Author: Uzair Hamid
Expectations from marketers
Marketers’ primary focus while spending their budget is to generate sales. They advertise their products in order to generate inquiries for the business. Although, a significant amount is being spent on advertising, it remains a concern for sales team and marketers to decide on which platform to spend. Platform will be considered important if it does not only generate inquiries but also result in qualified high potential prospects that ultimately translate into guaranteed sales. The scenario becomes more complicated in the context of B2B. It becomes difficult for the companies to define who the real customers are, and whether or not if the inquiry has been generated by a real customer. Considering the complexities involved in generating inquiries, B2B also take into account the concept of “considered purchases.” In “considered purchases”, B2B buyers do not make an immediate purchase; they rather wait, research, analyze facts, consider other options and then decide upon a product. Recently, internet has changed the way B2B buyers search about a product, thus revolutionizing the concept of “considered purchases.”
Continuously changing habits
To understand advertisement platform, it is imperative to know about the reading habits of customers as well. Since the inception of internet, people have started skimming more rather than reading. This makes difficult for an advertisement to hold the attention of customers. Business today have to understand the “need for speed” while advertising. Advertisement will build its base if it revolves around the interest of audience. Reaching out to “the right people” is very important and advertisers are in constant dilemma to decide which stimulus is important to engage “the right people.” The best measure of responses generated by “the right people” is to look at the inquiries that have been generated. If few or irrelevant inquiries are being generated, it means that the advertiser has failed to stimulate reading habit of customer and hence no response was generated. In order to get the information of customer, businesses should focus on creating advertisements that can catch and hold their attention. Internet does provide the tools to businesses today so that good advertisements can be created. For instance, companies can opt for Search Engine Marketing (SEM) or Pay Per Click (PPC) that shows advertisements on the keywords. Companies can display their ads on keywords that they think will most likely be used by their target market. however, it must be noted that such advertisement campaigns are better managed by specialists and agencies that have years of experience in this field.
Reshaped lead generation
Lead generation initiatives have also been altered by the advent of internet. In today’s world, not the quantity but the process of inquiries matter. Advertisers focus on how inquiries can be captured, processed and responded. Businesses state that their count of inquiries have dropped. However, in reality the channel of inquiry has changed and the way inquiries are catered. Inquiries now greatly depend on the usage of internet. Internet should also be used to follow up with “the right people” regarding what they are really looking for. Gone are the days when only advertising was enough. Businesses today are seeking help from online B2B portals that have mastered the skill of lead generation. Going through such B2B portals is similar to standing on the shoulders of the giant. B2B portals already have higher traffic on their platforms. Businesses can make use of this traffic to route on their company pages. They can even increase the flow of traffic on their company profiles by opting for premium memberships and different advertising packages offered to them. Advertise with us.
Three behaviors
When we talk about inquiry process and responses, we are basically talking about the three behaviors in which a reader can be categorized in. Reader can either see, read, or act on an advertisement. Ignoring an advertisement after seeing and reading it is itself a behavior. However, advertisers are more interested in generating inquiry from the end of customer once he sees and reads an ad. For this purpose, follow up holds significant important in the process. Prospective leads can be brought to the point of engagement if they are reached with facts, appealing design, and practical solutions to their problems.
Learn more about the trade tools being offered by TradeKey that can help any business work on these 3 behaviors of a reader.
Want to know more?
Log onto TradeKey or Sign up here
