Welcome to Part 22 of my User Engagement series and I’d like to shift things up a little. I have been focusing a lot on building engagement as it applies to blogger to consumer but let’s focus on B2B – Business to Business. Let’s not forget how many website owners are targeting other businesses because they have a tool or content that will benefit NOT only consumers, but also businesses. Because these companies have a lot more money to spend, the conversion rates can be much higher and this means achieving the bottom line more quickly. However, I have to admit, the way you target businesses is completely different because I find it to be more difficult. Why? Businesses are desperate to find tools or even network with others because they have already created a solid brand for themselves.
Today, I’d like to go over some of the important fundamentals of B2B and how you can use this relationship to increase user engagement, etc. Let’s get started.
What is Business-to-Business?
We are so consumed with the idea that bloggers or websites will target consumers when trying to sell a product or service. For example, hosting providers are a good example. Their main “customer†base is consumers but it turns into businesses during the up-sell process. Once the consumers purchase a basic plan, then they are officially businesses and now looking for creative business products going forward. However, this is NOT always the case because you have some websites that strictly marketing to consumers. Here’s a quick way I can differentiate between them both…
Business to Consumers – Sites like eBay.com or Amazon.com that sell books and other products to consumers. These people are buying for leisure and NOT looking to start their own business or make a profit in turn.
Business-to-Business – Hosting companies will sell domains and hosting packages to consumers looking to start their own business. These hosting companies’ main profit model is providing affordable solutions to new and existing businesses.
Effective B2B Engagement Strategies
I’d like to go over some affordable strategies that have been known to work over the years to increase engagement. Here they are:
Email Marketing –
One of the best ways to build engagement in B2B is through email marketing. However, instead of targeting consumers, you’re going to be focusing on businesses. If you are just starting out, then you’ll maybe want to hire a firm who has a B2B database to help market to relevant businesses but existing businesses will have a much easier time. As an existing business, you’ll have an established list and can use the next engagement strategy below to build traffic and increase profits.
Special Offers –
I can’t count the number of times as a business owner I’ve purchased something simply because of a special offer. For example, discount on hosting, ecommerce hosting, and domains. I’ve even sign up for a tool because they provide a FREE TRIAL and this allows me to test out the product. If I like it, they’ve increased the likelihood of me signing up going forward.
If you want to find out just the right offers then you might want to consider visiting your competitors and see what they are doing. If they’ve been in the business a long time, then you can learn a lot from their conversion techniques.
PPC
Another great way to build engagement is by simply doing what you already know how to do. Use your content or PPC networks to market to a select group of people. This means choosing the right keywords and/or websites to advertise your business on. You need to do the following to make sure you target the right audience:
First, you need to choose the right keywords because this will ensure your ad is displayed to businesses that will find your business products relevant. Uses tools like Google Keyword Planner or Trends will help you find the right trending phrases. Next, research websites you are planning on posting banners on. Check out where there traffic is coming from and what types of existing ads are on the website. If you notice other business advertising, then it might be a good choice for you to do the same. Third, split test different marketing channels because some will work better than others so it’s important to optimize where you can. Once you find the winning combination then you’ll be able to achieve high conversion rates.
Click Here To Download John Chow’s New eBook, The Ultimate Online Profit Model!