How to tap into high-value customers through different channels?

Before their first contact with a salesperson, consumers complete nearly 57% of the entire purchasing process on their own, 90% of B2B buyers search for keywords online, and 70% of B2B buyers watch related video content online.

How to enter the first 57% of the purchase process has put forward higher requirements for multi -channel .

Social media and internal information sharing among users have become the primary channels that influence B2B users’ final purchases. When cultivating potential customers, the importance of different channels in each stage of the marketing funnel varies:

(source: Redefining Purchasing, the transformation of the relationship between B2B buyers, marketers and salespeople)

• Social Media: B2B users use social media throughout the entire purchasing journey: 67% in the brand awareness stage, 48% in the narrowing and settlement stage, 42% in the purchase planning stage, 42% in the product selection stage, and 32% in the purchase completion stage.
• Internal information sharing within the enterprise: Decision makers in the B2B purchasing process are highly collaborative team activities. Internal information sharing within an enterprise runs throughout the entire purchase journey and is the most important content channel;
• Online search: It accounts for a high proportion overall, is more prominent in the upper and middle parts of the funnel, and becomes less important in the purchase process.
• Company website or content: accounts for 33% in the purchase stage, which shows its importance.

B2B companies are increasingly using social media channels to get information and guidance from their peers and wider network of contacts . Decision makers consult with peers and colleagues inside and outside the company to gather information about the products and services they are considering purchasing.

1. Social media: WeChat is the highlight at every stage

Social media has high user stickiness and stability, which can make users more actively involved, have a greater impact on users' consumption decisions, and provide brands with a large number of opportunities to be spread and amplified.

Social media leads-to-order conversion cycle is the shortest, only 40% of the average conversion cycle, while emails reach 160%;

The conversion rate is about 1.5%, second only to customer/employee recommendations and official websites, making it the active channel with the highest conversion rate.

From the perspective of weighted ratio, social media has become the preferred channel for acquiring customers. This point has been discussed in detail in "To cultivate potential customers, you need to create a matrix - X-axis, Y-axis". What cannot be ignored is that social media is also of paramount importance in the potential customer cultivation process.

(source: Redefining Purchasing, the transformation of the relationship between B2B buyers, marketers and salespeople)

LinkedIn research found that the use of social media has a positive impact on strengthening buyer-supplier relationships. 48% of buyers believe that their relationships with suppliers have been strengthened. If the buyer uses social media, the number rises to 55%; if the buyer does not use social media, the number drops to 34%.

B2B users use social media throughout the entire purchase journey: 67% in the brand awareness stage, 48% in the narrowing down and settlement stage, 42% in the purchase planning stage, 42% in the product selection stage, and 32% in the purchase completion stage.

(source: Redefining Purchasing, the transformation of the relationship between B2B buyers, marketers and salespeople)

In China, social media platform applications have high user activity and good localization development, making them a relatively good channel for cultivating potential customers. Among them, the importance of WeChat cannot be underestimated. WeChat is the best direct contact point between enterprises and users. WeChat service accounts inherently have stronger interactive properties and shorter operation paths than mobile official websites.

1. WeChat builds a traffic pool to receive traffic from all channels

Compared with B2C companies' pursuit of traffic, B2B companies pay more attention to the effectiveness and conversion rate of sales leads. However, as many as 90% of sales leads are lost in the end. One of the main reasons is the lack of an effective lead nurturing process:

Companies that excel at lead nurturing can generate 50% more sales leads than before, while saving 33% in costs.

Group companies use lead nurturing to reduce investment costs by 60%.

Nurturing leads generate 47% more sales than unnurturing leads.

If customer acquisition is compared to fish farming, then the most basic thing is to build a fish pond. As the infrastructure for fish farming, it becomes the first step in incubating potential customers.

WeChat can be connected with multiple channels such as official websites, emails, forms, QR codes, etc. to complete multi-channel data aggregation. In addition, the function priority of WeChat service accounts is relatively high, making it the first choice for building a fish pond.

2. WeChat uses SCRM to activate traffic and complete customer cultivation

(1) Open up social networks to achieve external connections and cultivate customers

Consumers no longer exist in a purely "static" manner, but rather exist more as followers, listeners, and advisers of companies. WeChat uses SCRM to interact with consumers through bilateral relationships, allowing consumer needs and ideas to be closely integrated with the development of brand positioning.

(2) De-emphasize sales motivation and emphasize long-term marketing

Maintaining long-term relationships with consumers through consumer participation makes sales transactions of their products an accessory.

