One of my favorite things to do is watch college football. And if you think I’m going to compare B2B conversion rate optimization to football, then you’re absolutely right.
Just as every player on the team must work together to score a touchdown, the pieces of your B2B conversion strategy must work in harmony to attract website visitors and convert them into paying customers.
If there is a weak link in your strategy (e.g. if a player in the team is not performing the best), you need to optimize it or remove it from the squad.
I sat down with you for this article Daniel LynchPresident and Owner of Empathy First Media to talk about optimizing B2B conversion rates. Get comfortable as we discuss the differences between B2B CRO and B2C CRO, and I’ll share some of his tips to help you plan a successful conversion strategy.
Table of contents
What is B2B Conversion Rate Optimization?
Before I get too far into this, let’s take a moment to define B2B conversion rate optimization.
I like the way Lynch puts it. “In my opinion, conversion rate optimization in B2B is not just about filling out forms,” he explained.
“Instead, it is the first impression of what your brand offers. For example, by customizing it to that person and then getting very detailed automated responses with sequences and chatbots. Then we use conversational data enrichment with artificial intelligence to power those conversations.”
Lynch said conversion rate optimization should actually be called “conversation rate optimization.” He said: “Conversation rate optimization is more than just conversion. Conversion can be a vanity metric. But conversations are what marketing should always aim for.”
CRO is about understanding the customer journey, identifying opportunities for improvement, and making it more attractive for potential customers to start a conversation. As your customers progress through your sales funnel, they come into contact with elements designed to grab their attention and encourage them to take action.
These touchpoints include:
- Sales and landing pages
- Registration forms
- Pop-ups
- Call to Actions (CTAs)
- Compelling content and text
- Free trials and freemium tools
Making an effort to optimize each of these things can help convert a lead into a loyal customer. You want to track and analyze every part of your conversion strategy to fully understand where you need to make changes to encourage more clicks or sign-ups.
Luckily there are tons of them Conversion rate optimization tools This can help you analyze your sales funnel and optimize your strategies. These tools can help you make appropriate and sensible changes as changing the wrong strategy or optimizing the wrong level of your funnel could negatively impact your CRO.
You also don’t want to make a lot of changes at once. Instead, consider using a Conversion rate optimization planner to help make small, meaningful and measurable changes.
B2B CRO vs. B2C CRO
Let’s face it: conversion rates vary depending on the market.
This means you can’t use the same B2C tactics to optimize your B2B conversion rates. Logically, it’s still marketing, and it looks like the strategies you would use for B2C sales should apply too, but the B2B market is a whole different ballgame.
Here’s why.
Target group
As marketers, you and I both know how important it is to understand our target audience. You’ve probably spent time creating an audience persona to gain a deeper understanding of what drives your audience.
But when it comes to B2C marketing, the audience persona is probably just an individual. Instead of targeting a broad group of people, B2C marketers can make their personalized marketing strategies oddly specific.
This is often easier because you really only need to influence one person to make a sale happen – the individual buyer.
However, in B2B sales, the target audience is a wide range of people, from the CEO to the marketing director to the content marketing manager.
For example, let’s say your company sells engagement software designed to make it easier to connect with customers. To truly express the benefits of your software, you need to think about how it improves the workflow of every department within a company.
This means you need to segment your audience into subcategories.
Going back to the engagement software example, your sales team will use this software differently than your marketing and customer support departments.
To truly figure out how to engage with these groups, you need to think about how your software can best serve them and tailor your approach to address those solutions.
Segmenting your audience is not only a good idea for businesses, but it’s also a great strategy to get more sales. 70% of companies Use segmentation to better market to your customers. And those who use this strategy, 80% of these companies see an increase in their profits.
So if you want better ROI and optimized conversion rates, you should think about segmenting your audience.
decision makers and research
As already mentioned, a purchase in B2C sales is usually an individual decision. However, in B2B sales, the purchasing decision is a group activity.
The more stakeholders are involved, the more decision makers there are. If these decision makers are like me and need to research a product from all angles before purchasing, that means there will be double or triple research notes before the group as a whole decides to purchase a product or service.
With more people helping make the decision, individual research is likely to uncover more purchasing options for group consideration.
Accordingly B2B SaaS Reviews27% of B2B buyers consider six or more options before making a purchase, compared to just 17% of B2C buyers.
This means that in order to attract visitors to your website who are reasonably interested in your product, you really need to position your product or service as a solution to their B2B needs – otherwise you risk losing a lead to your competition.
Sales cycle
Remember the days when you would watch commercials in the middle of the night and be persuaded to buy new exercise equipment that would solve all your insomnia problems?
For me, it only took 30 minutes after an infomercial started before I decided to buy a new piece of fitness equipment.
