1. Data-Driven Marketing

Data is always important when making informed decisions, but reports are not always brought to marketing meetings. This is changing in 2023. Successful marketing involves research and numbers as well as creativity and uniqueness. Using tools like Google Analytics to track and collect data from your website, Google Ads, PPC ads, email surveys, social media, and other digital marketing avenues helps inform what areas your marketing team needs to focus on. Going into meetings with reports and findings can create better connection between your design and sales time. It can also save time during meetings because the data will guide the conversation so your marketing team can create item truly tailor for you target market. 

2. A Rise in Video Content 

Long-form video such as tutorials, essays on industry topics, or webinars are becoming popular amongst b2b communications. They are a great way to show off your topical knowledge and build your industry authority. Going live through video platforms, such as YouTube helps foster community and allows you target audience to know that there are real people behind your company. You can answer any questions clients have about your product or service and discover knowledge from other experts in your industry. Short-form videos are good for business quick tips, sneak peaks, and announcements. These are good to post on social media to quickly grab the attention of your audience. They also do not take too much time out of your day, which is important for busy business owners and employees. 

3. Dark Social Prevention 

Dark social refers to when people share website links through email, SMS, and private messages on social media. These links do not have tracking codes automatically appended, so it is not possible to know how the website visitor found the content. As a result, it hard to measure attribution which can make hard to know which platform needs marketing attention or is effective. It can also make it difficult to educate your buyers about your product or service. B2B buyers like to research and self-discover before contacting a sales agent. They want to learn, compare, and review product options well before speaking to sales. You want marketing to drive funnel conversions through smart use and encouraging of direct contact instead of platform avenues. 

4. AI Utilization 

While AI technologies are controversial in terms of art creation and body copy creation, there are other ways to use AI tech that are timesaving.

• Personalized shopping creates recommendation engines through which you can engage better with your customers. 

• Virtual assistants and chatbots help improve the user experience while shopping online. 

• AI can help reduce the possibility of credit card frauds taking place.

• On Instagram, AI considers your likes and the accounts you follow to determine what posts you are shown on your explore tab. 

• Facebook AI is used along with a tool called DeepText.  It can understand conversations and can be used to translate posts from different languages automatically.

• AI can deliver highly targeted and personalized ads with the help of behavioral analysis, and pattern recognition, etc. It also helps with retargeting audiences.

• AI chatbots can effectively resolve customer issues, respond to simple inquiries, improve customer service, and provide 24/7 support on your website and social media. 

5. Lead Nurturing 

The process of engaging potential customers and helping them become a sale requires nurturing, especially if you are in an area where the economy is in a tight spot. Drip marketing campaigns in the form of sending out automated emails over the course of several weeks or months is one way to nurture a potential client relationship. With business clients being every busy it is important to stay in contact with potential client to close the sale. When the sale is done, you are still not finished. Add them to your email list and offering deals or notifying them about sales will help them keep your company top of mind for other product and services. 

 Create an effective B2B marketing plan with us today. Call 248.528.3600

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1. User Interviews 

Go straight to the source. If you can have a one-on-one conversation with participants of your target market, then you find out directly what they want and need. While it is best to do this in person, this can also be done via virtual meeting or phone call. Pay attention to their attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and experiences. Start will simple questions, then based on their answer go deep into the subject. If needed, have a list of pre-planned question ready, but make sure you are not too focused those questions that you don’t listen to the client. 

2. Surveys

Sometimes you only need info on a specific topic, or you need reactions after the purchase and use of your product or service. This is when you send out a survey to a large amount of your customers’ email. Make sure your email subject is clean simple and avoid all caps, you don’t want clients making the mistake of thinking your survey is a scam or spam. Keep the survey short, users are less likely to complete a long survey. If you want to provide an extra incentive by offering a discount to your store if they complete the survey. 

3. Focus Groups 

Gather a small sample group of your target market to discuss your product, service, or experience. Let them share their perspectives amongst themselves in a guided setting. This allows you to gain insights into the nuances and different types of views as individuals. This is especially useful when tailoring products, services, and experiences for individual clients, not just a whole demographic. Include a moderator so that they stay on topic and that they don’t influence each other too much. 

