Advertising tools in the field of b2b. Features of promotion in the b2b segment. Complex segmentation of the target audience

According to Rain Group research, B2B markets are changing the way they work with customers. And those companies that are able to see and understand the key drivers of increasing sales in business markets will be able to increase the competitiveness of their products and take a leading and growing position in their industries. This article provides step by step guide for marketing in the B2B market, based on the latest global trends and taking into account the evolution of sales techniques. We will only talk about proven and most effective B2B marketing tools. At the end of the article, you will find a detailed marketing plan for promoting goods and services in the B2B market.

New customer service model

There is a three-step model of working with clients in the B2B market, which has proven its effectiveness in practice.

First, the company must establish a relationship with the client:

Then, the company must convince the client that it is the best choice of all alternatives:

And finally, the company must show the maximum level of cooperation with the client:

How should this model be interpreted in terms of the job of a marketing manager? We offer an author's guide for marketing management in the B2B sector, taking into account all the features and specifics of the business market.

First step: establishing contact with customers

First, you should establish and polish the quality of interaction with customers. This means improving the quality of first contact with customers, developing a customer feedback management program, analyzing customer demand and key needs, and developing a plan to improve and develop the company's product.

Step Two: The Right Negotiation Arguments

Next step: work with product texts. Make the texts show that:

• your company's product is the best solution among all alternatives
• your company's product demonstrates the most effective result
• cooperation with your company does not carry any risks for the client, only benefits

Third step: developing a customer support program

Finally, create a working customer retention program: able to eliminate switching to competitors, increase the frequency of use of the company's product, increase the value of the transaction with the client.

Ready checklist

A detailed and most practical checklist for b2b marketing. With it, you will not forget important moments and will be able to effectively plan your work.

Promotion of services in the b2b segment has its own characteristics that must be taken into account when developing a promotion plan, namely:

· Inaccessibility of the audience that makes decisions (heads of enterprises, top management, heads of departments);

The complexity of organizing and conducting research of a different nature;

Long chain of decision-making, in which more than one link is involved;

· Limited exposure to traditional and mass advertising media - there are industry and highly specialized sources;

· “Connections” play a big role, as well as the overall reputation of the company in the industry market.

Promotion of b2b services is different from the promotion of conventional consumer services and goods. The difference between marketing strategies is determined, first of all, by the composition target audience. Consider some features of the promotion of services and goods in the b2b sector.

· The need to focus on a narrow circle of consumers. This feature has its pros and cons. A rather narrow circle of consumers of specialized services and goods allows you to run promotion companies at a much lower cost. When addressing a mass audience in the b2b sector, one cannot hope for a few sales, since the number of customers in this sector is initially small, so companies must reach, preferably, 100% of the target audience, while encouraging a significant number of those covered to make a decision.

· Appearance information materials. In the first place in all information materials about the company in the b2b sector is the content, whether traditional handouts or electronic ones, - accuracy, reliability, completeness of information, ease of use. But it is also worth paying attention to the stylish, but at the same time strict design.

Company marketing concept

To stimulate sales of services and goods in the b2b sector market, it is necessary to constantly introduce new and improve already used promotion tools. Internet promotion was chosen as the optimal method of promotion, taking into account the specifics of the project. On the this moment Buteykis & Partners has a functioning website, which, however, needs significant optimization.

The purpose of the promotion: increase the number of customers.

· Raise awareness of potential customers about the company;

・Increase awareness trademark;

· Strengthen the level of trust in the company.

Stages of the promotion concept implementation:

1) Select the target audience of the project and determine promotion channels;

2) Conduct an analysis of the demand for services;

4) Optimize the official website of the project;

5) Prepare PR materials for Internet promotion.

The target audience. Buteykis & Partners operates in the b2b sector. The main target audience are representatives of the business environment, heads of enterprises and projects conducting their business in Moscow. With the expansion of the project, it is possible to increase the coverage of clientele in other regions.

promotion channels. The Internet was chosen as the main promotion channel. More specifically, it is:

* Search engine optimization (SEO) - promotion of the site in the top search results;

* PR materials for the official site and thematic sites.

The b2b market is a part of the market or economic space where activities are directed not at the average consumer, but at companies that further interact with the end consumer. His work is completely different from the standard consumer market, so the tools, the strategic direction, and the sales technique are completely different. There are practically no similar approaches.

