As an equipment seller, your small business buyers, are not so different from regular consumers in their needs, expectation, and pain-points. In fact, many of your prospective buyers may be sole proprietors looking for the most affordable way to launch or grow their side hustle.
If you’re running low on marketing ideas to appeal to small but growing business buyers, here are five campaigns and strategies to swipe and adopt immediately. These will not only cater to your unique demographic but will also help you score more online engagement, boost sales, and move more product.
Your website is the hub of all your digital marketing efforts. Your product may be exactly what your buyers need to make their businesses thrive, but if your website fails to impress—or even deliver—the success of any marketing campaign in driving traffic is a moot point.
High performing websites for today’s business buyers include, at minimum:
After you’ve checked off each line-item, you can proceed to more advanced to-dos, such as implementing artificial intelligence solutions.
While artificial intelligence represents many useful applications in an increasing number of industries, in the world of marketing, AI-enabled chatbots now power at least 85% of customer service engagement online. Why? Because satisfying the expectations and volume of today’s consumers is not humanly possible.
With chatbot technology, however, your website visitors can have access to:
Chatbots are the AI version of a sales rep smiling at a customer in your showroom and asking if they need help finding what they’re looking for. Your website should use chatbots for the same reason—to make that initial contact and start a conversation.
In 2017, relationship marketing SaaS developer Optimove, found that multichannel marketing campaigns were 37% more effective than single channel campaigns in prompting engagement. This is because multichannel campaigns take advantage of the fact that today’s average adult connects to the internet through 4.5 different devices and any number of preferred channels (e.g., social media, YouTube, email, SMS, phone calls, etc.). All of these touchpoints are opportunities!
The most successful multichannel campaigns focus on a single customer view and then create a consistent experience across all channels. According to Optimove, the overall goal is to “reach the right person with the right message through the right channel at the right time.”
Your takeaway: A little imagination and synchronized content goes a long way. Make strategic use of all your media channels, stay on brand, and craft a cohesive message across all channels.
Launching a thought leadership campaign means establishing your brand as the end-all source for information about your industry. In Oracle’s case, they invested in in-depth, original research on pertinent issues, such as the disconnect between present banking practices and consumer expectations.
Oracle provided valuable tools for evaluation, workshops, and bootcamps, and distributed their well-researched content (ex. “The Millennial Migration: How Banks Can Remain Relevant in Their Decision-Making Eco-System”) across multiple channels and through key influencers.
Your takeaway: Establish your brand as an expert in your industry by offering expert advice, information, and resources. Education is a value-added service that sets up your brand as a fixture for your customers and ensures your longevity.
As SMBs and startups, many of your customers are working with set budgets, so as you guide your business buyers through the marketing funnel, promote their financing or leasing options every step of the way.
Remember, an effective promo financing or leasing campaign will not only reassure your buyers that they can indeed afford your products, but it will also convince them to act quickly.