Marketing Strategy

The future of trade shows: The key is integration

Given the almost complete cessation of trade shows and in-person events in the B2B world, will trade shows go fully digital or will they move toward hybrid solutions?

The pandemic has impacted business, economies, and lives in a lot of ways, especially as a driver of digital transformation. The consequences have been significant in numerous industries, particularly for trade shows and other in-person events.

The endless postponements and cancellations of 2020 caused major damage for event organizers as well as exhibitors who could no longer take advantage of the best commercial channels to promote their products. Trade show organizers had no choice but to look to remote, digital solutions to continue their work.

Here’s an overview of the state of B2B trade shows, and some possible future scenarios.

The value of trade shows for B2B businesses

Trade shows play an important role for small-to-medium businesses, helping them pursue key goals like generating leads, growing brand awareness, and networking. There are numerous channels SMEs can use to work towards these goals, but trade shows offer a unique and powerful opportunity to invest in a singular approach.

Using the mantra “The right message at the right time to the right person via the right channel” trade shows can offer a very targeted and effective lead generation strategy that brings significant ROI for business goals.

For example, PPC ads might have a much lower cost per lead (CPL) than trade shows, but they don’t offer the same branding and networking opportunities. B2B businesses that have the most success with trade shows and marketing overall are those that track performance, and use these insights to test and optimize their strategy.

For B2B businesses, all marketing strategies must have a strong digital component. That said, long sales cycles and complex products make B2B marketing a “relationship marketing”, where building personal relationships is still very important.

That’s not saying relationships will be nurtured offline forever, especially as interactions become more digitized (VR viewers are one example that isn’t very widespread yet), but to date, there is still no technology that can totally replace in-person events.

The challenges of digital communication for events

Even before the pandemic, there were online services that promoted themselves as “virtual booths” and allowed companies to present their products. Now they have become commonplace, although not all virtual events have been equally successful.

Effectively communicating with your audience can be challenging in-person, let alone in a digital setting. It’s imperative to master the tools you’re using to succeed, even if you already have a track record of successfully engaging the public.

Some might think that communicating at an online event is like having your hands tied, but in reality, it’s a unique channel that offers different possibilities. To keep the audience engaged, you can use strategies that encourage interaction, taking the conversation from one-way to two-way, using live polls, open questions, breakout sessions, etc.

The future of trade shows as digital events

While online is the only option for many trade shows today, what remains to be seen is whether this will continue in the long run. Past trends suggest that it won’t. The tools organizers are using to digitize events have been around for years, but they never had the adoption rate or success of in-person events. There’s also no denying that the leads generated from in-person events are much higher quality than digital ones.

That said, it doesn’t take long for good digital ideas to take over their offline counterparts, as has already happened in many other industries. This just hasn’t happened with trade shows yet.

The hybrid potential

In the future of B2B, businesses won’t be replacing “traditional” strategies with digital ones but rather integrating them with each other. In-person encounters will always be essential for B2B markets, especially at the end of the conversion funnel (between marketing and sales). While it is true that in B2B, digital channels work well for prospecting, it is also true that a face-to-face visit is still an essential element in closing a sale, upselling and cross-selling. In short, the best deals are still closed over a meal, but digital is a great tool to support sales.

Trade shows are an opportunity for networking, which can lead to both commercial opportunities and partnerships with strategic suppliers. And this shouldn’t be limited only to during the event. Companies must prepare for the trade show months in advance on digital channels, trying to reach and interact with their potential customers. This must include a process that converts them from users to visitors and from IP addresses to contacts.

Instead of technology replacing in-person trade shows, it’ll become part of every aspect. The transformation has already begun, as interactive experiences are already common in trade show exhibits.

Technology also already plays a significant role in post-event activities. CRM and lead tracking tools can help businesses understand who came to their booth and from what channel, so they can optimize their online and offline strategies with a view to continuous improvement.

Looking towards the near future of trade shows

While the pandemic is still a major challenge hindering in-person events, some governments are experimenting with controlled group activities, opening up the possibility for trade shows to resume in some capacity. This presents a dilemma for both companies and event organizers.