The main motivation for the purchase of something on this trading platform is the increase of capital. The object of income is the product. The client invests money by buying a product for the subsequent profit.

• The significant differences of such a market include the following indicators: On the b2b platform, the buyer and the end user are not the same person. The assets of the firm or company are used as funds for the purchase of goods. The decision to purchase goods lies with a specific person with specific interests. Decisive factors for such a person can be:

1. Individual convenience in working with the supplier;
2. Ambition of a personal nature;
3. Friendly relations;
4. Many other reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the goods.

This is the main difference - the end consumer pays attention to the product itself, and such a person responsible for the purchase of goods is influenced by extraneous factors. To some extent, emotions take over. Photo taken from hostcomp.ru

Decision making is equally important. The more expensive the purchase of goods for the company, the more responsible people vote for the decision. That is, the interests of all participants in the process must coincide. One person can succumb to emotions or become a “victim of advertising” of a particular product, but a group of people still relies on other factors. For them, the main thing is to make a profit associated with the purchased product.

• General communication methods. In the space of the b2b market, the main participants in the process are a sales specialist and a buyer company. It is on the skills and professionalism of the manager that the success and conduct of a trade transaction depends. Here the main thing is not an advertising campaign or PR activity, but the manager. Yes, and advertising in this case will not be appropriate, since it is troublesome and expensive to make advertising in order to attract several players-buyers in the b2b market.

Communication and work with corporate clients more subtle, it requires high communication skills in dealing with several people representing the interests of one firm. Therefore, the sales manager must be a highly qualified professional.

To attract the maximum number of customers, promotion methods were developed and implemented. Below will be detailed description the most effective channels for attracting the target audience, among which are:

• Own sales department. This department in any developing company is a key link. This channel is one of the most expensive, but very effective.
• Website creation. Having a business but not having a website is a rarity, nonsense. But here we are not talking about an online store or a standard corporate website, but about a one-page resource, the purpose of which is to persuade customers to make a purchase. The structure of a single page site is much higher than that of a classic website. But this works ideally if you trade in one group of products.

To increase conversion, the website should be supplemented with online chats and the ability to feedback. You can also post interesting cases that testify to a high level of professionalism. Also, the presence of customer reviews (videos and texts) will not hurt. On the site you need to place everything that interests a potential client.

• Event marketing is an important way to promote within the b2b market. It contributes to the proper construction of friendly and business relations between partners. Event marketing activities include:

Various exhibition events;

1. Seminars;
2. Conferences;
3. Webinars.

In this case, you can win because of low competition, and therefore, having shown yourself as well as possible, you can form a certain amount of clients.
Photo taken from msk.podvijka.ru

• Availability of partners. Sales growth in any business directly depends on the development of relationships with partners. In order to acquire reliable and correct partners, it is necessary to compile a certain database, including the largest and most important of them.
• Attracting telemarketing. This direction is to communicate with customers through telephone communication. For this, special call-centers are created, where a program is written for each client - the subject of conversations. With their help, calls are made to the client base and a special list of warm clients is compiled, with whom further work is done. To slightly reduce waste, you can use the services of district call centers, as they are many times cheaper than those located in metropolitan areas.
• Creation of tender platforms. Tendering is not an easy process. Some companies take part in tenders with great pleasure and successfully win them. But where there is a place for corruption, it is better not to participate in tender programs, as practice shows.
• Application of all types of advertising. Advertising is acceptable in the media, on radio, on television. The most important is still advertising in the print media, in the press, despite the fact that fewer and fewer people read the press. The main thing is that the printed edition should be of high quality.
• Communication with social networks. The audience of social networks is huge, and it is constantly increasing, so this must be taken into account. Each social network has a specific audience. It's about demographics. The most popular social platforms are:

1. Facebook;
2. In contact with;
3. Classmates;
4. Instagram;
5. Twitter.

Instagram is the most productive, because by posting a publication there, it can be done in other social networks.

• A new direction is E-mail marketing. This vector of progress is in the process of development, but the prospects are already noticeable today. Quality E-mails can be done using Getresponse, E-mail, Unisender, Pechkin and others. In addition to a good mailing list, it is also an excellent analytics.
• YouTube channel and other platforms. Place for posting video content. In the near future, the place of books and printed publications it is video content that will occupy, so this is a bet on the future.

As mentioned earlier, having your own website is necessary. But it often happens that using a key query, a user gets to a competitor's website. To eliminate such situations, you need to optimize the site in such a way as to become accessible and have some advantages. Pay attention to both content and structure.

