Top Influencers in a B2B Buying Decision
A recent B2B survey conducted by search engine marketing company Enquiro found that an industrial vendor’s website is “the #1 influencing factor in a buying decision.” Vendor websites now have more impact on a buying decision than word of mouth referrals, trade show participation, or ads in trade publications.
According to the 2006 SVM E-Business Trends in ManufacturingReport, “…industrial marketers believe e-business is essential to their long-term success, and that they will be less competitive if they do not conduct business online. In addition, the overwhelming majority of manufacturers, 79%, believe investing in online marketing initiatives is essential to their long-term financial success”.
Commenting on this report, The Industrial Marketer points out that:
” the real challenge for industrial marketers lies in determining which online marketing initiatives and investments will deliver measurable results to their companies’ bottom lines.” The report offered four key strategies to drive 2007 online marketing performance:
• Creating a Results-Driven Marketing Plan
• Building a Winning Website
• Improving Lead Quality through Vertical Search
• Using SEO to Improve Online Visibility
Only about half of the manufacturers’ surveyed in that SVM study in 2006 said they thought their website was the powerful marketing tool it needed to be. They said that in the short-term, they would make significant strategic changes maximize to their online profile.
• 78% planned to increase spending on their company’s website this year
• 75% planned to enhance their current website in the next 12-18 months
• 83% believed their website marketing will become more effective over the next three years
This report is now three years old. But it may be helpful to consult these four strategies to evaluate how your own company’s engagement with the internet has evolved over the past three years. Has anything changed with respect to your online marketing efforts or are you still coasting along with a “first generation” corporate website?
The Industrial Marketer notes “The sourcing process has evolved from one that was largely offline and collaborative to one that is largely online and independent – and one that used to take weeks and months to one that now can happen in days or even hours.”
Since most industrial buyers and engineers are now going online to find industrial suppliers, vendors have to respond strategically by shifting the majority of their marketing dollars from print advertising and trade shows into online search marketing. Beyond revamping their websites, vendors who see their website as a strategic asset, assign someone on staff to track the effectiveness of their site in order to monitor and reduce the volume of qualified buyers who exit their site without contacting them. They understand that once their site is live, they can’t walk away. Their website requires continuous focus, analysis and investment to be ensure that it is representing their company well.
Your site should be held accountable, like a salesperson, for selling your company 24/7. It needs to provide detailed, current specifications and the full range of your products or services. Research shows that 93.4% of industrial buyers use the Internet to research buying decisions, and 91% of them will seek out another supplier if they don’t find the information they need at a website. They will simply click the back button and move on to the next website.
Your competitors may not see their websites as a strategic marketing asset when it comes to winning new business. But if you recognize it as such and actively allocate online marketing dollars to boost your online efforts, you will gain a tremendous competitive advantage when your site helps position your company as an industry leader.
Feel free to contact me for a no-obligation consultation on your company’s online marketing strategy. I work with industrial companies in Ontario, Canada. Comments and questions are welcome anytime. For more marketing tips, follow me on Twitter.
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