For a major new purchase, do you think a contractor or tradesman just walks into a distributor and asks what’s new, and then just buys it? Of course not.
They hear or read about a new or better solution to help them do their job better and more efficient. They research what other tradesman think about the idea, either on forums or in person. They research it online and download information to help them. It’s at this point they may contact their local distributor or manufacturer to get more questions answered or ask for a product demo.
The point is, the contractor has done lots of research long before they identify themselves to you as a potential sale.
Marketing’s role is to make sure that the right information is in the right place for contractors, whether it’s in trade publication ads, testimonials, product reviews, customer ratings, PR or social media. The fact is, B2B customers are 60-90% the way through a purchasing decision before they contact you! Yikes.
Heidi Cohen recently posted an article on how the 2015 B-to-B purchasing decision process has changed.
Here are some and points to consider:
- 5% of website visitors provide an email address
- 20% of marketing emails are opened
- 1% of leads are nurtured
These types of challenges require some sort of marketing automation tools to help you better reach and engage prospects. You need to determine what content they want, put it where they want it and understand the next steps in their process.
What are your biggest challenges?