Are you developing a marketing strategy for the next year and are you ready to copy the list of promotion channels from last year’s document? Perhaps they wrote “digital” in bold and are ready to conquer the Internet? I suggest you take your time and together inspect the usual channels of communication with clients. Ready?
Then let’s start with digital, because it’s so relevant 🙂
Before Pandemic : Digital Marketing Was Not Very Effective For Salesforce Businesses Or B2B Businesses
Unfortunately (or fortunately?), Digital has never been a priority channel for salesforce businesses with a long lead cycle and a complex product or services. The key player in such a field is always the sales department. His own, dear, properly trained, with a strong marketing department behind his back.
Why is that? The basis of sales in “serious” B2B is large projects. The larger the check, the more trust should be between partners. Trust is built by people, and this is the main reason that big projects in classic B2B come through the salesforce.
And that’s why digital channels do not play a leading role in promoting Salesforce businesses before Pandemic.
After Pandemic : Digital Marketing Become Era Of Digital B2B Sales!
In practice, we see that digital marketing plays an increasingly important role in Salesforce businesses. But what is it? Let’s see:
- Digital marketing brings small orders. The sales department has the opportunity to develop these contacts further.
- It warms up customers and supports the sales process (email marketing, smm).
- Strengthens customer confidence ( website , smm).
- Increases the efficiency of key sales channels (customer journey development, marketing research).
The Customer Journey Map is Your Trump Card
Salesforce businesses has a long transaction cycle and often confusing chain of purchase (contract) decisions. Let’s look at it on the example of the market for expensive facade systems.
In this market, the decision is made not only by a few people, but even by several companies. The idea needs to be sold:
- the owner of the building;
- an architect;
- design organization;
- subcontractor organization.
Customer Journey Map - Simple Development Steps
If you’ve been in the market for a long time, the first thing to do is talk to your regular customers. Ask how they chose you? This communication will help you understand which channels are really important and what role each one has. If you are doing this for the first time, you will find many discoveries.
For example, our client, whose business is related to the supply of complex equipment, paid no attention at all to specialized forums. Someone told him that “forums have died a long time ago, the era of SMM has come.”
But after talking with clients, the director of the company found that the forums had formed the lion’s share of the trust in his business. Specialists on them communicate very closely with each other, it is here that they receive initial knowledge about brands, the quality of their products, problems with spare parts and repairs.
While forums do not really work in most segments, in technically complex products they are still the most important channel for learning about products and which supplier is what.
So, when developing a customer journey map, go through the following steps in sequence:
Make a list of clients with whom you could discuss their “road” to work with you. Try to take into account different types of customers: large and small, customers for different types of products, working constantly and from time to time.
Include in this list the contacts of clients with whom you negotiated, but cooperation did not take place. And also those who have become, for some reason, a “former” client.
Prepare a list of questions for clients. Cover different stages of cooperation from product introduction to purchase and service. Imagine that you are writing an article on the topic: the story of the relationship between our brand and customer “X”.
- Where did you find out?
- How did you choose?
- Why did you buy it for the first time?
- What influenced the decision to work permanently or stop working?
And other questions. Conduct interviews with listed clients. Usually this is 20-30 people, but it can be less or more depending on the size of your business.
Do not be afraid of rejection, even former clients are happy to share their opinions. And if you say that you are calling on behalf of the director of the company (if this is the case), then you will definitely get answers to your questions. People love attention.
Analyze the interview. For convenience, study the information in the context of the following stages:
- Recognition;
- Interest;
- First touch;
- Choice;
- Purchase;
- Using;
- Feedback;
- Recommendations.
Fill in the results obtained in the table. Try to cover the entire customer journey: from the first idea of buying your product to its subsequent use, buying parts, and related sales. Here’s an example of the result:
Powerful Digital Marketing Channels To Promote Your Salesforce Company.
1. Email Marketing
This is one of the best promotion channels, it guarantees cheaper and better sales.
2. Contextual Advertising
Linkedin, Google Ads (AdWords) And Facebook are good because they work with direct demand. We offer our product according to the formed human need.
It can be noted here that, from experience, for technical products or services, especially salesforce software or salesforce services, Google Ads works better than Facebook. Despite the fact that Google has a smaller audience, the cost of a lead in some cases is also significantly lower as compared to Linkedin.
For most types of B2B we recommend advertising campaigns in search, to a lesser extent and Retargeting is mandatory.
3. Seminars And Webinars
An excellent promotion channel for salesforce products and services, Indeed, it is often difficult to explain the nuances and sell without a personal meeting.
Seminars and webinars are best used at the stage of the sales funnel when the client already knows about the product and is even considering concluding a contract. Personal communication and the opportunity to “touch” the product in person or by asking questions helps to bring the customer to a purchase.
4. Youtube Marketing
Works well for equipment that can be shown live. It is important to create interesting, dynamic videos. Not just demonstrating the product, but giving recommendations, answering frequently asked questions and objections.
5. Social Media Ads
The next step is to try advertising for look-alike audiences. For other B2B businesses, it makes sense to use targeted advertising if your base of recognized contacts is more than 1000 people.
Conclusion
Now you have all the cards to start and beat the sales boost game. You know how your customer is moving towards a purchase and where it is best to communicate with them.
By understanding the overall rating of the channels, you can test yourself and perhaps add some interesting ideas to test in your market.
Remember where you need to start working on the channels? With the creation of a customer journey map. that will lead you to success.