5 B2B Marketing Strategies for the Highest Conversions

Featured image by Melanie Deziel on Unsplash

Day in day out sales and marketing teams rack their brains trying to come up with strategies that will help them meet their key performance indicators (KPIs) and give the highest conversions.

Competitors are on the rise, consumer demands evolve, and every so often they hear about a new marketing trend that’s bringing in more customers. Right before they see the results of the last tactic they implemented. So, it’s easy to get caught up in a whirlwind of trends.

An effective digital marketing strategy is not just about the latest trend, rather identifying tactics that best target and convert your business’s ideal customers. To that end, we’ll be sharing five innovative B2B strategies you can implement for higher conversions.

1. Create Interactive Content

One of the best ways to start conversations that capture interest and potentially lead to conversion is through interactive content.

The internet exposes users to a sea of information, which means most people passively regard content while others simply scroll past brand posts.

Interactive content helps you stand out by encouraging audiences to interact with the content piece. So, as users engage, their interest is heightened. Thus, they find value in your offerings which ultimately builds trust in your brand.

Benefits of interactive content include:

Engages users more effectively compared to static content. Its dynamic nature may allow personalization in real-time, providing information that paints a clear picture for the user.
Interactive experiences such as assessments or calculators are excellent lead magnets. You can use the contact information offered to nurture leads.
Versatility. Basically they can be used for every stage of the buyer’s journey to maintain a steady relationship with potential customers.
Supports SEO efforts. For example, sharing interactive quizzes, infographics, etc. on your website, landing pages, email campaigns, and social platforms brings in traffic, reduces bounce rate, and improves visibility.

Examples of interactive content include quizzes, calculators, assessments, infographics, product recommendation quizzes, polls and surveys, and videos.

2. Referral Marketing

Did you know that referral leads have up to 30 percent higher conversions compared to leads garnered from other channels? The main reason is that 84 percent of B2B buyers start the purchase process with a referral. So, word of mouth does indeed work.

How do you get it to work in your favor?

Start by providing an excellent customer experience. Thus, let your products/services be top-notch, publish relevant, high-quality, and informative content, and train your team to treat all customers well.
Ask your customers for referrals. You’ll want to give them a couple of weeks to test your service before asking them to refer another business your way. If they are happy, they will most likely drop a contact or several.
Make referring clients easy. Some customers may find it awkward to introduce others to you, so make things easier by sharing a referral template on email.
Thank your customers for the referral(s) they send you and let them know how things went.
Give a referral. Also, help your customers achieve their goals by connecting them with brands in your network that may benefit from their services. It will come back to you at some point.

3. Incorporate Visual Search Marketing

Have you ever tried to describe a product on Google only to receive results that have nothing to do with what you’re looking for? Wouldn’t it be easier if you could just upload a picture and receive better results?

Visual search marketing revolves around using images of your products to make it easier for potential customers to find you. When a person uploads the image, Google generates buying options pertaining to that very product or similar ones.

Sounds very B2C to me. Why should B2B marketers consider visual search marketing? Research shows that 62 percent of Millennials prefer searching for things visually over other search technology.

We can’t simply brush off Millennials since many of them sit in the decision-making teams while others run successful businesses. Brands that adopt this strategy and optimize their websites for visual searches are more likely to receive higher returns and conversions.

Here are steps you can take towards this goal and bring higher conversions:

Offer numerous high-resolution images and at different angles to ensure potential customers find your website.
Resize images to hasten loading times and ensure they can be viewed nicely on desktop or mobile devices.
Add captions to help audiences understand your images.
Use long-tail keywords to generate accurate results. These keywords allow you to describe your product images with precision so they can show up in the right results.
Add the keywords to image titles and descriptions to ensure Google indexes them and serves your images in relevant search results. Be sure to include alt tags with the images.

4. Cold Calling

Over the years, sales professionals have refined the cold calling strategy to improve conversion. Today, this strategy goes deeper than bombarding 100 people daily with talk of your product or service.

Teams are taking time to understand their cold calling conversion funnel to enhance the success of the calls.

Here are tactics you can implement to pave way for higher conversions:

Look at how many leads are on your list and the number that you contact every day. Do you reach decision-makers? If so, how many? Do the leads qualify for your offerings? How many qualified opportunities do you close?
Improve your reach rate. Many sales teams have trouble reaching decision-makers. There’s no easy fix for this, but you can always call up the company and ask who is in charge.
Qualify more leads by narrowing down your target market. Put together criteria of what constitutes good and bad leads.
Close more deals. If you’re reaching qualified decision-makers but not closing, then you may need to review the viability of your products/services or improve your pitch.

These tactics will help you spot the strengths and weaknesses in your cold calling strategy and improve as needed.

5. Work with an Influencer

Influencers in the B2B space are usually industry leaders, analysts, customers, or media personalities, etc. who have established a trustworthy name for themselves.

However, working with B2B influencers doesn’t entail waking up one morning, sending over samples or demos, and expecting them to jump on the bandwagon. Well, a few might, but the point we’re trying to drive here is that it takes time to build relationships with influencers in order to bring higher conversions.

You’ll need to establish trust and a real relationship before asking them to recommend your offerings.

Here’s how you can start:

Compile a detailed profile of the influencers you want to work with to help you understand their values and concerns. It will help you personalize the message you send when approaching them.
Subtlety is the word. Follow them on their social channels, subscribe to their blogs, and post relevant content in the groups they are in.
Engage with their content. Read what they write and leave appropriate comments. Amplify their content on your social channels.
Come up with the goals you want to achieve through the influencer. Do you want them to provide a testimonial, share your content, or write about you? What form of compensation is required?
Identify any limitations such as work commitments that may keep the influencer from engaging with your brand as you would like.