The gap between B2B and B2C buyers is narrowing, especially online. If you’re still attempting to silo your initiatives and are not looking for sales practices from the consumer market, you could be missing out.
 
Today’s customers are exploring more, checking out digital avenues, and looking for a personal purchase process that is as simple as their favorite app. To make the most of your active customers and even land a few new ones, here are five considerations to deliver a much better experience no matter where you fall in the B2B and manufacturing landscape.
 
No. 1 - Get Your Foot in the Door
 
B2B sales funnels and customer journeys are long and winding roads. They’ve got multiple steps and exchanges long before any money changes hands because the purchase process is usually a lot less spur-of-the-moment. That’s starting to turn with e-commerce and its dramatic surge in the U.S.
 
The American customer audience has moved from a few people willing to buy things immediately via infomercials to the majority who can fire up a PC or phone, find a product, and make a purchase that’ll get to them in two days.
 
Comfort has won over the masses. And, those are the same procurement officers who are buying your B2B goods.
 
So, it’s time to jump into the beautiful world of impulse shopping and direct sales to fill needs. What this means for your business is that you’ll would like to promote offers that have a low cost or barrier to entry. Something simple and easy that’s ready to go.
 
For manufacturers, this can often be small tools, parts, or components. You can also provide or sell eBooks and other materials about how to utilize your goods. One candle manufacturer could get their foot in the door by selling wicks at cost and then turned those buyers into companies who wanted oils, waxes, and more.
 
No. 2 - Focus on Benefits
 
The B2B world often highlights the features of a service or product. We take a look at what it can do for the customer, typically how it makes work better and more effective. On the contrary, B2C marketers often concentrate on the benefits of a product.
 
B2C doesn’t sell a great mop based on it’s the bristles. It sells based on how easily and effortlessly it cleans so that you can get back to something more fun. B2C marketing aims at the emotional side of a product and the benefits. Keeping the message simple and direct makes the pitch more persuasive.
 
A robust B2B campaign needs to bridge features and benefits. Highlight the technical elements and features of your products in light of the benefits they provide. Talk about the reasons why they’re a smart financial investment with the gains they could make in things like efficiency, workforce, or inventory optimization, and reduced stress.
 
No. 3 - Reach out to the Individual
 
The B2B purchasing process often requires several stakeholders, from the person who’ll use your product to acquisition teams and management holding the purse strings. Committees can be a big customer for any B2B sale. The B2C market focuses on the individual decision-maker who is often doing all of the research and final buy on their own.
 
The essential lesson from B2C here is that they provide the individual with everything that they need to make an educated purchase.
 
Your objective is to arm your key target with everything they’ll need to manage the decision process. Give them the talking points that can use for each step in their purchase process. Treat the reader and ad target like an individual, and you’ll be primed for a more important connection even if it reaches different stakeholders.
 
No. 4 - List Your Prices
 
Buying a B2C product is straightforward. You can see the price, taxes, shipping, and just about everything else with a few clicks. In B2B, not really much. Many companies hide their pricing behind accounts and paywalls and phone calls.
 
In the manufacturing space, there’s seldom a need for secretive pricing beyond custom efforts. Your purchasers are getting used to having detailed information available to them at every purchase decision in their daily lives, so the same expectation is bleeding over into work lives as well.
 
While B2B pricing is often a little more complex, it still requires a baseline and shouldn’t require significant heavy lifting from the customer to get started. When final elements have a negotiation aspect, then you would like to give a baseline at least to help consumers start their planning.
 
No. 5 - Go Mobile-Friendly
 
Younger consumers are driving e-commerce, and they’re starting to move into the B2B purchasing space too. They’re bringing many of the same expectations to your website, catalogs, and more. Even as far back as 2015, 42 percent of B2B buyers were using mobile devices somewhere during the purchase process.
 
Your marketing and website need to focus on the mobile customer and draw them in—and mobile-only customers even often close the deal much faster.
 
Unfortunately, many leading websites from manufacturers aren’t mobile-friendly. They have not adopted responsive design to adapt to smaller screens. If you need a little help, consider firing up some B2B e-commerce tech that is mobile-optimized and reviews what they offer for customers on their cell phones as well as PCs.
 
Look into how their tech support and chat works on mobile, the different landing page techniques used, and how they assist the buying process. You like to be able to reach someone on their phone on the way to the office and connect this to the experience they have when they get into the office and browse on their main PC too.
 
B2B platforms are a great place to review all of your options and capabilities. E-commerce systems can help you get a feel for the way consumers expect information on delivery, replenishment, customer service, and far more. A physical product will always have robust logistics backing and fulfillment, but your customers are initially going to expect a more Amazon-like approach.
 
Today’s B2B business is transferring more in line with B2C efforts. Find your favorite brands and review their hooks, marketing, targeting, and site information to see what you can do to start attracting your best customers.
 
This article is originally posted on tronserve.com