You just asked me for a great idea to increase leads and sales for your business, and this is my answer:
“I think, I think, and I think again… and voilà! I’m here, I seriously think we should invest our entire marketing budget in fax advertising.”
You'd probably think I've lost all my marbles... and you'd be right to!
In the 1980s and 1990s, however, it was a common marketing nigeria whatsapp number data 5 million strategy to send mass advertising via fax, similar to today's mass email marketing campaigns.
They worked. They were a good marketing strategy because everyone had a fax machine and used it every day.
But now?
Most of the new generations (Gen -Z) don't even know what a fax is.
Now let's ask ourselves the real fundamental question:
Rightly, no one uses FAX anymore within their B2B marketing strategy, so I ask you, why don't we use the same common sense when we talk about the purchasing cycle of a Potential B2B customer/buyer, still relying on old behavioral patterns?
The BEHAVIOUR of B2B CONSUMERS/BUYERS has TOTALLY CHANGED and with it also their (Digital) B2B purchasing path.
Below, I will introduce you to the modern model of a B2B Buyer's purchasing process and the new online marketing funnel you can use.
Everything we will see is the basis of the B2B (Digital) MARKETING STRATEGY.
I have broken down each stage of the purchasing “journey” and provided marketing strategies and tactics that work for each stage.
Digital Marketing Phases and Strategies for B2B Buyer Acquisition:
The stages of the new B2B marketing funnel (purchasing process)
The Best B2B Digital Marketing Strategy Model Ever
Top of the Funnel Digital Marketing Strategies: The “SEE (Explore)” Audience
Mid-Funnel Digital Marketing Strategies: The “THINK” Audience
SEO for B2B Companies (for the intermediate stage of the purchasing process)
B2B Video Marketing
PPC Ads & Paid Search for B2B Businesses
B2b email marketing strategy – marketing automation
B2B Marketing Strategies for the Final Stage of the Buying Cycle
The Final Stage of the B2B Buyer's Journey: Loyalty Strategy
You will also find real-world examples and practical advice.
The goal is to give you a comprehensive understanding of the new B2B prospect buying process so you can implement strategies ideas to your target market.
The stages of the new B2B marketing funnel (purchasing process)
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The definition of Funnel applied to B2B is rather vague and oversimplified, it is actually used at a graphic level to help understand and follow the various phases that B2B buyers go through throughout their purchasing cycle.
Traditionally, before the advent of the internet, it was a rather linear journey where B2B Buyers go through the various steps in a more predictable way (not having information and companies just a click away at any time), and it resembled this classic figure:
The new B2B Marketing Funnel no longer looks like a Funnel.
But it is a “Circular” purchasing process full of “twists and turns” given by the possibility of access to information that the advent of the Internet has allowed, and which make it no longer extremely linear:
The phases are similar to the old Model but are related in a completely different way:
Awareness
Consideration, along with the cycle of research and discovery
Buy
Post-purchase experience and loyalty cycle
Let's now analyze each single phase with a practical example:
EXAMPLE: Rototecno SPA (fictitious name) needs new suppliers for the mechanical processing part of its industrial machines. First of all, the production manager realizes that the current suppliers do not fully satisfy the company's production capacity and reports this to the company's purchasing office – ( NEED phase ). Then, the purchasing office begins the research phase on Google, let's assume with this search key, "metal processing companies" – ( CONSIDERATION phase ).
the B2B Buyer finds in the search results a series of companies that at first glance could be interesting. – ( AWARENESS Phase ) Our B2B Buyer decides to further refine the search and queries Google with an even more specific search key such as “companies specialized in mechanical processing for the Automotive sector” – (Once again it is a CONSIDERATION phase (it is a sort of Loop)
Now Our B2B Buyer has a narrower list of potential companies to contact to request a meeting. Now he goes to check the social pages of the companies (for B2B definitely Linkedin) selected to find more information, see what users say about them and the reviews on Google My Business (Still in the Consideration phase)
Our "hero" now sits on the sofa in the evening and distractedly unplugs the feed of his favorite social networks or surfs online and sees the advertising (remarketing) of a couple of the companies he is evaluating, clicks on the advert and arranges a sales appointment, several meetings are held and the purchase is concluded (Phase - PURCHASE )
Obviously this is just a simplified example, but to help you better understand how close this is to reality, below I report the screen of REAL conversions (appointment requests) of one of the campaigns that we follow for our clients who buy industrial machines with a value greater than > € 100,000:
REAL Case Studies of B2B Buyer Conversion Paths (Managed by Us)
As you can see, before taking the desired action (in this case, requesting an appointment with the area manager to receive sales offers) the B2B Buyer moved on multiple channels present in our B2B Digital Marketing strategy.
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Continuing our imaginary purchasing journey, let's suppose that after closing the first supply contract, the company is very satisfied with the new supplier and, at the latter's request via email, leaves a 5 STAR review on Google and on its website, thus facilitating new sales. – (Phase of the – LOYALTY LOOP )
The Best B2B Digital Marketing Strategy Model Ever
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In light of what we have seen, I will illustrate what I believe to be the best strategic model at a digital level : Avinash Kaushik's See-Think-Do-Care model .
The See-Think-Do-Care model is based on consumer intent and divides each stage into specific audience groups.
See : The largest qualified audience addressable on our channels without clear commercial intent
Think : the largest qualified audience addressable with some commercial intent
To do : The widest addressable qualified audience with clear commercial intent
Support : Current customers with two or more business transactions
We can now easily integrate this model into that of the modern purchasing process (as seen in the loop) of B2B Buyers.
In this framework, some digital marketing platforms are better than others, depending on the intent:
Top of the Funnel Digital Marketing Strategies: The “SEE (Explore)” Audience
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At the top of the funnel are the people in the “Explore” category: they are your largest target audience but who do not yet need your product/service or do not know they need your product/service. ( Latent or Unaware Demand )
The key to connecting with these potential buyers at this stage of the funnel is simple: you need to make them aware of your product and the specific benefits it offers.
Your ultimate goal with marketing at this stage is to “push” users to the next step, the “THINK” step, where the first signals that indicate an intent to purchase emerge.
The B2B Digital Marketing tools that work best in this phase are mainly 2:
Social media
Display ads (Google ADS).
For SOCIAL MEDIA , especially in B2B, we mainly talk about Linkedin, Facebook, You Tube, to generate awareness in users, because that's where your audience goes to "see" or discover new things.
I therefore recommend that you start by defining who your target audience is in a PRECISE manner and then choose the most suitable social media platform.
This is of CRITICAL importance:
Choosing the wrong social media platform is the quickest way to become as irrelevant as last year's cultural fads.
The other very powerful tool for the “SEE” (discover) phase, as already mentioned, are display ads.
According to data provided by Google, its display network reaches over 90% of global Internet users, spanning 2 million sites . The power of display ads can be summed up with the mobile phone theory:
The “cell phone” theory comes from Duke University research on human attention span.
Basically, we subliminally absorb what is around us even when we are “attentive” to something else.
In the case of Display ads, perhaps we are reading our favorite newspaper and advertising banners from companies appear within the text.
