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6 simple things B2B digital marketing gets wrong

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At Sharp Ahead we often get asked to do audits of our clients’ (and prospects’) digital footprints, which is a great way to start to understand how to make immediate improvements to your digital marketing.

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Here are six things that come up time and time again.

1. Phone numbers: most B2B products and services are relatively complex and will ultimately require person-to-person selling. The best outcome of your digital marketing campaign is almost always inspiring a prospect enough to call you. So make phone numbers prominent on your website, ideally in the header of your landing pages and website.

A few other phone number rules:
– don’t make your prospects choose from multiple phone numbers, more often than not they’ll just choose to phone someone else. And when they do call, don’t give them 6 different options to choose from.
– don’t charge your B2B prospects for phoning you
– and most importantly, during business hours, make sure the phone is answered by a trained member of staff. Every. Single. Time.

2. Don’t hide your best content. Content marketing is not a treasure hunt. If you hide your best content, no one is going to come looking for it. Social proof like case studies, testimonials, and client logos needs to be featured prominently on key entrance and landing pages.

3. The Ronseal Principle: tell visitors to your site exactly what you do in plain language. Taglines, mission statements, and post-branding workshop catch phrases are all well and good, but don’t assume your prospects know you already or that you naturally have enough credibility to be on their short list.

4. Most prospects don’t even want to visit your website. Google has taught us to expect its search engine results pages (SERPs) to answer our questions without visiting actual websites. Make sure the SERPs for key terms, like your brand and contact information, are as carefully curated as your homepage. Google gives you lots of good tools for doing this, including free ones like Google My Business.

5. Prices: do not be afraid of talking about price. At some point, the cost of your products or services is going to be very, very relevant to your prospects. You can save a lot of everyone’s time by giving at least an indication of price during the lead generation process. The hard work of establishing your price points and your place in the market should have been done already; be confident in your decision making and honest with your prospects.

6. Landing pages. Use landing pages for your lead generation campaigns. Make sure they are optimised for conversion, which includes paying attention to every detail from page load speeds to the wording and colour of your CTA to which fields you put on the form. Do not send your hard won and paid for traffic to a page on your website.

And last but not least, if you have any questions or need help with any of the above, please get in touch.

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    B2B Marketer’s Networking Event – Thames Valley

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    A free networking event for B2B marketers in the Thames Valley. Meet up with your peers, make new connections and share best practice. Plus guest speakers and refreshments!

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    Where and When

    When: Tuesday 12th June, 18:00
    Venue: Work.Life, 33 Kings Road, Reading RG1 3AR

    Why

    A marketer’s life can be a lonely one in a B2B organisation. So we are creating an opportunity for B2B marketers to meet their peers, share best practices and make new networking connections.

    This free event features a talk from channel swimmer and expert marketer Conor Gunn. Conor has held senior marketing roles in both B2B and B2C organisations including Microsoft and BT. He’ll be sharing how his channel swimming experiences have inspired him to be a better marketer.

    Places are limited so sign up today to ensure your slot! Please note: this event is intended for practicing B2B marketers. To ensure a constructive networking environment we reserve the right to limit ticket allocations.

    Our Speakers

    Guest Speaker: Conor Gunn

    Conor Gunn is a Chief Digital Officer and Customer Experience Director who partners with large companies, executives and agencies to drive business and digital transformation. He has delivering award winning digital solutions across multiple channels, devices and geographies.

    In recent years he has been a Director at British Gas and Barclays. Previously he held senior roles at TK Maxx, BT and X-Box and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

    After spending over 20 years working in this space he knows what truly drives successful businesses and customer engagement, and it’s not mastering the marketing flavour of the week or the latest digital buzzwords.

    It’s about truly understanding your customers and finding the profitable solutions that make their lives easier.

    Conor is also the fastest Irish person to swim the English Channel. He will be talking to us about how that experiences have helped informed his success, how he approaches Delivering World Class Marketing that grows your business and telling us the Ten Things he has learnt from swimming the channel.

    Dr John Woods MBA

    John is an experienced technology CEO, CTO, data scientist and serial technology entrepreneur with 20 years’ experience consulting for and supplying to B2B companies. His entrepreneurial projects have spanned market research, web analytics and energy storage, as well as providing consultancy services to a range of B2B businesses. John holds a Doctorate in Astrophysics from Oxford University.

    Agenda

    18:00 Arrival & Networking
    18:30 Introductions
    18:35 Conor Gunn “How swimming the Channel made me a better marketer”
    19:00 Dr John Woods MBA  “Making better B2B landing pages:  what we’ve learned from 250+ campaigns”
    19:15 Panel Discussion
    19:30 Drinks, Nibbles & Networking
    20:00 Close

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      Half of Top UK Resellers Ignore Digital Marketing Best Practice

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      A new report from B2B digital marketing experts Sharp Ahead reveals that 56% of the top UK resellers have yet to implement basic digital marketing best practice.