4. A/B Testing 

If you have 2 designs for your project, you can test them against each other. You can use live users or use A/B testing tools that can analyze your design and determine which your target market will gravitate to more. This is useful for designs that are similar but have a minor difference or the information is presented in a different order. If results come back overwhelming to 1 version, you can scrap the other. If your results are nearly even, you can chalk it up to personal preference and merge the two or provide personalized settings for the end user to allow them more control. 

5. Card Sorting 

This method can help determine items like website architecture. You break your products or services into categories. Using virtual or physical cards, assign each card an individual product or service. Provide them to the user and ask them to sort the cards into groups. The groups can be based on criteria based on user preference for example color, size, etc. This helps you identify patterns in what user views, which indicates what a user will like search when looking for a product or service like yours. You can then organize your website based on the results leading to the exact user experience your target market wants. 

6. Tree Test

Findability and usability of website content can be tested with the tree test method. This can be used as a follow up from the card sorting method or it can be used when you have large amounts of content, have multiple navigation options, or are updating your existing website. The tree test method involves asking participants to find specific items starting from the home page to the contact page. You give no indication of what the internal navigation or call-to-action buttons are but are allowed a few hints. This helps understand how users find and interact with your web content. 

Start a user-researched web project today? Call 248.528.3600

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Logo

Your company logo is needed so that visitors know that it is your company website that they are on. Make sure your logo is visible at a small size and that the colors are in RGB (digital colors). If you have an old logo, it may be time for a re-design by a professional design agency. If you have an illustrative one or one with a lot of detail, you may need to simplify or have your logo visible embedded in your top image. Be aware that if you have it embedded in your top image it could mean for future images your logo must be visible or you will have to forgo sliders or videos where the logo isn’t there. Logos in the header are often hyperlinked to take the user back to the home page. 

Navigation Menu 

Whether you have individual links to each page, a mega menu, or a hamburger menu, you need to have a way for users to navigate your website. Usually access to a navigation menu is at the top. There are some exceptions to the rule like side menus, but those are usually reserved for apps where users will swipe to access the navigation. Before designing your website, it is ideal to have a sitemap where you can figure out how many pages you need and how they will be maneuvered. This will inform what type of navigation to use. 

Call To Action 

You want to encourage users to take the next step in the sale process. CTAs that are usually at the top-right of your webpage are:

• Company phone number
• Email Us Icon/Link
• Contact Us Page
• Request a Quote Page
• Support Link

Search Bar 

A search bar is needed if you have a large website with a lot of products, services, or information. Distributor websites will have a search bar at the top of their website so users can type in the brand they want, and it will directly pop up. The users will not have to go into layers of webpages to hunt down what they want. This will prevent clients from giving up on your website and bouncing out. A simple search bar can improve click-through-rates and improve the user experience of your website. 

Ecommerce Icons 

 If your business is ecommerce, then you need icons your user can use to complete the purchase and continue for future purchases. These icons are: 

• Login/My Account icon
• Add to Cart icon 
• Add to Wish List icon
• A Like/Favorite icon
• A Share icon 

Need help fixing your web design? Call 248.528.3600.

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1. Live Videos 

Videos are great at communicating emotions and demonstrating a skill.  A study by Livestream found that 80% of people prefer watching live videos more than reading blog posts from brands. The same study also found that 82% of people prefer live videos more than social media posts. When you convey information through visual demonstration, they can be better received and retained. Viewers can pause or fast forward at their discretion. Collaborate with similar or complementary businesses to discuss industry news, opinions, and other information that could be useful to your audience. 

2. Brand Storytelling 

Telling the story about the history of your brand may be difficult if the original owner is no longer the face of the company or if you are just starting out. That doesn’t mean you can’t tell small micro stories about your business and its employees. To sell to people, your product or services must be relatable to people. Talk about challenges and how your employees came to together to solve it. If you partner up with another local business, highlight similar or complementary company goals or beliefs benefit the community you are trying to serve. 

3. Employee Advocacy 

Your employees are also brand ambassadors. Let your employees have the spotlight on social media. Also give them the option to share industry posts on their business profiles on LinkedIn or on other business forums. If an employee does an exceptional job, acknowledge it, maybe have a certificate, or award system. Remember to form a budget for raises or if you have none for a meeting to discuss how much increase in sales to need for everyone to receive a raise. If you are in the US have robust healthcare options for your employees. 

