B2B Marketing Thrives on Trust
When it comes to B2B, it’s trust that drives people to make their purchasing decisions. This is unlike with B2C, where brand recognition and emotions drive purchases. Trust is also a factor with B2C, but it’s not as far up on the list of factors that impact purchases. At least not typically. This is flipped when it comes to B2B. Trust is the #1 factor. The other factors, such as brand recognition and emotions, do play into it, but they’re not as important.
The goal, then, is for B2B companies to work diligently to build as much trust as possible with its audience. Here’s more information:
Long Sales Cycle
It’s true that most B2Bs have a fairly long sales cycle. This is a not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, you can use this to your advantage. If there is a long sales cycle, you have plenty of time to build people’s trust. It’s about taking the long approach and giving your audience reasons to trust you.
In this case, your efforts become all about lead nurturing. If you nurture your audience properly, you will end up building trust with them over a period of time. You can do this through sending out a regular newsletter, through your social media, and through your content.
Also, you might want to make your yourself available to them in case they have any questions. Being available also builds trust in a longer sales cycle.
Establish Expertise
One of the main ways your audience will trust is you is by clearly establishing your expertise in your industry. People automatically trust businesses that are positioned as industry leaders. You do this by highlighting your expertise through your content and other trust factors on your website. Here’s a list of some trust factors that will help establish your expertise:
- Knowledgeable content. You can establish trust through your content, by publishing more thought leadership pieces. You can deliver this content in the form of an article on your blog, social media posts, white papers, and even by hosting webinars.
- Industry recognition/awards. Have you won any awards in your industry? Have you been recognized, mentioned in articles, or even interviewed? Your audience will want to know. It builds trust.
- Testimonials and case studies. Your potential customers will love to hear stories of people who have use your product and service and loved it. This builds trust, as well.
- Consistent branding. If your branding is consistent across all platforms, this also builds trust. If it’s inconsistent, it has the opposite effect. You don’t need flashy branding efforts, but you do need it to be consistent to make your audience comfortable.
- Professional organizations. Are you members of any professional organizations? If not, you should be. Not only that, but once you become a member, you should let your audience know on your website – and maybe even in a prominent and consistent place, like your footer.
In order to really grow your business, you need to build trust with your audience. This is especially important for B2Bs, where trust drives purchasing decisions.
Categorized in: B2B Digital Marketing
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