How to Optimize your B2B Website Strategy

2021 Recap of B2B Sales and Predictions for 2022

Podcast Summary

On this podcast, we'll dive into a recap of B2B sales trends in 2021. What has changed? What stayed the same? What is going to carry over and what's going to be different in 2022?

Timestamps:

[00:01:07] Our guest: Josh Wagner

• Josh Wagner, Enterprise Account Executive at Shift Paradigm
• Podcast: Love Selling Hate Sales

[00:01:40] What are some of the most notable changes in B2B selling in 2021?

[00:04:10] What are some success stories of companies doing it right?

[00:21:00] What are current views on the status of sales and marketing and the alignment post-2021? What are the biggest impacts in bringing them together?

[00:28:00] How has the funnel changed? How has that to hybrid selling?

Resources

LinkedIn Profile – Josh Wagner

Website – Shift Paradigm

Podcast – Love Selling Hate Sales

LinkedIn Profile – Dave Karr

Website – Klyck.io

How to Optimize your B2B Website Strategy

Podcast Summary

On this podcast, we'll talk about some fundamental ways that you can enhance and optimize your B2B website strategy.

[00:01:25] Our guest: Sam Moss

• Sam Moss, Co-Founder of 1Click Agency
• Sam's Podcast: B2B Made Simple

[00:02:25] Where do you start when you're analyzing an existing website strategy

• Look at backend issues – if you don't know what's going on, it can really slow down the site.
• Try not to over-complicate things. There should be a call-to-action (CTA) and it should be one of your main points.
• Through your advertising, you can bring people in and then give them something of value to drive conversion.

[00:04:20] What are some KPIs that you should be measuring to gauge your site's technical performance and conversion?

• Track KPIs. How many people are booking meetings/demos or calling to set up appointments?
• Bounce rate is very important. How many people are going to your site and only staying for a few seconds? It could mean that the wrong traffic is coming to your site or that your messaging is off base.

[00:13:35] What is the value of customized landing pages?

• Depending on where the buyer is coming from, you need to tell a different story.
• Homepages have a more general message, but landing pages can talk to buyers depending on where they are in their buying journey.

[00:15:40 How should a website tell your business' story and how are different pages part of that strategy?

• “About” pages are very important. People want to do business with people.
• People are looking for people they trust and if your company can tell their story, it's going to be a big plus.
• Before you even begin to scroll, your website should answer three questions.
  • What do you do?
  • How are you going to make my life better?
  • How do I buy from you?

[00:21:30] What are the fundamental differences in how you should approach optimizing your strategy for e-commerce?

• There aren't many differences.
• Speed is still important.
• Make sure that it's an effortless experience.
• If the store is overwhelming or tough, navigate or confusing, people are going to leave.
• Make sure your site is optimized for mobile.

[00:24:15] How do you make sure that your site is optimized for lead generation?

• The message. Make sure your message is cohesive through your marketing strategy.
• Don't overthink. Many times, you can see what you need without AB testing something.
• Optimize your landing pages by telling a story.
• Your selling point shouldn't be the features, but the benefits, especially on landing pages
• Keep your call-to-action (CTA) simple

[00:33:00] What marketing strategies drive traffic?

• Posting on social media and podcasting can educate the market
• Sending out informational emails without trying to sell anything builds brand affinity and trust

Resources

LinkedIn Profile – Sam Moss

Website – 1Click Agency

Podcast – B2B Made Simple

LinkedIn Profile – Dave Karr

Website – Klyck.io

How to Close the Gap in Digital Marketing Reporting

Podcast Summary

On this podcast, John Horn, CEO at StubGroup, joins us to talk about ways to improve your reporting and execution for digital marketing.

We talk about how to use data insights on how to more effectively track your ads, increase your conversion rates, improve funnel performance, and more.

[00:01:25] Our guest: John Horn

• John Horn, CEO at StubGroup
• StubGroup has partnered with hundreds of clients to solve the complex questions all businesses face in the ever-changing world of digital marketing.

[00:02:10] Where do you start with digital advertising online? How do you structure reporting?

