Category: Sales

Marketing and sales costs are one of the largest expenses for a B2B business. They can easily siphon an organization’s budget if you do not plan right. That’s where sales planning for a B2B business comes into play. Sales planning starts with reviewing the business’ current situation, because you need to know where you stand to make improvements. Once you are aware of the current situation of your organization’s sales process, a B2B business plan for sales will focus on identifying what needs improvement. From there, sales planning involves envisioning the results the organization wants to achieve, and determining the steps necessary to arrive at the intended destination.

Sales planning is vital for B2B business growth. In this post, we will look at the importance of sales planning and how to create a sales plan for your business.

1. Chart Your Sales Objectives

The major advantage of a sales plan is that it chalks your entire sales plan to help you achieve your sales objectives. It also guides you on how to deal with an organization’s sales process. A sales plan covers everything from the most critical sales goals, to outlining strategies and tactics to achieve those goals. A sales plan acts as a guide for you to achieve your sales objectives.

2. Determine the Current Challenges

The first step towards improvement is to find out the problem with the current sales process. You can ask some of the following discovery questions to learn more about the challenges you are facing:

• What is our ideal target audience?
• What channels did most of my sales come from?
• Where do you need to increase your sales effort?
• What are some external/Internal factors that can impact my sales?
• What are our competitors doing differently?

These questions will help you find the areas where you currently face challenges. Once you have figured out those, you can create the sales plan you need to achieve your sales objectives.

 

 

3. Help You Set Realistic Goals

Growth is vital for B2B businesses, but growth at any cost is not a great strategy. A sales plan helps you set realistic goals that can be achieved. For example, you can use the SMART approach to set sales goals for your organization. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. It is very important to set realistic goals in sales.

4. Build a Strategy to Achieve Sales Goals

A sales plan helps you develop B2B marketing strategies that you can use to overcome the obstacles you may face when it comes to achieving your sales goals. One way to develop sales strategies is to write down the risks/obstacles you probably face, and then write down some tactics to overcome them. Writing down your sales helps you stay organized.

You can use Company Expert’s B2B Sales Strategy Playbook to create an effective B2B sales strategy for your business.

5. Efficient use of resources

A sales plan helps you make efficient use of the resources. C-level executives and sales managers know how much they want to invest in sales, and what resources they have. An effective sales plan boosts productivity through the efficient use of resources. It provides information for the top management to make effective decisions about allocating resources. This enables the organization to reach its objectives.

6. Risk management

A sales plan helps a B2B organization manage risk with effective planning. Successful risk management is essential to an organization’s success. The B2B industry is highly competitive. An effective sales plan includes strategies to deal with unprecedented events before severe negative financial consequences . It includes the development of “what-if” scenarios, where sales managers attempt to envision possible risk factors, and develop contingency plans to deal with them.

7. Team Building and Cooperation

An effective sales plan promotes team building and cooperation. When a sales plan is communicated to all the organization’s members, everyone knows what their responsibilities are and how other areas of the team need their assistance to complete assigned tasks. This shows how their work contributes to the organization’s success, and they can take pride in their contributions.

 

 

How Do You Build a Sales Plan for Your B2B Organization?

Using Company Expert’s business playbook, you can build a sales plan for your B2B organization. It will help you develop the best sales practices and strategies. You can create a customized sales plan for your B2B organization per your organization’s needs. If you need assistance with marketing, planning, online presence, and sales, you can explore the collection of Company Expert’s B2B business playbooks.

B2B Sales Strategy Playbook

B2B Sales Strategy Playbook helps B2B firms develop a high-level sales strategy. The sales strategy outlines the important decisions to be made in order to inform downstream sales activities and tactics.

This playbook forces you to think strategically about the sales function and how to improve and optimize the sales team’s capabilities over time. The playbook helps you think about where you want to take the sales function, assess where you are at, determine your sales focus and positioning, and finally, develop an approach to help you reach your sales goals.

The resulting document is a roadmap for senior management and the sales staff to understand the future sales.

Visit our website to learn more about Company Expert’s business playbook products.

A well-structured B2B sales funnel helps generate more sales and optimizes the sales process. It helps business owners understand the process of turning a stranger into a paying customer. Unfortunately, 68% of B2B businesses do not have an understanding of their own sales funnel. 

A sales funnel refers to a series of stages and steps that B2B customers go through to complete a sales cycle. It helps B2B businesses sell their goods or services to clients, which makes it a vital part of the B2B business plan. The process starts with a lead who has a specific requirement, and ends with a customer who makes a purchase. It is important for B2B businesses to create a sales funnel that converts potential clients into paying customers. In this post, we’ll share the various aspects of the B2B sales funnel you should know. Let’s dive deep to learn more.  

