B2B marketers need to stay on top of purchase trends to get ahead when it comes to connecting with buyers. The buyer process continues to shift as buyers become more informed about the investments they’re considering before they even hop on the phone with someone in sales. While more than 95% of all corporate buyers want a salesperson to be involved in the sales process, the B2B buyer space isn’t the same as it used to be. With the wealth of information available to buyers online, buyers are becoming more independent. Recent studies indicate that the B2B buyer space is experiencing some shifts and new trends are emerging.

Related: 3 Content Marketing Trends to Pay Attention to in 2013

The B2B Buyer Landscape

In their 2013 State of B2B Procurement Study, Acquity Group surveyed corporate buyers to discover what their purchasing habits and preferences are. The study revealed Gen Y buyers are more likely to shop online than their older counterparts, with a consistent trend of online purchase increasing in younger generations as 90% of buyers age 18-35 make company purchases online, followed by 68% of buyers age 36-45 (Tweet this stat!). The study also showed that younger buyers research more before purchasing than their older counterparts. While more B2B buyers are conducting online research and making purchases online, the survey also found some interesting information about the purchase process. The survey showed:

• 27.1% preferred to “speak with someone directly to discuss purchase options and walk me through the entire process.” (Tweet this stat!)
• 27.1% were willing to do some research, but wanted “to talk through purchasing on the phone with a salesperson.”
• 33.8% wanted to do their own research and purchase online, but also wanted “to have the support of someone on the phone to discuss any issues.” (Tweet this stat!)

Related: Accelerate your efforts with our suite of performance marketing products.

The ABC’s of B2B Buyers

We’ve covered trends that are taking place when it comes to online research and the purchase process. However, these aren’t the only trends B2B marketers need to be aware of. Mike Miller, Director of Business and Industrial Markets at Google, noted in an interview with eMarketer that they saw a 23% change year over year when it came to those who relied on search for their business purchases – it went from 67% to 90%. Miller also explained, “By the time a B2B purchaser actually engages with a company or with a sales rep from that company, they’re 57% of the way through their decision process.” If your business aims to stay ahead of competition, remember your ABC’s when it comes to what buyers want.

• Be Available. Even if your outreach efforts fall short in making contact, let your prospects know you’re ready to talk when they are – whether it’s during the research phase, the actual purchase, or after they’ve made an online transaction.
• Be Beneficial. Buyers don’t want a sales pitch; they want to know how your business, product and service will benefit their business. As a marketer or sales professional, you need to instill within buyers just how you can add value to their organization.
• Be Consistent. Miller pointed out that organizations may have one group that’s focused on just one channel, another on a different channel, and the messages they’re placing in those channels aren’t consistent. Don’t fall into this trap; make sure your brand and tone are consistent across all channels.

Related: Search Marketing 2013 Trends and B2B Takeaways

While buyers may be doing more research on their own than ever before, they still want businesses and salespeople to be available should they have questions or want assistance during the purchase process. Your business needs to reach buyers by being beneficial and addressing their needs, whether it’s making a purchase or providing research before they buy. Use your content, knowledge and available resources to address the buyer trends that are taking place.

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Marketing automation is a hot topic for modern marketers. Businesses, sales pros, and marketing teams are all looking for ways to reach more of the right people in a more efficient way than they have in the past. Automated emails can be a thing of beauty – but only if your business does it right. It’s all about timing and relevance and if your business can get these two things figured out for its target audience, you’ll be more successful. We took a look at a case study released by BtoB online of how one business was able to turn its email marketing efforts around with a timely, tailored new user campaign. Here’s what the company achieved and what your business can take away.

Related: Accurate Timing Affects Email Marketing Success

The Case Study: Wasp Barcode Technologies

A 2011 BtoB Online case study analyzed the email marketing efforts of a company who wanted to reach its customers with more timely offers and information. Wasp Barcode Technologies wanted to leverage the idea of creating and rolling out a campaign of nine timed emails aimed at new customers. With goals of improving the onboarding process and encouraging users to engage with their new software immediately after activation, Wasp Barcode Technologies’ campaign took the form of nine triggered emails following a purchase for their software. The first email the company sent out, within 24 hours, was a message about the free training they offered. The next email provided the new user with information about downloadable tutorials and was sent three days after their initial triggered email. Emails three through nine were sent every 30 days with the idea of improving the user experience and satisfaction with information provided in each message.