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      In the increasingly competitive channel market, these organisations are not only failing to provide existing customers with a positive user experience but are also failing to support their own sales efforts—and potentially missing out on new business as a result.

      The 2018 research does, however, show that resellers are improving; the 2017 report revealed that 70% of the top resellers failed to implement digital best practice.

      The report’s key findings

      Key findings of the 2018 report include:

      • 56% of VARs missing at least one basic best practice
      • Only 63% have secure (https) sites
      • 44% did not have good conversion features on their sites
      • 84% of VARs offering a newsletter subscription did not use double opt-in

      The research analysed the top 100 UK resellers, as listed in CRN’s annual report, focussing on their “digital footprints” or online presence. The methodology reflects a prospective customer’s experience of each organisation using 14 key digital signals including search user experience, onsite user experience, and digital marketing technology adoption.

      Commenting on the report, which saw third-largest UK channel firm Daisy Group ranked as one of the digital superstars, Melissa Roberts, Daisy’s Marketing Manager, said: “Daisy has embraced digital marketing as a means not only to connect with our existing customers online but also as an integral part of our sales strategy. We firmly believe that the importance of digital marketing will continue to grow in the channel and are committed to providing a best practice experience for customers and prospects.”

      According to Jennifer Esty, Director of Sharp Ahead and former Digital Marketing Manager for Microsoft UK, “resellers have been slow to adopt digital marketing best practice but now risk allowing more savvy competitors to reach their customers and prospects first. There are some immediate best practice organisations can follow, as well as longer term more strategic approaches they should consider.”

      Read the full VARs Digital Maturity Index report from Sharp Ahead.

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        Is the B2B Buying Journey Really Changing?

        The B2B buying journey is changing at a fast pace, and B2B marketers must evolve their brand’s digital footprint now or risk obscurity in this new world.

        75% of UK Innovation Centres not using digital marketing best practice

        Subheading

        A Sharp Ahead report, released today, reveals that 75% of UK Innovation Centres are not taking full advantage of digital marketing best practice.

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        DOWNLOAD THE REPORT >>

        Headline Results

        • 75% of Innovation Centres missing at least one basic best practice
        • 65% could improve their search results page
        • Only 45% have secure (https) sites
        • 49% did not appear on the first page when searching for ‘office space’ in their geographic location

        About the Research

        • 100 UK Innovation Centres analysed in March 2018
        • 14 performance indicators evaluated for each park
        • Methodology mimics a prospective customer’s experience
        • Results show opportunity for improvement for most organisations

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          Is the B2B Buying Journey Really Changing?

          The B2B buying journey is changing at a fast pace, and B2B marketers must evolve their brand’s digital footprint now or risk obscurity in this new world.

          The University of Wolverhampton Science Park and Sharp Ahead Launch Campaign for New Science Centre Facility

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          The University of Wolverhampton Science Park and flexible workspace lead generation experts, Sharp Ahead, have launched a digital campaign to promote the purpose-built workspaces available at the newly opened Science Centre.

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          The science, technology and prototyping facilities are unique in the Black Country and offer unrivalled specialist space for science and technology businesses.

          Sharp Ahead will focus on helping The University reach full capacity in the Science Centre the Science Park reach full occupancy in the Science Centre, as well as building a pipeline of occupants in the aerospace, automotive, construction, and life sciences sectors to ensure the ongoing success of the Park’s long term strategy.

          The Science Park’s Commercial Director, Nigel Babb said, “we chose Sharp Ahead because of their proven track record in working with science and innovation parks. We are excited about the launch of this campaign as the Science Park focusses on its strategy of attracting specialist businesses into the region. The Science Centre is an integral part of the University of Wolverhampton’s economic development strategy, and we are confident the new facilities will provide occupants with the right mix of flexible spaces, innovative services, and the opportunity for growth.”

          About The University of Wolverhampton Science Park

          The University of Wolverhampton Science Park has been supporting businesses from science, technology, knowledge-based and creative sectors through every stage of their development for over two decades and has become known as one of the region’s most vibrant technology communities. The newly opened Science Centre will provide the region with much-needed high quality office space, laboratories and workshop space to help attract inward investment to the area. Find out more.

          About Sharp Ahead

          Sharp Ahead are a specialist B2B digital marketing agency with specific expertise in lead generation for flexible commercial property spaces, particularly science and innovation parks. Find out more.

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            Is the B2B Buying Journey Really Changing?

            The B2B buying journey is changing at a fast pace, and B2B marketers must evolve their brand’s digital footprint now or risk obscurity in this new world.

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