(3) Highlighting multi-point community-based interactions between customers and between customers and enterprises

With the help of SCRM, WeChat can aggregate and present brand reputation, allowing it to understand the feedback of consumer groups on the brand in the first place and participate in this form of consumer network communication.

(4) Create a closed marketing loop

Add two steps to the traditional user cultivation process:

• One is the interaction stage with users after purchase (Embrace);
• Another is to let users become recommenders (Evangelize).

This will complete the entire marketing closed loop, from market and sales to later interactions and influences.

2. Enterprise Content Information Sharing

The decision makers in the B2B purchasing process are often a team consisting of experts from different positions or fields. It is a highly collaborative team activity.

Take the TO B management software procurement process as an example:

The sales amount of TO B management software products to new customers is large, the sales cycle is long, there are many roles involved in the purchase, the needs are complex, the interpersonal relationships are complex, and the product usage and purchase decision chain is relatively long. During the purchase journey, the importance of sharing corporate content information is highlighted.

Product business belongs to the enterprise, and purchase, usage scenarios, and benefits belong to each role. The interests of the roles within the enterprise mainly include:

• Product user: The person who uses the product and first makes the recommendation to buy and use the product.
• Product selector: The person or department responsible for checking product functions, technical standards, service content, business negotiation and other processes.
• Product influencers: People who can influence purchasing decisions, who may be internal or external to the company, such as a management consulting firm.
• Final product decision maker: The person or team who makes the final decision on the purchase, without the need to consult again.

Whether it is a corporate product or a personal product, it is inseparable from the individual user. Even if the decision-making of an enterprise product is very complex, it still cannot escape the individual users. For team-based 2B users, the following methods can be used when cultivating potential customers:

(1) Determine the internal decision-making chain of the enterprise, and then achieve the promotion goal by contacting the employees in the decision-making chain

For example, if you are a company that makes marketing automation products, your only users are the marketing staff within your company. Therefore, you can be sure that the internal decision-making chain is: marketing staff -> approval leader.

Clarifying the decision-making chain can help you sort out the communication process with the company. No matter which decision-making link you come into contact with, you can try to promote decision-making through some operational means, so that the decision-making chain will not be stuck because you cannot find the decision-maker in the next link.

(2) Understand which 2C channels the relevant decision makers are distributed on, and then contact them or place advertisements

Based on the characteristics of the users who need to make decisions, select better channels.

• If most users are technology users, then increase the operation of major forums and Zhihu, and weaken the content of Weibo public accounts ;
• If users attach more importance to authority, then the proportion of authoritative media in the relevant industry will be increased, cooperation with major training and government agencies will be carried out, and attention will be paid to the operation of offline channels.

(3) Brand elements are placed in front of the market, and the marketing department’s cultivation materials reach potential customers through sales

If the marketing department is regarded as a subsidiary, the sales department is another subsidiary. Many brand elements reach the target users through the sales department.

For B2B companies, sales is a very important channel for market content dissemination. How to leverage the sales team's social resources to increase content coverage of target potential customers can be of great help in customer acquisition and branding for sales teams of a certain size.

For example, if the "White Paper" produced by the marketing department is printed into a book, it can be given to customers during sales visits. The content may include a collection of daily WeChat posts or a product introduction.

For example, through full-staff marketing, sales can be encouraged to forward content on WeChat Moments . The content of the marketing department can be used as cultivation content and presented to potential consumers through sales.

3. Online search: The importance of the head of the funnel is obvious

Online search channels are a basic feature of B2B companies. They are to ensure that after users come into contact, they can search for relevant information online and get in touch with them during the subsequent purchase journey.

For B2B companies, search engine marketing is the best channel for conversion. Among them, search engine bidding ( SEM ) has the widest application range, but also the highest cost. In terms of conversion rate, the conversion rate of SEO- driven leads is 14.6%, while that through search advertising is only 1.7%. (Search Engine World)

When it comes to potential customer nurturing, there is a heavy reliance on online search during the purchase journey. 65% in the brand awareness stage, 54% in the scope narrowing stage, 47% in the purchase planning stage, 44% in the product selection stage, and its importance decreases in the purchase realization stage.

This article analyzes from two perspectives: search advertising and SEO.

1. Search ads

For search advertising, the process is keyword search - ad display - ad click - landing page click - final conversion. Customers are cultivated through search ads. For users at different customer stages, the keyword settings and landing page clicks are different.

Personalized display of search keywords based on different purchase journeys

Personalizing advertisements for each business, rather than simply using graphics or text, not only enriches the display style, but also improves the user experience and shortens the user's decision path.

