grab the attention of potential clients and strategic partners while demonstrating their expertise and experience. Such companies could learn from their B2C brethren regarding how to market over the Internet effectively. Over the years, B2C companies such as Amazon, Apple, and Walmart have become shining examples of how to use the Internet as a tool for building profitable, long-term relationships with customers.
Using the Internet as a marketing tool
Effective messaging is vital to the success of a B2B company’s web site. There are several factors a company needs to consider when using the Internet as a marketing tool. For starters, a web site must effectively demonstrate that the company can appeal to a consumer’s desires. One of the most common mistakes companies make is not essentially saying to a customer, “You have this challenge— this is how we can fix it.” Or more simply, “This is what we sell.” The last thing a company wants is for users to ask “What can you do for me?” when visiting their web site.
Second, a B2B company must separate itself from its competition. However, this isn’t always the case, as companies are too often paralyzed by tradition, fear, and precedent when creating web sites. It’s one of the primary reasons nearly every law firm, accountant, and consultant web site appears to look the same. These similarities can result in site visitors questioning its confidence in a company because it exhibits so little creativity and initiative in what is essentially its public face.
Third, a company’s messages, particularly one that involves marketing intangible services, should be told in compelling stories and images. Companies will have visitors with a wide variety of interests and tastes. This means a company’s personality, how it does business, and its collective mission must be revealed in a widely appealing way. While it’s vital to tell the stories of clients through case studies, for example, it is equally important to preview what it’s like to work with a company.
What makes for effective marketing web sites
A B2B company’s marketers and administrators need to take advantage of new marketing technologies. The most effective web sites utilize a full range of current technologies to demonstrate a company’s capabilities, experience, and overall personality.
These technologies can be enormously powerful tools for supporting a company’s brand across multiple distribution points. There are numerous content management suites that can harness the full range of branding tools. However, the best technological solutions don’t stop there. The most effective content management products also include content distribution technology, which permits marketing and business development professionals to instantly transfer content from a company’s web site into proposals,
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brochures, and other important documents. This is a particularly important resource for business development staff because it can free up thousands of hours each year—time that can be better spent generating new business leads.
Video can be a powerful platform for introducing a company’s prinicipals to both established and potential customers. Webinars and podcasts can also provide a forum for company representatives to demonstrate their knowledge about timely and important issues. Finally, regularly updated blogs can provide an opportunity to demonstrate leadership on key issues, as well as provide established and potential customers with a reason to regularly visit a web site.
At the same time, social media strategies should have a prominent place in a company’s approach to marketing. Social media can be an essential tool for connecting with clients, prospects, and strategic partners. For example, LinkedIn can provide exposure to a host of prospective clients and partners through its various networking features. LinkedIn features numerous forums for discussing cutting edge business issues with professionals who can later become valuable connections.
Utilizing new technologies often requires a B2B company’s marketers and administrators to take a leap of faith, as it can mean surrendering old approaches to marketing. However, doing so will only lead to positive impacts that will lead to a B2B company becoming more successful.
Enormous competitive advantages
Many B2B companies don’t believe that executive- level buyers use the Internet when looking for lawyers, accountants, and other consultants. As a result, these companies do not fully utilize Internet marketing. However, this approach is leading to missed opportunities for many companies. Recent research shows that B2B customers, particularly executives, rely heavily on online resources when making buying decisions. For example, nearly 80 percent of executive-level purchasers of services say they use the Internet to search for legal, accounting, and consulting help. At the same time, three out of four executives say the quality of a firm’s site influences whether they put that firm on their short list.
B2B companies that create useful and compelling web sites will have an enormous competitive advantage over companies that don’t utilize web-based marketing effectively. By taking a strategic approach to building web sites and integrating the full range of new technologies available, companies can dramatically increase the effectiveness of their business development and marketing efforts.
About the Author:
Burkey Belser, president and creative director of Greenfield/Belser, is widely known as “The Father of Legal Advertising.” Greenfield/ Belser can be found online at
www.greenfieldbelser.com.
marketingtimes
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