It’s not a new development that a functional, engaging website is crucial for any business. However, it’s especially important for B2B companies. According to the market research firm, Forrester, 68% of B2B customers prefer to research independently online. 60% do not want to rely on a sales representative as a primary source of information. You can put your all into a sales pitch, with all of the stats to back it up. But if you have a hard-to-navigate, subpar site, your potential client might determine that “it’s just not a good time.” Or they’ll “keep you posted.” So if you haven’t taken your B2B website strategy seriously yet, make that your New Year’s resolution. The internet goes through a lot of changes very quickly. So it’s essential to keep your website up-to-date. If you have the means to do so, it’s advisable to do a significant strategic website strategy refresh every couple of years. This will ensure the site is in sync with your company objectives.
Kickstart your new website strategy
Don’t know where to start? Here are some pointers:
Rework your keyword strategy: You might feel like your web traffic has been lagging. Maybe you just haven’t put a lot of thought into your keyword strategy since you launched your website. Take this opportunity to read up on new SEO guidelines and determine how you can improve your site ranking game.
Refresh your CTAs:You know CTAs are a significant aspect of your website — you have them on every page! However, the CTAs you’ve used for the last few years are likely looking a little tired. If you don’t have the time or resources for a full revamp, just design some new buttons. This is especially important if you have new offerings.
Update your images: If it’s been a while since you updated your website’s banners or graphics, give them a double-take. Make sure they’re still speaking to your brand. If they were trendy when you started using them a few years ago, they could look a little outdated now.
Check your navigation: When you work with a website day in and day out, its navigation becomes second nature to you. It might not be that easy for someone less familiar to get from point A to point B, though. Ask someone who doesn’t spend a lot of time on your website to click around a bit and report back. What can you do to make it as easy as possible for potential customers to get around?
Click on the links: There are a lot of reasons that a link might break, so you want to make sure all of the links on your website are active. Make sure your internal links haven’t been broken through code changes or previous website updates.
Do a website audit
UX guidance firm, the Nielsen Norman Group, found that the average visitor only reads about a quarter of the content on any given page. And that was in 2008. I think we all can agree that our attention spans have dwindled in the past decade. So your writing has to be sharp. Or your videos have to be engaging. Whatever type of content you house on your website needs to be interesting enough to keep people on your page when a human’s attention span is working against them. You might think you need to cram as much as you can onto your website to ensure people get all of the information they need. However, it’s been proven that a complicated site with too much to read hinders people’s user experience. Design experts at Speckyboy suggest also steering clear of autoplay visuals and improperly placed popup CTAs to avoid distracting your readers. While simplicity is essential, you also want to ensure you don’t consolidate information too much. Readers shouldn’t have to click to multiple pages to get the full picture.
To help with making your website engaging while also keeping the amount of content displayed down, consider using web chats to increase the user experience. MobileMonkey broke down its top tips to leveraging conversational marketing in order to ensure that your site visitors are finding exactly the information they’re searching for, along with you capturing valuable lead data.
Do you need a rebrand?
It’s a common misconception that revamping your website strategy should include a rebrand. While in some cases, it’s advisable (you’ll be making over the rest of the site, why not?) that certainly isn’t always true. Really think about why you feel you need a rebrand. And if you have the budget for one. It’s more than just your logo and colors! Changing all of that up on your website will also require changing all of your physical brandings. From your building’s signage to your business cards, it’s a big undertaking. If you believe your whole brand needs a makeover because your website isn’t pulling in the traffic you want, remember that site views are dependent on industries. B2B sites tend to bring in less traffic than the average e-commerce site, and that’s OK. Don’t measure your goals up against another business.
Take a look at your messaging
What actually tends to be the issue when people feel like they need new branding, is messaging. Take a good look at your web content. Is it in line with what you perceive your brand to be? Someone should know your company’s story with a quick look through your website. According to Canva, your branding should tell a story, as psychologists have proven that the human brain lights up when hearing or reading a narrative. Don’t you want your reader’s minds to be active as they check out your website? If you truly believe that your brand story is no longer relevant to what you represent as a company, then it probably is time for a rebrand. And of course, it is easiest to pull off a full rebrand when you are already freshening up your website.
Consider a launchpad site
If your website needs such a revamp that it could be easier to start from scratch, consider starting with a launchpad site. It seems incredibly daunting to revamp your entire website in a short amount of time, but you don’t have to. Having a minimal site with higher quality content can be more effective than a website that’s more fleshed-out, with less emphasis on the content itself. A launchpad site is a “minimally viable product,” meaning that the only things housed on it at the time of launch are what’s absolutely essential. A traditional website tends to take months to finish and costs more money than a launchpad site. And you don’t even know if the changes are effective until it’s finished and launched.