• Cognitive stage Search term association word matching: association words are broad
• Consideration stage search term association matching: focus on buying guides, RFP templates, ROI calculators, analyst reports, third-party reviews
• Preference stage search term association matching: focus on pricing/offers, demos, customer case studies, free trials, free consultations.

2. SEO

SEO ( Search Engine Optimization) refers to the internal and external adjustments and optimizations of the website based on the understanding of the search engine's natural ranking mechanism, improving the website's natural keyword rankings in the search engine, obtaining more traffic, and thus achieving the goals of website sales and brand building.

Generally speaking, SEO website optimization includes on-site and off-site optimization.

On-site optimization refers to all adjustments to the website itself that the webmaster can control, such as website structure and page HTML code.

Tag optimization: for example: optimization of title, keywords, description , etc.

Optimization of internal links, including relevant links (tag labels), anchor text links, navigation links, and image links.

Website content update: Keep the site updated every day (mainly article updates, etc.).

Off-site optimization refers to the construction of external links and industry participation and interaction. As the name suggests, these activities are not carried out on the website itself.

External link categories: blogs, forums, B2B, news, classified information, forums , Q&A, encyclopedias , communities, spaces, WeChat, Weibo and other related information networks, etc. Try to maintain the diversity of links.

External link building: Add a certain number of external links every day to steadily improve the keyword ranking.

Friendly link exchange: Exchange friendly links with some websites that are highly relevant to your website and have better overall quality to consolidate and stabilize keyword rankings.

Whether it is on-site or off-site optimization, the ultimate goal is to enable more valuable pages to be included and indexed by search engines. Pursue the following effects:

Search results: impressions, clicks , and placements.

Index status: the status of being retrieved by search engines.

Traffic: Increase in website traffic, including PV, UV, and registered users.

Benefits: Site engagement, paying users , ROI.

In the process of cultivating potential customers, the importance of SEO becomes more and more prominent. The specific analysis will be discussed in detail later in the White Paper on SEO Strategy for High-Price Enterprises.

4. Official website: important in the purchase stage

As an important part of the marketing channel, the official website plays an extremely important role in the purchasing decision-making process of potential customers. For the official website, it should include all the information related to the company and products that potential customers want to know.

According to E-marketer, 98% of traffic to any website will be lost without filling out a form or completing a purchase. This means you lose the opportunity to build a relationship with your potential customers.

As the landing point for SEO, SEM and PPC traffic, the carrying capacity and interactivity of the official website become important. In view of this situation, the best solution is to improve the conversion after SEM leads to the official website, accelerate the flow of leads from the official website to the sales department, and record the user's various behaviors and content preference data on the official website by embedding codes on the official website and connecting with omni-channel data. Analyze the matching degree between user needs and leads, provide sales with in-depth user insights , and promote the conversion of leads.

When nurturing potential customers for your website, you need to consider three aspects: timing, format, and content.

1. Lead cultivation methods: targeted display, conversation, video

(1) Targeted display

Most websites drive conversions using one of three message display formats:

• Pop-ups: A typical pop-up window appears in the middle of the website, and sometimes it "flies out" in the corner.
• Horizontal bar: A full-screen width bar that appears at the top or bottom of a web page.
• Banner: A more subtle form of interaction located at the top or bottom of a web page. It is initially "hidden" and will be visible after a predetermined period of time after being triggered.

(2) Conversation

Provide real-time online customer service functions to help consumers reduce the anxiety caused by purchasing products from new merchants. There is a “real person” on the site who allows people to ask any questions before completing their purchase. This motivates customers to believe they are making the right decision.

(3) Video

The third messaging method that brings a huge boost to conversions is the use of video. Compared to static images and text, videos can help put your product into real context and give you the opportunity to show why people should buy it.

2. Potential customer cultivation time: trigger timing selection

The second thing to consider is when each message is triggered. Here are four main triggers for bringing your campaign to your target audience.

(1) Time trigger

It's up to you to decide the duration of the campaign, based on how long a visitor has been on your site. You can display it immediately when a visitor logs in, or ten seconds later.

(2) Exit trigger

By tracking the visitor's mouse movements, if you find that the tenant is about to leave, trigger the activity immediately.

(3) Page View Ratio Trigger

When a visitor browses a certain percentage of the page, the activity is triggered.

(4) Tag trigger

Set up appropriate custom labels or other visual call-to-action buttons on the web page, and when clicked, the activity will be presented.

3. Potential customer cultivation content

(1) Diversify content to attract users to click

This point has been discussed in detail in the article "To cultivate potential customers, you need to create a matrix - X-axis, Y-axis". The excerpt is as follows. For details, please click on the original article:

HubSpot's content is rich in themes. It is systematically organized from three directions: methodology, customer cases, and products, answering the four questions that buyers care about most: "the company's business model, industry experts or thought leaders, valuable consulting, education or tools , and product services."

