The B2B decision-making journey is by nature longer and more complex than in B2C. It is indeed easier to “sell” a drill to a DIY enthusiast than to get a demolition hammer “specified” by a team of civil engineering works engineers ! Over the past 5 years, digital has revolutionised the B2B approach with more qualitative, targeted communication. To start the new year, here are the 3 essentials on your checklist for a successful B2B digital strategy in the building and construction world.
57% of a B2B customer's buying journey takes place digitally, before they even speak to a salesperson. (1)
Today, a content culture is developing widely, by and for all players along the building-construction continuum, from the seasoned DIYer to the project owner. Manufacturers — particularly those focused on specification with architects and engineering consultancies, for example — are especially advanced on this front. This is notably the case in the facade and paint worlds. The challenge is thus twofold: sharing knowledge, legitimising expertise and building a brand image.
So, how do you approach a B2B digital strategy methodically and effectively?
1. I define my target, or "marketing persona"
We cannot say it often enough: knowing your target audience means creating the conditions for success! It is therefore imperative and essential to draw up a profile of your potential "buyer personas" by asking these few questions:
- Who are we talking to? Who is my target?
- What are their practices?
- Their sector? Their role? Their needs and expectations?
- How do they consume information? Their multichannel habits and usage?
Draw on your existing customers to characterise your panel of representative prospects as accurately as possible. Better still, question your sales teams who, thanks to their view from the field, will have valuable customer insight to share. This will allow you, for example, to define the right SEO keywords, take stock of the objections to overcome and their expectations, or identify their sources of information.
And what if I don't know my target (well enough)?
No need to worry! Several studies and barometers exist: they profile your audiences and map their usage and behaviour: specifiers, tradespeople, project owners, seasoned DIYers… Finally, getting support from an agency specialising in the building and construction sector should partly solve the problem! ;-)
Finally, with the rise of digital, the boundary between private and professional life is increasingly porous. On social media such as LinkedIn: goodbye 9-to-5! Business engineers, architects, clients, company directors and quantity surveyors are doing more monitoring and sharing news outside working hours too... even at weekends! New opportunities to seize through an approach combining a social media strategy with a social selling approach.
2. I identify the right objectives
In B2B, your digital strategy can address 4 main objectives in combination:
- Awareness: you want to boost the visibility of your product or service, or of your brand. In short: make your expertise known!
- Engagement: you want people who already know your product, brand or service to (re)discover it, spur them into action and generate (ideally) qualified contact
- Performance: you want to convert "visitors" into prospects… and then into customers (while you're at it)
- Loyalty: you want to create and nurture the bond with your customers and prospects, enter into conversation, and share common values.
For each of these objectives, the content and levers to activate are different.
3. I activate the right content and levers
If all you had were paper catalogues, it is time to digitalise them… or at the very least to integrate them as one of the (many) touchpoints of a customer journey that is now omnichannel. "Content marketing" refers to the production and provision of quality informative content. This can be articles, case studies or site references, interviews, selection tools or infographics. Among the content most valued in specification in particular, webinars and white papers offer a form of knowledge sharing that is often appreciated.
Once again, it is about stepping back from "the product" to take a broader view and support your audiences around a market theme. Rather than presenting your new air-purifying paint, it is better to address and solve the problem of indoor air quality and polluting particles in the home. At the agency, we talk about the "proof-based message": an exercise that is all too rarely intuitive in manufacturing and specialist distribution!
Once this content has been produced, it is a matter of selecting the right digital levers to distribute it according to your objectives!
A closer look at two of them
- Here is a very common misconception: blogs are only for B2C. Wrong. Professionals have an appetite for well-crafted articles with an informative, educational purpose. And 58% of buyers say blogs play a major role in their search for information.
- Did you know? Community management is not just for the general public! And each network (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook…) has its own specificities. Developing a social media strategy allows you to generate (qualified) leads, demonstrate your brand's expertise, promote your values or relay trade show news, for example. Companies with an active presence on social media can grow engagement and website traffic by 2 to 28%, with an industry average of around 13%3.
Finally, two major strategies must coexist:
- The always-on content strategy, which nurtures the bond and enriches the customer relationship day by day: regular publication of blog articles, infographics, white papers...
- The campaign strategy: to promote more commercial content, linked to a service or product, more intensively over a given key period
With the multiplication of screens and the evolution of customer journeys, digital marketing fits into a multichannel vision of your overall communication strategy. Designing and deploying a B2B digital strategy takes more time than you might imagine and requires specific expertise that often needs to be outsourced.
Would you like to implement a B2B digital strategy in your company? Or do you need support with writing and producing content from specialists in building and construction communication? Our project managers are at your disposal!