4. Influencer Marketing 

Influencers are not just young Youtubers or acting celebrities. Think: can your product or service be useful to entrepreneur, small businesses, or large corporate entities? Are well known successful businessperson or salesperson willing to recommend you to others? Form a relationship with employees at other companies. See if there are any kinks in their process or workflow your product or service could help improve. Working on internal improvements leave the companies to focus on their clients which in turn will help them profit. This will make you an asset in their eyes and will recommend you to other businesses that may need you. 

5. Mobile-Friendly Content 

 Over 50.3% of global web traffic was generated from mobile devices. Most of your target audiences (decision makers of businesses) are always on the go. Mobile is the medium through which they consume content. This includes your website, social media, video, and advertising content. Make sure fonts are easy to read and button or links are prominent enough for people with different hand sizes to touch. You can use tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check whether your website’s pages are mobile-friendly or not. If not, work with your developers or a web agency to make sure that you’re able to deliver a pleasant experience to your mobile users.

6. Customer Testimonials & Case Studies 

A study by Koyne according to a study of B2B brands, word-of-mouth is known to influence purchase decisions of 91% of buyers. The same study found that 62% of B2B marketers use customer testimonials as their main marketing strategy. Video testimonials are extremely credible and more trustworthy in consumer eye. Not every testimonial has to be a video, but if you can get 1 or 2 of your best customers to make one, you highlight it on your website and digital marketing avenues. In addition to testimonials, do in-depth case studies of how your company solved a complex problem. Case studies help with product or services that don’t have fast tangible results.  

7. Analytics & Automation 

Use Google analytics to view what type of content on your website gets the most views. You can also keep track of your target demographic or location. Analyze the buyer personas of people who have visited your website using. Then ask, “is there any administrative task that can be automated?” Simple confirmation emails or frequently ask question chat bots can help cut down on wasted time asked by viewers that are just window-shopping.  Send thank you notes after events or trade shows with automated email features or email campaign services. WordPress has a lot of free options when it comes to plugin for this task. Gather feedback using survey automations during the testing phase.

Update your B2B marketing plan by calling 248.528.360. 

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1. What is the core flow of your user’s experiences?

How easy or hard is the experience suppose to be? Is it a website with games where tension is exciting, and friction is expected or it an ecommerce site that needs to be simply navigated to make the end-user happy? If you integrate a new feature, does it help or hinder this process? If unsure continue testing, if everything is working fine, launch!

2. Is the user’s ability to do a particular action going to determine the success of the launch?

In ecommerce, if a client completes a purchase by clicking a cart button that means the launch was successful. For a service-based company, a contact form was successfully filled out and sent to the correct email, it means the launch is successful. These processes should work smoothly. At least one test should be conducted on different browsers and devices to make sure everything if functionally correctly. If the buttons aren’t working notify the developer, and test again until it works. Once everything is working, launch! 

3.  Is this an area where we anticipate users could have difficulty?

Identify any pain-points a user may have. This may include the user interface design. Is the design accessibility-friendly? Is the design suitable for the target audience? Check if designs work on both on mobile and desktop. Are there any important instructional elements running off the page? Does one feature work on mobile, but not desktop? If possible, have someone from your target market or a group for your target market test at least once, identify any issues, and fix any problems in the front-end or back-end until 99% successful. 

4. Does this change the way current customers are accomplishing their tasks? 

Is this going to impact what customers are currently doing? Newer is not always better. Sometimes people can go too far into innovation that no one knows how to navigate your website. Make sure the basic principles of design are being followed. If a feature proves cumbersome for existing users to adapt to, it may be worth another look. You may need to replace it with an easier or more commonly used feature. Testing will also let you know if you need to invest in an onboarding experience to transition users accustomed to the previous version. This will come in handy for updates being made and whether you need to invest in instructional usage. For example, when we upgrade a php website to WordPress we send an instructional video or pdf for the use to refence for when they make updates. 

5. Is there already an industry best practice? 

For example, do you know that a green button signals success and a red button stops users from continuing? This does not need to be tested. If a feature is common knowledge and you already checked it functionality it does not need to be tested further. You should be ready to launch right away. 

6. Is what you are looking to test a matter of user preference?

Light mode vs dark mode is a good example of how certain users prefer different set ups but isn’t explicitly impactful on the overall project. If is your first test has a split percentage of reactions, it may be a simple user preference that you don’t need to spend too much time focused on. Your focus should be elements that focus on the main goal that will bring success. If unsure test one more time and if the percentage is still split move on or launch anyway.   

