May 12, 2005

Sometimes, marketing managers in B2B companies or businesses that own and manage B2B portals have a certain perception that -- just because their websites are not directly targeted at consumers -- they don’t need to accurately gauge the traffic. Additionally, a great number of the people responsible of Internet marketing at B2B companies subscribe to the theory that their websites are not that important to their overall business strategy, and thus their overall success and ROI.

“We don’t really sell anything online, so optimizing for conversion is not going to be important,” the thinking goes.

That thinking obviously needs to change. Every site should be transactional and conversion-oriented; otherwise, it is not doing its job. Neglecting the transactional nature of B2B sites is one of the common oversights in business-to-business and services marketing. The confusion often lies in thinking that conversion refers only to the checkout process in a shopping cart, or that a site is transactional only if individuals have to enter a credit card to purchase a product.

This, however, is not the case. Even if a company is selling jet engines, which clearly would not be purchased with a credit card, ecommerce tools can help to connect the dots in the purchasing process. To do this, marketers must think about the company’s business objectives and how online marketing can work to serve them. What follows are some components of interactive sites that B2B marketers should consider.

Awareness

Getting customers to find a company's sites when they most need them is critical in ensuring the transactional nature of the website and the success of the company. Step one is finding the prospect; step two is finding them at the right time in their purchase process. Most business customers spend a fair amount of time on the internet and using email, affording B2B marketers many opportunities to reach and educate them about how the company can help.

There are a number of places a marketer can use as a method of outreach. White paper distribution sites can be particularly helpful in educating target audiences on technical products. These are best used as a soft-sell vehicle for education and to help prospects overcome challenges or objections.

Other options include: buying key phrases in search engines, tapping into natural search engine optimization on key phrases related to a product category or advertising with trade publications and online events. Each of these mechanisms can build awareness, should be considered a first step toward conversion and be tracked as such.

Education

This is where many marketers, struggling with the online mix, get stuck -- falling into the trap of building brochure-ware online to educate individuals who happen to find their site. “Look! We have a website. We are a real company,” the sites scream.

Often these sites fall into many of the brochure-ware traps -- standard “About Us,” “Products,” “Contact Us” and “Customer Service sections,” followed by typical sub-sections, long prose copy and stock photos in corners, in a simple effort to check off items on a recommended list of things to include.

Brochure-ware, however, runs contrary to the way most people make decisions. Websites, instead, should be more interactive in nature, addressing the target and determining his or her needs, then quickly identifying the products’ benefits in relation and providing a path to go to the next step.

Understanding the way the target wants to operate is critical in addressing his or her needs. For instance, some prospects may need to put together an RFP, in which case the marketer could offer a convenient RFP template to help them get the job done quickly and easily (for both parties).

Comparison

Almost everyone does it when they are shopping for big ticket items, and in the B2B world, comparison shopping can be just as, if not more, important when a job is on the line if the wrong vendor is selected. Marketers should realize that the target is going to shop around and arm them with the tools to make sure they come back during the comparison phase of purchasing.

Marketers should make comparison tools downloadable and easily printable. How-to buying guides and other educational materials can be helpful, affording marketers the opportunity to position products favorably against competitors. These guides can provide general industry information helpful to the purchaser, while also driving home messaging to ensure that products are appropriately considered in the final stages of conversion.

Conversion

Note: For the purposes of this article, I am talking about online conversion, but true conversion ends with a completed sale.

This is the tricky part of any B2B transaction, because it can be difficult to pinpoint what exactly constitutes a conversion. Some business-to-business sites may have several: inclusion in an RFP; a write-up by a member of the media; a subscription to an email newsletter; registrations for whitepapers, email lists, webinars, et cetera. And, of course, this list includes a request for a salesperson to contact a prospect. All of these can originate from the keen use of online marketing tactics and should be tracked as an online marketing success (more on measurement shortly).

Again, this really translates back to mapping business goals to online tactics.

In any step toward a conversion, marketers should know what information they need to follow-up on and consider the proper balance of information to request without turning off the prospect from responding (ecommerce marketers deal with this balance all the time with their shopping carts).

Repeat usage

Even after customers are established, the site can and should be used to support them. For instance, on top of personal contact, websites can support customers when customer support is not available. Often, customers feel more supported when they can figure out the issue themselves through the use of a website.

Marketers can make customers feel supported through personalized web-based service, surveys to see how they feel about the support and other tools that will get them talking about the company’s level of attention to their needs.

Measurement

The great thing about web-based marketing tactics is that the web is so easy to track. In setting up the appropriate tracking and testing mechanisms, marketers can optimize online efforts to make sure the company is only spending money on marketing that yields results.

With web analytics, marketers can track ROI on advertising, conversion funnels through the site and abandoned forms to make decisions on how to change things to increase your conversion percentages. Additionally, with simple A/B testing platforms, marketers can optimize messaging, placement and other concepts that help put the most leads into the sales team’s hands as possible.

The first pass at any of the above tactics is, at best, a hypothesis at what the marketing department’s needs may really be. Once marketers identify business goals, they can map out a strategy and make a few attempts at strengthening the conversion process.

Conclusion

Regardless of the products or services marketers promote, strategies can be mapped to include the web as a critical part of marketing success. Even when a product is not sold via the web, business is still being done online. Web strategies should not be viewed as necessary evils, but as open doors that use traditional marketing principles to obtain enhanced measurement possibilities.

A brief note: For the purposes of this article, I only discussed one conversion channel -- sales. Conversions can also come in other shapes, such as a person submitting a resume for a job that has been posted on the company’s website, or a potential partner signing up for a partner program online. A company’s website and online strategy should be multi-faceted and comprehensive enough to support all departments in the company. A site should always be transactional; it just may not be as apparent as when the prospect checks out of an online shopping cart.

Article written by Reid Carr
Source: iMedia Connection.com