The Results: The company found that the activation campaign opt-outs were 60% lower than in other campaigns and the open rates yielded a 105% lift over previous efforts. In addition to those successes, 50% of their new testimonials came directly from the email campaign and click-throughs for complimentary products averaged 25% higher than previous campaigns.

Related: How to Nurture Leads with Auto Response Emails

What You Can Take Away

New user email marketing campaigns are a great way for your business to deepen the relationship it already has with a customer. While returning customers may be the bulk of your business, new customers are key to a business’s success. Get your new customers on board and engaged right away to make sure they become repeat customers that keep coming back for more products, services and content from your business. If you’re considering developing a triggered email campaign, consider structuring your outreach in a way similar to the one Wasp Barcode Technologies took:

• Email One: This can be your welcome email that encourages the user to get started with your product or service right away. Encourage them to check out a free training session, get in touch with a representative, or check out your FAQ or forum section.
• Email Two: This is another warm, inviting email that encourages your user to interact with the content you have available. A relevant white paper, how-to video or podcast are all things you can feature.
• Email Three: Offer an extended warranty or another one-on-one training session. Focus on relevance and context. If they have a certain period of time to complete registration for support or a warranty, this is your chance to send them a reminder.
• Emails Four and Five: To improve the user experience, offer your customers more how-to’s, practical tips, and surprising ways in which they can make the most of your software or product.
• Email Six: This is your chance to upsell the customer with an add-on or accessory. Just make sure you aren’t overstepping, especially if their recent purchase put a strain on their budget.
• Email Seven: Offer your customer an upgrade. If they’ve been working with you and have become a loyal customer, you can do this at a discount.
• Email Eight: Customer feedback is key. Use this email to ask your customer what they think of the purchase process you provide, the product or service they’ve invested in, and the content and offers you’ve been sharing.

Related: Partner with Business.com to deliver your content-rich white papers to business buyers.

Email marketing can work and your business can stand out from all the others hitting inboxes. If a customer has chosen to work with your business, make sure you’re providing them with timely, relevant information that can help them be more successful. Keep customers coming back for more by making sure you leave a positive impact from the first purchase onward.

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B2B buyers are using content to research products, services and vendors. Buyers want the content and marketers are delivering it. In fact, many are now spending more than 25% of their budgets on the development, delivery and promotion of content to drive business leads, influence markets and build brand awareness. A new study by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council found that 87% of B2B buyers said online content has either a major or moderate impact on vendor preference and selection (Tweet this!). If your business aims to use content to reach new audiences, influence current prospects and close sales, consider these facts, figures and fundamental practices your business needs to be aware of.

Related: How to Conquer with B2B Content Marketing

Know the Need and the Numbers

In an effort to create more meaningful customer engagement, B2B marketers are becoming content publishers and looking for ways to incorporate content marketing into their sales pipelines, lead flow and upsell strategies. 35% of the CMO study buyers say online content highlights the vendors that best understand their needs (Tweet this!). Reach your audience by producing and publishing content that educates your prospects and customers, while building your brand as a though leader. The content you post shouldn’t be gated too heavily, blatantly self-promotional or self-serving or be generic, uniformed content. Content may be a key in reaching buyers, but it’s only going to have a positive response if your audience finds it valuable. The types of content B2B buyers value most include:

• Professional association research reports and whitepapers (67%)
• Industry group research reports and whitepapers (50%)
• Customer case studies (48%)
• Analyst reports and white papers (44%)
• Product reviews (40%).

Related: Connect with buyers and reach a a qualified audience via the whitepaper content marketing offering from Business.com – email sales@business.com.

