7 B2B Business Examples That Show How to Win Customers Online
B2B (business-to-business) marketing is the process of selling products or services to other businesses, rather than individual consumers. B2B marketing can be challenging, as it often requires a longer and more complex sales cycle, a deeper understanding of the buyer’s needs and pain points, and a higher level of trust and credibility.
However, B2B marketing can also be rewarding, as it can lead to long-term and profitable relationships, higher customer lifetime value, and more opportunities for cross-selling and upselling. In this article, we will look at seven B2B business examples that show how to win customers online with effective strategies and tactics.
1. HubSpot: Content Marketing and Inbound Marketing
HubSpot is a leading software company that provides tools and solutions for marketing, sales, and customer service. HubSpot is also known for its content marketing and inbound marketing approach, which aims to attract, engage, and delight customers by providing valuable and relevant content at every stage of the buyer’s journey.
HubSpot’s blog is one of the most popular and authoritative sources of information on topics such as SEO, social media, email marketing, lead generation, and more. HubSpot also offers free courses, ebooks, webinars, podcasts, and other resources to educate and nurture its audience. HubSpot’s content marketing strategy helps it to generate leads, build trust, and position itself as a thought leader in the industry.
2. Slack: Social Proof and Word-of-Mouth
Slack is a cloud-based collaboration platform that enables teams to communicate and work together more efficiently. Slack has grown rapidly since its launch in 2013, reaching over 12 million daily active users and 750,000 paid customers in 2020.
One of the key factors behind Slack’s success is its social proof and word-of-mouth strategy. Slack leverages the power of customer testimonials, reviews, ratings, case studies, and referrals to showcase how its product helps businesses of all sizes and industries to improve their productivity, collaboration, and culture. Slack also encourages its users to share their positive experiences and feedback on social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
3. Shopify: Free Trial and Product Demonstration
Shopify is an e-commerce platform that allows anyone to create an online store and sell their products. Shopify has over 1 million merchants in 175 countries and generated over $61 billion in gross merchandise volume in 2019.
Shopify’s free trial and product demonstration strategy is one of the ways it attracts and converts potential customers. Shopify offers a 14-day free trial that allows users to test-drive its features and functionalities without any commitment or credit card required. Shopify also provides live demos, tutorials, guides, and examples to help users get started and learn how to use its platform.
4. Salesforce: Personalization and Segmentation
Salesforce is a global leader in cloud-based CRM (customer relationship management) software that helps businesses manage their customer interactions across sales, marketing, service, and more. Salesforce has over 150,000 customers worldwide and generated over $21 billion in revenue in 2019.
Salesforce’s personalization and segmentation strategy is one of the ways it delivers relevant and tailored messages to its prospects and customers. Salesforce uses data and analytics to segment its audience based on various criteria such as industry, company size, role, location, behavior, and preferences. Salesforce then customizes its website content, email campaigns, landing pages, ads, and offers to match the needs and interests of each segment.
5. Zoom: Ease of Use and User Experience
Zoom is a video conferencing platform that enables online meetings, webinars, chat, and collaboration. Zoom has become one of the most popular and widely used tools for remote work and education amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Zoom had over 300 million daily meeting participants in April 2020.
Zoom’s ease of use and user experience strategy is one of the ways it differentiates itself from its competitors. Zoom’s platform is designed to be simple, intuitive, reliable, and secure. Zoom allows users to join or host meetings with just one click or tap on any device. Zoom also offers features such as screen sharing, recording, transcription, breakout rooms, polls, emojis,
and more to enhance the online meeting experience.
6. Mailchimp: Branding and Design
Mailchimp is an email marketing platform that helps businesses create and send beautiful and engaging emails to their subscribers. Mailchimp has over 12 million customers in 175 countries and sent over 300 billion emails in 2019.
Mailchimp’s branding and design strategy is one of the ways it stands out from its competitors. Mailchimp’s brand identity is fun, quirky, and creative. Mailchimp uses bright colors, playful illustrations, humorous copy, and catchy slogans to convey its personality and values. Mailchimp also applies its branding and design principles to its email templates, landing pages, reports, and other elements to create a consistent and memorable customer experience.
7. Buffer: Customer Service and Community
Buffer is a social media management platform that helps businesses plan, schedule, and analyze their social media posts. Buffer has over 75,000 customers in 190 countries and manages over 10 million social media posts per month.
Buffer’s customer service and community strategy is one of the ways it builds loyalty and retention among its customers. Buffer is known for its exceptional customer service, which it calls “happiness”. Buffer’s happiness team responds to customer inquiries, feedback, and issues quickly, politely, and effectively. Buffer also fosters a strong community of users, fans, and advocates through its blog, podcast, newsletter, social media groups, events, and more.
These are just some of the B2B business examples that show how to win customers online with different marketing strategies and tactics. By learning from these examples, you can apply the best practices and principles to your own B2B marketing efforts and achieve better results.
B2B Business Examples: How They Adapt to Global Demand
Business-to-business (B2B) is a form of transaction between businesses, such as one involving a manufacturer and wholesaler, or a wholesaler and a retailer. B2B transactions are common in many industries, such as software, manufacturing, e-commerce, and logistics. In this blog post, we will look at some examples of B2B businesses and how they respond to the changes in global demand.
Software as a Service (SaaS) B2B Businesses
SaaS is a type of software delivery model where the software is hosted by a provider and accessed by customers over the internet. SaaS B2B businesses provide software solutions to other businesses, such as invoicing, CRM, accounting, or marketing tools. Some examples of SaaS B2B businesses are Salesforce, Slack, Monday.com, and Qualtrics.
SaaS B2B businesses face the challenge of adapting to the changing needs and expectations of their customers, who may operate in different markets, regions, and industries. To meet the global demand, SaaS B2B businesses need to:
– Offer flexible pricing and payment options to suit different budgets and preferences
– Provide localized content and support to cater to different languages and cultures
– Ensure high availability and security of their software across different devices and platforms
– Innovate and update their software features and functionalities to stay ahead of the competition
– Collect and analyze customer feedback and data to improve their products and services
Manufacturing B2B Businesses
Manufacturing B2B businesses produce goods or materials that are used by other businesses in their production processes. For example, a steel manufacturer may supply steel to a car manufacturer, or a textile manufacturer may supply fabric to a clothing retailer. Some examples of manufacturing B2B businesses are Cisco, FedEx, and Drata.
Manufacturing B2B businesses face the challenge of coping with the fluctuations in global demand, which may be affected by factors such as economic conditions, consumer preferences, environmental issues, or trade policies. To cope with the global demand, manufacturing B2B businesses need to:
– Optimize their production capacity and inventory management to balance supply and demand
– Diversify their product portfolio and customer base to reduce dependency on a single market or industry
– Implement quality control and assurance measures to ensure consistent and reliable delivery of their goods or materials
– Adopt sustainable and ethical practices to reduce their environmental impact and comply with regulations
– Collaborate and communicate with their suppliers and customers to maintain long-term relationships
References:
https://www.infosys.com/about/knowledge-institute/insights/Documents/future-customer-engagement.pdf
https://builtin.com/articles/b2b-companies
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/btob.asp
https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/b2b-ecommerce-website-examples
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/b2b-marketing
https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/business-to-business-b2b/
https://blog.hubspot.com/
https://slack.com/customer-stories
https://www.shopify.com/free-trial
