How essential are B2B websites to earn trust from decision makers?
B2B website study
In the UK Business websites have emerged as highly valued and indispensable source of information for decision makers in business, finds the study done by AOP (Association of Online Publishers in the UK) conducted in association with IPSOS Mori earlier this year (April 2008)
For decision makers business to business websites are in 51% the preferred source of business information, which is about two and a half times more than TV, radio, magazines and newspapers.
Business to business websites are:
- Ubiquitous for 97% of the decision makers.
- Essential source of information for 60%
- Providing information that couldn’t be found elsewhere for 60%
Business websites are used in:
- 56% of time when researching or informing for business decisions
- 55% of time when researching or informing for purchase decisions
- 54% of time when gathering sector news
In case of advertising on B2B websites:
- 43% said more likely to respond
- 53% to have more confidence
- 74% to trust more if from an established source
(A business publication or industry body)
82% of the respondents uses at leas tone B2B digital delivery source:
- Most popular are email alerts
- Peer reviews, blogs and forums
- Other technologies: RSS, online seminars, podcast, vodcast, video streaming
It is likely these digital delivery sources will increase in use in the future.
Reasons for using Business to Business websites:
- Instant access: 70%
- Save time: 77%
- Innovative to access information: 74%
- Interacting with peers: 69%
The survey was conducted with over 750 decision makers in the UK.
Conclusion:
- The Internet has become the first source for most, still traditional media like print and events play an important role.
- Make sure your company gets listed on B2B websites.
- If you advertise then do it on Business to Business websites.
Are B2B websites sufficient for earning trust?
This study was done by an organization that needs to help and promote their members: Online Publishers.
Getting found on B2B websites
If you use B2B websites for your promotion, then you need to get a good positioning on these websites:
- Both people and search engines need to find your company, products or solutions.
- Your appearance or findability is only as good as the findability of the B2B website.
- You cannot influence the SEO and the SERP of the business to business website
- Advertising on B2B websites cost money.
All of these factors you have under control if you have your company website and promote it on the Internet using SEO, SEM in order have a high SERP and a good findability.
Guidelines for 3 cases:
a) If you have an insignificant website without valuable content, then using B2B websites is your best opportunity.
b) If you have a website that is being visited and having good and interesting content, then using B2B websites is good as a support for bringing trust and recognition.
c) If your website is somewhere in between, then getting more and better content will be probably the easiest to achieve, while at the same time you try to obtain visibility on business to business websites.
Trust is key in getting sales
The main point that AOP promotes is the trust that the business publication or established body brings.
If your company website has little value, the trust that you have build with B2B websites will evaporate immediately once your potential customers visit your website.
Your company website, a blog can build trust too. However it will take longer, but you will be completely in control.
Other opportunities for building trust
There are many more opportunities to reach out to potential buyers on the Internet like:
- Company or product website
- Blogging
- Commenting on blogs
- Forums
- Article writing
- Webinars
- Podcasts, Vodcasts
That B2B websites are to be considered as one of the better options, but not the sole or main option.
What do you use for branding, evangelizing and reaching out to potential customers?
How did you achieve to earn trust from your leads?
How did your company become trustworthy enough for your customers to buy from you?
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You have some great stats here! Being a website developer myself, I am not surprised by them. I am surprised, however, by the amount of businesses in the U.S. that either don’t yet have a website, or slap one up and forget it’s there. In order for your website to give you the maximum potential for marketing, you must utilize all the internet has to offer. Thanks again for the stats.
Your company website, a blog can build trust too. However it will take longer, but you will be completely in control.Absolutely correct! Support your argument
These are interesting statistics and will go a long way to educate people. However, we feel even a basic b2b website is a strong tool to expose one’s products even if one does not have a website. Next is a matter to organise oneself with respect to capturing the audience and cater to their requirements
This is classical in terms of SEO. Nothing seems to annoy upon them than that.Funnily enough, this is exactly what was talked about several years ago at the last hack con about SEO some number of years ago in ‘94.