I love B2B, so a session on how to maximize lead generation within a B2B context is a 
must-attend.
New or old, a B2B marketer knows that a unique set of marketing challenges awaits them including:
- No single decision maker
- Increased risk for decision makers
- Offline conversions
- Long lead time
- Complex sale
- Ambiguous search terms
- Difficulty to pre-select B2B clickers
Whether you heart B2B or not, who doesn’t want to increase conversions? Find recommendations below to increasing conversion rates.
Scott Brinker, of ion interactive, shared how to increase conversions by segmenting, specifically as it relates to Keywords & Landing Pages.
Keywords & Ad Creative
Give your clickers a very specific, customized landing page about the topic for which they performed the search.
When segmenting by keywords, you don’t need a landing page – you need MANY landing pages. Determine how many by understanding the number of landing pages you need to serve long tail keywords and the number which is still effective in terms of management.
A specific message to a specific audience, is likely to increase conversion rates times 4.
Landing Page Behavioral Choices
Scott blew away the myth that landing pages can’t have more than one click. In fact, a 2 step landing page – when used to further segment the audience and deliver more targeted content – can increase conversion rates substantially.
Kevin Lee, of Didit, shared the following tips:
1. Target landing pages dynamically based on IP address or reverse DNS
2. Start to understand which clicks are B2B by analyzing:
- keywords
- day/time of click
3. Use the following metrics, on top of standard metrics
- conversions
- lifetime customer value
- value of different type of clicks
4. Identify Power Segments, which have the highest converting
- keywords
- day/time
- landing page
Ian Harris, of Search Laboratory, shared with the audience his approach to overcoming B2B challenges by following this process.
Set up Phase
Invest time in the set up phase to be sure you understand the company, its products and services. Additionally, make sure you understand where the product/service is better than the competitors and where it falls short. This will be valuable in drafting campaign copy and keyword targeting.
Understand
Spend time to understand how the product is sold. Sit down with the sales team and have them pitch the product or service to you.
Not only can this help you understand how to craft copy better, but it can make sure that the language pre-click and post-click are better aligned creating an easy transition for the prospect.
Conversion
Approach your clicks according to different phases of the buying cycle and deliver content to each phase.
The phases might include:
1. Education
2. Research
3. Short listing
A prospect needs a different type of message during the research phase vs when they are making a short list of vendors. Be sure to draft ad and landing page copy to serve all segments of your audience and their different stages in the buying cycle.
Post-Analysis
Keep in mind that conversions are not sales (at least not in the B2B world) :). Help your sales team focus on follow up with qualified leads, rather than getting hung up on ‘trash’ leads. Doing so can help ensure they don’t spiral down to thinking online leads are not qualified, negatively impacting follow up and overall return on the campaign.
Adam Goldberg, of Clearsaleing, spoke to the audience about how to appropriately measure the effectiveness of B2B campaigns.
Specifically, to make sure that you don’t get caught up in the last click fallacy (or judging a campaign only on the performance of the ad that moved someone to purchase or make an inquiry).
Focusing only on the last click is risky because you miss out on any other clicks they might have made earlier in the buying cycle. Just like with an offline sales cycle, there is a process. Only measuring bits and pieces is likely to leave you with an inaccurate view of campaign performance.
What tips do you have to increase conversion rates, specifically as it relates to B2B?
Panel Overview:
Moderator:
Rebecca Lieb, VP, U.S. Operations, Econsultancy
Speakers:
Scott Brinker, President & Chief Technology Officer, ion interactive
Kevin Lee, Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, Didit
Ian Harris, CEO, Search Laboratory Ltd
Adam S. Goldberg, Chief Innovation Officer, ClearSaleing
