Like many marketers that sell to other businesses, I am faced with the following issue: expectations for online interactions are changing dramatically. So how is this going to impact B2B marketers?
For my answer, I tried to find a Web 2.0 B2B marketing expert. I spoke to agencies claiming to be Web 2.0 agencies, but all their work was consumer-facing and it was more traditional interactive marketing than anything Web 2.0. I looked for someone that had figured it out, and came up empty. Eventually, I realised we had to come up with something ourselves. So I gathered our experts and we worked through a number of sessions to apply our consumer learnings to the B2B world. We came up with the following eight principles.
1. Prospects are people
It is easy to identify winning approaches in the consumer space that we can learn from (such as, MySpace, Facebook, Digg, YouTube, Craigslist, Second Life etc.). However, in the B2B sector these dramatic market changes are yet to be reflected.
There is no escape from the expectations that have been set in the consumer market. B2B marketers should always keep this front of mind.
2. Silence the corporate voice
Everyone is deadened to the language of traditional corporate marketing. The acronyms, the buzzwords, the sentences that no one can figure out, and yet everyone uses them. Some companies have tried the hip corporate voice. This is even worse than the traditional voice in that it is painfully obvious that a company is trying too hard. The only solution is to let individuals speak for themselves.
3. Deputise the bloggers
If you kill the corporate voice, you need other voices (real individuals) to take its place. The good news is that you already have people that have volunteered for this job – the best bloggers within your company.
In many ways the rise of the blog can be seen as a craving for honest communication and piercing the veil of traditional corporate marketing language. Real voices within the company are yearning to express themselves and prospective customers have learned that nothing useful is on the official website and instead, they trawl around finding real comments from those closest to a question.
4. Tear down the fortress
Nearly all B2B companies follow the same approach to lead generation on their websites. Create content and force anyone who wants it to register by supplying their contact information.
The problem with this approach is that any content placed behind registration will not be accessed by search engines. If your prospects are starting with a search, your content had better be accessible or they will never find you.
5. Set the data free
Nearly every B2B company has data that prospects are very interested in. The traditional marketing approach is to guard the data and only share it with prospects in a one-on-one meeting. Instead, use the data to form a basis for a community of interest that can become a source of leads for your company.
6. Stop issuing press releases ‘over the wire’
The first press release was put ‘on the wire’ on March 8, 1954 by PRNewswire to 12 news outlets in New York City. The pricing model is still based on the number of words with the average press release costing between $500 and $1000 to put ‘over the wire’. Instead, email them to reporters to build a personal connection and increase the probability of coverage.
7. Syndicate, syndicate, syndicate
According to a recent survey, 72.6 per cent of B2B buyers start their process with a web search. Some companies have tried to address this challenge by buying keyword ads.
The challenge here is that numerous studies have shown that B2B purchasers are five times as likely to click on the organic links versus the paid ads. The answer is to actively share content with other sites your prospects visit. This approach dramatically increases your visibility in search engines and the likelihood potential prospects will learn about you.
8. Website as a gathering
During the first generation of the Internet era, a website could be compared to a corporate brochure – static content that has became known as ‘brochure-ware’. Next generation websites should be defined as a gathering that includes the conversations and interactions of multiple stakeholders for your business. Think of the best conference you have been to, the quality of the conversations and how your thinking was stimulated. This is what a website should be.
Implementing these principles should significantly impact the visibility of your company for prospects searching for the products and services you provide, increase the interactions time with them on your website and generate a greater volume of qualified leads.
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