The point of this story? The B2C sales cycle is relatively short. It often goes like this: You see something that catches your eye, think about how it can solve all of your most pressing problems, and then you pull out your card and go home with something new.
Seems like a relatively effective sales cycle, right? It is – for B2C.
However, it doesn’t work that way in the B2B world.
In B2B sales, it often takes more than 30 minutes to reach the end goal. In fact, the average B2B sales cycle is only just over for two months.
During this time, your sales team must make every effort to convert leads, start a conversation, and close a sale. This could mean inviting decision makers to lunch, calling them to ask questions and re-promoting (and re-promoting!) your services, or arranging a live product demonstration.
These are all tactics you wouldn’t use to close the B2C sales cycle.
Messaging and Marketing
The way you market your products or services also varies slightly depending on the market. Content marketing, influencer partnerships, and social media marketing are all effective conversion methods, but some work better than others for B2B sales.
For example, influencer partnerships are a fantastic idea for promoting your brand, but they work best for B2C brands as they can be more compelling to individuals.
Content marketing is a great option to spread the word about your products or services 91% of B2B marketers Integrate it into your overall strategy.
For B2B marketing, writing how-tos, offering case studies, or sharing product walkthrough videos is a great way to create highly engaging content that converts leads into sales.
Content marketing works for B2C brands and 86% of B2C marketers Include it in your strategy. But the more effective the content they share, such as short, trending videos, is different.
Customer journey
Finally, the main reason for the differences between B2B CRO and B2C is that the customer journey is different.
B2C brands know that they often sell a product that only needs to be purchased once. That doesn’t mean they won’t have repeat customers – they will. However, it does mean that their focus is on getting customers to their site as quickly as possible to make a low-value purchase.
However, B2B purchases are high-value purchases. This means your customers aren’t just buying a product; You are buying an experience.
They need to know upfront what value they will get from your product or service before agreeing to a contract. That’s why your B2B customer journey should be filled with as much valuable content as possible.
Instead, you should focus on providing various resources, including explainer videos, case studies, and tutorials, to influence your customers’ purchasing decisions before encouraging them to contact your sales reps.
Oddly enough, engaging your sales reps too early can be detrimental. Garner figured this out 44% of Millennials You don’t want to interact with a sales rep before making a B2B purchase.
Lynch said this is because we (as consumers) are selfish with our time. This is why text-based marketing like chatbots works so well in B2B marketing and sales.
Now that we know the differences between B2B and B2C conversions, let’s take a look at some of Lynch’s most popular B2B conversion rate optimization strategies.
Strategies to optimize B2B conversion rates
1. Monitor your website.
Heat mapping and recording sessions
Your website is a goldmine of information, and with the right AI tools, you can uncover valuable information about your website visitors.
And I’m not just talking about form fill metrics or bounce rates. Lynch told me that the key to optimizing B2B conversion rates is implementing AI tools for heatmap tracking and session recording.
Lynch told me that he likes using heatmaps because they create a timeline in which you determine the order of key clicks by users. He said: “It’s super important that you identify with your cursor. What did they highlight? What were they focusing on on their screen?”
Once you understand their interests, you can filter out the product or service features that don’t interest your leads and focus only on the things they do. Not only will this waste less time, but you’ll also be well on your way to opening a meaningful conversation (and conversion!) with your leads by targeting their interests.
User experience
This strategy may sound monotonous, but user experience impacts your overall conversion rate. During our conversation, Lynch made a point of telling me that a well-designed landing page doesn’t necessarily mean it’s full of interactive elements. Instead, the following applies: less is more.
He said: “What a lot of people don’t realize is that the best landing pages are the ones that don’t look particularly good.” You want them to be low and fast, serve their purpose and have a certain visual aesthetic. But less is more.
“Minimalist is the engine for conversions. You just want to get them to sign up so you can talk to them and move on. And the more you add to this page, the longer it will take to load. And the longer it takes to load, the lower your conversion rate will be.”
If you’re not sure which landing page converts the most users, consider A/B testing. A/B testing can help you easily identify which elements of your landing pages provide the best user experience.
2. Optimize lead forms.
Although your lead forms only make up a small part of your conversion rate optimization strategy, they still have some importance. And poor form will cause your visitors to walk in the wrong direction.
According to Lynch, “There’s a lot of data that shows that every additional form field you add lowers your conversion rate because it’s one more field that people have to take time to fill out.”
And he’s right. 27% of people will cancel a form because it is too long. Luckily, there are conversion rate AI tools you can use to optimize your forms. He also highly recommends using them.
