Category: Business to Business (B2B)

Attract attention from B2C buyers

• 76 percent of mobile shoppers change their minds about which retailer or brand to buy from after searching online, according to Google.
• 8 out of 10 consumers are influenced by online sources before purchasing.

Convert those B2B decision-makers

• Business decision-makers conduct, on average, 12 online searches before they engage with a brand, according to Google.
• Those same decision-makers are 75 percent of the way through the process before they contact a company.

As a CEO or business owner, you don’t need to get bogged down with the details of online marketing, but it is important to understand how data, cost and results impact your company. Why should you concern yourself with digital marketing, you have people for that, right? 

According to HubSpot, CEOs should care about online marketing for one main reason: “Online marketing reduces marketing costs while improving lead quality and volume and provides detailed metrics for measurement and further improvement.”

Leave the details, like keyword selection, content creation and scheduling social media to your marketing team and concern yourself with these key elements of your company’s digital strategy. 

A CEO’s checklist for winning online:

Website:
When it comes to your company’s website, ask yourself this important question: “What does our website say about our company?” Your website should convince prospective customers that your business is reliable, reputable and stays up to date with industry trends. The company website also should address customer pain points and let your customers know what problem you can solve for them. In addition, your website should be mobile friendly, given that more than half of all web traffic comes from mobile devices. Businesses that optimize for mobile devices generate 30 percent more traffic and leads than those that don’t.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
SEO is the process of optimizing a website to make sure it ranks higher in results when prospective customers search for your products, driving more and better-quality leads to your site. The SEO game is painstaking, and the rules change frequently. For example, Google looks at over 200 factors to rank websites and changes its algorithms more than 700 times a year — almost twice a day.

Local SEO:
Local SEO refers to taking advantage of local business listings — Google My Business, Bing listings, etc., — and making sure they are updated, owned and verified. In many searches, business listings will outrank website listings. Be sure to include business descriptions, menus, photos, addresses and phone numbers to provide ample information about your company.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM):
Sometimes, to get to the top of Google, paid search engine marketing, like Google Ads, provides just the right shot in the arm to boost your company to the top of the listings. Paid placements, after all, appear above organic listings in Google search. It’s important, though, to know how to manage Google Ads correctly. It can get quite expensive, and it’s critical to work with a Google certified agency to ensure success.

Social media:
There are about three billion social media users in the world, according to Statista, so it makes sense to capture the attention of those eyeballs. Your prospects are using networks like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to research new vendors, learn about new products and businesses, connect with potential partners and much more, so stay active and stay focused — on the right message and on the right channels.  And don’t forget YouTube. It can be a key tool to educate prospects about your product or solutions through video. Consider paid social campaigns. Boosting or sponsoring posts allows for extraordinary targeting to make sure your message is being seen by the right demographic, with the right job title and and/or interests.

In summary, your prospects and customers are going digital — even if you are not. To be successful, you need stay on top of what they want, how they research and how they prefer to buy products and services. Armed with this information, you can prioritize strategies and create a strategy to attract more leads and increase sales.

If you want your business to win online, contact the digital marketing strategists at Prototype Marketing today.