Categories: Business

How To Use Digital Marketing To Drive More B2B Sales

As the digital transformation set its roots firmly on the ground, the internet became a hotbed for searches. Digital marketing is real and B2B sellers who have leveraged this space have reaped tremendous rewards, including increases in sales. Why?

Because just like individuals, many B2B buyers now turn to the internet for information and solutions before making a purchase. If you want to know how you use digital marketing to drive more B2B sales, look at these five strategies.

IMAGE: UNSPLASH

Invest In A High-Performance Website

Your company website is more than a digital billboard. It’s an invaluable asset that works for you every day of the year. Your website is an information-rich hub that educates, interacts, and nurtures prospective clients, leading to purchases.

Compared to a physical location, your website can reach customers far beyond your locality, potentially improving sales numbers.

Here are ways to improve your website’s ability to generate sales.

Optimize the SEO of your site using keywords, links, and content surrounding what you do or sell. Since search engines rank all websites based on relevance (among other metrics) capturing the phrases or terms prospects use, you’ll rank for them.
Optimize for mobile device use. With the majority of searches conducted using mobile devices, fast loading times, easy navigation, and an appealing design that fits on small screens are a must.
Shorten the process. Whether it’s downloading information, subscribing to a mailing list, or making a sale, shorten the steps to reach the goal. It will keep your prospects from abandoning your site.
Build credibility through testimonials and case studies. Prospects believe other buyers’ opinions and are likely to follow their actions.
Use live chat and chatbots to answer questions and provide quick access to information. It will help remove uncertainty and personalize their experience, increasing the chances of purchase.

Use Email Marketing Automation

Email marketing is a proven tactic for nurturing leads and conversions. When you add automation to the deal, you have a timesaving formula that consistently walks the journey with your prospects, encouraging them to convert.

Here’s how to optimize email marketing automation:

Create A Sign-Up Funnel For All Your Digital Channels

From your website to social media platforms, use a strong call to action and incentive to funnel prospects to a sign-up form. The incentive may be an eBook, in-depth white paper, or an industry-exclusive interview that demonstrates thought leadership.

This way, you reach more potential customers and build an email list for targeted campaigns.

Email Drip Campaigns

These are email journeys where you set up a sequence of emails based on the prospects’ actions. Email drip campaigns are ideal for longer sales cycles where prospects need plenty of information, testimonials, and proof that your solutions will work for them.

They are also ideal for re-engaging leads that have lingered in the pipeline too long.

Segment Prospects

Segmenting prospects lets you differentiate those who are likely to buy from dead-end leads and know where to spend more resources. Similarly, knowing what your prospects are e looking for ensures you’re sending the right personalized messages to encourage conversion.

Cold Calling

Cold calling has been redefined. Today’s sales team doesn’t phone strangers to badger them into buying, rather, they make calls to create lasting relations.

The goal is to provide just enough valuable information to get the listeners to agree to follow-up conversations.

Here are some cold calling practices to help you secure follow-up calls, meetings, and conversions:

Know your offer: knowing your offering inside allows you to respond appropriately to questions the listener may have.
Know your prospect: The listener may not know you, but you should know a couple of things about them, their company, and their pain points. Be ready to demonstrate how your offerings can solve their problems.
Think about building relationships. Jot down questions that show genuine interest in their business and those that can uncover pain points. Listen carefully to their responses to gain a better understanding of their needs and your ability to fix those issues.
End the call knowing the next course of action. Do you need to reschedule or use another form of communication? Or arrange for a demo or in-person/virtual meeting? Ensure you and your prospect are clear on the next step.

Have A Content Marketing Strategy

We mentioned earlier that B2B prospects venture online to find information and solutions for their problems. Creating sought-after content is a reliable way of increasing sales. Why?

Useful content has a great capacity to raise consumer interest, generate traffic to your site and social pages, and engage audiences. The best way to leverage content marketing for better sales is by:

Producing evergreen content consistently. By evergreen we mean highly relevant, search engine optimized content that is useful to readers over a long period. Use catchy headlines and an interesting body of content that your readers can refer to from time to time
Collecting queries, comments, or questions from audiences to create content. Since this content addresses specific needs, audiences may find it easier to share. Plus, it helps set you up as a credible go-to solutions provider.
Using content marketing to create product listings. Be sure to add insightful product data to differentiate your offerings from your competitors.
Take part in discussion forums like Quora and Reddit. These platforms afford you the opportunity to contribute answers to questions. You can link and direct users to a products/service page where they can find more information and make buying decisions.

Social Media Marketing

Social media is virtually indispensable to our everyday life. Whether they are individual users or business decision-makers, 3.8 billion people the world over, use social media.

It’s a haven of opportunities for those who can see it. How do you see it?

Figure out why your business wants to be social. What business objectives should your social platforms meet? Is it improving visibility, interacting with customers and prospects, or promoting your offerings.
Know your target audience to better understand their interests, social media consumption habits, and needs.
Define your voice. Think about the kind of content you want to share on your platforms. Is it educational, promotional, humorous, or hard-hitting? Be sure your choice of content will appeal to your target audience.
Have a cocktail of content types. Work with infographics, text-based content, images, video, audio files, and live stream.
Create a social media calendar for consistency in your outreach. You can experiment with posting times to identify what works for your audience.

Choose the social platforms that resonate with your target audience. LinkedIn works for most business professionals, but if you’re in the creative industry, you may find Pinterest more suitable.