HubSpot has a useful video that’ll help you sort through features and identify the core things you should include in your launchpad site.
The ultimate benefit of using a launchpad site over doing a complete overhaul is that you have the opportunity to see what resonates with your audience early on. This way, you know what works before you invest more time and money into your new web design. Your site becomes more of a living thing that supports your marketing strategy, with the flexibility that allows you to avoid falling into that trap that causes you to build an entire website based on assumptions.
Launchpad details
A launchpad site typically consists of 30 to 50 pages. Include a homepage, an “about us” page, a service/solution page, contact information, offers, and a blog. With fewer things for your users to see, they’re likely to check out more of your site and give you a chance to hone in on what people are looking at. Your content should reign supreme, and you should focus your web design around it, not the other way around. Using a launchpad site is an iterative process, with far lower stakes than launching a full website all at once. With a launchpad site, going live isn’t the end, it’s just the beginning!
Building your site
Just a few years ago, the average person would balk at the idea of building their own website. Between the visuals on the front end and the coding on the back end, it seemed so intimidating. However, even though websites certainly look better these days, they’re less technical. With platforms like Divi, Elementor, and WordPress’s Visual Composer, sites are easier to manage. Keeping the security of your website in mind is imperative, especially if people are making purchases. WordPress is one of the world’s largest content management system. It’s currently powering 34% of the internet! But, some people worry about its security. Be sure to enable two-factor authentication and use strong passwords and reputable plug-ins. Just like you do with everything else on the internet! If you’re more comfortable with leaving web design to the professionals, be sure you don’t blow your budget on it. Try to allot 25% of your budget to website development. Then leave 75% to everything else, like the web host that’ll fuel your website’s performance and the content that you’ll be showcasing.
Upcoming trends
We’re already predicting what’ll be trending in 2020! With content marketing continuing to chug along, bending, and weaving through industry trends, it’s no surprise that there’s a continuing emphasis on high-quality content. The internet is a vast, black hole, and only the most influential content rises to the surface. Don’t skimp on your content marketing efforts, from case studies to blogs, and especially video.
Speaking of video: As you can probably guess, it’s slotted to continue being one of the most substantial assets on your website. If you haven’t embraced video yet, try starting with a testimonial video. A testimonial of a third party, like a happy customer, beats out some of that noise and distrust that many consumers have lurking in the back of their minds. Back in the earlier days of digital marketing, your brand was supposed to take a backseat. With the rise of social media and a desire for transparency, putting some more focus on your brand itself is becoming increasingly popular. Let your potential customers see who you are and what your brand stands for through your advertising and web content. When working on your new website strategy, remember that it’s a marathon, not a sprint. What might have at first seemed like many small tasks can add up and take more time and energy than anticipated – but everything worth it does!
As we discussed before, in our blog post, “HubSpot vs. Pipedrive: Which CRM is Better for Sales?”, choosing a customer relationship management tool for your B2B company is a big decision. You need to take a lot of factors into account, like the size of your company, what software you want to integrate, and what the main functions of your CRM will be. It’ll help you find new contacts and organize the ones you have, allow you to nurture your leads, and facilitate collaboration between your sales and marketing teams. In other words, you’ll be spending a lot of time with it. With so many options out there, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to which is best, but we’re going to break down some of the key aspects of two of the most popular CRMs: HubSpot vs. Salesforce.
All about HubSpot
The great thing about HubSpot, especially for a new business, is that there is a free option. While you will probably have to add on some premium sales tools as your company grows and you need change, you have a lot of flexibility to purchase just the ones you need. HubSpot’s CRM also gives you the option to have as many users on it as you want, enabling more collaboration between your sales and marketing teams. The free CRM option offers contact management, deal and task management, and integrations with social media and email that allows you to track your interactions with leads. The HubSpot CRM wasn’t created to compete with Salesforce. According to Impact, HubSpot’s CRM is ideal for companies that are new to customer relationship management systems, that are looking to improve their organization and efficiency. If you’re already using the countless tools that HubSpot offers new businesses, it would make sense to want all of your information in a single place. After all, HubSpot does offer tools for social media marketing, web and social analytics, content management, landing pages, and search engine optimization, as well as videos, to teach you how to use all of them.
About Salesforce
Salesforce is one of the original CRMs, founded in 1999. Currently, Salesforce is the No. 1 CRM, dominating 30.27% of the market share, with over 45,000 domains under its belt. Known for offering just about everything you might need in a CRM and name recognition, it’s typically the first CRM that new business owners look into. It’s also not surprising that that convenience isn’t free. Convenience typically costs a pretty penny — like that last time you ordered an Uber when you really could have taken the train, or that Doordash you ordered when you had a fridge full of ingredients to make dinner, Salesforce is no different. For many up-and-coming B2B companies, Salesforce’s pricing is just not in their budget. There’s no free plan, and though pricing starts at a mere $25 a month, most companies need more than the $25 plan offers. PieSync suggests that the average user needs to spend about $150 on Salesforce to get all of the functionality they’ll need.