Among the many promotion channels, marketers have identified the most effective:

• Content marketing. Creation of the correct information field. It could be a blog helpful tips, and communication with readers in the question-answer mode. Self-promotion doesn't hurt either.
• Email marketing. This mailing is not spam. For example, a site visitor registers by leaving his email, and then he receives news about the arrival of goods, discounts, promotions, and so on from the site to the mail. Also useful and effective is the instructive information contained in e-mails. It all depends on what the company does.
• Viral advertising. A high-quality and interesting video is mounted, in which there is also advertising. Then it spreads on the network, and then it’s up to the small thing - it is rapidly spreading by people through social networks and other platforms. The main thing is that it should be something worthwhile and memorable.
• Contextual advertising product. These are announcements for a certain circle of readers and viewers, which are united by interests related to the advertised product. Contextual advertising can be of two types:

1. search engine;
2. Thematic.

Photo taken from www.prodvizheniesajtov.ru

• Media advertising. Advertising using video and a static image on banners. Such advertising is easy to analyze and build further plans according to the results. Placement takes place on thematic sites and portals visited by the target audience.
• SMM promotion. If a company participating in the b2b market is focused on long-term projects and goes step by step to fulfill its business objectives, then SMM promotion is an ideal option. This improves the image of the company.

Inexpensive ways to promote goods and services

Among the low-budget channels for promoting products, you can make a whole list:

1. Company mention. If there is information about the company on the Internet, you can place a link. Effective and inexpensive.
2. Take part in webinars. They are often free, and this makes it possible, without paying, to advertise your products. It will be seen by a wide audience. It is necessary to write a small but attractive program and draw up a plan of action.
3. Cross promotion. Two companies agree on mutual advertising of each other. A convenient and easy way of advertising, which consists in a relaxed dialogue.
4. Creating a blog. Create a blog and comment on it. This must be done with irreplaceable regularity, adhering to a pre-planned plan. If the comments are bright and memorable, then this will first draw the attention of visitors to you, and then to your company and products.
5. Take note of Google+. Create a personal account and make it interesting to draw the attention of the audience. The most interesting information on the Internet is always heard and in plain sight.
6. Live communication for the purpose of advertising. Recently, due to the rapid development of computer technology and progress in general, people for some reason forgot about the simplest thing - live communication. In the process of communication, you can tell others about your kind of activity, offer something, advertise something unobtrusively. After all, even among strangers who are around us in everyday life, there can be many potential customers.
7. Do not bypass all kinds of competitions and conferences. There are many competitive programs for firms and enterprises. This is a great opportunity to present yourself to a large audience and show what your company is capable of.
8. Use of the social platform - twitter. It is, to some extent, an excellent marketing platform. To achieve a positive result, you need to choose the right subscribers and start active communication, making comments, while unobtrusively mentioning your company.
9. Look at marketing from a different angle. For some reason, it is commonly believed that the goal of marketing is to acquire new customers, while not remembering the old and current ones, who also need attention. The maximum benefit of marketing lies in working with the existing customer base. This has been proven by the experts of this vector.
10. Friendship with strong competitors. It is they who dictate the rules of business and have a good customer base. The reference point should be directed only to the strong. Having made friends and helping a competitor, you can count on the fact that he will definitely help you - this is a business rule, honest business.
11. Don't forget about something as small as a hashtag. It is also effective as a billboard, only on the Internet. Now they have access to all in social networks. Come up with your own hashtag related to your company and leave it after each post.
12. Compiling a database of E-mail addresses. They are necessary for promotional mailings that help fuel interest in the site or product in question.
13. Issue a press release. Although they are no longer relevant, they are still important for the marketing sphere. For just a few dollars, you can create one using the PRWeb resource. You can do without material costs, then the PRLog.org website will help you. The downside of the site is only the language - English, otherwise everything is fine. We decided to create a press release in Russian, use the B2Blogger resource.
14. Creation of a business blog. This is a platform that you can fully dedicate to your products. But the blog should not be overly advertising. After all, readers like to visit a high-quality and interesting resource, not an advertising one.

So, using free methods promotion of goods and services, you can achieve high results. The main thing is to approach this correctly and then you will achieve some results:

• get new customers;
• determine your position in the market;
• discover new ways to sell goods.

