How to understand clearly what journey does the customer undertake in B2B marketing and sales
In this article you will learn something about the path that a B2B customer takes to make a purchase decision. We will introduce you more closely to the four main phases of business to business sales.
B2B customer behavior has changed radically in recent years. Though, they are buying as before, but when searching for information at the pre-sales stage or in the search for information about available suppliers and products, buyers or technicians no longer have to fly across half of the world to visit some fair or exhibition. It is enough to be able to track this information on-line. It is this initial “sieve” including web and digital technologies becomes critical especially for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
A typical B2B company with 30 to 500 employees may not be world known, but it has to win its customers working hard. Precisely these companies need to respond to changes in customer behavior and ensure that they are visible to their target groups throughout the selection process — from decision-making to purchasing.
The basic difference between B2B and B2C buying behavior:
Regarding B2C, the final buyer is often just one person, his/her decision can be more easily influenced by marketing, brand perception, or a simple need or desire to own a product or service (such as buying a vacation).
The buyer’s path within the frames of B2B purchasing is unique in that more people are often involved in the purchasing process on the customer’s side. In B2B, you sell to a whole team or a group of people who have their “say” in decision making and are more rational about the purchasing process. The decision-making process is therefore longer.
A few facts from B2B for the year 2018:
◾ 6–12 months is the average length of the shopping cycle
◾ 67% of purchasing “journeys” focusing on sales will end online
◾ 2% is the success rate for a business meeting agreed via cold call
◾ 9 out of 10 B2B customers appreciate the benefits of quality content on the seller’s website
Source: https://searchengineland.com/
How to take advantage of the 4 main stages of customer behavior in B2B
The “buyer’s journey” is one of the most important elements of B2B marketing strategy. To be successful, the marketing strategy of a seller must be able to target the right audience and address them with the right message at just the right time. In addition, B2B traders will understand what their buyers are doing and can help them to proceed from one decision phase to the next.
In both B2B and B2C purchasing, the AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) marketing model has been used for a long time.
However, Avinash Kaushik, the world-renowned marketer and analyst has updated this model and created the “See-Think-Do-Care” framework for digital age.
A brief overview of marketing tools for each phase of the purchasing cycle within B2B looks as folows:
The correct targeting of content or advertising for the right audience is the same in both B2B and B2C:
Phase 1: SEE — Awareness
This is the stage where your potential customer may not even be aware of the existence of your company. Your marketing strategy should create awareness of your product, service, or business at this stage.
We can divide this pahse into several steps:
- Identification of needs
2. Research
3. Assessment
Identifying the needs
◾ In the phase of identifying the needs of a buyer in B2B, your potential customer recognizes that there is a problem or challenge to face, such as finding a new tire supplier for the fleet, finding an alternative to a more expensive adhesive tape supplier, or covering the risk of a potential supply failure form the UK due to Brexit.
Research
◾ As part of a B2B vendor survey, your potential customer is likely looking for a solution to a problem. In this phase, 72% of potential buyers turn to Google for research. Companies that are familiar with the characteristics of their target group (they have processed so-called “ persons” — virtual profiles of ideal customers) are presenting their information at this stage of the sales cycle. Although B2B customers want to know the value of your product or service, they are more interested in facts, statistics, customer reviews, etc.
◾ The content should focus on solving the customer’s problem. So if we have the right content for the right “persons”, we can focus on distributing it to the target “persons”. This can be achieved through search engine optimization (SEO), social networking and Google Ads. In the latter case (through Google Ads), based on focusing on the relevant keywords. Specific people in companies (buyers, project managers, technicians) are trying to get relevant answers in the SERP, thus their searches are more specific.
◾ The problem that often occurs at smaller markets, such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and in other countries similar in size, is that for specific phrases, search volume is often so low that Google does not trigger the ads on Google Ads. This state is called “low search volume”. The solution is then to target your search more generally, but with lower relevance, to engage in SEO activities, or to use GDN or other marketing channels to reach and address the target group.
Assessment
◾ As part of the customer evaluation:, the customer has already found you, but is now conducting further research and eliminating suppliers who do not meet his/her requirements. At this stage, your promising B2B customer will need more than one GDN banner or billboard. To get the person searching to the next stage, you need to work with content on the web, personalize, retarget. Build interest and trust in your brand and product.
Marketing techniques and tools for working with customers in the SEE phase:
◾ SEO — Ensuring visibility of your business and its products at all stages of the purchase cycle (slower process)
◾ Google Ads — instant search response, disadvantage for small volume search queries
◾ Advertising on social networks — with the right targeting getting through to the target audience, raising interest
◾ Video Advertising, GDN — when targeting correctly, reaching the target audience, raising interest
Stage 2: THINK — Consideration
Your new potential customer is moving from the awareness phase (“I know about you”) to the consideration phase. It is highly likely that during the consideration phase, the potential customer will narrow the choice to one or two vendors. He often returns to Google search. The nature of the content presented on your site largely influences whether or not the future customer will continue to think about your company.
