HOW TO ENGAGE B2B BUYERS WITH YOUR PLATFORM
Humans are known to rely heavily on their emotions to make a decision. While marketing to businesses — we need to keep in mind that the target buyers are humans too. B2B buyers are more likely to buy from a brand if they feel emotionally connected with them on some level.
However, it is not an easy task to sell to B2B consumers as more and more new challenges come to the surface. Key factors which are affecting B2B businesses include the increase in the number of people who are involved in B2B purchasing, expansion of sales cycle of B2B cycle. Salespeople are increasing expectations of people from them, yet businesses continue to create stale content that replicates the content of yesteryear. Consumers are more up to date now as half of the B2B buyers are millennials, and they rely on social media before making a decision. B2B buyers are increasingly trusting the opinion of influencers, colleagues, bloggers, or even competitors. It is essential to keep your platform up to date as there are millions of other options which can replace you in mere seconds if you lack in any front.
Unlike impulsive consumer buying, selling service to a business is impersonal and logic driven. B2B consumers are famously known as hard sells. Content is the most crucial and pivotal aspect of the buying process. This connotes that the need for quality content is much needed and its importance can’t be neglected. Consumers have new ways to interact with the content they find online. Marketing to B2B buyers can’t be done through traditional sales ploys as the customers are business savvy people themselves. The requirement of corporate services is achieved by directly engaging with online creative content that provides efficient business solutions to their problems. B2B enterprises need to come up with content which sparks interests and addresses the concerns of modern day customers. Your content will ultimately result in convincing the consumers to thoroughly research your company, which will lead you to get a deal worth a lifetime.
For consumers to consider your company, you will have to invest in content which stands out among the repetitive gimmicks of the B2B industry. Coming up with quality content is no biggie if you know the customers. Below are some of the factors you can use to create content which will bring the maximum result to your company.
1. LEARNING CUSTOMER BEHAVIOURS:
B2B marketing has one king, and that is content. Content is used to shape customers point of view and behaviors. It is imperative that you understand the purchasing process of B2B audience to be able to incline their thought process towards your brand. The sale process of B2B customers is two times longer than that of consumer sales, and it involves thinking and decision making by multiple people.
B2B customers nowadays no longer move in a linear fashion from top to bottom of the chain. Instead, they are actively aware of the problems they face. The identification of the problem is what gives them the power to form an opinion about the type of solution they need. Availability of information on the internet has brought about many considerable options for consumers which often overwhelms them. As much as we would like to think, B2B buyers are not that armed to the teeth with details; they suffer from uncertainty. They continue to engage with suppliers to be aware of options until late in the process when a final purchasing decision is complete.
One thing is exact, customers have better access to information, but they are still uncertain and stressed. They feel more paralyzed than empowered due to the ever-expanding array of options. Buying manufacturing equipment or bulk merchandise was never, but the availability of many options have inundated the B2B audience. To get past this barrier, you need to be specific with the service you are providing to help ease the precariousness.
2. STRATEGIZE CONTENT MARKETING USING DESIGN TO INVOLVE B2B CUSTOMERS:
Innovative and groundbreaking content has the potential to go viral across internet forums, thanks to social media, which not only provides heightened amplification, but it is also the most straightforward metric to record. This comes with no surprise that marketers mostly use social media to drive customers to brands. Brands nowadays are relying heavily on these channels for reaching the audience, engagement, and amplification. To get engagement from a broad range of audience, you will have to up your content marketing game by producing original content. There is a massive demand for reactive and interactive content to get your brand the exposure from the target audience.
A business should produce content which highlights the industry trend using different material to keep the audience updated. This will result in positive brand impressions among online audiences, who will be more inclined to research your company.
Customers who cross the funnel stage of “interest” are now showing a likeness to the type of products and services your company offer. The content on your website will further increase or decrease the likelihood of buying. Your display page gives you an opportunity to articulate your fortes as an enterprise and demonstrate the value you bring to clients. Content under product descriptions, how-to guides, size guidelines help the B2B buyers to further the buying process. Content designed for B2B customers will effectively provide directions to use the services by putting emphasis on the values your company will bring to them.
At the final stage of decision, B2B customers need to be assured with the content that they are making the right choice by choosing your company. The majority of B2B consumers read customer reviews to get a second opinion, which finally leads them to take the leap of faith. It is essential that you populate company profiles to bring legitimacy to your platform. This can be seen with Alibaba, Amazon, and BeauteTrade, etc. Their presence on the World Wide Web is what makes them trustworthy for potential buyers. This type of content is vital for closing the deal with B2B buyers.
3. STRATEGIZE SEO CAMPAIGN TO SAFEGUARD THE CHANCES OF ENCOUNTER WITH B2B CUSTOMERS:
Your hard work will bring no results if B2B customers are unable to discover the contents of your portal. This is by far the most crucial requirement after creating content. Buying a journey take flight through search engines. B2B buyers visit search engines to seek and get in contact with content that is offering solutions to their concerns. Research showed that the majority audience only interacts with the top 3 results of the search they perform, which is why it’s essential to optimize your site to secure top position. You might as well be on the last page if you are not on the front page.
There are numerous aspects which affect the ranking of your website on a search engine, which plays the most pivotal role in answering B2B customer’s queries.
• It is advised that you put together content which answers their queries directly. Google prioritizes content which addresses customers directly.
• You can optimize your content for target keywords, and this practice will show you the most looked for search terms which you can use in your content to amplify your chances of an encounter with a B2B audience.
• You can create a positive brand impression by creating content guiding buyers throughout the buying process, which will convince the B2B market that you are the right choice for them. By optimizing this content, you ensure your content’s visibility through search. As a result, the chances that customers encounter your content improves when they use search engines to search for business solutions.
• Use social media to share the links to public profiles, blogs, and articles on your website to expand its exposure. This practice results in a boost of legitimate traffic and you can earn backlinks for your content.
• You can take help of influencers and bloggers of the relevant field. Nowadays, substantial traffic is obtained by social outreach, and social media is the best tool for that.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Brands must remember they aren’t just competing with competitors to capture the audience’s attention. — They’re competing with everyone on their news feed, including your friends on social media to cooking videos from Facebook pages. Standing out is the only tip for survival, which will bring the B2B audience and long-term relationships. When you know are well informed about your target audience, you also know what platforms it uses and be able to design a marketing strategy to bring maximum engagement from buyers. When done right, and in sync with other marketing tools, you are bound to achieve greatness in the world of B2B.
