Many companies are business-to-business companies, but how many of them actually understand their online B2B buyer behavior?
Until you really understand your online buyers — knowing how, when and why they act — you can’t develop a good digital marketing strategy nor can you set attainable sales goals. In order for your company to be successful, you need to know your business’s online behavior and then base your strategy and goals off that information.
At the end of last year, Software Advice took data they’d collected from Jan. 1, 2008 through Aug. 31, 2013 from more than 6,000,000 of their company’s unique online visitors and put it together into a 2013 Online B2B Buyer Behavior Report. They did this to learn more about the activity of their online B2B buyers, but to also help other companies and sales teams that work with these types of buyers know what to look for and why it’s important.
There were three key findings from this behavior report, and while Software Advice’s data is specific to their company, it’s relatable to numerous other companies.
1. Call your leads fast, like really fast.
After buyers convert on a site, a company’s chances of qualifying them drops with every second they wait to make contact. Software Advice found that when they called a lead just five seconds after that lead converted on their site, their odds of qualifying said lead were 30 percent higher than their average qualification rate.
If your company relies on web-generated leads, then investing in technology that lets you call buyers as soon as possible is in your best interest. But it’s also good to note that there are times when you shouldn’t immediately call. When a buyer contacts your company indirectly, nurture that lead and build that relationship a little bit before making the call.
2. Reach out to buyers Tuesday through Thursday for the best results.
Certain months or seasons are better than others for high conversion and qualification rates, and that’s also true for days of the week and times during the day.
As with any company, the beginning of the year is a great time because companies are renewing their budgets, so conversion rates tend to be the highest during those months. On the other hand, qualification rates tend to have their peak during the summer months. Your specific industry might vary a little from this information, but just remember that seasons are going to affect these numbers.
When it comes to days of the week, this report found that Tuesday through Thursday brought in the highest B2B buyer activity. Depending on what you measure, though, your best days will differ. Online traffic could peak on Tuesdays, while conversions rates could be high on Wednesdays. Lead Response Management did a study and found that Thursday was the best day to contact a lead in order to qualify said lead, while Monday was poor in every category and Friday was really only a poor day to qualify a lead.
Time of day is also significant. A smart way to divide time is into three categories centered around the typical work hours (8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.) — before work hours, during work hours and after work hours. For traffic, conversion rates and qualification rates, the peak times were during work hours. It was also discovered that traffic was highest around lunchtime, so while it’s not ideal to work during lunch, you could get some good conversions during that time. The end of the workday, between 3:00 – 5:00 p.m., is also a good time to make contact with and convert a lead.
Looking into your business’s specific data, you’ll find which days are your peak days. Once you know that, you can know when to launch certain campaigns and when is the best time to have a strong team working to contact, convert and qualify leads. Software Advice said the main reason their weekend leads don’t qualify well is because they don’t have people working then, so it might be worth considering having a small team working weekends to help up your weekend numbers.
3. Don’t assume there aren’t opportunities around the holidays.
Since most people don’t like to work holidays and tend to take off as many as they can, we assume conversion and qualification rates during this time are extremely low. Well, that’s not always the case.
This online behavior report found that yes, certain holidays are fine to take off, but it also found that many companies underestimate how active buyers may be during holidays. For example, conversion rates are amazingly high the day before Thanksgiving, the day after July 4th and on President’s Day.
With Christmas and New Year’s being close together, many people take off quite a few days during that time. But with the data received in this report, you may want to rethink how much time you take off or allow employees to have off then. Software Advice said their conversion rates are strong the week before and after Christmas, and their conversions that came in that week before tend to qualify higher than the average qualification rate on numerous other days. They also said their conversion and qualification rates are stronger than expected the week after New Year’s, and that their rates are above average for online B2B buyer activity that week.
While your business’s data won’t match exactly with this information, this report is a great insight and reminder for several companies. It reminds businesses of the importance of knowing their online behavior and how knowing when to contact B2B online buyers and what times to convert and qualify leads really maximizes your business’s potential.
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