While companies need to decide months in advance whether or not to participate in a trade show, visitors can afford the luxury of making a last-minute decision. So it’s difficult to predict what the turnout will be at these events.

That said, the return to frequent, full events is in the imminent future. Vaccines give everyone hope, while the desire to resume social activities is strong. This has already been demonstrated with restaurants. As soon as they were able to reopen, albeit briefly and with severe limitations, many sold out. It is reasonable to expect a similar reaction in the world of events as well.

Conclusion

Technology and digitization have been growing in the events space for some time now. Many businesses experimented with it in the past and were forced to invest heavily in it over the past year. This has created opportunities to better understand the logistics of digital communication and improve strategies for trade shows. Events will continue to be a powerful tool for businesses, with the support of additional technologies and options for attendance.

From offline to online. How to influence the new B2B buyers.

The B2B buying process has reached a new level of complexity, but by working on your online presence you can take advantage of it.

When it comes to a B2B buyer’s journey, companies used to rely on expert sales teams to showcase solutions and close business.

But today, sales reps are only a small part of the buying process. In fact, Gartner has found that they only have around five percent of a customer’s time before they decide to purchase.

With more information readily available online, customers increasingly do their own research and gather data before approaching companies. This may make it harder for sales teams, but it also presents an opportunity for B2B companies. If you can position your business well online and establish yourself as an authority, you have an extra chance to reach potential buyers and turn them into loyal customers.

The path to purchase

The B2B buyer’s journey now includes multiple steps and isn’t necessarily linear. Some customers cycle through several steps multiple times, and others not at all. Gartner research shows that increasingly B2B buyers research online, taking up about 27 percent of their time, while 18 percent of the time is spent researching independently offline.

It is no wonder that 77 percent of B2B buyers say that their latest purchase was very complex or difficult.

Only once they are armed with data they have found online do they speak to sales teams, which means those sales reps are then forced to play catchup to differentiate their solutions and close the sale.

Further data research from Sana found that 75 percent of B2B product purchases are already made online, with buyers looking to increase that further. In total, 47 percent of buyers conduct web searches to look for information during the purchasing process, and a quarter predicts that automation will further change the B2B buying role in the next few years.

The changing consumer

As a business, it’s vital to study what influences a B2B buyer’s journey. Buyers’ wants, needs, and behaviors are evolving faster than ever, and B2B businesses must keep up with their B2C counterparts, better-supporting buyers to drive sales.

For example, customer expectations for personalized experiences are significantly higher now than they were just a few years ago. They want to feel like you’re selling directly to them and not just to anyone who wants your product or service. By creating an orchestrated customer experience strategy, you can increase trust amongst your customers and boost revenue overall. In fact, a leading technology manufacturer grew their sales by 4.9 percent by simply shifting their focus to things like customer retention, contract renewal, and product refresh.

The modern buyer demands more and different solutions and is much more fickle. According to Accenture, most customers are 57 percent through the buying process before meeting with a company representative. By adapting to evolving customer behaviors, you can create opportunities to support buyers in their self-reliant research.

Taking the journey online

If you want to create an effective sales and marketing strategy to influence B2B buyers, you need to start with the information they search for and find online. This involves first understanding the unique customer journey and then looking for gaps in knowledge and information that you can provide. It’s about more than just managing different channels, you want to create an ecosystem that offers resources, information, and processes online and offline so you can create a whole customer experience.

So how can you influence B2B buyers’ research online? It can be as simple as upgrading your website and producing a regular blog tackling key challenges your buyers face and providing in-depth analysis and solutions. Or it can become as developed as regular podcasts, colorful infographics, a targeted email marketing strategy, and social media to connect with buyers on a more informal level.

Let’s start with your website. If it hasn’t been updated in a while, you’ll want to look at that content and ensure it is search engine optimized so that you appear in search engine results. You’ll also want to concentrate on user experience, ensuring you’re answering potential buyer questions and making it easy to navigate through the site.

By shifting resources (economic, but above all human) into creating more value-added digital experiences for your customers, through all of the above channels, you are simultaneously offering a service to your customers and investing in the future of your company. In fact, this activity should be considered business development in its own right.

