Selling B2B software online is a little different than selling a retail product. For one thing, the buying cycle is longer. It’s also more complicated. Business buyers may be leery of submitting their payment information to an e-store. B2B products are more complex than consumer products and may require customization by the manufacturer before use, thus diminishing the need for a direct e-store.
But, whether your B2B product lends itself to direct selling through an e-store or not, you need to optimize the path that customers take toward purchasing. So how do you that? According to this infographic from Google, it’s all about balancing SEO, PPC, video content and mobile design.
Search
Obviously search engines are key. You could advertise on offline publications, but how are you going to measure ROI? Coupon codes? Business buyers are online and that’s where they research solutions.
The confusing statistic here is that one-fourth of online conversions are from paid search referrals. Generally, paid search and referrals are two separate classes of traffic drivers, so it’s difficult to see how a conversion can be from both paid search and a referral.
Unless it really means PPC ads, in which case the infographic should be clearer in its language. In any event, it’s clear that paid search advertisements drive business. It’s a classic example of spending money to make money.
The amazing thing is that 25 percent of B2B customers purchased B2B products through mobile devices. My assumption is that this number skews toward physical products as opposed to software.
Video
I’m convinced that video‘s importance is related to the difficulty in its execution. Nevertheless, it’s clearly a major driver of B2B ecommerce. HuStream uses video on their site to explain their product and service to visitors and share customer reviews. ATLAS.ti, on the other hand, use video for training purposes. Either way, since one in three B2B tech buyers use video to gather information, it’s important for B2B software companies to create a video strategy.
If you are interested into the importance that online search, branded advertisements, mobile design and video content play in converting B2B buyers, you can review the full report here.
I strongly agree that video is important when it comes to marketing. Thru video we can create a deep and extensive relationship connections with our prospects and audiences. The nature of the connections that can be established via video without doing anything on a one-on-one basis, is nothing short of remarkable.
Right! Meeting and talking to individuals takes a lot of time and energy. Video is an automated shortcut to communicate your ideas to a broad audience when it’s convenient for them.