5 Stages of the B2B Sales Funnel 

The B2B sales funnel should be included in the business planning for B2B companies in order to boost sales effectively and efficiently. Continue reading to learn about the 5 stages of the B2B sales funnel – 

1. Awareness Stage 

The first stage of the B2B sales funnel is the awareness stage, where B2B customers look for answers to solve their problems. It can be any type of problem, including both front-end and back-end operations. Though the value of the lead is low in this stage, providing them with high-level and relevant content is important to attract them. You can offer resources, data, education, opinions, and insights to solve your target audience’s problem. 

2. Interest Stage

In this stage, the prospects are interested and will start researching your products or services. It is the beginning of the buying process, where trust is built. You can show the prospects what your products and services can do for them to further nurture the leads in this stage.

3. Evaluation Stage

Once you have captured the buyer’s interest, it’s time to demonstrate how your solution meets the consumer’s needs in a detailed manner. If your solution is not in their best interest or does not satisfy the customer’s needs currently, you should inform them about this because it will increase trust. Demonstrating honesty and integrity at this crucial stage might be beneficial in the future.

4. Engagement Stage

In the engagement stage, your leads will be in touch with the sales team. They will get to know the buyer’s pain points and help them reach the solutions using product demos, sales pitches, and clear communication. Building the relationship and developing trust is important in this stage to move the lead to the last stage.

5. Purchase Stage

This is the stage when the customer purchases your products and services, and you reach the end of the sales funnel. But, it is not the end of the relationship with the customer. Post-purchase engagement is also important to keep the customer happy and build a strong B2B sales pipeline. After all, 84% of B2B sales start with a referral from friends or colleagues.  

Models of the B2B Sales Funnel

There are several models of the B2B sales funnel that were developed during the evolution of the buying process. Though a B2B sales consulting expert can help you with the right sales process, here’s all you need to learn about the sales models and their pros and cons:

• The AIDA Model

American businessman E.St. Elmo Lewis developed AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action) in 1898, which was the very first sales funnel. It described the perfect ad formula. Later, marketers added and renamed certain phases, but the idea remained the same. In B2B sales, AIDA is used as–

• Awareness: The first phase is when decision-makers discover a product or service. 
• Evaluation: Decision-makers compare the products/services with similar products and analyze their pros and cons.  
• Intention: They make the final decision of choosing the right provider. 
• Purchase: In the last phase, customers buy the product/service. 

This model educates the sales and marketing teams about how buyers make purchasing decisions. However, it does not consider the buyer’s thoughts and behavior. 

• The Forrester Model

The Forrester model sheds light on the important factors influencing the purchaser’s behavior. One of the drawbacks of this model is that it describes a buyer’s journey, rather than the multistage sales funnel. Forrester made various reports on the marketing funnel, and in 2010, it issued a report which created a better understanding of the buyer’s behavior. It offered to expand the marketing funnel by adding loyalty as the next stage. After that, in 2012, Jeff Ernst, a Forrester analyst, came up with an idea to merge the marketing funnel and customer lifecycle. 

• McKinsey’s Loyalty Loop

McKinsey presented a loyalty loop model in 2009 that focuses on how a positive post-purchase experience contributes to reselling. This model encompasses the post-purchase & repurchases stages and loyalty as part of the desired buyer attitude.

• The Conversion Funnel 

The conversion funnel explains the sales process a prospect goes through while purchasing online. The stages added in this model are – the pre-awareness stage, a trigger event, opinion, a short list, and repurchase intent. 

• JB Media Group’s Sales Funnel

This sales funnel model by JB Group is perfect for marketers because it explains what type of content works for potential customers in each phase. This model also covers the guidelines on what you should do at every stage of the funnel. But, it does not talk about the efforts required of a sales team. 

• RAIN Group’s Buying Process

The RAIN group does not explain the sales funnel, but instead talks about the activities of the sales team at each stage. Though it does not provide guidelines for marketers, your sales team can benefit from it as it is the perfect combination of buying and sales processes. 

You can decide to go with any of the models mentioned above according to your business requirements.

Improve the Sales Effectiveness and Efficiency of Your B2B Firm with Company Expert

Although every business requires a different B2B sales funnel to fit its unique sales strategy, the stages and information outlined above are important for all to build a successful sales funnel. The skilled professionals at Company Expert understand that the sales funnel is the heart and soul of a B2B business. We can help you with the right people, processes, and sales playbook template to drive double-digit sales growth. You can partner with us to improve the sales efficiency and effectiveness of your B2B firm. Visit the website to learn more about our services.

In recent years, B2B sales have become more complicated and are in a state of rapid transformation. This is why every B2B firm should use sales playbooks to turn its team into a sales powerhouse.

The playbook is a go-to resource for salespeople. Research by the Aberdeen Group reveals that 54% of salespeople using playbooks meet their sales targets easily. However, according to Hubspot, half of all sales teams don’t have a playbook.

