There are some tried and true methods to generate sales with a B2B firm. However, if you are feeling like your business could do with a refresh, this is the blog for you. Here are 5 unconventional B2B sales tactics.
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1 Tailor content for B2B sales leads
B2B sales are often smaller in volume and higher price. That means far more time needs to be put into ensuring your approach and buyer persona are as accurate as possible. Don’t fall into the trap of making the buyer the firm you are targeting, the real target is whoever will make the decision within that firm. Spend time constructing an idea of the customer and have a clear picture of why they need your products or services. Your buyers may take a number of forms and in which case you will need to outline a customer persona for each type. The information you may wish to consider includes; age, job title, seniority, pain points, location and contact channels.
The next step is to determine what these customers would search for when looking to find a solution to their problem. You can do this by starting with your pain points section and formatting it as a question, you can then use the “Also Asked” section in Google to analyse other potential keywords that may be useful. Before making a piece of content on your website, ensure you know what keywords are going to be scattered throughout. Don’t go too broad or you may end up in the B2C market, target words that are more technical and specific to get the B2B you are looking for.
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2 How to use B2B email marketing
B2B email marketing is more effective than B2C. but yet is only used by 59% of businesses. This channel is a great source of leads if done carefully. Segmentation and regularity are key in B2B emails. You must ensure that each client is receiving emails relevant to them and the products/service you provide. Using automation is the best way to achieve this. You must also automate contact if they fail to complete an action such as a payment process in the checkout. Do not let customers slip away that close to a finished sale! They may have just been distracted or their device died, you have to catch these customers with a follow-up email.
A big issue many companies face in email marketing is their emails failing to get to the customer.
Here are a few tips to minimise the chance of this happening.
- Use an individual’s address to send emails, and allow people to reply to the email, this will reduce the chances of automatic spamming. Company emails are more often placed in the spam folder than personal ones.
- Keep your emailing frequency regular and don’t change it too often. This way businesses know when to expect your email and will look out for it if they are interested.
- Regularly check your mailing list for incorrect and deleted emails to reduce your bounce rate.
Here are some things to remember when creating your template and writing your emails.
- Be consistent. The layout should be consistent across all platforms, including email. No matter the topic, use the same template as all other contact forms and use the same font.
- Including elements of branding that are also on your website and other branded elements, do not change this on different media as this will confuse the client.
- Do not use your emails to try and sell the product directly. The soft-sell approach is going to lead to fewer unsubscribes and more conversions to sales. Provide helpful hints and tips and let them know about product specials etc but do not push products directly.
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3 Hybrid events
Conferences used to be an awesome way to meet people first-hand who may be interested in working with your business. However, these days many of these events have either moved partially or fully online due to Covid-19 and we predict they will continue like this. . There are three ways your firm can partake in these types of events: Attend, Speak and Host. We recommend sticking to the first two until your firm is large enough to provide at least 4 speakers of your own during a hosted event.
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4 Varied content channels
B2B has been the slowest form of business to take on more modern forms of marketing. Social media, podcasts and YouTube videos are seldom used by B2B firms. While it is important to stick to a small number of media well and not spread yourself too thin, look into where your customers are and set your firm up on these. LinkedIn is a now popular way to reach B2B clients as is YouTube for instructional videos. It’s important that you monitor what your customers use and ensure you are on the platforms to meet them.
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5 Create premium content
Premium content is usually in the form of a webinar, or eBook but can take other forms such as free templates or access to information pages. This is usually to target existing customers to get access to helpful video tutorials on your products’ uses, an eBook on the latest findings and updates on their products etc. You must ensure the extra cost is worthwhile as you do not wish to sour a relationship that was initially good. This is a clever way to get a little more from an existing client while improving their experience exponentially.