Face the Content Fundamentals

Knowing the fundamentals is important in all aspects of life and business. It’s hard to build a marketing campaign or strategy without first understanding the basics: who your audience is, what they want and why, where they want it, and how your business can facilitate all these things. 28% of B2B buyers shares content with over 100 people (Tweet this!) so this section takes a look at those key content factors and ways your business can approach each.

Who – Content Audience: With big data readily available for businesses to sift through, spend some time looking over who your audience is, what segments (if not all) that you want to reach with the content you create, and consider the type of content these people and buyers will want. You already know what content is valuable, so analyze how you can create industry, role and stage in the purchase process tailored content.

What – Content Creation: B2B buyers said the characteristics they most value in online content are breadth and depth of information (47%); ease of access, understanding and readability (44%); and originality of thinking and ideas (39%). Focus on content that is relevant to your audience and incorporates as many of these characteristics as possible. Content may be king, but relevance and content are just as important when it comes to successful content marketing.

Where – Content Distribution: According to the CMO study, the most valuable sources of online content cited by B2B buyers when doing research are professional associations and online communities (47%); industry organizations and groups (46%); online trade publications (41%); seminars and workshops (41%); and trade shows (35%). Look for ways your business can distribute content through each of these effectively. Partnerships, ongoing relationships with editors, and a presence at tradeshows are all places to get started with content distribution.

Related: The B2B Buyer Journey: Moving From Catalyst to Closer with Content

Now that you know the types of content buyers want, the things they find valuable in content and where they look for it, your business needs to reevaluate its content marketing strategy to ensure your meeting the demand of buyers. Content management, from creation to repurposing, is a must. Test what works, what doesn’t and how you can more effectively nurture buyers by addressing their pain points and answering their questions.

Tell us how your company benefits from content marketing. 

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Lead generation programs are becoming more mainstream. In fact, 74% of B2B marketing professionals are participating in lead-gen practices, with 48% “very” or “fully” involved. While lead generation companies often filter through leads to ensure marketers are receiving high-quality contacts, not every lead will be in the same stage of the purchase process. An effective lead scoring system can help your marketing, sales and lead generation efforts be more successful. Here are 5 steps your business can take to a stronger lead scoring system.

Related: Get started with your own lead generation campaign to connect with business buyers.

1.     Define Your Lead Scoring Goals

Before you even get started with creating lead scoring criteria or building a system to abide by, your business needs to define its lead scoring goals. What is it that you hope to achieve with lead scoring and the corresponding filtering system? Are you looking for ways to rule out poor lead generation campaigns, make the most of your lead generation spend, and/or optimize your current lead generation pool and efforts? Define your goals before moving forward.

2.     Understand Your Lead Scoring Criteria

Creating and understanding lead scoring criteria is crucial to the success of your scoring system. Going back through the data your business already has available can help you find traits and trends that are closely associated with closed deals and bad leads. While timelines and purchase cycles may differ from one company to the next, you’ll want to ask yourself the following questions to establish what criteria your lead scoring system will be based upon:

• What lead characteristics lead to a close in a short-period of time, moderate period of time, or long period of time?
• What does our business consider a bad lead? Do we communicate this to our lead generation company to ensure our goals are aligned?
• What types of behaviors are an essential part of our buyer’s purchase process and how are we generating leads and making an impact at each point?

Related: Lead Nurturing Through Scoring: Part I

3.     Establish a Lead Scoring System

A lead scoring system is a must for any business that wants to optimize its lead generation efforts. Most scoring systems fall into two main categories: demographic scoring or behavioral scoring.

• Demographic: The key demographic factors you’ll want to pay attention to are title and department, company size, revenue and industry. More managers are involved in the buying process than ever before so pay attention to demographics to provide each lead and decision-maker with relevant content.
• Behavioral: The behavior of a prospect includes their website visits, responses to email campaigns, content downloads and willingness to complete an online form.

Your system should take into account both of these qualifications and where the buyer is in the purchase process. This is often indicated by the behaviors of the lead and what led them to become a lead in the first place. Decide what does and doesn’t matter as some criteria will matter far more than others. Your lead scoring system should have thresholds that take into account the two main categories and the purchase cycle.