Golden rule: “Marketing should not drain the budget, empty the wallet and cost a thousand dollars. Marketing is an art, the art of getting attention and generating interest. Marketing can only take your time."

Our main clients are B2B companies. Working with them is difficult, but very interesting. Often we are approached by clients who have already gone through several digital agencies, SEO offices and "specialists" in setting up advertising. Basically, these agencies specialize in the B2C segment, so when a B2B company comes to them, they work according to the standard scheme: website + SEO + contextual advertising.

Very soon, companies will realize that the work for which they pay a lot of money is inefficient. The traffic is non-targeted, leads do not turn into long-awaited customers, the sales funnel with crazy conversion, which was so beautifully described in the agency, does not work on their website. The only question that comes up is: WHY?

We decided to sort out the tangled tangle of complexities that hinder the implementation of effective Internet marketing. Here, in our opinion, are the main problems that a B2B company faces.

1. Lack of smart specialists

There are few professionals - both from the agencies and from the customers of the services. Often, marketers in B2B companies are young professionals who are engaged in advertising, printing business cards and ordering souvenirs, and organizing exhibitions. Few people know how to promote B2B companies and make industrial marketing at a high level.

There is a staff shortage in the Internet marketing market today, including a shortage of B2B Internet marketing specialists. It is much easier to promote an online store - I made changes on the site, corrected the advertisement and immediately saw the result of my work. Selling complex industrial equipment, the marketer can see the results of his work only after a few months. During this time, they can be fired, and the delayed effect often kills motivation.

2. Long term of the transaction

In the B2B segment, the decision-making process can be very long. From the initial contact of the client to the conclusion of the transaction, it can take from several months to several years. All this time it is necessary to communicate effectively with the client, without losing contact with him, to “warm up” his interest, to work with objections.

This imposes difficulties in measuring the effectiveness of marketing, which makes it difficult to make operational adjustments to tactical plans.

3. Complex segmentation of the target audience

It is very good if the company is engaged in the production of valves for oil pipelines or the implementation of information security systems for banks. In this case, there are almost no questions about who its target audience is and how to build communication with customers. What if the company has many segments? For example, we are manufacturers of siding, and we sell our goods only in bulk. In this case, it is necessary to work with end customers, and with dealers, and with architects who can include us in their project, and with construction organizations. Communication in this case will not be so simple.

4. Many decision makers

There are practically no impulsive and thoughtless actions when a decision is made by several people. Some are industry experts, others are responsible for finance, others for the project as a whole. And it is necessary to influence each representative of the company participating in decision-making, to convey the right words.

Let's take an example from one of our clients - a construction company. They were approached by the secretary of the head office of the network of medical clinics. Representatives of the construction company, at her request, sent a presentation, information about their projects, approximate prices. The secretary collected about 40 such kits from different organizations and passed the information to the deputy CEO. The deputy director selected 10 companies and held preliminary negotiations. Only 2 reached the point of communication with the owner of the network of clinics construction companies. According to the results of the communication, our client won. He got the reconstruction of a four-story administrative building under the clinic. Each of the people in the chain of decision makers chose the company according to their own criteria.

5. Wrong goal setting

Unlike E-commerce, a B2B company on the Internet can have many different goals. For example: strengthening the brand, expanding dealer network, bringing a new product / service to the market, reducing the cost of servicing and retaining a client, researching the target audience, etc. There are a lot of goals, and considering the Internet only as a sales channel is a short-sighted decision.

How does the dialogue usually take place between the service customer and the Internet marketing contractor?

“We would like to increase sales,” the customer says.
- Well, then you need to make sure that the site is in the first places in search engines (launch contextual advertising campaign or media advertising or something else), - the performer answers.
- Is there any way to make it cheaper?
- Of course. You buy 30 words in the TOP-10 Yandex search engine.
- Any guarantees? Will you return the money if you fail to bring the site to the first places?
Yes, yes, everything is for you.

So it turns out that they order some words in some positions, with some kind of guarantees. But even achieving this result does not guarantee an increase in sales.

6. Selling complex or specific goods or services

What if you need to sell complex equipment or consulting services, business automation? Yes, and it costs all millions of rubles, or even dollars? Contextual advertising and search promotion are clearly not enough, an information field should be built around the company, which will work to increase the confidence of potential customers. Content marketing is indispensable here. The site should correctly provide information about the work performed and show real examples. The Internet should include articles from the organization's experts, verifiable testimonials from real customers, and other types of content.