At the same time, different levels of content will be produced on the same topic. Taking blogs as an example, the same topic may produce a series of 2 to 3 short e-books, 3 to 5 blog posts, and 10 to 15 tweets.

(2) Matching image design to increase click desire

Improve the quality of images to avoid images of different sizes, deformation, and low quality, which may have a negative impact on users and affect clicks.

5. Channel combination and channel conversion

Managing sales channels is like conducting an orchestra. Not only must each instrument perform perfectly, but the combination and transition between instruments must also be smooth and harmonious.

The road to multi-channel integration and online migration is not smooth. Among the four major challenges that prevent Chinese B2B sellers from fully implementing online strategies, three are related to omnichannel implementation:

• Conflict between different channels (40% of B2B sellers);
• How to share customer data between channels (35%);
• Integrate backend technology across channels (35%).

1. Channel combination

An effective multi-channel lead cultivation is a combination of marketing methods such as marketing activities (offline meetings and online live broadcasts ), social media (Weibo, WeChat, etc.), Baidu promotion , dynamic website content (corporate official website, vertical media website, etc.), and email marketing .

The most effective way at present is to direct customer leads obtained from marketing activities (online live broadcasts, external participation in meetings) to social media, and to direct part of the leads brought by Baidu and official website registration to social media (high-intent inbound leads such as Baidu SEM are obviously directly closed, and more can be considered to be incubated on WeChat, the social platform with the best reach in China). Conduct content marketing and lead cultivation, and then use offline meetings or directly transfer to SDR for conversion when the time is right.

In the channel mix, the most important thing to pay attention to is: channel content consistency. Ensure that the stories told through all channels are consistent. For example, if a product is mentioned in offline training but not mentioned at all on the official website or other channels, there will be problems.

(1) Social media + search engines are the perfect combination for paid media

Among paid media used by B2B marketers, social media accounts for 84% and search engines account for 67%, making them the perfect match for paid media.

(Source: B2B Content Marketing: 2017 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America)

Social media can increase brand awareness and engagement, while search advertising helps brands increase traffic, cultivate potential customers, and ultimately increase sales.

The report “Why Search + Social = Success for Brands” released by Forrester in May 2016 pointed out that 71% of users will search on search engines and 64% will search on social platforms;

At the same time, the survey found that young netizens are more willing to interact with brands on social media and like to search for product information on social media before consumption. A Salesforce survey of American Internet users in May 2016 showed that millennial respondents were more willing to stay connected with brands than baby boomers (25% vs. 5%). However, only 14% of respondents said they used social media as a search tool.

On the one hand, to optimize for search engines, good search engine optimization (SEO) principles should be applied when you start creating marketing content and permeate into the metadata. Don't wait until you finish writing it to modify it.

On the other hand, we should pay attention to the social side, especially applications with social attributes such as WeChat and Zhihu. Together, they constitute the new ecology of social media in the mobile Internet era. When laying out the social ecological layout, we should pay attention to the differences and synergies between them.

(2) Owned media: omnichannel layout centered around WeChat service accounts

• WeChat + Official Website: Connect WeChat service account and official website
• WeChat + Live Broadcast: Connect the WeChat platform with the company's online/offline live broadcasts, embed live broadcasts directly on WeChat public accounts, and deposit user information into the company's own platform.
• WeChat + employees/users: full-staff marketing, utilizing employees and users through crowdsourcing, using points to incentivize employees to share.
• WeChat + other self-media : content barbell strategy. On the one hand, by breaking down a piece of content into smaller parts or different styles and publishing them on different channels, you can extract as much value as possible. On the other hand, we have our own cooperative media to form a synergy.

2. Channel conversion

Marketing is like dominoes. Each domino must be designed well, and only by pushing down the first domino can the last domino be reached. When cultivating potential customers through different channels, we should pay attention to the artistry of switching between channels, such as:

• Combine offline meetings with personalized WeChat push notifications: Send an interesting, unique and personalized text and picture push notification after your training communication. Adding a human touch accelerates your lead generation and helps build trust.
• Conversion buttons between different channels: On the web page, add a WeChat QR code button to select the confirmation message to remind new users not to miss other ways. What needs to be emphasized is that adding a WeChat QR code to the website does not mean simply putting a QR code and expecting users to scan and follow it. You must give them a reason to scan the code . Marketing requires details in every link.

This article was compiled and published by @致趣科技 (Qinggua Media) by the author @致趣科技. Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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