Guest blog by Gian Genovesi, e-commerce account manager for Briteskies, an SLI partner
Many people think of interactive marketing as a priority for B2C e-commerce organizations, but not as relevant for B2B. This is not the case. The essentials of interactive marketing are just as applicable to B2B e-commerce as B2C, and in fact, the interactive marketing strategy should not differ between the two markets.
Just as in B2C, there is a tendency for B2B e-commerce companies to focus on solely SEO and SEM, which our e-commerce delivery lead, Gian Genovesi, equates to a sports team focusing exclusively on scoring as many points as possible. Increasing the points your team scores, similarly to the traffic your site obtains, is a factor of success, but in no way the end-all-be-all in e-commerce success. After all, of the top ten scoring offenses in NFL history, only one has won the Super Bowl.
While SEO and SEM are effective ways to drive traffic, traffic is only one variable in the e-commerce equation and should not be the sole focus. There are four aspects to consider when creating tactics for increasing the revenue of your e-commerce site, and paying attention to all of them together is far more impactful than honing in on just one.
1. Traffic
In its most basic sense, traffic is simply visitors to or hits on your website. However, it is important to consider where this traffic is and should be coming from just as much as its volume. Are you attracting the right kind of traffic? You want visitors coming to your site from related or otherwise beneficial sites, which helps turn visits into conversions.
Some B2B-specific tactics to ensure that you are getting views from the right places include:
- Organic SEO
- Pay-Per-Click Advertising
- Content and Inbound Marketing
- Online Display Advertising
- Social Media Advertising and Networking
- External Link Building
- Off-Line Advertising
2. Conversion Rate
This is, of course, is the number of people becoming customers or clients out of the number of people visiting your site. The industry standard is 1%-3% of visitors becoming customers, but it is also important to consider who is converting and what is incenting them to convert, not just the percentage alone.
User experience is always the first factor in the conversion rate of a site. The employees purchasing for their company during the workday are the same people who go home and shop online for themselves in the evening, and they deserve a consistent and user-friendly experience no matter which context they are in. Important factors to keep in mind are:
- Pertinent Search Results
- Relevant Layered Navigation
- Ratings and Reviews
- Automated Email Reminders
- Online Chat and Immediate Customer Service
3. Average Order Value (AOV)
Now that you have your site visitors becoming customers, how do you entice them to buy more? In B2B, there is often more involved in someone increasing his or her order value than just adding another item to the cart. Business purchase decisions often require more time and input from more people than the typical B2C purchase, so it is important to keep B2B-specific tactics in mind, including:
- Personalized Marketing based on Customer Segmentation
- Cross-Sells and Up-Sells
- Pricing and Promotions
- Search Results and Weighting
- Product Subscriptions and Bundling
4. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
If a customer has trusted you enough to purchase from your e-commerce site once, how do you get them to convert again? They chose your product or service and gave you their payment information, so how do you entice them to keep coming back?
The best way to increase CLV is to reward customer loyalty. When attempting to re-engage with a previously converted customer, you want to be memorable, but not annoying. Some resources to use to increase CLV in B2B are:
- Favorites Lists
- Reward Points
- Newsletters
- Special Offers and Private Sales
- Social Media Broadcasting
- Frequent Buyer Programs
- Recurring Orders
Focusing on these four pillars of interactive marketing, instead of developing a singular focus on one, will significantly improve the chances of your B2B e-commerce site seeing success in the online marketplace.
Need more information about interactive marketing? Feel free to contact Briteskies. Briteskies is a partner of SLI Systems.
About the Author: Gian Genovesi is the e-commerce Account Manager for Briteskies. He has a fiery passion for serving and aiding clients in fully leveraging the value, features, and functions of their e-commerce systems. With a myriad of experience in leveraging e-commerce systems and their wide array of supporting systems and strategies, Gian constantly strives to put his clients in an optimal position for success in the online channel.
About Briteskies: Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Briteskies is a full-service solution for e-commerce, enterprise software, iSeries, and the integration of these business-critical systems. We assist our customers in bringing their brands, products and services to the online marketplace. We’re a Magento Silver Solution Partner, Premier IBM Business Partner and a JD Edwards Gold Partner with iSeries Application Specialists and an in-house JD Edwards practice.