Interface
You know how some people live and die by Apple products, while others prefer the look and feel of a PC? Neither one is notably better (despite what people on either side of the fence will try to convince you on), but it all comes down to the type of interface you prefer. HubSpot is known for having a clean, simple, user-friendly look to it. After all, its CRM was specifically created for beginners. You’re able to clearly see everything that HubSpot has to offer, on an intuitive dashboard. We mentioned before how Salesforce provides more than most marketers will ever need, and you can tell that by looking at the dash. It’s pretty clunky, with a lot of information right there on the screen, but you still need to click around and do deep dives to find all of the information that you’re looking for. Flight Media took screenshots of both for you to compare:
Salesforce’s dashboard
HubSpot’s dashboard
Integration
Like in our previous post comparing HubSpot and Pipedrive, it all comes down to integration! While your CRM will be able to do a lot, it won’t do absolutely everything a growing business needs it to (Nope, not even Salesforce). This is where integration comes in. While some CRM systems have barriers to integration, neither HubSpot or Salesforce do. Salesforce ultimately allows for integration among more programs than HubSpot does. Still, HubSpot is sure to offer extensions for some of the most prominent programs you’ll be using, like Microsoft Office and Google Suite.
What if you already have a CRM, though, and are looking around for other options? Well, HubSpot might be the pick for you. Not only can you simultaneously use both CRMs, but you can eventually integrate your data into HubSpot. This is also handy when you have clients working along with you who use a different in-house CRM — even if that other CRM is Salesforce. Depending on the size of your business and how in-depth you want your reporting to be, there are certainly pros and cons to both HubSpot and Salesforce. If you’re just starting, though, HubSpot’s user-friendly interface and wallet-friendly pricing might be the way to go.
The online marketing world is continually going through transitions. It can be challenging to keep up with all of the new strategies, trends, and Google algorithm workarounds. It’s understandable to fall on either end of the spectrum, either staying vigilant about learning every new change or getting burned out, even trying to keep up. It’s handy to have a go-to way to ensure you’re up to date with the world of inbound marketing — and other digital marketing areas — each year. Let me introduce you to HubSpot Academy. It touts itself as the “worldwide leader in free online training for inbound marketing, sales and customer service professionals.” HubSpot Academy consists of narrated videos, how-to tutorials, and hands-on activities. Marketing, sales, and service professionals across the world use it as both foundational and continuing education. These courses are growing in popularity each year. According to HubSpot, the certification rate has almost tripled from its first year in 2016 when 55,000 people were awarded. In 2018, HubSpot Academy awarded 140,000 certifications. Here’s what you should know about HubSpot Academy to help you determine whether it’s the right fit for you and your career.
What to expect
A feature of HubSpot Academy that bears repeating is the fact that it’s free. While most courses are at least a three- to four-hour time commitment, that’s all that you spend on them. Of course, if halfway through you don’t feel like you’re getting anything out of it, you’re not obligated to continue. Loaded with foundational information that you’ll need to know for just about every other course HubSpot offers, the Inbound Marketing course is your first step. If you’re a pretty experienced marketer, you might think you can skip over the Inbound Marketing course. Still, if anything, it’ll be beneficial to brush up on some of the jargon and nitty-gritty aspects of marketing that you might not use in your day-to-day work. Other popular certification courses HubSpot offers include Content Marketing, Inbound Sales, Social Media. The Academy also offers “short courses,” which are usually between an hour and three hours long, and dive deep into more specific topics like Twitter Strategy or SEO. None of the HubSpot Academy courses’ certifications last forever. While some are valid for 25 months, others expire after just 13 months. It seems like a drag to have to retake the test, but it’s the most effective way to ensure you’re up-to-date on the most recent changes to the programs that you’re working with. You don’t have to re-watch the videos, but it doesn’t hurt to brush up.
You get out what you put in
Like most online courses, you can burn through the HubSpot Academy videos pretty quickly and not retain any of the information if you don’t make a real effort. A lot of information gets crammed into each of these classes. It would be almost impossible to watch all of the videos and remember everything that’s said. So pay close attention and take as many detailed notes as you can. That way, you can get the most out of your HubSpot Academy courses. After each course, you’ll take an exam. Depending on which course you take, it usually takes about an hour to complete. However, you have three hours to do so. To pass each course and become certified in each area, you don’t have to answer each question correctly, but you do have to score 80 percent. If you’re having your employees take the Academy courses, you might want to allow study groups or let them take the exam in pairs. Discussing the course and talking about the questions is a way to ensure everyone stays engaged, helping them retain all of the information that they’re taking in. If you don’t pass the first time you take the test, don’t worry! You can retake it in 12 hours. To up your chances of passing, read the study guide. You can also go back and rewatch videos that focus on the areas of the test that you struggled on. You’ll get it the second time around!
