, optimize, compare indicators with the set ones, modernize the strategy and conduct really large-scale sales in a few clicks (well, almost).
You can see how Pirogov.Marketing worked with companies in the business-to-business sector and what results we achieved thanks to this approach in our company’s B2B promotion cases .
Want the same? We are ready to develop a custom digital strategy specifically for your B2B company. Let's just chat to find the "grain of truth" and determine where to start!