4.     Create a Plan of Action

How will your business put the lead scoring system into place? Having a plan of action can make the adoption of the system much smoother for sales, marketing and your lead generation team. How will the highest scoring leads be delivered to sales reps and with what frequency? Middle tier leads will need nurturing, so you can’t disregard these prospects. Studies show that the majority of these leads will make a purchase in the next 24 months. You’ll also need to decide what your business will do with cold leads that made it through the filters.

Related: Hipsters Beware: Lead Generation Becoming More Mainstream

5.     Measure and Refine Your Process

After using your lead scoring system for some time, evaluate its success to ensure there isn’t disconnect and that ready-to-purchase leads aren’t being lost. More sales and engagement, a faster response time from your sales staff as well as marketing delivering the right content to middle-tier leads at the right time are all indicators of whether or not your scoring system is effective. Measure your progress in lead generation and conversions and then determine if your process needs to be refined. Every few months, look for patterns that could indicate a buyer shift.

Keep your lead scoring system simple. This process is aimed at helping your marketing and sales team be more efficient. Experiment with your scoring system until you find what works best and analyze your data to ensure the system is truly helping with lead generation and nurturing efforts.

Does your business score leads? What criteria do you use?

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Many studies have shown that the faster a company responds to a lead, the more likely that company is to close. One survey found that responding to a completed form within 5 minutes versus 10 minutes led to a 900% increase in contact rate (Tweet this!). In a recent study by InsideSales, companies were asked about how they respond to leads, focusing on lead response time, persistence, ratio between phone calls and emails, and what method companies use to make their first response. What this study found is that many companies are overestimating their lead response efforts. Here’s what the study found and steps your business can take to improve lead response contact rate and conversions.

Related: Follow Up With Leads for Maximum Conversions

A Response Reality Check

Many businesses who responded to the InsideSales survey overestimate their response time and initial contact methods. If your business isn’t seeing success with lead generation, it may be time for a response strategy reality check. According to the InsideSales study, immediacy refers to the amount of time it takes for sales reps to attempt their first phone call and most companies tend to have an optimistic position as to how quickly their business responds. Nearly 25% of businesses think they respond to leads within 5 minutes. The interesting part: only 5% actually do (Tweet this!). Many businesses are more delayed in their outreach to leads thank they think and this slow response time negatively impacts their results and conversions. 20% think their company takes over a day to respond, but the truth is that 30.6% do. When just about one-third of businesses take over a day to respond, your business can gain a serious advantage over them with a faster response.

Related: Get started with a new lead generation campaign.

Stepping Up Your Sales Strategy

It’s time to step up your sales strategy. Since most people are likely not contacted on the first attempt (in fact, probably under half), statistically, companies need to make between four and eleven attempts to contact over 90% of leads. While most companies estimate their team makes “more than five” calls, the most common number of attempts is zero. Getting in contact with leads often requires more than one or two attempts, so make sure your sales team isn’t calling the contact only once before calling it done. Here are a few other steps you can take to step up your leads and sales strategies.

• Respond to all leads. Of the companies with web forms, only 58.6% responded to the lead. Typically, the response rate is below 70% and is an area where many companies could improve. With such a low response rate, companies are essentially throwing away a good portion of their web-based leads.
• Establish a more equal split between phone and email responses. Sales employees are brought on because of their selling skills and abilities. InsideSales found that 66.6% make their first contact attempt through email, though only 9.3% think this is the case (Tweet this!). Only sending out an email is a waste of skills team members can use over the phone.
• Test different types of outreach with each lead. Some people prefer to be contacted over the phone and others prefer to receive an email in their inbox. If your form has an option for preferred contact method, make sure you’re paying attention to what the lead selects. If the form doesn’t, ask the customer in your first call and/or first email to ensure you’re providing them with the best experience.
• Use your content as part of your initial outreach. Content marketing doesn’t stop when a lead fills out a form. Your sales team can use content as a way to incentivize action from a previously unresponsive lead. Provide industry-oriented or other relevant content in your first outreach to establish the one-on-one connection.

