During the COVID crisis, B2B business people have been hit hard from being unable to reach corporate Therefore, customers SME entrepreneurs have to adapt to online. But how to adjust to reach the target audience, there is an opportunity to increase online sales and grow sustainably. Mr. Ukit Tangsubkul, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Real Smart Co., Ltd., shared his experience of making online marketing strategies with the participants of the SCB IEP 17 B2B program: Digital Commerce to help entrepreneurs set up a professional online marketing strategy.

B2B goes through the crisis in the digital disruption era

Ukit said that Mindset is important. Faith determines reality If we believe we have to do something about our business will cause change and grow. From the Covid crisis, when there is a lockdown, fewer customers come in. Making businesses more dependent on online when we have to change the way we approach customers. So, we have to change 1. Change the way of thinking 2. Change the way and 3. Change the people who do it (to use digital instead)

 

Know Insight, understand consumers before going online

Most of the corporate customers are the purchasing department. Before purchasing a product, the purchasing department searches online which from the survey found that

1. Before buying, Purchasing departments perform 12 online searches for products.

2. 80% will visit the website of the company to buy the product

3. 70% visit related VDO during the purchase decision

Therefore, website is the heart of doing B2B business. It is found that during the Covid crisis of 2020, B2B businesses are investing more in Digital Marketing and Website Management. How to find leads from websites to focus on 2 things: 1. .Turn people visiting the website into potential customers 2. Change the prospective customer to become a customer

5 steps Sales Funnel B2B

An online marketing strategy is a roadmap that helps you reach your goals through online marketing materials in various channels. So, before planning online marketing strategies you must have business goals. Now let's look at Sales Funnel B2B, which is the decision-making process in purchasing a product or service. What steps are there?

1. Awareness: Build brand awareness

2. Consideration: Considering a product or service

3. Evaluation: Evaluation such as comparing the prices of 3 vendors.

4. Prospect: Opportunity / Customer Expectation

5. Purchase: Buying

Steps 2-4 will lead generation, which is to make customers interested in our products or services to a certain extent and leave contact information. This will give us a list of potential customers in hand for next step and to turn Lead into Customer or our customers at the end.

  *** If you add Evaluation, you can increase Prospect and add Purchase.

5 steps of online marketing tips

1. Build Your Online Identity - try to search for our brand name. If you can't find it, you have to create an online presence.  To create an online identity, the tools used are Website and Facebook. You need to be reliable and trustworthy, have expertise or be able to solve problems for customers. Because customers will check their brand identity from the website. *** B2B doesn't need to have every platform, but one website and social media is enough. Therefore, in the online world, brand identity must have distinctive selling points that are clearly different. And find out what customers want and we have to exceed their expectations.

• Value Proposition: The value we deliver to our customers. What benefits customers can expect from your products and services

                              Value = What You Get - Price

                        1. Increase the value = what you get - reduce the price

                   2. Add value = add what you get (free gifts) - price

          3. Add value = Increase what you get (feeling, confidence, safety) - price

 

2. Create Awareness,

      there are 2 types: Paid and Organic. You need to consider firstly who will be the target audience and do Persona to find representatives of the target audience. Then make a purchase, such as Banner / VDO / FB Ad for people to know our brand. In addition to buying ads, content marketing can help people get to know the brand as well by creating Value Content that customers are interested in or help solve some problems for customers. Content that helps B2Bs make purchasing decisions are:

·        User Review 61%

·        Webinar 47%

·        Case Study 34%

·        Interactive Content 30%

·        Direct Mail 21%

3.  Search Engine Marketing:

by purchase of SEM, Google Search Marketing According to a survey, 85% of Thais search for information before making a purchase. Moreover, mobile searches tend to click the top 9 times more than the bottom, so SEM is the backbone of B2B.

4.  Lead Conversion:

By turning people visiting the website into potential customers. In a way that makes customers willing to provide information or register to receive some benefits from the website such as news, special privileges. to listen to the seminar for free provide techniques to send back to Free consultation, just register, give a discount, etc

 

5.  Analyze &Optimize

Measurements - For example, if you have a website, you need to know that Who are people visiting the website? What gender?  Where are they from? What province? How do you know our website? And the target audience has come in and have they registered? In order to know which provinces we should put the advertising money into, etc.

 

Summary

1. Start B2B Marketing with Mindset. Marketing costs are just one element of our goals.

2. Understand the process of creating identity, making people see, trapping people. It's time to sell. Finally, results must be measured.

3. Build a team or outsource that understands what we want and do each element for us

4. The owner have to consider the budget and then decide to invest in online marketing

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Source: SCB IEP 17 B2B Digital Commerce Training by Mr. Ukit Tangsubkul, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Real Smart Company Limited on May 5, 2022 at the Siam Commercial Bank Headquarters.