Professional benefits
The main advantage of taking the HubSpot Academy certification courses is the fact that you’ll enhance your skills. If you maintain your certification, you’ll get refreshers each year or two and stay sharp. If you want bragging rights, though, you can also get them here. When you pass a course, you can add a badge to your LinkedIn page (and add it to your resume!) The HubSpot Academy is a massive asset in the workplace, accelerating onboarding for new employees and giving people transitioning to a new role in the marketing or sales departments a good foundation. It’s not necessary to take every course HubSpot has to offer, so you can focus on just the ones you need. If someone is getting paid advertisements, added to their plate at work, there’s a course for that!
Creating a testimonial video is a careful balancing act. While you want your testimonials to sell people on your product, it’s also important that they come across as genuine and engaging. This can be even more challenging in a B2B testimonial video. A testimonial video is footage of a real-life customer talking about how a product or service has helped their business. It’s one of the most effective pieces of marketing content. Think about it. When’s the last time you made a big purchase or even just ordered something online? Did you read the reviews on the website first? Did you go so far as to check out blog posts or reviews on other websites? Now think of how much more effective real people’s reviews were than whatever the brand’s website said. That’s why testimonials are so important. We’ve all seen botched testimonial videos that come off as infomercials, so it’s understandable why you may be hesitant to make one for your company. However, with a few things in mind, you can ensure you create a testimonial video with an appropriate and (dare I say it?) even engaging tone.
Lose the script
Chances are, whoever you’re interviewing isn’t a professional actor. So don’t give him or her a script to read. Not only will it seem tacky to tell someone who enjoyed your product how exactly to praise you, but it’ll be obvious that they’re reading lines. The charm of a well-made testimonial video is the fact that it feels so real. If you have certain points that you want to make sure are touched on in the video, just let your interview subject know — preferably in advance so he or she can prep for the video.
Make it relatable
What pain points brought your interviewee to you and how did you solve them? The best way to get people engaged in your testimonial video is to put them in your interviewee’s shoes. Whatever you did for the person on screen can be done for them too. This testimonial from Slack discusses how the software helps streamline business communications:
Like case studies, as we discussed in our last blog, Essential Video Ideas for Your B2B Video Strategy, your testimonial video isn’t really about your company. It’s about your customer’s experience with your company. Let your interviewee be the focus of your video and your company’s success will shine through. In post-production, edit your video to tell a story with a clear beginning, middle and end. What brought your client to you? How did you solve his or her problem? What were the results?
Get plenty of footage
Like most of your marketing videos, you should keep a testimonial quick. Vidyard says that the “sweet spot” is between 45 and 60 seconds, and up to three minutes is acceptable. Make sure you get a complete idea of your customer’s experience but don’t bore your viewers. Feel free to interview your client for as long as it takes to get about a minute of great content, and expertly edit it in post-production. Vidyard also suggests including more footage than just your interview subject’s talking head. Start your video with footage of your interview subject walking in the door, or use a voiceover while panning around your visually appealing office space. Make sure you shoot plenty of b-roll to ensure you have enough variety to keep your testimonial looking as interesting as it sounds. This testimonial video from HootSuite is a great example of effectively using b-roll and varying camera shots:
Speaking of streamlining social media effort, testimonials are easily digestible and shareable, so they’re always a great option on social media. Maybe even include a CTA that asks your followers to share their good experience with your company as well!
The concept of lead nurturing is marketing 101. Whether you’re part of a SaaS or Management Consultant company, the objective is always to move prospects through the sales funnel. As we discussed in our blog post, The Impact of Demand Generation on Sales Cycles, demand generation strategy is all the activities that bring attention to your company in an effort to bring prospects into your sales funnel. Closing a deal isn’t a one-size-fits-all situation, so the way you nurture your buyers plays a huge role in your strategy’s success. Drip campaigns are probably the most popular method of lead nurturing. Typically in the form of emails, drip campaigns are automated and are sent to your leads regularly in an effort to stay at the top of their minds. While this such a popular method of lead nurturing for a reason (it’s pretty darn easy) there are a few drawbacks that should keep you from relying too heavily on them. If your emails are overly promotional, without actually offering anything of value, not only will your leads stop moving through your funnel, but they’ll probably unsubscribe. Think about how many times you’ve opened your inbox and seen yet another sales email from a store you’ve only casually shopped at. No coupons, nothing of value — did you scroll to the bottom and unsubscribe? Or better yet, check your spam folder and see how many marketers your email provider already made that call for you about. Luckily, there are many more effective ways to nurture your leads.