Related: How to Nurture Leads with Auto Response Emails

Is your business one of the many that overestimates its response time and balance in initial outreach? If so, it’s time for a reality check. Low lead conversions could be the result of a poor response rate and turnaround time. Reevaluate your lead response strategy to determine whether or not your expectations are being met and if your team is following up as often as they should.

How fast does your business respond to leads?

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It’s all about the numbers: social followers, email subscribers, and conversions. Conversions: a keyword for marketers looking to validate their efforts. Landing pages play a role in the conversions rate and many marketers are well aware of the term “above the fold” when it comes to their design. Often times, businesses will include their key product or offering and a clear call-to-action in this section of their landing page. Some marketers are wary of longer pages due to more aggressive sales techniques. However, the “right” page length will vary from business to business so testing is a must. When it comes to your longer landing pages, analyze the way your users scroll and know your metrics before getting started.

Know Your Users and Your Metrics

What is it your audience is expecting when they come to your site? Is it a form, a blog post, a guide or something else? The cohesion of your link, anchor text and landing page all play a role in how likely someone it is to bounce, stay or scroll. Conduct usability tests to determine whether or not your users scroll. ClickTale, which gives scroll-reach heat maps, will provide you with insight into how far visitors scroll down on your page. A number of businesses and websites have seen greater success through longer landing pages. As examples, keep in mind that Amazon, BBC and the New York Times all feature longer pages. Before you write off long landing pages, consider these case studies:

• According to a study from cxpartners, less content above the fold can actually encourage users to scroll farther down (Tweet this!).
• Neil Patel of Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics conducted a study on his own sites and found his longer landing page converted 7.6% better for NeilPatel.com and 30% better for Crazy Egg than a shorter variation and that the long form version of the page yielded higher-quality leads.
• SEOmoz, which recently rebranded as Moz, saw a 52% lift in sales of SEOmoz’s PRO membership with a longer landing page (Tweet this!).

Before you get started with testing whether or not long landing pages will lead to greater conversions for your business, make sure you understand what actions are currently being taken by your audience when they visit your site and just what it is you plan to achieve with a landing page redesign. You need to be able to benchmark the longer landing page against something else to establish whether or not it’s more successful than your current one.

How To: Long and Lucrative Landing Pages

Now that you have an understanding of your current users’ actions, it’s time to get started with landing page optimization. Use a mouse move heat map and analytics tools to see what it is users are engaging with on your landing page. People often make fast decisions when they reach a landing page. Take into account your load time and visual design to make sure people don’t bounce within seconds. As you begin designing your longer landing pages, here are the secrets to getting buyers and visitors to scroll down for more.

• Focus on the chain of actions. Through what source is a buyer coming to your landing page from? When they get to your page, are they getting the experience they are expecting?
• Get a great headline. Showcase major clients or companies that rely on your business’ services or solutions and indicate the value visitors will gain just from reading the page. It’s all about the value to the viewer, so be sure to include this information out at the top of the page.
• Create compelling content. The content you feature needs to be relevant to the person who would typically land on the page. Include great copy, images and videos whenever possible. Content is about engagement and these three things contribute to the engagement levels of your user.
• Have clear calls to action. Don’t be afraid to explicitly urge readers to scroll down, either through text or an image. Just be sure your call to action includes a value proposition. What will this person get by scrolling – a coupon, best practices, or something else?
• Add click-to-scroll functionality. Make your graphics clickable or link to target locations within the same page. The ability to jump to a certain section saves users time and can often provide you with direct data about what is encouraging engagement.

Longer landing pages aren’t the enemy. Boring ones are. The length of the highest performing landing page will vary from business to business, which is why it is crucial you measure your efforts. If you know your users and your users know they can scroll, with compelling and valuable reasons why they should, a longer landing page could mean greater success and conversions for your business.

Has your business tested longer landing pages? With what success?