Your customers will interact with your brand, better understand what you stand for and find all the information they need. All this, even before you’ve met them!

Going beyond your website

While your website is a key place to start, many other online activations can help you reach your target audience.

By producing regular blog posts, videos or even podcasts, you also signal to search engines that you are a reliable content provider, which helps you rank online. Remember, in fact, that content is the gasoline that feeds search engines. It also helps you build a reputation as an expert in your field among buyers conducting their research online.

You need to ensure that this content stands out from the crowd and doesn’t just repeat other information found on the web. It’s about offering something unique and exciting, backed up by facts that help build trust between you and your customers.

One form of content you shouldn’t ignore is case studies. They are valued the most by customers as they display a specific success story with relevant details that they can relate to. It should state what the previous customer’s problem was and exactly what you did to solve it. This allows the reader to envision what you could do for them in the future.

It’s about more than just stating how great your business is. Make sure that your content is always customer-centric, they want to know what your business will do for them and the benefits they’ll experience purchasing from you.

Add social and email marketing to the mix. Creating content is a time-consuming activity, so once it’s published it should be leveraged as much as possible.
Always adapt your content to the channel that hosts it. On social media, for example, take the opportunity to present yourself in a fresher, more informal way than on more institutional channels.

A recipe for success

Your B2B buyer’s journey is complex, and buyers are increasingly taking it upon themselves to conduct their own research before approaching companies. So you need to adapt to this new journey, helping buyers switch between online and offline, creating ecosystems of information and insights, so they can absorb information about your solutions on their own terms.

Nowadays, sales representatives are one of the sales channels, likely the most important for the phases that rely on trust and relationships, such as closing, upselling and cross-selling. On the other hand, digital channels are becoming increasingly important for the acquisition of new customers.
Today more than ever, it’s essential that marketing and sales work as a well-oiled machine, to feed off each other and make the modern buying process sustainable and profitable.

Why inbound marketing is important for B2B companies

Gone are the days when sales representatives were the primary knowledge source for prospective buyers. Now, customers can conduct their own online research before contacting a company or making a purchase. This is why inbound marketing is important; it’s an opportunity to nurture those connections by providing useful information to customers and positioning yourself as an authority they can trust before they have even considered purchasing from you.

B2B sales and marketing have historically relied on outbound strategies like paid advertising, direct mail, trade shows, or cold calls. Now, the customer journey starts before companies even know about it, as the internet offers a wealth of information for them to explore and learn about your brand.

This means that marketing and sales have evolved into a new, unified process and require different strategies to attract those curious new prospects. Inbound marketing was born from this need as a way to offer value and create beneficial experiences before that initial interaction with your brand. Below you’ll learn how inbound marketing works and how B2B businesses can apply it to build campaigns that convert.

What is inbound marketing?

y marketing process or campaign designed to help new prospects learn about your company with non-intrusive activities, where the goal is not to sell (or at least not directly) but to provide information. Hence the name. In fact, “inbound”, literally “inbound”, wants to highlight the process that underlies it; it is not us reaching the customer, but the customer reaching us.

You may be thinking, what role do companies play in such a passive approach?
Well, actually a lot! People tend to go where they can find the answers, so companies need to provide answers to these questions. Translating this into digital language, we’ll say that we need to give users content that answers their search intent. For example, if a customer searches “What is a Slip Ring” on Google and finds my content instead of a competitor’s, I’ve hit the jackpot.

While some might argue that there is malice in such subterfuge, in reality, if you think about it, it’s a win-win for both parties. It’s nothing more than taking your product know-how from a meeting room to an online channel (website, social media, etc.).

If you’re looking for free information but then it turns out to be a marketing stunt, you’re looking at a bad example of inbound marketing.

You don’t need to advertise, you are promoting yourself by showing expertise and establishing a relationship, which will translate into a preference for your services at the purchase stage.

You see examples of inbound marketing online every day, from blog content and social media posts to whitepapers and webinars. These are all efforts to engage new audiences through visibility and nurture those connections to generate leads.

Inbound marketing invites customers to come to you, discover your brand on their terms, and gain value before making a purchase decision. In contrast, outbound marketing approaches the customer directly in an interaction that feels more like a traditional sales pitch than an invitation to explore your brand.

