Ways to Improve the Effectiveness and Efficiency of a Business-to-Business Website

Online marketing has become one of the priorities of a marketing process of a company. Every company allocates special budget and time for online marketing.

There are two types of an online marketing campaign. One is Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and the other is Business-to- Business (B2B). Both of these campaigns have different objectives, hence need is to adopt different marketing strategies.

The general difference between B2B and B2C is the market, services, and the sales cycle. The market for B2B is small compared to B2C. The services of products offered in B2B are more complex, and B2B has a longer sales cycle compared to B2C.

The lines below discuss some tips, which can help an internet marketing services provider to make the best out of a B2B online marketing campaign:

The Start:

For a B2C company, getting found may be the first and last step, as this type of marketing can generate sales by just a single visit. Whereas, in case of B2B marketing, being found is the first step in the marketing process, the main objective after being found is to convert the prospect into a sale. This conversion of prospect into sale requires an understanding of the sales cycle and the position of the searcher in it. The company needs to see, whether the potential prospect is in the evaluation, consideration, or purchase phase, and then develop the content of the website accordingly.

The Importance of Content:

The major focus of the content of a B2C website is on providing product related information. On contrary, the content of a B2B website must be thought provoking, and serve as a trusted resource, as sales in B2B marketing, is based on building relationship and trust between the two parties. To build trust, the B2B website must facilitate the prospect by offering resource such as, case studies, demos, newsletters, and video demos.

Diversity in Keyword:

For a B2B marketing campaign, the keyword selection needs to be more diverse. As the sales cycle constitutes of different phases, so the prospect on a different phase may search with a different keyword. For instance, a prospect on Evaluation phase of the sales cycle may use a different keyword for search, compared to a prospect on the Purchase phase of the cycle. Therefore, a B2B marketing campaign needs to show diversity in keywords.

Link building:

Due to a limited market, a B2B marketing campaign, needs to think out of the box when it comes to link building. A B2B website will have fewer website to link to, compared to a B2C website, which can find numerous places to link. The few things, which a B2B website can do in this case, are:

·         For backlinks, a B2B website can contact its supplier, and request for links.

·         To increase the targeted audience, a B2B website and focus on link bait, for a related market.

·         The companies with specific niches can blog about general company related topics to widen their audience.

Attracting Multiple Entities of a Business:

A B2B website attracts different entities within a business. Suppose a business sells some payroll management software. In such case, the B2B website can be visited by HR manager of the purchasing company to see the offerings of the software. The finance officer of the company can also visit the website to see the financial implication of the software, and at the same time an IT professional can visit the website to see the integration of the software. This way a B2B, website needs to be more general, to provide information to all sorts of business entities.

Conclusion:

In short, before building the content of a website, a company needs to understand the difference between B2B and B2C marketing campaign. The business needs to understand the sales process, the type of audience and their preferences, and the major influencers on the behavior of potential customer, and consequently build a website complying with these lines.