7. How much effort is this test going to take? 

Do you have the timeline necessary to undertake this effort? Always have due date for the project to be done, especially if you already spent money on it! Limit the number of tests that can be done. If the project is failing discuss a pause to the project and see it there is a way to exit the project or re-organize the timeline. This should be rarity if you discussed the timeline in the first initial discussion, but chaos happens and it wise to develop a web strategy with testing at the beginning of the project to avoid time wasting. 

Develop a web UX design with us! Call 248.528.360 

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 Find & Share Highly Qualified Audiences

The main benefit of any influencer marketing is that influencers have loyal followers that are predisposed trust whatever that influencer recommends. They built a relationship by sharing their thoughts and expertise with the audience that follow them. B2B audiences are especially highly qualified and highly motivated. These potential buyers are often on the hunt for product or services that help their business. Co-creating content with the correct complementary business influencer can help build a better product and service. This content usually comes in the form of a podcast, demonstration video, or blog post. Not only will you reach new audience segments who may not have known about you before, but those audience members will be suited to understand the unique value proposition of your organization relative to your industry as well as give intelligent and construct feedback on your product or service. 

 Demonstrate Social Proof

75% of B2B sales are made before the company’s sales team gets involved. B2B buyers devote a lot of time researching a company before reaching out, making the content you create very important. They are judging every element of your website, buyer reviews, and social media profiles. They are also reading your case studies, researching your former clients and competition, and looking up your employees. All this before they even respond to your email or call one way or another! B2B buyers want social proof that you are who you say you are and that your company is real. They want to get it from someone other than your own marketers or salespeople. Influencers can help with this form of proof. When an influencer works with you, they’re staking their reputation on you as well. Working with a highly respected influencer shows that, at least according to them, you are credible. If your buyers follow and respect that certain influencer, that means they’ll respect you, too.

 Become Newsworthy

Business tends to move fast. Some acquire other businesses, develop new products and services, or come up with new innovations. It is important to look ahead and predict what’s next. B2B Influencers almost do this instinctively. They are constantly finding a way to stay at the forefront of their industry whether it be with latest technological advancement or the best new way to communicate with their target market. Their audience follows them because they are quick to experiment and relay their findings. Partnering with a B2B brand that isn’t afraid create and share content that is experimental gives you the opportunity to try out content may be too risky to try out alone, but if successful benefits both companies. 

 Foster Lasting Relationships

Achieving marketing ROI takes place on a longer timeline in B2B than when selling B2C consumer products. In most cases, B2B buyers are not one-time-only customers. Instead, they are long-term clients you may enjoy a working relationship with for years. You want these clients to look to you as a trusted service provider and subject matter expert. Influencer content can help facilitate this by fostering a knowledge swap in your industry or to cover the hot topics of today. You are not just extending your reach or enticing highly qualified new prospects, you are also showing existing (and former) clients that you are relevant and leading the competition. Ongoing content collaboration relationships with B2B brands develop long term relationships with customers as well. New and old clients alike often see influencer content as proof that you’re still looking out for them. You are still engaged and actively working on finding new and better client experiences.

Ready to create a B2B Influencer Campaign? Call 248.528.360 

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1. Clear, Non-confusing Navigation

You don’t want visitors to search too hard to find what they need. Label your navigation to each page intuitively. “About” should lead to info about the company. “Shop” should lead to an online store. There is limited space, so if the name is long, see if you can shorten it or put under a sub menu. For example, “Brand Name Manufactured Gears” can become a drop-down element of “Products”. On mobile default to hamburger menu, so clients only have to press one button. 

2. Different Options to Contact You

Have different ways for visitors to contact you. Include buttons to contact forms/pages, clickable email icons to your company email, phone numbers at the top and footer and a Google map available on a contact page or bottom of the home page. Social media links are also popular for ongoing client interaction. The easier it is the contact you the more likely they will become a customer. 

3. Social Proof 

Testimonials, reviews, and featured articles generate trust in your business. Clients usually like to make sure the claims a company is making aligns with what they are selling accurately therefore will look for reviews before spending their money. If you are a new business, create an email campaign or social post asking for honest thoughts on your products or services. 

4. Instant Explanation of What You Do

Have a tagline or a home page slider as the first graphic at the top of your website explaining what you do. Avoid fluffy vague words to describe your company. A bad example of intro text: dynamic solutions for everyone. A good example of intro text: dynamic web design for small business. Be specific and simple. 

