For B2B companies, an excellent product or reliable service is not enough to succeed. In addition to the transaction experience, customers are looking for an emotional connection, an educational journey, or a unique memory. And with more than three-quarters of B2B buyers and sellers saying they prefer digital human distance and engagement over face-to-face interactions, it’s clear that the extraordinary digital shift that took place in 2020 is here to stay.
To navigate the pandemic’s uncharted territory, most mid-range B2B marketers have shifted from face-to-face conferences, traditionally the most effective way to generate leads, to webinars and digital meetings. But many of the early online ones failed; it was an extremely competitive area. The public did not participate or actively refused to participate, leading to lower conversion rates for B2B marketers.
Rather than waiting for offline opportunities to return, B2B marketers can start webinars face-to-face, improve their email marketing, and use live chat to build lasting relationships with their customers.
1. Accept your webinars
Promote your webinar effectively
During the pandemic, B2B companies came under pressure to learn to navigate all digital marketing channels at the same time, causing some companies not to effectively promote their webinars.
To promote educational webinars, B2B marketers must focus on channels like LinkedIn, where 46% of social media traffic comes from corporate B2B sites.
See articles and references on innovative leadership and also see B2B influencer marketing. Explore the social impact of your business partners and the people who follow your brand.
Include a short question and answer session at the start of your webinar
92% of webinar attendees want a live Q&A session during a webinar. So why not start with that?
Find out what your viewers’ goals are and what unique conclusions they want. If the question and answer session is a lively conversation, write: What do you want to learn here? What problems do you encounter?
Making your digital event engaging and interactive by solving real-world problems will keep your audience engaged for more information. Word of mouth is very effective if you listen to your audience, deliver quality content, and present yourself as a brand that wants to help people, not just sell a product.
Choose a customer-oriented approach
Imagine: you start your webinar, but suddenly you get a lot of questions from the audience.
In this situation, focus on the viewers and their questions, not the product or topics you want to present. People’s attention span is short, so get to the point quickly and be prepared to adapt. Personalization helps a lot in building customer relationships.
Actively listen to customer feedback
Collect customer feedback in webinars and turn it into action. If your viewers order a specific product or hear a specific speaker, promote the customizations in the next live video or webinar and share event information with the desired guest.
Keep your promises and your customers will stay with you longer.
2. Conquer email marketing and communication
Real-name marketing email signature
Email marketing captures leads at the top of the funnel and is an essential part of leadership development. But many marketers write emails and sign up as CEOs.
They don’t deceive anyone. The prospector’s current customer who receives this email will know immediately that it is an automated message.
Instead, the person who creates the email, the email marketing specialist or marketing manager, must personally sign it. Show customers and prospects that your B2B Company values first-class employees and that there’s a real person behind your company’s email.
Know what you can and cannot offer
If you’re a B2B marketer with a SaaS product and you’re answering customer questions via email, you need to be honest about the solution the company can provide.
Helping a customer doesn’t always mean selling your product. Sometimes you have to say “I know how to solve your problem, but not with our product”.
If you also promise to develop a specific feature in your software within a certain period of time, you must not break the implied contract. Keep your word. (Hint: It’s better to try too little to keep the promise and keep too much.)
3. Master live chats
Recognize the importance of human customer service
A customer support team or online chat feature regularly determines how a customer’s journey with a business begins; both are priceless. Customers want to be treated as individuals and hate to be harmed by various media and departments.
While corporate chatbots are scalable and affordable, live chat with human agents offers a more personalized and flexible experience that often pleasantly surprises customers. In 2018, nearly 40% of US respondents to a CGS survey said they would rather talk to a person than an AI chatbot.
This preference increased during the pandemic, as people craved human relationships and complaints about automated experiences with chatbots increased.
Start a conversation immediately
Instead of using “click here” on a website to get people to buy or read an item, use this call to action to open a chat channel: “Click here to talk to us.”
Being received directly by a customer with personal, concise, and transparent messages helps build a lasting relationship. It also confirms that a chatbot is not behind all customer service on the site.
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During the pandemic, it became a challenge for many companies to ensure long-term involvement in a remote environment. As B2B marketers use personalized businesses, the transition to digital interaction can mean less authentic communication.
Alternatively, tailoring your shopping experience to individual needs can open the door to more conversions and leads, as well as build customer relationships and regain their trust.