1) Make it personal
While you don’t have to personally write a tailored email to each of your leads, a little bit of personalization can go a long way. At the very least, it’s helpful to choose an email template in your CRM that allows you to include your recipient’s name. That’s not all you can do, though. The great thing about paying such close attention to your demand generation strategy is that you likely have a general idea of specifically how you can be of service to each of your leads. If you’ve identified potential client’s pain points, don’t hesitate to make them known in your lead nurturing efforts. Nobody likes to feel like a number, so if you’re reaching out and expecting them to open your emails, make sure what you have to say to them is relevant. While you might think this seems like a wasted effort, HubSpot, found that leads nurtured with targeted content produce an increase in sales opportunities of more than 20%. There are plenty of segmentation options in all of the main CRM systems that you don’t have to cast such a wide net.
2) Use more than one medium
Sure, email is most common and it’s certainly a medium to make sure you pay attention. However, it’s not the be-all, end-all to lead nurturing. Honestly, even though content marketing has become associated with digital marketing, the internet itself isn’t even the limit when it comes to nurturing your leads.
In addition to mail, both e- and direct, you can use social media, blogs, webinars, and videos to help move your leads along their buyer’s journey. Be active and engaging on your social channels, keeping in mind that while it might feel mundane to devote time and energy to your Twitter presence, this is a common way that leads might actually discover your brand and product. You can also look into targeted ads or initiate connections with leads on social media yourself. This also gives your brand a personal edge that can help you build relationships.
3) Check your stats
Your lead nurturing efforts are only worth it if they’re actually doing something for your demand generation strategy. Sure, you can automate some emails and tweet some Tweets, but if you’re not checking in on how effective these things are, you’re probably wasting your time. If you’re finding that only 5% of email recipients are actually opening your messages, it’s time to re-evaluate your strategy. Very few people get their audience’s needs right on the first try, so there’s no shame in starting over. Play with different subject lines, put more of an emphasis on personalization and see what makes a difference in your engagement levels.
4) Retargeting
How many times have you taken the plunge from a casual browser to a full-blown customer in a single website visit? You can probably count those instances on one hand. Impulse shopping isn’t as common online as it is in person when you can think about a product revisit a website at any time. Of course, it helps push you along when you happen to come across an ad for exactly what you were looking at the next time you’re on your phone. Sorcery? Mindreading? Nah, just retargeting. Retargeting is a form of paid advertising that puts your brand in front of bounced traffic even after the person has left your website. This is a great way to keep yourself at the forefront of leads’ minds, without actually having to do anything yourself — not because you don’t want to put more effort in, you’re just too busy with personalizing your campaigns, obviously.
5) Follow up
We all know how frustrating it is to continuously have to press certain numbers on our phones when all we really want to do is talk to a human who can help us with our problem. What a relief it is when you finally get to talk to someone. Be that relief for your leads. When your potential customers are nearing the end of their buyer’s journey, engaging with your emails, taking an interest in what you have to offer, don’t make them reach out to you. Nudge them along with a human contact. Of course, this will usually be over the phone or via a personal email, but Databox suggests attempting to actually meet with potential leads in person when it’s possible. “Technology helps advance the conversation, but it will never replace those human interactions that build trust over time.”
When you read the term “demand generation,” it sounds like it just means that you’re “generating demand” for your product. While in some ways, that is accurate, there’s a lot more to demand generation than that. Plenty of things you do as a marketer each day fall under the “demand generation” umbrella.
What is demand generation?
Think of it as any activity that brings attention to your B2B company to bring people into your sales funnel. It’s about keeping in mind where people are in their buying journey when tailoring your marketing materials to them. You’re not going to launch into a hard sell to someone visiting your website for the first time. And you’re not going to leave out important details for someone who is potentially looking to close a deal. Demand generation is truly your sales and marketing teams working in tandem. After all, the sales cycle of a B2B customer is quite different than a B2C customer. So it’s imperative that efforts to educate, nurture, and convert potential leads take place at the appropriate time.
Where it all starts
The B2C world can use demand generation, especially in areas with longer sales cycles, like home or car buying. However, it’s most common in the B2B world. The whole process begins with getting the word out. B2B companies probably won’t be filming commercials or taking traditional ad space out, so it’s essential to think outside the box. Some common ways B2B companies build awareness of their brand include tactics like:
Investing in search engine optimization: One of the best ways to allow people to discover your business is to help them solve a problem. Using keywords in your website content that people might search for while looking for a solution will get them on your page and potentially land you a customer.
Advertising on search engines: I know, it’s like Google is the gatekeeper to business and we have no choice but to play along (unless you choose to use like, Bing or something). But it would be silly to ignore the impact search engines have on business. Shelling out some cash to have your business’s information at the top of relevant searches is a way to kickstart your web presence.
