Digital marketing and a strong B2B web design are essential for creating strong brand awareness, attracting new customers, educating potential customers and converting website visitors into new, long-term customers. However, with all the branding focus we pour into a website, we often forget that it does not exist in a vacuum. It’s easy to overlook how instrumental you and your staff are to reinforcing your branding and transforming website leads into new customers.
In this blog post, we take a look at how you can combine the efforts of your B2B website and your internal staff to maximize all potential client opportunities. The combination of digital marketing efforts and human resources really are a winning duo.
Attract
The objective of inbound marketing is to attract potential customers to your B2B website. A great website cannot simply be built and let to run its course though. To continually attract new leads and visitors to your B2B website, you or your staff needs to keep it current, engaging and exciting by adding new blog posts, making edits to pages and creating new, useful content pieces.
Easy Tip#1: Create a blogging schedule with two to four topics a month. Assign dates and team members to the blog posts to ensure they are written and added to the website with regular frequency.
Convince
There are a variety of ways to convince website visitors and potential customers about the value of your products or services. Case studies, white papers, web pages, customer testimonials, etc. are all great components of an effective B2B web design that convince potential customers about the value of your services or products. A strong digital presence is essential to your company’s credibility, but so is a responsive, helpful staff.
Easy Tip#2: Prioritize responses to website forms, social media engagements, content fulfillment, and emails to potential customers. A quick, friendly, helpful response takes the extra step in showing new website visitors that your company is easy to work with, engaged and has great customer services.
Convert
Unless you are in ecommerce, your B2B website can’t convert a customer by itself. Typically, a website is a lead generation tool and you or your staff are the lead conversion experts. In a recent blog post, we covered how to convert a website lead into a customer. Check out that post for tips on what to do with a business-to-business website lead that shows interest in your products or services. However, we can’t forget the website leads that phone your business. Every single interaction (phone, email and in person) should contribute to converting a website lead.
Easy Tip#3: Send calls to a great salesperson or train your staff how to answer questions and get a customer to commit to a consultation or appointment. Answering questions with a simple yes, no, or uncertain answer will always work against a conversion.
Retain
The key to long-term success for many B2B firms is repeat business or customer retention. As a San Diego and Orange County web design firm, we focus on creating websites and marketing strategies that include customer retention tools like blogs, newsletters/newsletter sign-ups, content libraries, surveys, referral tools, etc. When it comes to retention, you and your staff are the most effective companions to a strong website. Once a sale is made, customer retention efforts begin. Great customer service, follow-through and delivering a great product or service are the foundation of your retention efforts.
Easy Tip #4: Educate your staff about the all the features and information available on your B2B website. Your staff can send links of helpful information on the website to existing clients.
Digital marketing is extremely important in today’s B2B marketplace. However, in focusing on maximizing a strong online presence, we can overlook the importance of our human resources. By focusing on the strengths of both digital marketing and building relationships, you can create a powerful, successful brand.