5. Ways to Stay Up with Your News 

Having a newsletter sign up or subscription pop-up box, section, or form so visitors and clients can follow your blog creates long-term loyalty and EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). Also make sure social media links are easily found in the footer and attached to your blog post articles. 

6. Legal Legitimacy 

More items that are important in building trust is to make sure you have a privacy/cookie policy, term & conditions, and other legal indicators at the very least at the bottom of your website. If you are a commerce website, an SSL certificate is highly recommended to make sure your website is secure for customers to pay online. When updating content make sure your copyright matches the current year. The general public is more tech savvy and if your website is lacking these items they will leave your website, increasing your bounce rate. 

7. Clear Pricing or Way to Discover the Price

Most customers like to price compare. Any online shop should have the price attached to the product. Services based websites such as consultants, hair salons, therapies offices, etc., should display the price near the description of what is included in each service. If your services are determined based on a variety for factors, make a clear indictor such as a “request a quote” button or “for the price call phone #”. 

8. Delivery & Shipping Info 

Most useful for e-commerce websites, have a return/exchange policy and delivery info easily visible. This is legal info that shouldn’t be shoved to the footer. Contain the info in an according near the product description. If you’re selling a product that does not need shipping or a service still include refund police even if it is a no refund policy along with info on how to handle dissatisfaction with the product or service. 

Include these items in your website today. Call 248.528.3600

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 Better Communication

Cross functional teams can communicate with each other without arbitrary department walls. If a problem arises that one department can’t solve, the question can be opened to other departments and solved faster. Time doesn’t have to wasted on individual departments answers that you have to guess-and-test. 

 Endless Fresh Perspectives

A method or idea may solve other problems you didn’t know were related. It starts with the big picture or goal, then leads to other teammates seeing details from different angles. This can help when gathering behavior insights, data, or coming up creative design ideas. 

 Better Understanding of Target User

Related to the previous point, with the free flow of information, different departments can share what they learned from user behavior and client feedback. There is no need to guess which problem to prioritize or where the areas of improvement need to be because each team can compare notes. You also won’t run into the chance of repeating solutions that don’t work.

 Faster Market Production 

Success can be doubled by splitting or switching tasks across the board. There is less chance of over working or frustrating employees that are limited in knowledge. There is less research that has to be done because another team will have and share the answer. 

Ready to collaborate with us? Call 248.528.3600

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1. Test Designs with Actual Users 

Build prototypes for products or test links of websites and social media posts that you can interact with and test the useability of the project. Recruit a small amount of people that resemble your target market. For example, you can test with new sign-ups, trial vs. paid users, and a variety of demographics based on user personas you created. 

2. Learn How Designs Land with Users in the Landscape

Once your digital or physical product is developed or coded out, you are not done. Send out a survey to your users in-context to keep track of how to improve ease of use, reduce friction, and identify what changes need to happen. Collect feedback and allow your marketing team to create hyper-specific ads relevant to your target audience. They should investigate specific user groups at critical points in their customer journey. Some questions you might consider including in a survey:

• How would you interact with [website, product, or social post]?
• What did you find most/least important/challenging about this?
• Are there any things you would change/add/remove to make this more useful to you?
• Did you encounter anything unexpected or surprising?
• On a scale of 1–5, how [goal] was this feature?

3. Automate Your Efforts

Between spending hours conducting and reviewing interview notes or transcribing video feedback into remotely usable snippets of information, user research can be a thoroughly draining process. Have an automated analysis of test and survey results so you can get more user feedback without more of the tedious stuff. Look for automations for email, contact forms, and subscriber boxes in a content management system as well. This will help declutter the research process with small tasks. 

Need help conducting research? Call 248.528.3600.

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1. PPC ads

2. Cart Abandonment Emails

3. Participate in Forums

4. Promote on Social Media

5. Add Social Shares to Content 

6. Use Specific Keywords

7. Encourage Customer Reviews

8. Reach Out to Influencers 

9. Revamp Old Blogs

10. Create Videos 

11. Keep Site Speed Fast

12. Create Valuable Titles, Meta Descriptions, & URLs

13. Re-Target Facebook Users

14. Make List Posts

15. Backlinks from other Brands

Need help to implement these strategies? Call 248.528.3600

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