According to HubSpot’s Demand Generation Benchmarks Report, in 2015, about 80% of companies that did not meet their revenue targets attracted 10,000 visitors or less to their website. On the other hand, companies that attracted more than 10,000 visitors to their website, surpassed their revenue targets.
The conclusion here is that having an online presence is critical for B2B sellers. So, the question is, how can you increase your online sales?
Before getting to some of the ways, it is essential to understand that having a comprehensive strategy as opposed to tactics is the best way to approach increasing your online presence. Essentially, having a B2B online marketing strategy specific to your company will allow you to have a more significant impact through well-directed tactics. With this in mind, below are several tactics that you can use to push your online presence within the context of five vital online assets or online properties (Website, Branding, Content, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and Social Media) that you should ideally possess.
Table of Content
1. Understand your Brand and Engage Customers
The B2B online marketing funnel starts with branding.
Branding, as most B2B marketers know is of paramount importance to B2B websites. Customers need to know that they can be treated professionally and fairly by the B2B website before signing up for information or services.
B2B Online Marketing brand strategies ensure that:
- Customers choose your brand over your competitors
- Customers will be predisposed to your brand and willing to engage with you
- Sales cycles will be shorter because customers understand your business and products
- Your company can build trust with stakeholders (customers, suppliers, shareholders, etc.)
- Your brand can charge and sustain premium prices
2. B2B branding
There are several more benefits of B2B branding. The next obvious question is, how do you increase online presence through branding? Here are some suggestions
- Define your brand. Primarily, you should consider:
- The special features that your products have that you can incorporate into your brand
- The qualities that you want to associate with your business
- Get the right brand pieces based on the way you define your brand. More specifically, you should have color schemes and a logo that you can use with your overall B2B Online Marketing Strategies.
- Find out what differentiates your brand from your competitors. Such information should be gathered from prospects, customers, and employees.
- Create brand ideas that are consistent with the way you define your brand. Keep in mind that your brand projects your business identity which in turn affects who you repel from or attract to your business.
- Involve your customers. Engaging prospects before, during and after the sale ensures that your customer takes the journey with you. If the journey is a good one, then your customer will become your brand ambassador or evangelist. Naturally, they will talk positively about your brand which in turn will drive online traffic and increase your online presence one customer at a time.
The main thing is that what you say and do should be consistent with a cohesive brand image that your stakeholders and audience want to identify with. In doing so, you will organically increase your online presence.
3. Enhance your Professional Website
A website is your digital storefront and probably the first place that you will think of when seeking to boost your online presence. After all, 89% of B2B marketing researchers start their buying process online.
The best tactics to increase your online presence on your website revolve around building it in the right way in the first place. Here are a few critical things that you could do on this front:
- Ensure your website is mobile-ready. According to Google, more than 51% of mobile phone users found a new business or product while researching on their phone. Using responsive web design is a must if you want to increase your online presence.
2. Guide your visitor through the funnel: Basically, your site should be more than just a brochure. It should strategically guide potential buyers through the buying journey or through a conversion process.
3. Information or content on the website should be easily accessible: Some things that you could do include categorizing content on your site so that it is easy to find.
4. Loading time: B2B websites should load fast (1-2 seconds), or else visitors will simply go elsewhere to quickly find the information they need. Avoid overusing plugins on your website that will slow it down, and check out Google PageSpeed Insights from time to time to ensure the site is fast enough.
5. Understand visitor’s interaction with your website and adjust accordingly: Find tools like VWO, Smartlook, and Hotjar that will help you appreciate website visitor behavior on a webpage through heatmaps. Tweak your website and use A/B testing to find out the tweaks that increase your online presence.
Most B2B online marketing companies have come to realize the importance of a solid B2B website. However, creating a B2B website is very difficult these days. It’s hard to find time in the day-to-day business grind to invest in B2B online marketing, but making sure your B2B website is relevant and up to date with fresh content ensures that you are maximizing your B2B sales funnel.
However, there are many more ways of doing B2B online marketing beyond just having an effective B2B website.
4. Make the most of SEO
Driving traffic to your website through SEO is a core strategy for increasing online presence. According to Netmarketshare, between October 2017 and October 2018, Google was responsible for over 70% of organic traffic. It is not difficult to see why 61% of marketers say that their top priority is growing organic presence and improving SEO.
Here are some useful best practices that can help boost SEO for a better online presence:
- Do comprehensive keyword research and use the right keywords in your content
- Use high-quality landing pages
- Align keyword lists with user intent
- Leverage schema
- Secure your website
It is also critically important to optimize images with alt text so that the search engine can understand the content of the site even better and therefore rank the page higher on the search engine.
Furthermore, keep in mind that SEO and PPC (Pay per click campaigns) work better together to create even more opportunities to increase online presence. Utilizing tools like Google Ads (formerly called Google AdWords) allows businesses to improve their online presence before SEO strategies can gradually gain traction reaching audiences.
5. Create Deliberate Content
Building a strong foundation for a content marketing strategy is pivotal when it comes to improving B2B’s online presence. Essentially, the content strategy should use different forms of content at different stages of the sales/marketing funnel and with respect to the different sales/marketing channels. Ultimately, the content strategy should guide prospects through the funnel from demand generation and lead generation all the way to becoming a customer and beyond.
Some tips for increasing online presence through content include:
- Create actionable content that is story-driven and that utilizes an appropriate branding strategy.
- Segment leads and sends the right content based on their position on the buyer’s journey
- Avoid being too promotional and instead, offer value that will make your audience trust you more
- Diversify your content (whitepapers, blogs, video, infographics, social media content, etc.) so that you can reach different audiences in the places where they like to find content.
- Repurpose content that attracts a lot of traffic.
When audiences are attracted to the different forms of content that specifically address their challenges, worries, and queries, then online presence is organically improved since you will become a trusted resource.
Also important on B2B marketing online are establishing your company as a trusted business resource and cultivating relationships with bloggers who can get you in front of the right people.
6. Build a Deliberate Social Media Strategy
Fundamentally, you will need to define what you want to share, who you want to share with, the persona and voice that you will use. Having a smart social media plan is a great way to increase your online presence.
There are many B2B companies that are using social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook the wrong way. First, you have to determine why you want to use social media and also which of these three will be the most compatible with your B2B online marketing strategy. Social Media can be used in B2B for lead generation, customer retention and development and market research.
Some of the ways to improve internet social media presence include:
- Choosing an appropriate network based on your audience and how you need to interact with them
- Set a deliberate goal. For example, increase online presence
- Create a suitable strategy
- Create or curate social media content based on your plan
- Engage your audience in meaningful ways, e.g. comment, share, answer questions, appreciate your audience, etc
- Add value instead of just promoting your brand
- Be consistent and predictably available online
Conclusion
In all the methods listed above, capturing baseline metrics, and then calibrating your actions based on the success or failure of the tactics used is vital for success. Ideally, you want to use B2B online marketing strategies and tactics that are specific to your long-term and short-term business goals and objectives. Taking action based on such B2B marketing strategies will help you sustainably grow your online presence.
