One of the “new normal” changes we have seen is that inbound program has become much more powerful than ever before. This is because we are all online much more now than we were in the pre-COVID days. 
Although it varies in different parts of the country, Internet usage in North America is up as much as 70 percent since the pandemic began. “Streaming,” which typically refers to watching movies or television shows online, has jumped by about 12 percent.
This significant upswing in the number of people online is also having a big impact on e-commerce, both consumer purchasing (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) purchasing.
Many consumers make purchasing decisions based on customer reviews. However, when it comes to B2B purchasing, the determining factor on what to purchase for a company and whom to purchase it from often depends on the inbound marketing program in place.
If the program is designed to be thoughtful, credible, and informative, the customer will trust that brand, and trust is just one step away from making the sale. However, getting to this point does not come easy. It takes planning and strategy.
In this post I present five inbound marketing techniques that all B2B inbound marketers should employ to get visitors, develop customer trust, and drive sales:
Create meaningful content. This means connecting with readers on an emotional level. What I am finding most helpful right now is writing blog posts that address the COVID pandemic—its impact on the economy, health, working at home, and the future of the traditional workplace. This is meaningful content because it addresses something most of us in virtually all B2B industries are focused on.
Think like a buyer. For many manufacturers, their products are their “babies.” They know all the good things their products can do, which is promoted in their inbound marketing programs. However, they need to take this to the next step. How is this “baby” going to address the needs of a B2B customer?
Will it reduce costs? Improve worker productivity? Make their jobs easier? Buyers have a “job-to-be-done” attitude when selecting products for their companies. Put yourself in their shoes and then prepare blog posts that address their needs and perspectives.
Leverage good reviews. If your site allows customer reviews, do all you can to leverage these reviews. The first steps are asking and then thanking customers for their reviews. Next, work the review into a blog post and share it on social media. Good reviews have power.
One of our IT clients says their site gets lots of visitors, but taking a closer look, those visitors that turn into customers are the ones that read their positive reviews.
Find out who your customers are. Expanding on this last tip, it is especially important to know who your customers are. One of our clients has a sizeable B2B e-commerce website. They know from their own analytics which companies are purchasing most of their products and where those companies are in the country.
But what they did not know is who is making the actual purchasing decision. We conducted a survey and found more of their buyers were middle-aged men in mid-management positions. Knowing this, the company adjusted the inbound marketing program so that it addressed these buyers.
Rank high in search. There is no mystery to search engine optimization (SEO). There are free apps that make it easy. One we like is Rank Math. It grades each post, showing how well it does as to SEO, and it also suggests changes to improve the SEO. Yoast now does the same thing using one of its primary programs.
The bottom line is that your site must rank high in search, and with all of the resources available to companies, there simply is no reason this cannot be accomplished in-house.
When you combine SEO with quality content that connects with readers, you will see sales.
AlturaSolutions Turns Words into Sales | 312-880-8176