• Understand who your best fit customer is and then build your messaging around that
• Through your advertising, you can bring those people in and then give them something of value to drive conversion

[00:05:30] How do you put technology platforms in place to help track metrics?

• You must have a customer relationship management (CRM) tool to capture customer information and retain it in one central place
• You need something in place to track website analytics, like Google Analytics, to see where the PPC advertising traffic is coming from
• The more you know about the ways that people find you, the better you can invest your time, resources, and ad spend

[00:10:10] What are good platforms for starters and what do you need beyond the basic tech stack?

• HubSpot is an excellent option. They do a great job of connecting the marketing side to the sales side
• Lucky Orange and Hotjar are good heat mapping software to see how and where people are clicking on your website
• Website live chat is an under-utilized sales communication tool. It's a fairly frictionless way for people to ask questions without having to place a call or fill out a form

[00:13:30] How are teams structured when they're just starting out vs when they are up to speed?

• Usually, it's the people tasked with sales and marketing. In many cases, teams delighted it to administrative support roles that wear many different hats. This can be difficult to scale but is acceptable if you are just starting.
• Accountability is very important – leads come in, but what's happening with them after
• Having a process in place is integral to success

[00:19:00] What are some of the challenges that companies run into?

• Analytics and reporting stop to soon. For example, a company will find out the cost per lead and then go no further
• Tracking and reporting for a longer period can demonstrate which channels are performing well and which aren't
• Not knowing where to start – best practice is to figure out the target audience and then proactively reach out to them
• Look for the lowest hanging fruit and invest time and resources there

[00:24:30] What should B2B companies do to ensure that marketing metrics are front and center?

• Track everything. Collecting as many data points as you can on your digital advertising will ensure you are able to get the information you need later.
• Work backward from metrics to where you need to be on the marketing side of things

[00:31:00] Key take-aways

1. Install Google Analytics on your website and figure out how to use it
2. Audit and optimize your response time for leads
3. Analyze the lifetime value of the customers that are converting in your funnel over time

Resources

LinkedIn Profile – John Horn

Website – StubGroup

LinkedIn Profile – Dave Karr

Website – Klyck.io

Website – HubSpot

Website – Lucky Orange

Website – Hotjar

How to Create a Culture of Data

Podcast Summary

On this podcast we talk about how to establish a culture of data inside your organization. If you're like most B2B companies, data and capturing it are likely on your mind often.

How do you apply it? How do you monetize it? For the answers to these questions and more, tune in on your favorite podcast streaming platform.

[00:01:05] Our guest: Nick Amabile

• Nick Amabile, CEO at DAS42
• DAS42 helps executives and managers use data to understand and improve their business, reduce the time to achieve actionable insights, and make better decisions faster

[00:02:33] What is causing and driving the big focus on data? What kinds of trends are emerging?

• Move to digital – anything from digital marketing to direct to consumer
• Start first with the business goals and then work backwards to a technical solution and not the other way around

[00:05:00] How do you decide what technology to implement and how do you make it work cohesively?

• The goal is to get the data in one place – get your supply chain data, customer data, sales data, and inventory data all in one place so that you can join them together and create a 360° view of your business
• Create business meaning out of the data – something that can translate rows and columns and tables and database concepts into a business concept

[00:07:10] How do you structure a team around data?

• Centralize the team – It's very efficient to have one team that has a single view of what's going on. Start small. It could be just a few business analysts that know the business drivers and the data sets well

[00:11:30] What are typical challenges organizations face and how do you minimize them?

• Businesses looking at new technology to solve a problem instead of evaluating the problem, then deciding on the right technology
• Start small by identifying one or two high value use cases and really make sure that you're able to knock that out of the park end to end

[00:16:30] What is a culture of data inside an organization?

• Enable the marketing department, the sales department, the finance department, supply chain department, etc. to ask and answer their own questions
• With data coming in from many different sources, having a centralized place for it helps make sure that salespeople have everything they need to know about a customer and there are no surprises
• The key is to get employees excited about the data and bringing it where they're already working (for example Salesforce), instead of forcing them to use and learn new technology
• It's important that people see value. When they see value, they're more likely to see the benefits to the way that they do business

[00:20:00] What are some of the things you should be thinking about to start building data?

