B2B E-commerce Marketing Strategies To Drive Conversion
Like any other online business, your B2B e-commerce initiative cannot work effectively without a solid marketing strategy to back it up.
B2B customers want timely, relevant, and accurate product/service information before deciding to purchase online. And digital marketing plays a critical role in providing them all the data they need while also increasing site traffic and driving up conversions.
But despite its importance, most B2B companies spend 5% or less of their budgets on marketing. This could be because many businesses in this niche still operate under the pretense that meeting face-to-face with top decision-makers is the only way to make sales.
However, good marketing collateral can bring B2B clients to you, giving your sales teams the ability to secure buyers online.
Here is a round-up of the essential e-commerce marketing strategies for your B2B company:
Identify Purchase Patterns
Map out buying journeys of your most valuable customer personas to learn how they understand and experience your offerings digitally. Answers to the following questions will help you do this right:
- What is your company’s average buying cycle?
- When do your customers plan their budget?
- How much time does it take your customers to decide on your products as compared to other brands?
- What is the duration in which your products get shipped and delivered to the end customer?
Remember, there are no right or wrong responses to these questions. It all depends on the nature of your business, your industry, your clients, and the services/products you sell. If you think that there is more than one correct answer, it might be a good idea to develop multiple persona profiles. This will help ensure that your e-commerce marketing efforts align with the buying patterns of your B2B consumers.
Know That B2B E-commerce Is Same As B2C
If you want to drive conversions and generate revenue, stop believing that B2B consumers are radically different from B2C buyers. A person who stocks their warehouse with protection gear also buys on Amazon or shops from Target typically.
According to a survey by Episerver, 84% of decision-makers in B2B report that their biggest threat/challenge was the rising digital expectations of partners and customers. This means, like B2C shoppers, business buyers also expect their interactions with companies to be seamless and effortless.
Let us bust the myth that consumers ignore a good website or are not interested in an advanced e-commerce experience. The preferences and tastes of your B2B customers closely align with the buying patterns and behaviors of B2C shoppers, and everyone loves a clean, easy-to-navigate website.
This makes it imperative to deliver a seamless experience to your B2B customers to entice them to do business with you and ultimately drive higher conversions.
Leverage Email Marketing Tactics
Effective email marketing tactics can be beneficial when you use them to their maximum potential. There are various email marketing strategies that you can use for your B2B customers.
For starters, don’t bore your recipients with generic emails. It’s vital to leverage the power of segmentation and personalization to drive conversion rates. Fortunately, e-commerce email marketing software can automate the entire process and enhance your email marketing efforts.
You can also develop campaigns for cross-selling and upselling and sell supplementary or related products based on your client’s previous purchase patterns. This increases the volume of return customers and strengthens your relationships with your customer base.
Take advantage of predictive-buy analysis to get valuable insights into customer’s data, including records of their previous purchases, to anticipate their future buying patterns. Use this data to reach out to your customers who haven’t purchased in a while to re-engage them.
That way, you can remind them of your business while also developing practical, data-driven marketing campaigns for your B2B e-commerce.
Target Potential B2B Customers With Paid Ad Campaigns
Another tactic to increase your website traffic is through paid ad campaigns. These targeted marketing promotions can help you reach out to existing and new customers alike.
There are three ways to increase your e-commerce website traffic with paid ads – search engine advertising, social media or paid advertising, and display advertising.
If your SEO efforts aren’t paying off or not quick enough, using the search engine advertising alternative can work well. It allows you to automatically get in front of your target audiences searching for similar products and services as yours.
Making the most of your social media advertising campaigns is another strategy that allows you to focus target specific demographics like region, language, interests, etc.
You can filter your lookalike audiences on several digital platforms and take advantage of this opportunity to reach your audience. Additionally, you can use online billboards for marketing your brand and its e-commerce website to online visitors and finally convert them into your customers.
Leverage Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
Account-Based Marketing is critical to your B2B business and customers. It’s a long-term strategy that assimilates many optimization and marketing activities to seek potential opportunities with your valuable accounts.
Specifically, in the context of your B2B e-commerce, Account-Based Marketing helps you focus on personalized efforts and buying experience, constant feedback analysis, and, eventually, customer acquisition, conversion, and retention.
The primary goal is to emphasize your key accounts, implement the enhancements they want to see in your products and eradicate any bottlenecks in their digital buying process.
Encourage your visitors to purchase again using an ingenious combination of seamless Omnichannel experience and proactive marketing strategies. Continuous optimization of your e-commerce web store is also an important part of this drive.
Wrapping Up
Your real e-commerce growth begins with your marketing plan and business model. Align your advertising department, sales team, content professionals, etc., with the customer sales funnel and your business goals.
Strategically implement the B2B e-commerce marketing techniques mentioned above to make your website stand out from your competitors. These tactics are also great at motivating your visitors to buy, driving higher conversion rates and a positive ROI.
So what are you waiting for?
Start building your B2B marketing campaign today and take advantage of readily available digital tools and resources to achieve your goals.