Hosting webinars: Similar to investing in SEO, hosting webinars is an effective way to demonstrate your value by offering a solution that your potential customers may be looking to solve. Webinars are a low commitment way for people to see what you have to offer and how you can help them.
Free trials: How many free trials have you signed up for before actually investing in something? From streaming services to gym memberships, free trials are one of the best ways to get someone’s foot in the door. For a B2B company, this could be a consultation call or a free e-book that gives potential customers a taste of what you can offer, without giving too much away.
How demand generation fits into the sales cycle
If you think a lot of these demand generation tactics sound like inbound marketing, you are correct! HubSpot’s simple explanation for this is that inbound marketing is a type of demand generation activity. It’s effective, too — HubSpot found that inbound leads are five times more likely to become customers than outbound leads. That’s not where the connections between the two end, though. WordStream states that demand generation is a “long-term relationship between a brand’s marketing and sales teams, and prospective customers.” Once the marketing team has created content and used that content’s performance to determine prospective customers and taken it a step further with projects like email campaigns, these contacts are passed along to the sales team. From there, the marketing and sales teams can determine where in the sales cycle each of these leads are. Then they can tailor their marketing efforts accordingly. Lead scoring, ranking, and routing are all a part of the sales teams’ role in demand generation. Determining which leads should be contacted ups the chances that a sale will be made by focusing energy on the most promising leads.
Writing a B2B case study can seem like a daunting task. The title ‘case study’ infers hours upon hours of research to create a big, thick document of dry information in the end. While that may have been the case back in the day, it’s a much quicker, exciting process now — that is, if you do it effectively.
Why You Should Prioritize More Case Studies
A survey from the Content Marketing Institute found that the most important marketing tactics for B2B companies are in-person events, webinars, and case studies. If you want to ensure they get the memo that you’re the one they should do business with, your successes must be easy to find – and in as few places as possible. You don’t want to leave a trail of success breadcrumbs scattered around the internet in the hopes that future business will follow it. Development company Devrix suggests making your case studies visible on your website, even on your main navigation menu. You might be asking, “Can’t I just include them in my blog?” Or, “Why dedicate a whole page to case studies?” There are a couple of answers to those questions.
You could include your case studies in your blog, but they aren’t really blogs. Your blog likely consists of industry news and how-to posts, acting as a catch-all. Your case studies serve the purpose of being all about work your company has done. So let them stand out!
You might be hesitant to dedicate a whole page to your case studies because you still think a case study is a bulky project that nobody outside of your organization will want to read. However, it’s common now to use a case study to focus on a single takeaway or two. If you have more that you want to write about — you probably do — then you write more case studies.
B2B Case Study Etiquette
The most important thing to keep in mind about your case study is that the success outlined is attributed to the customer. Not you. Use case studies as a platform for your customers’ successes, not an excuse to show off how you helped get them there.
Involve Your Customers
There are a few ways to obtain the necessary information you need from your client. But a lot of it depends on how hands-on and responsive they are. Some clients like to be kept in the loop and want to be involved in any projects you’re working on that concern them. Others prefer to talk to you only when you’re working on a project for them. If your client is more of the hands-on type, interview them either in person, over the phone, or via email. If your client is a bit more reserved, you will want to ask for the materials you need before you get started. Then, send him or her a draft before continuing to make sure you’re on the right track before committing more time. Sending a draft ahead of time is also an excellent route to take if your case study contains any information that might be considered sensitive or confidential. A way to avoid getting too detailed without omitting necessary data is to use growth percentages instead of specific numbers.
What Should You Include?
Oh! Did you want to know the literal way to write your B2B case study? The format? Well, there are a few ways to do that, as long as you include all of these crucial aspects:
A detailed headline: Don’t just use your client’s name. What project or results is your study actually about?
The process you used: How did you solve this client’s problem? You’re not a magician. You can reveal your tricks.
The results: Be as specific as the client allows you to be. Brag brag brag!
Quotes: Try to get quotes from your client about the work that you did for him or her.
Call to action: Allow anyone who’s reading to reach these same results by getting in contact with you. You don’t want them to have read the whole case study just to be confused about how to hire you!
If you need help getting started on writing an effective B2B case study, check out our free Smark Toolbox’s case study template.
There are a lot of decisions to make when you’re a new business owner, so you want to make sure that the software you choose makes your job as easy as it can be. That’s why choosing between a customer relationship management (CRM) tool that makes sense for your business is such an important step to take. The fact that there are just too many different types of CRM tools out there can lead to decision fatigue. That’s why we’re going to take a deep dive into two of the most popular CRMs, Pipedrive and HubSpot, so you can see which works best for you.