• Management should be driving accountability and transparency
• Everyone needs to be on the same page
• Make sure there's a governance process in place

[00:25:55] Key Takeaways

1. Standardize KPIs. Even if they aren't technical, just get them written down
2. Get everyone on the same page and start thinking about how you're going to govern and manage your data
3. Make sure that you're able to get data to as many people as possible

Resources

LinkedIn Profile – Nick Amabile

Website – DAS42

LinkedIn Profile – Dave Karr

Website – Klyck.io

DAS42 Article – What Structure is Right for my Data Analytics Team

Klyck Article - The Power of Data and Sales Enablement

Using Video Marketing at Every Stage of the Buying Cycle

In this episode of B2B Enablement, we're going to be talking about video marketing and how you can use it throughout the entire journey for your customers. Whether you're looking to create content for the awareness stage of the buying cycle, or for use later in the funnel, video is a powerful tool.

Podcast Summary and Timestamps - Links and Resources Located at the Bottom

[00:01:21] Introduction: Drew Franklin, Marketing Communications Manager at Altec

• 10+ years of experience in the marketing arena – primarily B2B and manufacturing and tech sectors
• Started using video eight years ago
• Communications manager at Altec leading the content team

[00:02:14] Getting Started

• Video is not a fad, it is one of the best tools to drive engagement
• You can easily start creating videos today if you have a computer or mobile phone with a camera
• Start from there and scale up, you don't need to buy expensive or fancy equipment to get started
• Use what you have – don't forget, there are also free tools at your disposal like Vidyard to help

[00:06:00] Production and Tools

• Start where you can with what you have
• Consider mics, lights, and cameras to help create a better environment when creating content
• Links to Drew's suggestions can be found in the resources section at the bottom of these notes

[00:12:20] Content Distribution

• Create content once and distribute forever by dividing that content up into multiple formats (IE Webinar can be spliced into audio clips and also a brochure)
• Empower your reps to post videos on social
• Get your message out organically using traditional mediums where you customers are (LinkedIn, other social platforms, google…etc)

[00:17:00] Importance of Video & How it Can Be Effective

• Video can be diversely used for a range of different use cases
• Not only for marketing – sales, customer service, customer success, everyone can use it

[00:18:00] Personalization

• When possible, create personalized videos to increase engagement and response rates
• Do some research on a specific individual or posts that they've done on LinkedIn and try and drive some engagement – can be difficult if you try to scale up because you're creating videos at 1:1 ratio for each prospect
• When you need to use video to scale, consider using what you already have (webinars, podcasts, etc.) and chop it up into small chunks for your sales reps to use as touch points in their outreach

[00:29:00] Distribution Tools

• Three main tools you need
  • Video creation software (eg. Vidyard or Wistia)
  • Sales engagement software to distribute the videos (eg. SalesLoft or email)
  • Sales enablement software to track content engagement (eg. Klyck.io)

[00:38:30] Scripts and Messaging

• Ask questions – assumptions are dangerous
• Don't make a video assuming something about your prospect, ensure you know them so you can tailor your content to them
• Try asking questions that lead to answering pain points
• Messaging can be a case-by-case situation

[00:44:30] Hardware and Infrastructure

• Drew shares a host of tips, tricks, and suggestions on how to select and use video hardware. From basic setups, to more advanced production rigs, he shares his thoughts on what you need to be successful.
• List of hardware resources is included below.

Resources and Links from the Podcast

Video Audio & Lighting Kit – Starter Budget

Video Audio & Lighting Kit – Next Level

Video Audio & Lighting Kit – Professional Level

Wistia – Down and Dirty DIY Lighting Kit

Wistia – Editing Basics for Business Video

Predictable Revenue – Chain of Relevance

Klyck.io Podcast - Video Marketing - Why B2B Businesses Need a Strategy

Klyck.io - Sales Enablement

Tools and Software

Canva

Descript

Adobe Premiere

SalesLoft

Vidyard

LinkedIn Profiles for our Guests

Drew Franklin's LinkedIn Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewdfranklin/

Paul Tkach's LinkedIn Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/paultkach/

Dave Karr's LinkedIn Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davekarr/