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Three Instruments to Construct an Efficient B2B Advertising and marketing Gross sales Funnel

Screenshot of the Appointfix user interface on a mobile phone

Do you run a B2B business that needs more leads?

If you’re still reading this, you are sure to nod in agreement.

Everyone needs more leads and therefore everyone needs a more effective sales funnel.

New challenges B2B companies face the challenge

As web-based marketing grows and matures, so do the challenges and opportunities for B2B companies.

On the one hand, more and more brands require services, so the demand for B2B companies is definitely growing, especially now that the digitization triggered by COVID is disrupting the global economy.

Experts recognize this and have started to monetize their personal brands through the provision of services. Hence the rapidly growing competition.

As the competition becomes more and more complex and diverse, B2B customers are also becoming more complex.

Several decision-makers were always involved in the B2B area. What is changing is the structure of the Decision Units (DMUs). There are many more people involved these days – the average DMU grew from 4 to 7 people in two years.

A DMU is usually made up of several people including the marketing manager, business development manager, brand manager, etc. Obviously, each of them has different requirements that your marketing strategy should address.

At the same time, the B2B buying journey is becoming less predictable and more complicated. It’s supposed to have gotten twice as long in 6 years, and I’m pretty sure it grew a lot faster in 2020 than online marketing grew exponentially.

So the question arises. How do you generate and convert leads in today’s rapidly evolving marketing climate?

There are, of course, many options: from realigning your services to new needs, to creating more content to generate leads organically. Still, there is one basic step that almost every B2B company needs to take care of before taking any further action:

Optimize your sales funnel.

Here are some tools that can help:

1. Diversify your lead generation methods

Have you noticed that your old lead generation methods are becoming less effective? You are not alone. If 10 years ago a simple contact form on your Services page was enough to get links (assuming traffic came to that page), nowadays web users seem to develop the blindness of web forms.

Web literacy is growing, as are privacy concerns. It is becoming increasingly difficult to convince your website visitors to share their emails with you and to agree to be contacted. Here are some ideas for you to diversify your lead generation methods:

Chatbots

With the rise in artificial intelligence, there are a number of solutions that can be used to easily create a smart chatbot that will send your website users down the sales funnel.

By answering their questions and sending relevant links, an intelligent chatbot is always where it is needed and helps your website visitors navigate your website more securely so that they trust you with their contact information.

Scheduling software

Some leads may not even have to become leads. Shorten their buying journey by allowing them to become your customers right away – letting them schedule a meeting with you without requesting one.

Appointfix is ​​one of the easiest, most affordable tools to help you create on-page CTAs that site users can use to schedule an appointment and be instantly confirmed:

AI-based surveys

Somehow, people like to take polls and even quick polls, especially if they expect the answer to break down in the end. This makes surveys a great lead generation method.

AI-powered online surveys are even more effective at converting your website users into leads by determining when each individual user is more likely to be engaged and which topics are catching their attention.

Traditional lead magnets

The content strategy should include different types of content aimed at all the different people within a decision-making unit. Usually a decision-making unit consists of different executives such as the managing director, the marketing manager and the sales manager.

Of course, each of them has their own needs from each product. An effective content strategy should take into account these different organizational and personal priorities of each person within a DMU. The customer-oriented lead magnets include:

  • Demonstrations
  • white papers
  • Customer references
  • Webinars
  • Videos
  • Appraisal instruments
  • Product brochures etc.

Visitor identification software

After all, not all website users will trust you with their contact information. But they can still take a lead. Maybe the timing was wrong, or the site visitor was distracted, or maybe that’s just the wrong player in this DMU.

You can still intercept many of these leads with the help of visitor identification software. These tools collect your site logs and identify companies behind many of them.

Screenshot of various lead tracking options like Rimoko and Madyhell

Invest in methods of generating paid leads

While the on-site (i.e., “inbound”) lead generation tactic should be your priority, using Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter ads will expand your reach and collect more data for you. So don’t miss this step! Social listening is another big step.

2. Automatically collect and nurture leads

The sales process typically consists of hundreds of micro-tasks performed by dozens of salespeople. It is a nightmare to organize and manage effectively.

Fortunately, new tools are emerging that allow you to organize and streamline things well using artificial intelligence.

Exceed.ai is an example of this innovation in action. The platform uses artificial intelligence to involve your leads in personalized and contextual two-way conversations based on CRM data, current actions and the stage of maintenance. In short, this is a virtual assistant that works with your team to independently support, qualify, nurture, and convert your leads.

Exceed.ai screenshot shows how the AI ​​works with potential clients

When sales reps give up or just overlook things, Exceed picks things up and leads your leads into human-like conversations. Once the AI ​​assistant qualifies a lead for a sales call, they reschedule the call for the lead with the appropriate agent, saving valuable time that is wasted moving back and forth to set up meetings.

Exceed.ai screenshot shows meetings and how long ago they were

Of course, human intervention will always be required, but Exceed helps make that intervention more efficient by making those leads better qualified and more prone to become your customers, thereby increasing the overall productivity and success rate of your employees.

3. Optimize your sales funnel with A / B testing

Conversion optimization is a process that never gets completed. You will always be looking for new ways to style your pages and tweak your flow for better results. This is where the constant testing and adjustment of A / B comes into play.

Finteza is a web analytics solution that enables sales funnel monitoring and A / B testing to be performed without the need for a separate team.

Screenshot of Finteza with various a / b tested options

Conclusion

As more and more companies permanently switch to remote working, the B2B sector is growing rapidly. This is a good time to offer services or start a SaaS project. You can also use the tools listed above to generate leads and convert them into customers quickly. Good luck!