Take your size into account
For small business owners who want a CRM tool to handle more than just the sales aspect of day-to-day tasks, HubSpot is a good choice. For example, a small business probably doesn’t have a coder on board yet, so HubSpot handles that. A considerable benefit of HubSpot is that so much of it is automated. When a small team is stretched thin, HubSpot is running in the background, taking care of it. HubSpot also works on a tiered system, making it ideal for small businesses, so you can manage up to 2500 contacts before the price goes up. HubSpot owns approximately 41.5% of the small business automation market, so it’s no surprise that it checks off a lot of small business’s boxes. Marketing Automation Insider suggests Pipedrive for small- to medium-sized businesses. The platform is customizable to suit different types of companies but lacks the automation options that HubSpot makes so easy. It is simple to integrate Pipedriver with Zapier, an automation tool that allows you to connect all of your apps and devices, but that does come with an additional cost.
Convenience comes with a cost
As mentioned, HubSpot’s tiered pricing system works well for small businesses. However, it can get pricey for a company that grows quickly. For example, once you establish more than 2500 contacts you manage, your price goes up to $1200 per month until you reach 10,000 contacts, and so on. Pipedrive does use a tiered system as well, but it stays at one price until you reach 100,000 contacts. Take into account, though, the fact that you’d also need to pay a subscription fee for a program like Zapier if you wanted to automate to the level that HubSpot allows you to.
How about sales?
Pipedrive is known as a CRM “built by salespeople, for salespeople.” Its primary focus is on sales pipeline management, while HubSpot is a jack of all trades, with marketing and sales functionality wrapped in one CRM. I know, the full expression is “jack of all trades, master of none.” If you’re looking to have all of your sales and marketing needs in one place, HubSpot is probably the pick for you. But if you’re just looking for a CRM to help you streamline your sales process, Pipedrive might be a better choice.
Integration, integration, integration
While it’s true that HubSpot can do just about anything you want it to do (from a sales and marketing standpoint, at least), you want to ensure you can integrate any software you’re currently using with the CRM you choose. Luckily, whether you go for HubSpot or Pipedrive, you shouldn’t have an issue ensuring your favorite apps work alongside your CRM. According to Discover CRM, Pipedrive integrates with 148 apps, HubSpot integrates with 128 apps, and both work with popular software like Zapier, Salesforce, Outlook, and Gmail. Before you take the dive, though, make sure you check the list of apps that integrate with each CRM — especially if you use some more obscure programs! I’m sorry if you went into this post intending to get a firm CRM recommendation for your particular business, but it just doesn’t work that way! Both HubSpot and Pipedrive have their strengths and weaknesses, but it’s up to you to figure out what’s important to you when choosing your business’s CRM tools.
When it comes to creating a content strategy, it’s essential to prioritize video. It may not be cheap or easy, but we can help you with that. B2B video marketing is well worth the investment in both money and time. Don’t believe our words? We have the numbers to back it up
HubSpot found that 87% of consumers would like to see more videos from their favorite brands.
So obviously, HubSpot deduced that 99% of marketers who already use video plan to continue doing so, and 88% plan to spend more.
90% of consumers find that videos help them decide whether or not to make a purchase, according to Social Media Today.
People stick around on a webpage for approximately two more minutes when there is a video present than when there is just text to read. Crazy Egg also states that these consumers are also 64% more likely to make a purchase.
Getting Started with B2B Video Marketing
If you’re not on the video train yet, it’s about time you get started. If you’re looking for ways to get those wheels in motion, you’ve come to the right place. Here are some video ideas to help you get started with your video content strategy.
Video blogs
Do you already have a blog? Congratulations, then you already have plenty of video blog content. While the fact that a piece of content you’ve put time and effort into writing isn’t getting the traffic you’d hoped is a tough pill to swallow, a good consolation is that you can repurpose it into video content. If the piece you’re working with is long, take a single point you make in the post and elaborate upon it for the video. If the article is short or easy to segment into bullet points, you can summarize the whole thing in a video blog.
Executive interviews
Do you have a CEO with a real personality? Is the founder of your company a compelling storyteller? Put them in a video! Whether the purpose of the video is to tell the story of your B2B company or to announce an exciting new campaign, putting real people involved in your business in front of the camera is a great way to humanize your web presence and get people engaged.
Explainer videos
What do your customers tend to struggle with? Ask your customer service team what questions they answer most often and be proactive by creating a video that directly addresses them. Not only will this take a little bit of pressure off of your customer service team, but it’ll also be handy for your consumers to be able to troubleshoot some of their issues with a simple Google search.
Testimonials
Do you look for reviews of a product before you make a purchase? Video testimonials from past customers are a way to spread the word about your business. They also help people who are still deciding whether they want to spend their money with you the little nudge they might need.