Outbound vs. inbound marketing

It’s essential to understand the pros and cons of both outbound and inbound marketing for B2B companies to determine the ideal approach for your business. A benefit of outbound marketing is that it is a familiar approach for both the marketer and the customer.

However, the direct nature of outbound marketing can also work against your company. The prospect may feel like they have a one-sided connection to your brand like they are being sold to rather than communicated with. And since outbound methods aim to capture wide audiences, they may feel less relevant to some groups. These strategies may miss specific pain points, and in turn, miss out on capturing certain customers.

This is why many B2B businesses are turning to inbound marketing. It’s a less invasive method, allowing customers to come to you to find highly relevant and valuable information. By segmenting your audience for inbound marketing campaigns, you can create experiences tailored to specific groups through the content you share, the emails you send, search engine optimisation (SEO) practices, and more.

If done on your own platform, inbound marketing does not require you to allocate media budgets (i.e. the one you pay to Google, Linkedin or Facebook). The success of this content, being meritocratic, is directly proportional to its quality. Therefore, the only cost will be the hours spent by an internal resource of the company, or by a good editor in case you decide to give the activity to a specialized agency.

One con to consider with inbound marketing is that it will take a few months -if not years- to see the return on investment you seek, but with patience and commitment, you’ll reap the rewards.
But all in all, in B2B we’re used to long sales cycles, right?

Inbound in B2B sales

No matter your niche, if a customer is evaluating your offer online, you want to be there. People tend to trust and buy from brands who have demonstrated expertise, and inbound marketing is your chance to prove the superior quality and unique value proposition that your B2B business has to offer.

The process starts with awareness of your brand. At this point, you are intentionally attracting new eyes to your brand through SEO, social media, blogs, and other content relevant to your target consumer.

The next step is to facilitate the consideration process, converting these new prospects into leads using content, landing pages, or a call to action like signing up for your webinar or booking a meeting with an expert. From there, you’ll encourage a decision by segmenting your audience, sending valuable emails, and nurturing those customer relationships.

There are plenty of new trends in inbound marketing, and they are just as effective for B2B companies as any other niche. Today’s buyer wants to engage in a two-way interaction, exploring your offer on their terms and developing a deeper connection with your company before making their final decision.

Educational content for inbound marketing

Among the emerging trends in inbound marketing is educational content. Niche experts are on the rise, using teaching methods to share their unique offering rather than pitching it to prospects directly. This type of educational content allows companies to position themselves as experts in their field, build trust, and gain loyal followers that they can nurture and convert.

Instead of explaining the technical details behind your B2B business or the complex features of your product, you can use content like blog posts and videos to show how your services can streamline daily operations, maximise profits, or help them stand out from their competition. It is another of the reasons why inbound marketing is important in helping you build a trusting relationship with your audience.

This education directly translates to value. Prospects walk away from an interaction with your brand having gained something, even without purchasing your product or service.

Marketing and sales collaboration

B2B is a relational niche, so closing, upselling, and cross-selling all still require a sales representative. The aim of adding more inbound strategies to your marketing mix is to gain more marketing qualified leads (MQL) to sales. Then, guiding the customer to the right solution and closing the deal is still 100 per cent in the hands of sales.

The goal of inbound is not to get better results out of a process already in place. It makes the difference between receiving a lead or not, between sitting down at the table with the prospect or not. This is why collaboration is key between sales and marketing. It sources and guides potential leads to the right team, then closes the sale.

The future of B2B

Now that you’ve discovered the importance of inbound marketing for B2B companies, you can see why it represents the future of marketing for this niche. There are plenty of ways to implement inbound marketing as a key facet of your campaigns moving forward.

If you need advice, don’t hesitate to contact us to start taking advantage of these strategies and reach your business goals.

Industrial SMEs and digital marketing: a winning combination?

Italian SME digital marketing – especially in the B2B market – is lacking. Let’s understand why this is happening and what they can do to enhance their online presence.

Many years have passed since digital marketing, a component of a much wider technological revolution, started to create radical and substantial changes in the way companies promote themselves. Yet, despite the proven and documented success digital channels can bring, many SMEs in Italy show substantial distrust towards these platforms. But why is this happening? And what opportunities are these companies missing out on?