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There’s no doubt about it – content came, saw and conquered the marketing world. Unlike the empires of past that did the same, content marketing isn’t going away. Google, Bing and major search engines are placing more emphasis on the content businesses, bloggers and marketers deliver in an effort to provide users and customers with better experiences. Content marketing is a top priority for B2B marketers and in this post we’ll share insights into the best tactics and strategies.

Related: 3 Content Marketing Trends to Pay Attention to in 2013

A Dominating Trend

A recent infographic from Uberflip pulled data from eMarketer, Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and IDG Knowledge Hub to find out just how B2B marketers are using content. In case you’re still skeptical of the impact content marketing can make, studies show that more than two-thirds of CMOs plan to increase their content marketing budgets in 2013 (Tweet this!). This marketing trend isn’t just a fad – it’s an idea and concept that is here to stay. CMI found that the top content marketing objectives for B2B marketers include:

• Engaging customers/prospects (82%)
• Driving sales (55%)
• Educating the marketing (44%)
• Building thought leadership (43%)
• Increasing web traffic (43%)

It seems that, across the board, the content marketing objectives remain the same. The KPIs and metrics your business looks at, however, will differ depending on what you do with the content created. If your goal is to increase web traffic, sharing plays an important role. If your measurements of success are dependent upon lead quality for your sales team, you’ll need to have a lead nurturing plan that works cohesively with your content marketing strategy.  The top 5 measurement criteria among B2B content marketers are: web traffic, sales lead quality, social media sharing, sales lead quantity, and direct sales.

Related: Increase Sales Opportunities with Lead Nurturing Campaigns

B2B Content Best Practices

The best types of content vary from business to business so it’s up to you to find what will work for you and your audience. Video marketing, podcasts, email newsletters and white papers are just a few of the options available. Content marketing is about creating pieces of content that will engage your audience and prompt them to take an action. As you develop a content marketing strategy, or redefine the one you already have, consider what your content goals are and how creation and distribution need to take place in order for those goals to be met.

• Be valuable. Your content can’t be spun so far that it’s no longer valuable to your audience. Focus on providing content that adds value. White papers, industry case studies and relevant blog posts are all places you can get started.
• Learn from your audience. Measure the types of content your audience has the most positive response to. You’ll gain insight into what your customers are looking for in terms of content, be able to provide tips that touch their pain points and receive feedback that can help your business redefine products or processes for greater success in the long run.
• Understand your customer and your sales cycle. The sales cycle has lengthened for many businesses according to recent studies and more people are involved in the decision making process than ever before. Understand who your content needs to reach directly and indirectly and where they need to receive it in the buying process.
• Repurpose. The majority of marketers create their content from scratch, but a common challenge is finding enough to create fresh, engaging content. If your business is constantly creating brand new content, you are wasting time and energy. Repurpose your own older content, repost or share new insight from third-parties, and look for ways to up-cycle the content you already own.

Now that you’ve determined your goals and the content needed to meet those, determine what social networks your business can distribute that content on. 83% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn, followed by 80% for Facebook and another 80% using Twitter. In order for your business to conquer with content marketing, you need to create content that your audience is after and distribute it to them directly, whether it’s through an email newsletter, LinkedIn or an in-person meeting.

Related: Connect with buyers and reach a new audience via the white paper content marketing offering from Business.com – email sales@business.com.

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Delivering the right content to a buyer at the right time is becoming increasingly difficult for B2B marketers. Crain’s BtoB Magazine and Bizo surveyed  B2B marketers and found that the sales cycle has lengthened for 43% of B2B companies (Tweet this!). This increases pressure on marketing organizations to boost brand awareness to help deliver leads and then effectively nurture them through a prolonged buying process. In order to meet the needs of sale staff and buyers as they move down the conversion funnel, marketers are focused on creating content and delivering this content at the right time in the buying process.