If you are among those looking for a helpful sales playbook, stay tuned. In this blog post, we will be sharing Company Expert’s top B2B sales playbooks, their uses and benefits. Continue reading this post to learn how a sales playbook can drive more sales and help grow your business.  

What is a Sales Playbook? 

A sales playbook is the comprehensive reference documentation for new or existing sales professionals. It describes how a salesperson should manage different situations. B2B firms should use playbooks to equip their sales reps with everything they need to close more deals.

An effective sales playbook includes methodologies, resources, hacks, email scripts, competitive intelligence, and more. It helps ensure that everyone in the sales team has the same knowledge and access to resources, because having the right knowledge at the right time is important for the salespeople to meet their goals. 

Company Expert’s Top Sales Playbooks for B2B Firms 

Transform the sales process of your B2B firm with Company Expert’s sales playbooks for immediate and sustainable sales growth.

• B2B Sales Strategies

Every B2B firm has a sales team that develops sales strategies to ensure that you are selling to the right market, the right people, and in the right way. It plays a vital role in the success of your B2B business.

The B2B sales strategies is a sales playbook template that helps B2B firms develop a high-level sales strategy. It outlines important decisions a firm needs to make to inform downstream sales activities and tactics.

With this playbook, you can think about where you want to take the sales function, assess where you are at, your sales focus and positioning, and your approach to reaching your sales goals. 

• Account Management Playbook 

Building an account management strategy requires a lot of time and commitment. Having an effective account management strategy enables B2B firms to create repeatable and scalable processes to drive revenue and build stronger relationships.

The account management playbook is a collection of best practices and strategies for successful account managers. It provides a framework for developing a standardized account management strategy for your B2B business.

Whether you want to prepare for important calls or have challenges moving someone through the sales funnel, you can use this playbook to find the right solution.

• Sales Playbook

A detailed sales playbook helps your firm acquire new clients with a targeted and efficient approach. The sales playbook is a collection of best practices and strategies for being successful as a salesperson. It provides a framework that you can use to create a sales playbook for your B2B firm.

This sales playbook contains seven critical elements for success in selling. It is a guide to provide key tips and strategies throughout the sales cycle, and you can also use it as a substitute for training and coaching new salespeople. 

• Designing and Executing Sales Campaigns 

A well-designed sales campaign helps you achieve your goals, like increasing revenue, penetrating new markets, or strengthening a relationship with a key stakeholder. B2B sales cycles are long, so it is important to put in time for nurturing the relationship and developing trust.

This playbook outlines how to design and execute sales campaigns and provides email and phone call tips to maximize your returns on effort. If you want to develop a methodical sales campaign strategy for your B2B firm, you can use this playbook to craft and accelerate your sales.

• Account Management and Sales RACI

This B2B sales growth playbook helps establish clear descriptions of team members’ roles and responsibilities as part of an overall account management team.

The leadership of a B2B business can also benefit from the account management and sales RACI tool, as it helps them identify the team members responsible for different aspects of the account management process.

It also allows B2B companies to benefit from the efficient completion of tasks within their accounting management structure.  

• Consultative Selling Methodology

Understanding the consultative selling methodology is not difficult, but it does take a while to master the process, and it is a proven process for B2B sales success. This playbook is helpful for B2B firms because it develops a system that produces repeatable, scalable, and predictable revenue.

It provides a step-by-step methodology for how firms should prospect and navigate the buyer through a sales cycle that ends with a win. The consultative selling methodology can also help differentiate your salespeople from others in your industry as it takes you through best practices and practical applications of proven selling strategies. 

• Sales Growth Maturity Model

The five different levels of sales maturity in a B2B firm include:

1. Ad Hoc  
2. Developing
3. Emerging
4. Strategic
5. Optimized 

You can use this B2B sales consulting tool to identify where your firm lies on the sales growth maturity curve relative to your industry. Furthermore, it can help you understand the next steps in developing and maturing your sales capabilities. 

• Sales Segmentation

The three drivers of sales revenue are sales segmentation, better sales talent, and expanding the sales force. Sales segmentation is the most effective as it can yield 30-50+% of annualized sales growth.

Unfortunately, most salespeople engage in guesswork, gut feelings, and broad generalization of their market while completing the sales segmentation exercise. Later, individual salespeople prioritize which prospects to call on.

With this playbook, you will get a systematic and proven approach to sales segmentation, which is important for a B2B firm to flourish in today’s market. It outlines how to build a successful data-driven sales segmentation strategy so you will not have to waste your valuable time and resources on low-quality prospects or potential clients who do not value what you can deliver. 

• Sales Efficiency and Effectiveness Assessment 

You can get heatmap templates from this framework for each assessment area. This playbook walks you through each of the five major sales efficiency and effectiveness levers. It gives you a description and an explanation of why you should think about using this lever and a list of possible assessment activities.