7. No direct sales

Many companies from the B2B sphere do not retail at all, but are only engaged in production, transferring all distribution functions to their dealers. How to be in this case? How to control the effectiveness of marketing activities and check how effective your dealers are and how they can deceive you? All this causes certain difficulties when working with the site, analytics and, in general, with Internet marketing.

8. Success depends only on live human communication

No matter how cool the e-marketing system is built in the company, no matter how many leads are poured in a day, all the same, success in achieving a positive commercial result lies on the shoulders of sales managers. It is important to be able to quickly diagnose "holes" in this part of the system - to check the effectiveness of the work of managers in the CRM system to achieve their goals, to listen to how they receive telephone requests, how quickly they process requests from the site, etc.

9. Website as it should be for B2B

A website for a company operating in the corporate segment is different from a website for a retail company. Not all Internet marketers catch this difference and often strive to make either an analogue of an online store or a pretentious image site.

Based on the previously announced features, a site for a B2B company will not look like a site for B2C. Complex customer segmentation, complex documentation, complex communication of the company's advantages. The website is a direct consequence of the company's Internet marketing strategy. In Russia, a website is often made first, and then they think about how to make it realize the business goals.

10. Measuring the effectiveness of advertising

It is wrong to measure the effectiveness of online marketing for B2B companies only by the position of the site in search engines, the number of applications that came through the form on the site, even the number of calls from customers. Think again about the features of B2B companies, we list them again below:

Long chain of sales, long terms. Multichannel. No direct sales or telephone sales, a large number of decision makers. It is difficult to track where the client came from, what influenced the decision, how long he took to make the decision. Which advertising channel worked. Big uncertainty.

Taking into account these features, it is important to integrate web analytics systems with telephony, CRM and analyze each advertising channel already in the final financial result.

Would you like to receive an offer from us?

Start cooperation
So, we have listed the main difficulties of promoting B2B companies on the Internet. Perhaps you have something to add?

(Visited 10 499 times, 1 visits today)

Promotion of goods and services in the B2B sector is fundamentally different from promotion in B2C. And this is not about search promotion, but about building a whole marketing chain.

Let's imagine a consumer of B2C goods, let's say they are theater tickets.

A potential client decided to buy theater tickets. He makes a request in a search engine, sees ads and sites promoted to the TOP using SEO. He clicks on them, analyzes the correspondence of the issue: are there any tickets, then makes a choice according to his criteria.

For example

• Price
• Class
• concrete theater
• Delivery or pickup

The decision in this case will be made very quickly. For example, after running contextual advertising Calls will begin to arrive in half an hour.

Now let's imagine a typical B2B product sales chain.

Take, for example, a woodworking machine.

A potential client was thinking about purchasing an expensive machine to expand production. So far, one machine can cope, but with an increase in the number of customers and at peak loads, the company begins to feel a shortage of equipment. Here the sales chain will not be as fast, so we will introduce the concept of customer temperature. Since the potential buyer is at the very beginning of the decision-making journey, then on a 10-point scale, he will have a temperature of, say, 2.

He needs the machine, but his absence at the moment is not critical.

Large funds are needed to purchase new equipment, so the client begins to monitor prices and consider different options. This may take a long time.

Let's say he's moved into the warm client stage: 7 out of 10 on a 10-point scale.

We highlight the important characteristics of a potential purchase:

• Budget
• Product characteristics
• Customer Reviews
• Guarantee
• Maintenance costs
• Equipment reliability
• Delivery time

So, our potential buyer opens search engine, monitors suppliers, studies information. Since the product is technically complex, it is impossible to explore all the options in half an hour.

B2B products and services usually don't have as fast a response after launching an ad, typically two weeks or more. Therefore, when developing a marketing chain, it is necessary to take into account the possibility of returning a client to the site for the sale of machine tools again and again, it is necessary that in the process of studying materials your resource is always nearby.

The B2B sales chain is roughly as follows:

• First contact
• Need Research
• Meeting
• Commercial offer
• Supply contract
• Meeting
• Sale

And this means that your site should not sell a product on the first visit, it should sell the first contact (consultation) or meeting. This is a very important point. Many advertisers make the mistake of emphasizing the “order” or “add to cart” buttons when selling expensive machines. This does not motivate a potential buyer at all. And it's not just about the buttons, but also about the content of the site itself.

Build the right marketing chains and get the right sales!