Internet marketing is not only useful for B2C businesses; it is an equally important and effective marketing tool for B2B internet marketing. However, creating an online presence for a B2B business is very different than the B2C market. This article will provide a few guidelines about B2B online marketing strategies.
When you are marketing your products/services to another business, you need to have a different strategy. Here are a few tips and strategies for your B2B marketing:
Provide Information
Although you do provide information in B2C marketing, you have to take it to another level when dealing with industrial clients. The more you educate your clients about your product/service, the more they will feel in control. This will make them comfortable about using your product. Hard-selling is not an advisable approach when you are dealing with companies since they are more likely to maintain control of the transaction. Industrial purchases mean higher liabilities and hence they are carried out by rational thinking and evaluation.
If your customers face even slightest of uncertainty about your product, they will not be willing to take a risk. The only way to minimize this risk is to provide as much information to your customers as possible. And while you are providing information, make sure to remember that you are dealing with other companies. They are unlikely to go through long informational manuals with no relevant information. You have to provide them with precise, relevant and updated information.
Encourage Comparisons
When you are dealing with business markets, it is important to understand that your clients will always make the purchase decision after much thought and comparisons. While dealing with business markets, avoiding comparisons is almost impossible. However, you should not take this as a negative aspect. You should encourage this comparison and try to make use of it. Create a new and unique framework for your product according to industry-specific solution. Clearly communicate to your customers that your product is different from your competitors and it can be beneficial for your customers. Try to avoid creating this framework around pricing and focus more on qualitative aspects.
Look For Gatekeepers
Every company has gatekeepers that can restrict the communication channels. They can be administrative assistants or purchase managers or any other person. These gatekeepers usually track who or what comes in and goes out of their company. In order to convince your clients to trust you, you have to first convince these gatekeepers that your product can be beneficial for their company. They also need to be informed about your product as much as possible.
Communicate More
It is important to keep a steady flow of communication with your customers without being persistent. You have to make way for polite communication by asking them if they have any further questions or they need any more information. Prompt communication builds trust and makes your clients believe that you are reliable and give them time.
Learn About Your Clients
When selling to businesses, you have to deal with a number of different people at all functional positions. You may have to deal with assistants, managers and CEOs within a single company. It is important to understand who you will be dealing with and creating a customized marketing message for them. A CEO might be worried more about price aspect while a purchase manager would look for quality. One single message for an entire organization is just not advisable.
Discuss Product Development
To get a prompt feedback on your product by your customers, it is essential that you include them in the product development stage. It not only makes them feel important but also enable you to get insights from the actual user, enabling you to provide a more customized level of product or service.
Email Information
The best way to provide different and customized information to people in an organization is using emails. Train your customers about your product by sending e-mails from time-to-time about relevant information.
Online Presentations
When selling to businesses, there may be a need of a lot of travelling to attend meetings and provide product briefs. Arrange for online meetings and presentations and provide your customers with all the relevant material beforehand. This not only saves time and money, but also provides information to clients that they can review later.
Continuous Communication
Don’t stop the communication with your clients once the purchase is made. Keep asking for feedback and any queries they may have. Also take permission to market any new product and avoid sending unnecessary marketing messages. Permission marketing can go a long way in creating long-term customer relationships.
What do you think about these tips and strategies for B2B internet marketing?
About the Author:
Sophia Myles is the Product Specialist from Comm100 Email Marketing Team. She’s a complete enthusiast in Email Marketing, while when free from work, she can be found writing and sharing just everything about Online Marketing with the rest of the world.
B2B internet marketing has lagged behind B2C marketing on the Web, mostly because in the business space a purchase has a longer and more complex sales cycle: it is less likely to be spontaneous and usually involves more than one buyer in the decision process. However, this is quickly changing as B2B technical buyers’ primary influence is now from online information rather than offline.
Arthur,
B2B decisions have not been lagging that far behind. Most consumers simply do not see all of the different B2B transactions going on online. A large part of that is, as you mentioned, because their primary source of information comes from the internet.
Andy