Where does digital marketing come from?

The origin of the internet and all its processes dates back to the 1960s when the United States of America developed a new defense and counter-espionage system during the Cold War. However, in 1969, the first “network” was created by connecting four nodes: the University of California at Los Angeles, the Stanford SRI, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah.

The communication channels that rely on the internet have also evolved. People from all over the world can now easily get in touch with each other and access information that is often free of charge. This is possible through popular applications such as WhatsApp and Telegram or social media networks like Instagram or the more professional Linkedin.

The emergence of this “super-network” we know today opened up the opportunity for digital marketing to become a reality and help many businesses grow. It relies on businesses being able to get in touch with their audience and this communication depends almost exclusively on an internet connection.

Internet for business: the development of digital marketing

Just like our social lives, communication through digital channels has also taken over the professional field. Companies today depend on the internet on a daily basis and for almost all of their processes.

Cloud, e-mail, chat, CRM, and ERP are only some of the digital tools adopted to facilitate internal company communication. This may have happened through some sort of incentive for digitization or because of regulations such as electronic invoicing. But what do these companies do when they need to communicate externally?

In the B2B world, especially for small to medium-sized enterprises, the effectiveness of digital marketing for SMEs is commonly underestimated. Many companies believe that these specific channels are only useful for B2C. This is often due to the fact B2B purchases have much longer sales cycles and an opposite communicative approach when compared to impulse purchases typical of B2C

It is therefore easy to see how digital communication and marketing are often subject to stereotypes, resulting in members of the boards of SMEs refusing an objective evaluation of a digital channel.

The world of e-commerce and the importance of B2B

Many believe that Linkedin, a platform designed for professional use, will never become a dating app. Similarly, TikTok, a channel created to share videos and other media, cannot be used to look for work. But can we really extend this reasoning to everything? Let’s think about e-commerce. When we hear that word, our mind goes straight to Amazon and retail sales, but can we reduce the entire e-commerce industry to just those two things? Obviously not. In a few words, “the sky is the limit”.

Consequently, what initially seems like only a B2C sales channel, suddenly becomes an interesting and functional tool for B2B SME digital marketing. However, the fearful approach to new marketing channels shown by companies in this sector is counterproductive as they risk losing valuable business opportunities. Therefore, those who utilize digital marketing will exploit their competitive advantage and get ahead of the rest.

E-commerce – a channel still underused in B2B

According to the Digital Innovation Observatory in SMEs, small and medium-sized enterprises still rarely exploit the potential of online channels. For example, 80% of them say they have their own website, but the percentage of those with an online presence drops dramatically when only looking at B2B companies.

But why are these SMEs showing such skepticism towards e-commerce?

To understand and try to identify the causes of this problem, it is appropriate to start from a necessary premise: effective communication that leads to tangible results requires time and perseverance, but above all, it cannot be improvised, and specific skills are required.

On the other hand, large companies plan activities and organize them according to delegation criteria. The skills are more granular and assigned to specialists, with precise managerial coordination and control. At the same time, it must be noted that planning for marketing is rarely conducted in SMEs. The company rather makes its decisions due to the vision and experience of the entrepreneur.

On this premise, it is appropriate to emphasize that the typical qualities of the entrepreneur (creativity, determination, strategic vision, and managerial skills) are undoubtedly of fundamental importance for creating value and developing the company. However, the multiplication of possibilities and tools makes delegation obligatory to communicate core company skills effectively and not perceive a Ferrari as a Ford Fiesta. With all due respect to the Ford Fiesta.

How can SMEs approach digital marketing?

You can invest in digital marketing for SMEs with the help of an external consultant.

With this approach, it is possible to obtain the double advantage of having a competent professional figure available when needed, trained, and constantly updated without bearing the fixed costs of a person in the company staff.

Through knowledge of the market, the available technologies, and its network of professionals, the marketing consultant can develop a strategic plan after evaluating the company’s business model and its commercial objectives, as well as its implementation through tactics and coordination of professionals specialized in the channels involved.