Business to Business Internet Marketing Campaigns
Business relationships are not developed by reading other business' websites.
The marketing value of the website is in its ability to facilitate the connection of two or more businesses.
Too many businesses rely on their websites to sell their company. Consequently, even if traffic is high, conversions are low.
The website is a marketing tool, a tracking tool and a follow-up tool. There are three parts to effective b2b marketing.
- PROMOTION
- THE EVENT
- FOLLOW-UP
If a company offers business services and the goal is to establish contact with as many prospective clients as possible, all too often, businesses think that the website is the means to accomplishing that. So a very typical approach is to engage in a pay-per-click campaign. While we don't discourage this approach, especially if there is a return on that investment, we do encourage our clients to develop a more creative promotion using some or any combination of several promotion channels:
- Off the net - Newspaper and print, radio, tv, even billboards, bulletin boards
- On the net - Email, Social Networking (Linked In), Classified sites (Craigslist), PPC, SEO, Banners, Video
The event can be anything that connects your business with your prospects business. Typically, the event is highlighted on the website. The event is NOT the website itself. The event typically includes the direct involvement of the business hosting the event. And that means real people connecting with real people. The event can be a seminar, a webinar, the presentation of a new product. Get creative.
Best practices with respect to the promotion is to drive prospective clients to a specific web page that SELLS the EVENT. The visitor can then sign up for the event and indicate his desire to participate. A relatively small percentage of business are doing this but I can tell you with absolute certainty that those that are, are reaping the rewards. Online Business to Busness marketing is a process that connects business so that they can have a conversation together.
Lastly, once the event has occurred, the list that was generated from the sign up, now has attached to it 3-4 follow-up emails that automagically get delivered following the event. Nobody falls through the cracks.
Call us at 614-456-9115. Let us help you set up your next Business to Business campaign.