Business-to-business (B2B) buyers are increasingly self-directed in their research. In fact, according to Google, 68 percent of B2B buyers prefer to research online on their own before making any purchasing decisions.
Recently, GREENCREST invited local business owners to its office for Google Partners Connect, an event co-hosted with Google to share research, strategies and tips to help business owners succeed in B2B marketing in the digital age.
At the event, our guests learned a lot about what it takes to adapt to the ever-evolving B2B decision-making process. Google presented new findings that prove that the new business buyer is more curious, demanding and impatient than ever before.
Curious
In 2019, 53 percent of B2B buyers will work with sales representatives at some point during their buying journey, which means that 47 percent will not. When a sales representative is not involved in a purchasing decision, online interactions are the top influencer. Even when individuals do work with sales reps, online still plays a major role in the customer journey.
With online and digital marketing impacting so much of the B2B purchasing process, it’s more important than ever for sales and marketing to align. The concept of “smarketing” — where a business syncs sales and marketing processes in an integrated approach — increases the number of closed deals by 67 percent.
Demanding
According to Google, B2B e-commerce is bigger than most may think: B2B e-commerce is six times bigger than business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce, and B2B e-commerce is growing 2.5 times faster than traditional B2C commerce.
Thirty-two percent of B2B commerce is e-commerce — compared to just eight percent for B2C commerce — and there are many reasons why B2B purchasing is moving online, including the appeal of free shipping and a wide selection, as well as lower prices and reliable delivery.
In order to meet the high demands of the new business buyer, assistance has become the new battleground for growth. Traditionally, “assistance” refers to helping people get things done, but in the world of marketing it refers to “driving growth by anticipating and satisfying intent throughout the consumer journey,” according to Google. Anticipating the intent of your customers to deliver the right ad to the right person at the right time is key to driving a purchase.
Impatient
According to Google, the new business buyer spends, on average, more than 11 hours per day interacting with media — TV, radio, digital — and nearly half of that time is spent on a mobile device. In fact, B2B businesses that fully optimize for mobile generate, on average, three times more revenue than mobile laggards, according to Google.
When it comes to mobile optimization, if brands generate positive experiences with their websites, for example, they are eight-and-a-half times more likely to be added to the consideration set compared to a negative one. In fact, 53 percent of people abandon a mobile website if it takes longer than just three seconds to load.
B2B online marketing is hard. Its long sales cycle, competitiveness and niche markets make delivering the right ad to the right person at the right time increasingly difficult. Working with a Google Partner Agency, such as GREENCREST, can ensure your online efforts are performing at full potential. As a Google Partner agency, we have the B2B marketing know how to optimize for the new business buyer.
Don’t let another B2B decision-maker count you out. Contact the B2B marketing experts at GREENCREST today.