At this stage, the quantity, quality and nature of the information from you to the buyer decides.
In the THINK phase, your potential customer compares your company to other competing suppliers. Right at this stage, B2B buyers can contact your sales representative for further specification, details, product demonstrations, and more.
Marketing techniques and tools for working with customers in the THINK phase:
◾ SEO — Ensure visibility of your business and its products during all stages of the purchasing cycle
◾ Reviews — Feedback, Trust Factor
◾ B2B Professional comparators and search portals — As in everyday life, a B2C customer will use a comparator of goods (Heureka, Pricemania, “Best Buy”); similar comparators work in the B2B worldas well, for example: search engine and comparing tool for electrotechnical parts: https: //octopart. com
◾ Newsletter, email marketing — first contact, buyer wants more information, more content
◾ CRM — if you manage to get contact information for potential customers
Phase 3: DO — Decision
The final stage of the purchasing decision is the phase of deciding when can we achieve the fullfilment of the stated goal. For example, this can be:
◾ making a phone call and contacting a sales representative, completing a contact form on the web
◾ contact via online chat
◾ downloading an application, trial version of software, e-book, tutorial or study and so on.
◾ ordering product samples, test drive, presentations
◾ direct purchase of the product
At this stage, the so-called LEAD nurturing turns into LEAD conversion. Often, the purchasing manager has completed the entire research process,s/he gained management support and is ready to choose a vendor / supplier and make a purchase.
For B2B customers, the decision-making phase is a constantly ongoing process. Although they have already made a purchase, it does not automatically mean that this situation will satisfy them. Buying is constantly under review.
The B2B shopping cycle is generally longer than a B2C one. Typically, B2B customers identify key points they need to resolve and then obtain management or leadership approval before making a purchase. While B2C customers are more prone to act impulsively, the average business cycle of a business to business purchase takes 6–12 months.
Marketing techniques and tools to work with customers in the DO phase:
◾ SEO — Ensure visibility of your business and its products during all stages of the purchasing cycle.
◾ SEM ( search engine marketing) is here for example Google Ads — immediate response from search, disadvantage in case of low search queries, so it is used for example GDN (google display network).
◾ Display — displaying a banner message based on pre-targeted targeting, or displaying a banner based on retargeting — working with visitors who have already been on the web.
◾ Call tracking, user tracking use of tools to identify callers or visitors to the site and “transfer them” to the sales department.
Tools that we are working with from our own experience:
Stage 4: CARE — Loyalty
At this stage, there are customers or partners who have already purchased our service or product. (As a rule,it only applies, if a purchase was made at least twice, because one purchase might have been contingent upon circumstances and would not normally occur — for example, a standard vendor of the whitelist dropped ot and the operation of the business must be ensured. (However, also in such case we must take into account the specificities of the business.)
Customers have already gave their trust to the company or brand, they decided to make a purchase, and if we continue to work with them in a proper manner, there is a huge space open for repetitive deals that managers in every business want to see. It is there that we work with terms like Up-sell or Cross-sell.
As you may have noticed, B2B customers put more emphasis on research. This creates the ground for a possible risk during this phase, ithus we should not rely on having won a customer and it will always be so — it can easily happen that the customer in the CARE phase finds some interesting information from another supplier and this supplier thus passes through the customer’s STDC “funnel”.
A satisfied customer can become a valuable marketing tool for your company. You can get positive reviews and recommendations.
Therefore, in this phase the emphasis is placed on customer retention — i.e., the ability to keep good business relationship with them as long as possible.
In the CARE phase, CLV — customer lifetime value — is often counted, which states the customer’s value over time. Every company should try to preserve this value as high as possible.
Marketing techniques and tools for working with customers in the CARE phase:
◾ CRM — frequency, value, order history, merchant visits
◾ Newsletter, email marketing — keeping in touch, distributing new content, special offers, news
◾ Application — possibility to analyze the behavior of buyers in more detail, closed system, isolation from search in browsers, easier repetitive purchases
◾ Social Networking — maintaining attention, news, feedback
◾ Reviews — feedback, trust factor
◾ SEO — ensure the visibility of your business and your products during all stages of the purchasing cycle
How to evaluate and measure marketing activities within the frame of STDC?
As with each phase, other means to work with a potential customer are appropriate, there are different metrics that can be evaluated and measured for each phase of the STDC as well.
Thus, individual KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) can be assigned to each phase to be monitored.
Conclusion:
When using the SEE-THINK-DO-CARE marketing strategy for your business, make sure you cover the basic stages of the buyer’s journey. The differences in the purchasing behavior of B2B and B2C customers can also be used to your advantage.
I have been in B2B for 10 years and have had the opportunity to work personally and also within our agency for companies of different sizes from family businesses to international ones.
I have learnd, however, that we should always remember there are real people behind each company. Therefore, no matter which abbreviation describes your business best, we should not forget the increasingly common concept that we at Vivantine also keep to, and that is human-to-human ”(H2H) business.