• Sales Plays and Triggers 

Sales triggers signal an opportunity for cross-selling, upselling, or new customer acquisition. Identifying the sales plays and triggers is important to improve prospect and client engagement, which results in higher revenue. This playbook provides proven sales plays and triggers that will help B2B firms increase sales by engaging the right prospects at the right time. 

Use Company Expert’s Sales Playbooks for Double-Digit Sales Growth 

Sales playbooks are handy guides that empower your sales team to execute effective sales strategies. Company Expert offers the right sales playbook to transform the sales process of B2B firms.

You can also contact our B2B sales consulting experts to improve the sales efficiency and effectiveness of your B2B firm. We are a highly specialized consulting team focused on helping B2B firms like yours by offering tools to deliver immediate and sustainable sales growth.

Arm your sales team with Company Expert’s sales playbook to drive double-digit sales growth for your B2B firm. Visit the website and schedule a consultation today!

B2B marketing refers to businesses promoting their services and products to other businesses. With the ever-shifting consumer demands and rise in technology, B2B marketing is evolving rapidly. As a result, what has worked in the past may not be effective today or tomorrow. Though business tools can be used to develop effective marketing strategies, you must be familiar with marketing trends in order to stay on top of emerging developments and achieve results. In this blog post, we are sharing the top 10 B2B marketing trends to watch out for in 2022-2023 and beyond. 

1. Popularity of Podcasts 

B2B businesses are shifting some of their marketing budgets from traditional channels, and podcasts are gaining immense popularity. The demand for podcasts is growing fast, which is an opportunity for marketers to reach the target audience. You can create your own podcast or advertise your business on a podcast your target customers listen to. It is a fun and engaging medium to connect with new and existing audiences. The popular types of B2B podcasts include interview podcasts, storytelling podcasts, conversational podcasts, roundtable podcasts, and more. 

2. Video Marketing 

Grabbing people’s attention is getting tougher every day because of short attention spans and abundance of fresh content available. As a result, video marketing is one of the best tools B2B businesses can use to showcase their expertise and share compelling stories. According to a report, 78% of marketers indicate that video content has helped them increase their sales. The video formats that can work for your B2B business include – YouTube videos, Facebook Live video streams, webinars, LinkedIn videos, and explainer videos. You can either choose any one format or create content for multiple platforms .

3. Customer-Focused Content Marketing 

Content marketing is not a new concept in B2B marketing. However, B2B content marketing has changed a lot. Earlier, every business was focused on crafting search engine-friendly content to address the customers’ needs. But, in recent times, most businesses have relied on customer-centered content marketing. The aim is to create content for the target audience and optimize it with all the trending keywords. According to a report, 56% of B2B marketing teams are investing more money in content creation. You can also use business playbooks to craft a successful content strategy for your B2B firm and learn how our playbooks can strengthen your content marketing strategy. 

4. Alignment of Marketing and Sales

When sales and marketing teams work together, it results in business growth. But unfortunately, in most firms, these two departments do not work together. According to a Hubspot report, almost one-third of sales and marketing teams think they do not have a great relationship. Businesses should focus on strengthening the relationships between sales and marketing teams to increase productivity and hit better KPIs. In an ideal situation, the marketing team will gather the qualified leads, and the sales team will convert the leads into clients. 

5. Artificial Intelligence 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming B2B marketing. B2B marketers use various AI technologies like machine learning and algorithms to automate B2B marketing strategies and boost B2B marketing. Here’s how you can use artificial intelligence for your business growth:

• AI can be integrated into lead generation processes by automating data collection and analysis. 
• You can optimize your website for voice searches to enhance the customer experience.
• You can use AI technology to gather buyer behavior insights and create an accurate buyer persona. You can further use the information to prepare targeted marketing materials like blog content, digital advertisements, and landing pages. It will personalize your B2B marketing efforts. 
• The AI can monitor customer behavior to find the right publishing time, and you can use AI-powered scheduling tools to publish content automatically at the scheduled time.

6. Brand Personalization

Brand personalization can be difficult in B2B marketing as more decision-makers are involved, and maintaining professionalism is important. However, brand personalization is essential if you want to stand out among your competitors. According to research, personalization can deliver up to eight times the ROI on marketing spending. B2B decision makers are humans who prioritize value and authentic relationships. Therefore, you must tailor your advertising, offers, and communication efforts to fit the needs of B2B customers.

7. Chatbots 

Most visitors to your website prefer instant action, which requires a 24/7 support staff. With chatbots, you can get the same benefits in a cost-effective manner. Here’s how chatbots can help B2B businesses:

• Chatbots respond to customer inquiries instantly. 
• It is helpful to handle multiple clients at the same time.
• Chatbots are suitable for almost every business type and are available in nearly all languages.
• Chatbots help the sales team to convert quality leads into clients. 