How to Be a Catalyst

Building brand awareness is the first step in connecting with buyers. Branded content, social cues in your display ads, and lead generation services can place your brand in front of new eyes and new audiences. To reach buyers who are just beginning the purchasing process, focus on content that builds brand awareness and establishes your business as a go-to resource and thought leader. To connect with buyers who may be interested in the products/services your business offers:

• Use targeting functionalities to their full potential. 55% of B2B marketers say that reaching more of their target audience is their biggest challenge, according to the BtoB Magazine study. By using the targeting and segmentation features of different social networks, advertising platforms and email software solutions, you can target the right people right away.
• Publish and distribute white papers through multiple networks. To reach buyers who are in the research phase, but may not know about your brand and business, provide research-related content via whitepapers, infographics and case studies.
• Listen in on social media networks such as LinkedIn, Quora and Twitter, and online forums. Look for buyers who are looking for solutions similar to what your business provides and encourage them to read, watch, or view past content your business has created that can help them.

How to Continue Making an Impact

In order to make a continued impact as the buyer moves down the conversion funnel, your business needs to continue delivering value to the customer. More specific and tailored content is needed the closer a prospect comes to becoming a paying customer. Relevance and context really come into play here. If you want to continue making an impact with someone who is aware of your business and has a need, but isn’t quite ready to make a purchase:

• Create content that appeals to your direct buyer AND others contributing in the decision making discussions. Content needs to address all those involved in purchase process. 81% of B2B marketers must contend with multiple decision-makers during the sales process (Tweet this!), but only 36% feel their current marketing programs effectively address all these stakeholders.
• Offer white papers or blog posts that are industry specific and case studies from similar companies to give your business a boost in credibility. Buyers want to see real examples and results similar to those they can potentially achieve should they choose your business. You’re offering up information they’re after while promoting your own brand.
• Use video marketing, especially if you are trying to reach B2B tech buyers. How-to videos and videos that showcase product features, or a product in user, can appeal to those who want in-person or in-action content that really engages them and provides them with more information about use.

How to Be the Closer

When a buyer is ready, chances are that they’re going to reach out directly to the business they’ve decided to work with. If your business has acted as a catalyst and content resource in an effort to continue making an impact, you increase the likelihood that you’ll also be the closer. The content you provide at the top of the funnel, as a catalyst, is often more broad as you try to reach a wider range of people. As prospects begin moving down the funnel, the content you offer needs to be more specific and tailored to those involved in the decision making process. Industry-oriented white papers and even case studies from similar companies can help. Throughout the conversion process, provide relevant content to the potential customer, from white papers to videos to webinars, and your business will be in a great position to be the closer.

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Keeping users engaged in an increasingly fragmented environment isn’t easy, but by providing targeted, engaging content, businesses can build their audiences. Many businesses turn to other sites in an effort to place their content and brand in front of new eyes and new audiences. Recently, BtoB Magazine released their annual list of the best B2B advertising vehicles. Once again, Business.com has earned a spot in BtoB Magazine’s Media Power 50, in the Business News category, as we strive to help others grow their businesses.

About the List:

In compiling this prestigious list, BtoB Magazine editors interviewed top media buyers, advertisers and analysts for their opinions and recommendations. BtoB editors and reporters examined media outlets with both objective and subjective criteria. They evaluated data such as ad revenue and audience, and interviewed top media buyers, advertisers and industry analysts for their options on the most powerful and targeted B2B advertising venues,

What We Have to Say:

“Business.com’s goal is to deliver content that aligns with buyers needs instead of sending them off on a safari to ultimately get frustrated in the end,” says Betsy Scuteri, Senior Director of Audience Marketing. She adds, “We’re humbled to be on the Media Power 50 list once again in the business news category with other respected companies like WSJ.com, Forbes.com, Bloomberg.com and Harvard Business Review.”

About Business.com:

Simply put, our mission is to help people grow their businesses. This is why over 20 million buyers from small-to-medium enterprises turn to Business.com every year to discover, compare, and purchase the products and services they need to run and grow their businesses. It’s also why over 10,000 advertisers use Business.com to reach these valuable buyers, generating well over $1 billion in incremental annual revenues.  Built on the foundation of a renowned internet brand combined with the latest technology, development and design, Business.com has assembled a world-class team of developers, designers, digital media experts, and even a Ph.D. in Human Computer Interaction to identify the specific needs of active business buyers and improve how they use the Internet to make purchasing decisions.