AI-optimized forms work by collecting user data as a visitor moves around your website. Think about data – such as company name, industry and position within the company. Then, when they land on a form, your AI tool can modify the form to only collect the necessary data.
This can dramatically reduce the number of form fields a user has to fill out, which in turn can help increase your conversion rates.
3. Use social proof.
Remember how I mentioned that 44% of Millennials don’t want to speak to a sales rep when making a B2B purchase? It’s important to always keep this metric in mind when optimizing your conversion rate strategies.
One way to showcase your brand without involving a salesperson is to use social proof. Lynch said: “Testimonials, reviews and trust badges help establish your authority and position you as an expert in this industry.”
Given 84% of B2B buyers If you use review sites, it’s worth taking the time to collect customer reviews. You should also search the internet for mentions of your product or service on review sites like G2, TechCrunch, and TechRadar.
It’s also not a bad idea to ask your loyal fans to record a short video for your website and social media platforms. When other B2B customers praise your product or service, it is easier to convince another company to work with you.
No sales representatives are required.
4. Integrate conversational AI.
When I asked Lynch what he thought about millennials not wanting to talk to a salesperson, he wasn’t surprised. Instead, he told me that’s why it’s so important to integrate conversational AI tools like chatbots into your website.
He said: “Many more people will be less hesitant to interact anonymously with chatbots.”
AI-powered chatbots can be trained on your visitors’ behavior and your company data, including your company’s knowledge base and tutorials.
So when a visitor lands on your website, your chatbot is equipped with the best and most up-to-date information to help visitors fill out your forms or book a demo call.
Additionally, chatbots provide instant support. Lynch mentioned that overall prospects are selfish with their time and don’t necessarily want to wait for a response from a sales rep.
He said: “You want to have conversations in real time. The beauty of chatbots is that you give them dopamine immediately instead of having to wait for someone to call them and set up an appointment. A scheduled call doesn’t respect your time as much as an immediate call.”
While AI chatbots can’t do everything to close the loop on your B2B sales cycle, they can help speed up the lead generation process before potential leads lose interest in your brand – talk about optimizing your conversion rates.
5. Dynamic content optimization.
There is no doubt that you create content based on your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). However, because there are so many decision makers in a B2B purchase, it can be difficult to find the right call-to-action or the most effective copy.
Enter: dynamic content optimization. Using AI and its data to optimize your text and content takes the guesswork out of your advertising. AI can detect who on the decision-making team is viewing your landing pages. Your call-to-actions can then be optimized to better encourage sign-ups or clicks.
For example, if a CEO is on your website, your CTA could be “Book a call.” Compared to a content manager who might need approval before scheduling a demo, the CTA might say, “Request more information.”
Lynch likes to refer to this approach as “marketing with the scientific method.” He told me: “This is why the data is so important. If you can’t improve your copywriting unless you’re willing to accept that you’re wrong. Look at the data to adjust your approach, adjust your copy and go from there.”
6. Account-based marketing.
Going back to the soccer reference I started with, to optimize your conversion rates, you need to think of B2B decision makers as individuals on a team.
Each individual has their own role, be it the CEO, a department head or a department head. Each of these roles functions differently within a company. The way they interact with and use your product or service will also be different.
It’s best to think about how each decision maker will use your product or service and market it based on that.
But not only should you think about how each individual will use your product, you also need to figure out who within the team has the most buying power and appeal.
Lynch explained it to me like this. The CEO has some power in the purchase decision, but he also doesn’t want to waste time wrestling with the decision – he’s busy. They have things to do and trust their team to make the best decision.
On the other hand, there will be someone in the decision-making team who thinks that it is better to join the competitors. These are the people you should focus your marketing efforts on.
And this is where account-based marketing comes into play.
Danial said: “Account-based marketing means identifying buyer roles in the process that fit your ICP and audience personas. You can map the different buyer roles and identify them as gatekeepers, champions and blockers. The champion is the one who wants to pick you… (and) advocates for you on the team.”
According to Danial, the blocker is someone who wants to go with someone else.
“And if they are a blocker and you have recognized that, you can even add them to a list to retarget them with specific emails, LinkedIn messages, Facebook ads, or LinkedIn ads to try to get their opinion change by giving them more trust with your brand,” says Danial.
This is also why it’s really important to create compelling content like case studies and eBooks. You can send these materials to convince team members to start a conversation with your brand.
Optimizing B2B conversion rates starts with a conversation.
Your B2B conversion rate strategy doesn’t have to fail. Instead, consider using AI to optimize your conversions and generate better leads.
As Lynch told me, conversions ultimately come down to conversations. And when you leverage the data collected by your AI tools, you’ll be better equipped to have more meaningful conversations with interested prospects without having to go through the prep work and risk wasting valuable time.