8. B2B Storytelling

Another popular B2B marketing trend that B2B firms integrate into their marketing strategies is storytelling. This is the art of using various techniques inspired by screenwriters to convey a message in an unforgettable way. B2B businesses use storytelling to help their products or services stand out and be remembered. It is a powerful marketing tool that inspires, motivates, and builds an emotional connection between the business and its target audience. You can also use playbook products to create an effective storytelling strategy. 

9. Marketing Automation

This is one of the biggest digital marketing trends, as manually managing marketing efforts is time-consuming and hectic. Automation is an affordable and scalable way to streamline marketing efforts. It reduces human errors and improves the efficiency of a team. For example, following up with leads is a daunting task, but using automated email sequences can solve this problem. Market automation has been a game-changer for many companies, and it is expected to become more popular.

10. Content Repurposing 

As stated earlier, B2B content is an extremely important part of B2B marketing. However, creating fresh and engaging content is expensive. As a result, B2B content repurposing is the new trend for B2B businesses. It is an effective strategy that squeezes more value out of the content. For example, you can repurpose a B2B blog post to create an infographic, social media post, podcast, or video. It saves you time and money and increases the content’s reach. You can learn more about how to repurpose B2B content and use B2B marketing frameworks for content repurposing. 

Partner with Company Expert to Develop a Marketing Plan for Your B2B Firm 

Some B2B marketing trends have been around for a long time, while others are new in the B2B business landscape. Every B2B marketer should be ready to adapt to new changes in order to stay relevant and take their business to greater heights of success. B2B firms can also contact a reputed B2B consulting firm like Company Expert to boost their marketing efforts. With the assistance of a highly specialized consulting team, you can develop and execute a comprehensive marketing plan for your business. The professionals at Company Expert can also guide you by incorporating the latest marketing trends into your strategies to achieve your goals. Visit our website to learn more about our services!

B2B blogging is one of the best ways to engage with the audience and become an expert in your niche. It has the power to boost the company’s reputation and increase brand recognition. As a result, around 80% of B2B marketers have added blogging to their B2B marketing strategy to achieve the desired results. In this blog post, you’ll learn more about the importance of B2B blogs and the blogging best practices for B2B marketers. 

What is B2B Blogging? 

B2B blogging is a marketing tactic that refers to writing and publishing blogs to get your business more online visibility. B2B blogs are similar to B2C blogs, but their content is aimed at businesses. The B2B blogs are focused on helping businesses solve their greatest organizational challenges. According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), blogs offer an easy way to present brief chunks of frequently refreshed web content. Also, it is the 3rd most common content marketing activity after social media and articles. 

Top Benefits of B2B Blogging 

Great content can speak volumes about your business. Blogs can boost your firm’s reputation, increase brand recognition, and convince your prospects to choose you over your competitors. Below we have listed some more benefits of incorporating blogging into your B2B business plan for the growth of your firm.  

• Blogging Improves Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

If you want to improve your chances of showing up in the search engine when someone types a relevant keyword or phrase, blogging can help with it. However, to reap these benefits, your blog post should focus on the keywords the target audience searches for. Ultimately, publishing blog posts helps drive more organic traffic to the website and boost your SEO efforts.  

• Blogs Increase Traffic to the Website 

Every time you publish a blog, one more indexed page in Google search will bring traffic to your website. According to studies, blogging increases around 55% of traffic to the website. Additionally, you can share blogs on your social media channels, allowing the audience to share your content. It will help you stay on top of the mind of your clients and prospects. 

• Blogging Helps Convert Traffic into Leads 

As mentioned earlier, blogging drives traffic to the website. Now, when people engage with your high-quality blog posts, it is an opportunity for you to turn that traffic into leads. This is why you must add a call to action to each blog post, which will direct the readers to take action. You can ask them to download your eBooks, whitepapers, and templates for more information about a topic about your services or products. 

• Blogs Enable B2B Firms to Engage with Prospects and Clients 

Well-written blogs on your website increase customer satisfaction and help engage with prospects and clients. The new visitors get impressed by the website’s detailed guides and informative posts, whereas clients see reasons to remain loyal. It is extremely important to put yourself in the target customer’s shoes before crafting your content strategy. Posting the right content at the right time is the key to a successful content strategy. 

• Repurpose B2B Blog Content in Other Channels 

The best thing about blogs is that B2B marketers can repurpose the content to extend its reach. In the same way, other content formats like webinars or whitepapers can be used for writing a blog post. You can use the playbook products for content repurposing. It helps save the cost of producing new content and reinforces your message. Offering content in different formats will help you achieve your marketing goals and make your brand dynamic. 

• Authentic and Relevant Content Helps Establish Credibility 

In the digital era, most B2B buyers prefer to conduct their research online before talking to a salesperson. Therefore, publishing helpful and informative blogs to educate B2B buyers is a successful marketing tactic. It will help you position yourself as a thought leader. You should consider posting relevant and authentic content, so your prospects see you as a trusted source and value your expertise when they research solutions online for their firm.