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Nearly every business and every marketer are looking for ways to create compelling content that’s fresh, eye-catching and engaging. From customer acquisition to increasing customer retention, content is how businesses are looking to boost their bottom lines. Because of this, businesses are expanding their content libraries with blog posts, infographics and case studies. B2B marketers are increasingly becoming more visual to appeal to buyers. However, they aren’t limiting themselves to images or white papers.  Videos are becoming more popular among both B2B marketers and buyers.

The Rise of Video Marketing

Video marketing and digital video ad spend are on the rise. We’re all aware that visuals tend to make a greater, lasting impact on consumers than text alone. Video provides businesses with an opportunity to really tell a story in ways that single pictures can’t. With all the opportunities provided by video, it makes sense that this arena is growing. 55.8% percent of B2B marketers plan to increase their video budget in 2013 (Tweet this!), according to one recent study, “BtoB’s 2013 Outlook: Marketing Priorities and Plans,”  and estimates from eMarketer indicate that US digital video ad spending will nearly double in only four years, climbing from $4.14 billion this year to $8.04 billion in 2016. With video marketing, businesses are able to reach targeted audiences and provide highly relevant content that showcases their business, brand, and often the people behind it.

Content marketing is a hot topic for B2B marketers. Research reports, videos, mobile content and virtual conferences are all on the rise. According to the CMI and Marketing Profs “2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks-North America” report, B2B videos as a content marketing tactic increased from 52% in 2011 to 70% in 2012 (Tweet this!). Content is king and videos are on their way to throne room.

The Case of B2B Tech Buyers

IDG Research Services conducted a study to see how tech buyers are leveraging video to advance their decision making process when it comes to new purchases. The study and resulting infographic indicate that 95% of B2B tech buyers watch tech-related videos and that this correlates with purchase behaviors (Tweet this!).  But, why are tech buyers actually watching these videos? They want to:

• Learn how to use particular products (61%)
• Find information on products they’re interested in buying (58%)
• Find how-to content (57%)
• Get product reviews (54%)
• Stay on the leading edge of technology (52%)

Tech buyers want to be able to stay on top of the current products in their industry, while discovering how to make the most of what they currently have at their disposal.  If you want to reach tech buyers, consider how you can position your business as an expert to provide your viewers with the information they’re after. Expert instruction, how-to tips and product reviews are a great place to start. As marketers, we want to know what action is taken after watching a video. As it turns out, 66% then researched a product and 46% visited a vendor website or contacted a vendor for more info. Perhaps the biggest surprise to many is that after watching a video, 42% of buyers then purchased a product (Tweet this!).

Creating a Bold B2B Marketing Video

Creating a B2B marketing video doesn’t require as much budget or time as you may initially think. Easy ways to get started are turning slideshows, presentations and in-person demos into videos. If your business doesn’t have the budget of bigger brands such as GE and UPS, turn to your employees to see what their ideas are in the types of video content that will most appeal to your customers. User generated content, such as video contest submissions, are another route you can take. No matter your budget or resources, you’ll want to ask yourself the following questions.

• Why are we creating this video? Why are we investing time, budget and additional resources into video marketing?
• Who are we trying to reach? Who is your target audience with each video?
• What types of videos will interest this audience? Is it how-to’s and tutorials, new product announcements, or an explanation of data?
• Where is our audience going to come across these videos? Where can we promote each new video – a newsletter, through display advertising, on social media, and/or on-site?

B2B video marketing is on the rise as businesses look for ways to create and repurpose content that engages their audience on multiple platforms and networks. Many have plans to increase their budget in video content creation and digital video ad spend in an effort to continue providing their customers with fresh, compelling content that leads to conversions.

How is your business incorporating video into its content marketing strategy?

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