Animations
If you have a great animator on staff — or are willing to bring one on board, your video possibilities are endless. Animations are an excellent way to explain something on the more technical side and bring some personality to a topic that might be dry in front of a camera.
Where are you posting these?
Will these videos you’ve created live on your website, or are they a part of a more extended content strategy to create a more robust social media presence? If you’re going to post your content to social media, it’s essential to make sure people will watch it. It’s not as simple as just taking the video and uploading it to all mediums. Format a square version for Instagram, cut a quick clip that’ll intrigue people enough to head over to your website for the full version. For reference, HubSpot recommends keeping your Instagram videos below 30 seconds, Twitter videos below 45 seconds, Facebook videos below a minute, and YouTube videos below two minutes. And as for anything in the B2B marketing space, don’t forget optimizing your video content for search engines, by using captions and turning on autoplay. Don’t autoplay the sound, though! Think about the last time you had a random video playing in one of your browser tabs. Did you go to the correct tab and actually watch the video, or did you mute the page? One more thing that shouldn’t come as a surprise to any B2B marketer: include a CTA! Even if it isn’t clickable, end your video on a note that tells your viewers what to do next.
Your B2B video marketing should elevate your content strategy. Let us help! Learn more about our award-winning video production services and capabilities.
Like most industries, B2B marketing is loaded with a lot of acronyms and jargon. Sometimes you feel like you’ve been nodding along for so long, and now it’s been too long that you can’t even ask what something means. Perhaps nothing is discussed more than “brand strategy,” though. It sounds self-explanatory, but there’s more to it than determining your logo and your signature colors. If you’ve been smiling along with a vague understanding of what your colleagues are discussing, you’ve come to the right place. We’re going to discuss what B2B brand strategy means and how you can use it.
…so what is it?
Your brand strategy is the method that you take to build and shape your brand, as well as how you spread the word! It’s the plan you put in place to make your business recognizable to anyone who may need your services. The biggest, most successful brands have an almost formulaic strategy in place. It practically allows customers to understand what’s being sold to them before the brand even reveals itself. Establishing a well-defined brand may be a bit more difficult for a B2B business than for a large corporation, though, especially if it’s still pretty small. Most B2B companies (and businesses in general) don’t have the backing of a centuries-old brand like Coca-Cola or the hip, trendy recognition of brands like Supreme or Glossier. However, that doesn’t mean you should push branding to the back burner. Most people wouldn’t say that the most recognizable brands in the world are B2B. But Harvard Business School marketing professor John Quelch says that B2B brands should invest more in their brand-building for these three reasons:
Most B2B marketers can’t economically address thousands of small businesses using the traditional direct sales force.
If left unattended, individual managers will each do their own ad hoc marketing.
B2B marketers realize that developing brand awareness among their customers’ customers can capture a larger share of channel margins and build loyalty that can protect them against lower-priced competitors.
Have you established your buyer personas yet?
No? Then head on over to our blog, “How to Build a Quality Buyer Persona in Five Easy Steps.” Yes? Congrats! Now you can reference them when determining what kind of brand strategy will most resonate with your customers.
Brand strategy in a B2B world
According to HubSpot, the seven componentsfor a comprehensive branding strategy are:
Purpose: What is it contributing to the world?
Consistency: Do all of your outlets – from your marketing materials to your website, to your social media presence – all seem like they’re coming from the same entity?
Emotion: How are you making your customers think that you’re the answer to their questions?
Flexibility: Are you paying attention to the ebbs and flows of your industry and willing to tweak your strategies to stay relevant?
Loyalty: Do you acknowledge customers who keep coming back or refer you to other companies?
Competitive awareness: Are you paying attention to the marketing strategies of businesses in the same industry as you?
Employee involvement: Is your staff on the same page as your marketing team? While you might associate your brand with your outward appearance to your customers, your company culture is also a large part of it.
These components are essential for any business to keep in mind, B2C, or B2B. If anything, they’re even more important to keep in mind if you’re marketing to other companies. After all, they’ve worked on their own B2B brand strategies, so they’ll be the first to notice if yours seems to be half-baked. So really take some time and brainstorm where your business stands on all of these aspects. I know, these are a lot of questions to keep in mind. Wouldn’t it be easier if your brand strategy did just consist of “What colors should we use on our website?” and “Are we going to be professional or irreverent on the internet?” But trust me, your hard work will pay off when it comes to establishing a lasting, cohesive brand for your B2B business.
The keyword there is “lasting”
Market research firm AYTM warns against focusing too much on the short termwhen working on your brand strategy. Yeah, it’s cool to see results right away, but you want to make sure these results don’t start to wane, leaving you right where you started. They suggest your marketing team become “brand architects,” and build a foundation before working on strategies to “bridge brand strategy and brand messaging.” Think of this foundation as your first step each time you want to expand upon your company’s branding. You’ll always have a head start!