Pro tip – B2B marketers should focus on the frequently asked questions by prospects and write a blog post on the same topics. 

6 Blogging Best Practices for B2B Marketers 

Blogging is a critical component of B2B content marketing strategies as it helps drive leads and generate brand awareness. However, it is extremely challenging to stand out from the sea of blog posts. Nevertheless, you can get help from the B2B blogging best practices shared below. 

• Come up with a blog title that will catch the reader’s eyes, because it all starts with the post’s title. Think of some unique ideas to create a headline that generates more clicks.
• Most B2B buyers start their B2B buying journey with a Google search. It is an opportunity for B2B marketers to grab the attention of more people by creating a headline that answers common questions or provides a solution. You can also check out our previous post to learn how to write engaging titles & blogs, and how business playbooks can strengthen your B2B content marketing strategy.

 

 

• Most people assume that B2B content is boring. As a result, to make it digestible and readable, it is important to break up large blocks of text. For this, you can insert subheadings and break the paragraphs into sections wherever necessary. Using bold texts, numbered lists, or bulleted lists can also help.
• We all know pictures speak thousands of words. So, when we use pictures in a blog post, they look more appealing and give readers a break from the heavy text.
• As we shared above in this blog post, B2B blogs are lead generation vehicles. Therefore, it is important to include a call to action in the blog post to let readers know what you want them to know or do after reading a post. 
• Speaking directly with the target audience on your blog posts is a great way to write an engaging blog post and humanize the brand. Furthermore, you can also ask your readers what they think and what they want to read about. When you actively reply to questions and suggestions, it results in an engaging and meaningful conversation.  

Use Company Expert’s Playbooks to Write Engaging B2B Blogs

Now that you know how B2B blogs can enhance every aspect of your website, the next step is to craft an effective strategy for B2B blogs. Improving your search rankings, marketing campaigns, and online sales is important. You can use Company Expert’s playbook products for content planning, content idea generation, or content repurposing. Our playbooks help create compelling and solution-oriented content optimized for SEO. You can also get help from our highly specialized B2B consultant experts to develop and implement breakout growth strategies. Schedule a free consultation now for more information!

Your website is the window of your business. Keep it fresh, keep it exciting.” – Jay Conrad Levinson.

According to a study, 53% of B2B clients make half of their buying decisions online, and more than 63% use the internet for half of their product research. An internet search is the first stop when B2B buyers look for a solution to their pain points. As a result, your B2B website meets your prospects before you do. Therefore, a B2B website acts as a marketing tool. It is a vital part of the B2B business plan that helps generate inquiries and leads to more clients. 

A website should be armed like a salesperson to sell your products/services because it is the storefront of a B2B firm. Therefore, it should be clean, attention-grabbing, and inviting. So, whether you are planning to design a new website or redesign your existing website, ensure that it reflects the voice and vision of your B2B firm. 

Many people assume website design is only about looks. But, an effective web design is more than visuals; it also includes structure, content, layout, and SEO. An effective B2B web design is crucial to stand out from the competition. 

So, in this blog post, we’ll share everything you need to know about B2B website design and the website design trends that you may consider to revamp your website. Read this post to learn how you can plan and implement B2B website best practices to convert more visitors into leads. 

What is B2B Website Design? The Importance of a Successful B2B Web Design

Web designing is the process of planning, conceptualizing, and arranging content on a website. It determines the look of a website by using a combination of aesthetic and functional elements. An effective B2B web design is a part of B2B marketing strategies, as it helps communicate your brand message to website visitors, which helps nurture leads. 

Here we have listed a few benefits of B2B web design to help you understand the importance of a successful one.

• • Google Rankings – A well-designed website means there are chances of better Google ranking. The search engine wants to see websites with a modern design and the latest features. Good ranking is helpful in order to generate more clicks to your website.

• • Improved User Experience – Another benefit of a well-designed website is that it helps improve and enhance the user experience. Good user experience is the key to the success of a website. Outdated websites may affect your company’s reputation, and users are likely to click away from such websites.  

• • Authenticity and Credibility – Authenticity, trust, and credibility are a few things that B2B buyers look for in a firm. According to research, 75% of users stated that they decide on a company’s credibility based on its web design. So a B2B website must have a simple and clean design with no unnecessary decorations.     

 

8 B2B Web Design Trends for 2022

The website’s appearance plays an important role in building a profitable online business. Though you can seek guidance from a B2B sales and marketing agency for effective web designs, being familiar with the latest website design trends is also important. So, here’s a list of popular web design trends you should know in 2022. 

1. 1. Single-Page Website

Users prefer a single-page website as it eliminates the confusion about where they should click to go next. Also, it creates a simple user interface. Users enjoy linear navigation flow, allowing a seamless experience from page to page.  

