5 Ways Marketing Can Help B2B Sales

Increasing B2B sales isn’t simply a matter of putting out your shingle and hoping that more customers will come your way. Businesses who purchase from you want to believe they have the right vendor in front. Because B2B sales is more complex, there are more people involved and there are higher price points. It can sometimes take months to close a B2B sale. Understanding how marketing can help B2B sales is fundamental to every business looking to gain more traction within its audience.

How can you “tilt the playing field” and make sure that when the customer is ready to buy, YOUR company is the only one that comes to mind?

1. Collect Honest Feedback

Feedback, whether received through surveys, in-person interactions, or email, is vital for both technical improvements to your site or funnels and your customer-facing work. Yet, in-depth and actionable feedback from clients is difficult to receive. It’s important to automate the process and encourage clients to provide as much as possible.

Talk with your clients. Find out what they liked and what they didn’t like. Talk about the number of steps that they took to get to the sale and the process that they went through. Ask them what about your company caught their attention. There are several touch-points where you can implement automated feedback collection.

Your customer’s needs are constantly evolving. By listening to what they are saying and being ready to implement the changes needed you can stay ahead of the competition, making more sales for your company.

2. Try Video

Among several reasons why you should have video on your website, the biggest one is that it’s one of the most effective means of selling your company’s product.  Customers and clients engage with video, often watching and engaging with the shorter ones for the entirety of the clip.

Still not convinced? Here are some stats about video marketing.

• 43% of customers want to see more videos
• 9% of marketers name video as the type of content with the highest ROI
• 4x as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it
• Shoppers who view video are 1.81x more likely to purchase than non-video viewers
• 4 in 5 customers believe that demo videos are helpful

Depending on your products, your videos can have many purposes.

• How-to videos explaining a single part of one of your products.
• Explainer videos outlining what your company does.
• Funny videos designed to get others to think about your product.
• Video testimonials creating trust to persuade new clients.

3. Upselling and cross-selling

Upselling and cross-selling have increased sales of B2B and B2C companies for ages. Upselling simply offers a higher version of the product itself. Cross-selling offers related products to your clients.

Upselling

Amazon is one of the best companies implementing this. For instance, If you place an order for a laptop, you will inevitably be asked whether you want to upgrade the memory card or get a better one. While it might seem like  a logical thing to do but shown to billions of people every day can really boost your sales. The intent behind this is showing the customers that he could get a better product by spending a little extra.

Cross-Selling

The McDonald’s sales force are also pros at this tactic.  Cross-selling offers your client something different but related to the initial product. You’ll most likely be asked “would you like fries with that?” or even, “will that complete your order?” every single time. In this way McDonald’s customers will take a look at the menu for another few moments, thinking about their next tasty treat.

Cross-selling and upselling tactics can be applied to nearly any business who wants to improve its bottom line and increase sales. By offering multiple versions of the same or related services, you can create a selling juggernaut with your “warm” clients.

4. Events

Local events can boost your bottom line like nothing else. Putting a face to the name of the client and vice versa will also create mutual trust. Savvy businesses regularly hold events to keep their brand at the top of their customers mind. Certain has gathered over 75 statistics for a larger view of the event marketing picture. Here are a few:

• 84% of consumers repurchase the product promoted at the event, after their first purchase (EventTrack Study)
• 51% of marketers surveyed believe that events strengthen existing customer relationships (Marketing Charts)
• 60% of marketers use tradeshows and events for face-to-face customer meetings (Marketing Charts)
• 58% of marketers believe that events and conferences are important ways to improve customer experiences (E-Strategy Trends)
• 31% of event marketers believe that trade shows, conferences, conventions, and channel events are essential to doing business in their target markets (Marketing Charts)
• 69% of B2B marketers consider in-person events effective (Sensible Marketing)
• The top 5 B2B content marketing tactics: Social Media Content (92%); eNewletters (83%); Articles on your Web Site (81%); Blogs (80%); In-Person Events (77%). (IMN Inc.)

The event that you hold doesn’t have to be formal. You can go on Meetup.com and create an for your clients to attend. By offering your clients something different to get them in the door, you are getting your brand to stand out and receive more sales. 

5. Case studies

Whether Your business constantly generates data and whether you have hired a marketing agency or you are the one doing all the SEO, leveraging that data into the creation of case studies is crucial. Case studies generates are “social proofs” to get more clients interested in your product or service because it’s measurable proof of what your company does.

73% of buyers used case studies in B2B purchasing decisions (2016 DemandGen Report).  The great thing about Case Studies is that you simply need to collect material rather than creating something from scratch. Look at your customer successes. Is there something you can use for successful case studies?

 

These are 5 simple ways marketing can help B2B sales. These are by no means the only way to capture customers attention. Each of them has their pros and cons, but all of them have the chance to increase your bottom line.

What can you do to increase your company’s bottom line? Do you have any other tips ready to implement for small-business owners? Have you tried any of the above-mentioned and seen some results? Let us know what you think in the section below.