A recent industry study of the B2B market demonstrated significant growth trends in turnover by 2023. This means that the total number of B2B solutions will certainly grow in the near future. But, still, in order to be successful, a B2B lead generation business requires deep knowledge of the industry. That is, an understanding of which companies to turn to, with whom to best interact, etc.
Let’s discuss the importance of thorough marketing research in more detail in the context of managing a B2B business.
Making Lead Generation Easier Through B2B Market Research
Lead generation means tracking the results of each significant marketing event: the number of clicks on links with contextual advertising, applications submitted through the site, the number of positive and negative responses to the newsletter, downloads of a particular material on the site, subscriptions to news, even the number of business cards given out during some event.
Lead generation is only successful when it relies on constant testing of ongoing activities and an assessment of their effectiveness. Measuring results is important for increasing the number of positive responses and gaining more potential customers with specific contact details – i.e., business leads.
That is why B2B lead generation marketing research is used as a mechanism for attracting customers.
The Importance of B2B Lead Gen Marketing Research
Your B2B business needs thorough marketing research by default, otherwise, you risk:
- having a vague image of your customers and their reasons to buy from you;
- setting unreasonable prices for goods;
- missing out on the particular customer desires and selling points;
- misunderstanding market and niche demand for your products/services.
It can be argued that business sales leads are more dependent on products and services supported by market research because companies understand the ins and outs better than the average consumer.
Many people make the mistake of associating market research only with startups and entrepreneurs with new ventures. It was this attitude to market research as to a one-time early stage of launching a business that led to the fact that today there is a lack of common understanding. Research is very important at the very beginning of a new professional idea, but it must be carried out throughout the whole business life-cycle. Research must be constantly updated and expanded.
The bottom line is that effective marketing research can provide you with invaluable insights into your competitors, economic shifts, demographics, current market trends, and your customers’ spending patterns. No matter the stage of your business development. So in the long run, it will cost you a lot more time and money if you don’t develop your market research capabilities from the start. Not only that, there are a number of cost-effective tools that you can use to effectively conduct your own research.
To keep up with the ever-changing industry environment, your marketers must have sufficient market knowledge to make the right adjustments to strategies to achieve the best results for the company.
For marketers who deal with so many intangibles related to human behavior, research is a critical component of making good decisions. For every marketing decision, there are many types of marketing research that need to be examined. Some level of research is always needed to support your marketing decisions.
Below are some of the main areas that marketers are focusing on to reduce leadership uncertainty when making decisions:
- segmentation and targeting. Basic demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral data about your target market for companies can help you determine the features that your product should have in order to meet the common business requirements;
- product development. It is important to know how your product meets the needs of your customers and what changes may be required to make the product more attractive. Popular approaches to this focus on the employment of user testing and user experience research;
- marketing communications and media selection. Conducting “advertising performance research” on an ongoing basis can help determine the effectiveness of advertising and marketing communications. This allows marketers to develop effective strategies and identify when your target market is no longer paying attention to your products. Also, make sure that the appropriate media are used to reach your target businesses. Popular approaches to measuring this metric focus on analyzing brand awareness and brand reputation;
- market and competitor analysis. Know your current marketing situation. This is an important element not only for the development of new products but also for those that already exist, given the ever-changing dynamics of the market. If marketers don’t keep an eye on current consumer trends, they can face a rapid loss of market share. Make sure these losses don’t turn into profits for your competitors;
- pricing and forecasting. Pricing is an important factor in your purchasing decision; Thus, pricing studies can be used to determine how customers or companies see certain pricing compared to competitors. Forecasting future sales is also important when outlining the budget, setting up manufacturing, and making recruiting decisions.
Study of business leads as the core of efficient marketing events
For an experienced salesperson working on cold calls, B2B email lead generation campaigns, and other marketing activities, customer knowledge is important. The research work in such cases is tedious and time-consuming. An outsourced B2B digital marketing agency like Belkins will help you discover more about your target client.
With all the information you need, you can make a good first impression with a prospect. Also, to speed up the closing of deals, you will be helped by compiling targeted lists of potential customers.
Now we already know a lot about B2B marketing research, but let’s figure out what tools to best use to efficiently conduct it.
Tools in Market Research to Generate B2B leads
B2B lead gen marketing research helps you improve your lead generation and meeting-making activities. In fact, it is a plan that contains complete information defining the benefits of business solutions before their implementation.
But getting this necessary information is another matter entirely. This will require the use of marketing research methods, but the most important are tools that collect raw market data.
Here are some of the top efficient tools you can use for your B2B study.
Google Keyword Tool
Google Keyword Tool allows you to analyze consumer searches on the Internet. You need to register with Google Adwords for free, and it is advisable to study the documentation for the most effective use.
Questback
Questback bridges the gap between your company and your target market. This tool helps you conduct in-depth research on your behalf to provide quick and effective feedback.
KeySurvey
KeySurvey is a web-based survey creation and processing service for medium to large organizations. The product offers an extensive set of features that allow you to create, manage, and analyze research data. Users can get multiple solutions for collecting feedback, employee engagement, market research, and customer surveys.
Key Survey also provides a contact manager. It allows you to view and manage survey participants by grouping data. Also, here you can enter your own fields and synchronize the base with CRM systems.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics provides data about customer behavior on your website. This tool allows you to view information about which products are most viewed and vice versa. In addition, Google Analytics analyzes which social media channels your customers are responding to.
Google Trends
Google Trends keeps a record of the data collected from the search engine. As a result, the tool analyzes consumer behavior in search engines and social media, as well as gathers the latest news from your industry.
BizStats
BizStats allows you to filter financial information for each business sector, providing companies with annual expense reports and other marketing data.
Bottom Line
B2B lead gen marketing research allows companies to thoroughly study their potential customers and get valuable feedback concerning the general market environment.
If you want to make your life easier and use the services of an outsourcing company for marketing research of the B2B market, feel free to contact us at Belkins. Our specialists will conduct global market research and help your company boost the client base.