2. 2. App-Like Experience

These days most people spend time on the web using apps that focus on user experience and interaction. So, designing an app-like website for B2B firms is on-trend and gives an interactive experience to the clients. A prospect is expected to stay longer on your site when you have an interactive website. In addition, it also helps improve the perception of your brand. 

3. 3. Artificial Intelligence

AI elements are expected to evolve more in 2022 and beyond to transform visitors’ web experience with human-like interactions. A chatbot is one of the AI elements that help offer around the clock support to users. It improves a prospect’s journey and makes them feel cared for, resulting in client satisfaction. This can help build long-term relationships. 

4. 4. Intuitive Navigation Bar

There are various pages on a website. So, choosing valuable pages to include in the main navigation menu can be tricky. Just because you have enough space on your website does not mean you should place everything on the menu. The general rule of thumb is to include only 5-7 headers in the menu. The intuitive menu navigates the prospect through the website from web page to web page. It helps them consume the information they want and ignore what they do not want. 

5. 5. Bold Typography 

Bright and bold typography on your B2B firm’s website can help make a good impression. It helps communicate your message clearly, making a lasting impact. When people don’t have enough time to spend on a site, bold titles and shortened messaging capture the user’s attention and decrease conversion time. So, when you work on the marketing and business planning for your B2B company, you can include this trend in your website design to make it look updated and impactful. 

6. 6. Minimalism 

“Less is more” is a statement B2B firms should follow for their website design. Visitors should not get distracted by a lot of information. This is very important for B2B firms with complex business models, services, or products. Let your visitors focus on what you are offering. They should not be disturbed by overwhelming content or flashy designs. In addition, minimalist websites load much faster than other sites. So, include only essential elements and keep the web design neat and airy.

7. 7. Optimize for Mobile Devices

When you start working on the website design, consider the mobile-first design. This means you’ll want to start the designing process on the smallest screen possible. Almost 51% of the population accesses the internet using mobile devices, which is expected to reach 72.6% by 2025. Also, Google uses mobile-first indexing to rank websites. This is reason enough for B2B firms to consider mobile-first web designs. 

8. 8. Micro-Interactions

As the name suggests, micro-interaction is about an interaction between the design and the user, which helps make the design memorable and enhances the user’s experience. It can be a color change of a button, or a change of the angle of view. The purpose of micro-interaction is to make the web user experience enjoyable and exciting. For example – when a web page takes longer to load, you can show an animated countdown to entertain users. 

Partner with Company Expert to Design or Revamp Your B2B Website

Now that you are familiar with B2B web design, its importance, and the latest web design trends, you can use this information wisely in designing/redesigning your B2B firm’s website. There are already a lot of good websites out there, but you must raise the bar to stand out from the crowd. You can also seek help from professionals like Company Expert to ensure a smooth website redesign project.

Company Expert can help you build a professional-looking website to attract and convert more clients. We offer various business playbooks and a full-service web program that includes designing, developing and maintaining the website under one roof. Let our experts revamp your website so that you can focus on your business growth. Schedule a free consultation today!

 

“A good piece of content never gets old if we know how to find the ‘new’ out of it, every time!” – Robert Duke.

Content marketing is the secret weapon B2B marketers use to engage the industry, generate leads, and close deals. As a result, incorporating content marketing in B2B marketing strategies is crucial because of the real results it delivers. But content is not an ad; it is an informative and relevant piece that is valuable for the marketers and the prospective and current customers.

In recent times, digital channels have played an important role in a buyer’s journey, and good marketing is all about good content. 90% of B2B buyers admit that content plays a vital role in their decision-making. But unfortunately, 22% of B2B marketers still don’t incorporate content marketing in their strategy. This is because they face challenges in producing good and relevant content.

Content marketing is not about creating content every day. It is about getting the best content in front of people. So, when B2B marketers understand the magic of content repurposing, they can make the most of content marketing. It can take your content strategy from good to great. When we hear the term content, many people assume it to be a blog post or article. But content can take many forms. It can be a downloadable white paper, an image, a video, or a social media post.

So, in this blog post, we’ll share how B2B marketers can get more mileage out of B2B content with the help of content repurposing. Scroll down to learn how you can give fresh life to your content.

What is B2B Content Repurposing?

 

 

Creating relevant and compelling content takes hours of research, time, money, and effort. So, why use the content only once? With content repurposing, you can use already existing content in multiple formats. You can transform a video into a blog or a blog into an infographic. Content repurposing is simply taking a single piece of content and recreating it in different formats.

Creating and sharing high-quality content is not easy, but it is important to boost a B2B business plan and marketing strategy. However, you don’t need to run on the content writing treadmill. Content repurposing can keep your editorial calendar full, saving you time and money. So, work with an audience-first mindset and stretch your content resources further with content repurposing.

