If you’re running a small to medium-sized business (SMB) in the business-to-business (B2B) space, you know just how messy the digital revolution has been for sales and marketing.
Not very long ago, sales needed some kind of human interaction – even online, but these days, customers are relying on the internet to do everything, from fact-finding to building relationships with a brand.
So, how can you run a profitable, small B2B-focused business in the age of digital selling? We’ve put together some top tips to help your brand be found, seen, and heard online.
A Stand-Out Website
Most businesses know that it’s important to have a website, but they don’t realize just how crucial it is. Your website is your digital kingdom. Without it, you have few options for sharing your brand story, connecting people directly to your company, or making an excellent first impression on potential clients. In the B2B space especially, having a website that provides an engaging customer experience, top-notch branding, and easy navigation is a great way to build trust with potential clients. Follow the link for one example of a niche B2B business that’s nailing this.
Eye-Catching Content
What’s your story? Most companies do a good job of explaining what they do on their About Us page, but that’s where it stops. Use a range of dynamic content – blogs, videos, images, and infographics – to explain more about what you do and demonstrate to your potential customers how you can help them. Customers tend to respond better to educational and relevant information rather than products and service descriptions, so stop focusing on solely telling everyone how great what you do is. That’s all good and well, but what your customers really want to see is engaging, interesting information.
Strong SEO
Being found through Google search via search engine optimization (SEO) requires a regular stream of high-quality, relevant content, plus active social media profiles to further boost visibility and authority in your field. Social media often gets pushed aside by B2B companies, but this is a grave mistake – seven of the top eight SEO factors are directly tied to social media activity. So, make sure that you’re utilizing networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn regularly to gain more customer interest and improve your chance of showing up first in relevant search results.
Social Media
Along with improving SEO results, using social media has many more benefits for your B2B brand. There’s no better way than social media when it comes to putting your brand out there and connecting your ideas with the world. It’s one of the best ways to boost your company’s visibility online, and you can easily engage with and educate your target audience by focusing on sharing highly useful content with the people you want to connect with. You can also use social media to keep on top of your audience – listen to the “buzz” and ask direct questions to your followers to find out more about them, what they want, and what their pain points are.
Social Selling
Advertising and selling on social media are becoming increasingly more common amongst B2B companies, and for good reason. If you’re targeting small business owners, chances are that many of them are solo entrepreneurs that work from home and use social media to advertise their own business. Chances are, they’re going to see an ad that’s targeting them. You still need to put a lot of thought into creating and running your social ads, meaning it’s got to be better than spam for your audience to take notice of it. Focus on starting discussions, rather than pushing for sales.
Regardless of the product or service that you’re offering to other businesses, keep these tips in mind to ensure company growth and profitability.
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