Refreshing vs. Repurposing Content: Know the Difference 

Before we learn more about content repurposing, B2B marketers must know about the thin transparent line that differentiates content repurposing from content refreshing. Unfortunately, many B2B marketers confuse the two, resulting in a costly mistake. Though both tactics are beneficial for content marketing, knowing the difference is a must because they serve different purposes.

Content refreshing is all about editing the existing content. It means the content is updated, but the intent and format of the content remain the same. This can involve updating the statistics or facts to provide the most recent information to the readers. On the other hand, with content repurposing, the format is updated, and the purpose is altered to reach a broader or different target audience. For example – transforming a presentation into a video or blog post.

Top Benefits of B2B Content Repurposing

According to a report, B2B marketers spend an average of 33 hours a week in creating new content. It is a complex and time-consuming process. However, B2B playbook products can make the task easier.

When B2B marketing teams create a content piece from scratch, it involves conceptualizing, researching, creating, reviewing, publishing, and distributing. So, repurposing B2B content maximizes the impact of a single piece of content. Let’s learn about the benefits of content repurposing.

• Reach More Prospects – Some people love reading while others are attracted to visual content. Most people have short attention spans or are too busy to read a long article, while some find longer articles reliable. So, let’s face it, people consume information in different ways. No matter how hard we try, a single piece of content may not work for everyone. Content repurposing helps reach more prospects and customers across different mediums.
• Support SEO –When you cover a topic from multiple angles, it helps improve the SEO. So having a complete library with videos, blogs, and infographics signals to search algorithms that your site is a valuable source of information. Remember, Google likes quality content, so content repurposing attracts search traffic.
• Multi-Channel Marketing– In the competitive world of B2B marketing, the importance of multi-channel marketing for lead generation is undeniable. Expanding one idea into several content pieces is an easy and effective idea to maximize multi-channel marketing. For example – if you have a blog post, you can also make an infographic or a slideshow. You can then use the important parts of the blog to create an engaging social media post.
• Increase Value and Life of Content – We are all aware that thousands of content pieces are being published daily. Once the audience reads them, they become stale. But you can share the same content in a completely new way through a different medium, and the same audience may find it interesting. So, content repurposing helps squeeze every bit of juice out of the content and expands the reach.
• Brand Credibility – Repetition is undoubtedly a key tactic in marketing, but people easily get tired of hearing and seeing the same things repeatedly. Content repurposing is a great idea to deliver the same message differently and sustain it for a considerable amount of time. It helps increase recall, authority, and credibility in the B2B market.

 

 

Tips to Repurpose B2B Digital Content

Now that we know all about content repurposing and its benefits, it’s time to get familiar with a few methods to repurpose content. Though it depends on business planning for B2B companies, the firm’s business goals, and the target audience’s nature, a few general tips may be helpful for everyone. So, here are four remarkable ways to repurpose content.

• Quora Q&A into the Blog Posts

Finding the right title for a blog post can be a daunting task. So, try finding a relevant question on Quora aligned with your business and write a blog post about it. nsure you choose a question with several upvotes and answer it as industry experts. It will help you get valuable traffic on your website composed of people looking for the answers.

• Slideshows, E-books into Infographics

Visual information is catchy and can easily captivate your target audience’s attention. The decision-makers of the B2B firms are humans, and we all know that human beings are visual learners. So, it’s a good idea to transform slideshows or e-books into infographics. It can help show data and text in distinct sections, making it easier for potential clients to understand the key message of the content.

• Transform Webinar Recordings into Useful Content

Webinars have gained immense popularity in recent times. You can record a webinar to stretch its usefulness beyond the event. This is a great way to provide expert insight and new information to the target audience. You can offer it as a gated download or post it on social media. You can also use it as a blog post with additional research and insight.

 

 

• Create Audio Content from Blogs 

Many people don’t have enough time to read your blog posts. So, you can create audio content from the blog content. Then, you can either share the audio file with the blog post or share it as a podcast episode. It is a great strategy to attract people who prefer listening rather than reading plain text.

How Can Company Expert Help in Content Repurposing?

Repurposing existing content improves website SEO and increases the reach of your content. However, it does not mean you should stop creating new content. Rather, content repurposing is a great way to maximize the resources involved in content creation and keep up with the changing preferences of B2B buyers.

Content repurposing helps save time and money and expands your reach. But, you should know how to do it right in order to reap the maximum benefits. A strong content repurposing plan is important to strengthen your content marketing to win clients. So, when you want to alter one piece of B2B content to make other pieces of content, you can use Company Expert’s B2B content repurposing marketing framework. It provides the framework for content repurposing and addresses common questions like how to plan, develop, and optimize existing content. So, partner with us to help your B2B firm increase utility value, while reducing the cost of producing content.