This document discusses optimizing marketing for niche business-to-business (b2b) clients compared to broad business-to-consumer (b2c) clients. It notes that b2b and b2c optimization differ because b2b deals have longer sales cycles, higher transaction values that vary greatly, and a smaller percentage of visitors are convertible leads. The document recommends optimizing for pipeline value (PVO) rather than conversion rate (CRO) for b2b. It provides examples of successful b2b landing page optimizations and emphasizes the importance of input from sales on lead quality for measurement.

1. Mining for gold: optimising for
niche b2b
Dr John Woods MBA
jw@sharpahead.com
www.sharpahead.com

2. What’s coming up
Why b2b and b2c optimisation are different
– Forget CRO think PVO!
(and why A/B tests and web analytics don’t help much with b2b)
How to succeed at b2b optimisation
Lots of examples of successful projects from Sharp Ahead
How testing and analytics can still be relevant for b2b

3. Full service digital marketing agency for b2b clients with niche products/services
About me

6. From CRO to PVO:
broad b2c vs niche b2b

10. Broad b2c Niche b2b
Total audience size
Sales volumes
Value of a transaction
Digital part of journey
Time for decision
Time to evaluate a transaction
Millions
100s / day
$10-$1000
Acquisition and purchase
Minutes / hours
Few days
Thousands
1s-10s / month
$1000-$millions
Lead handed to sales
Days - Years
Months - Years

18. The goal of the marketing optimiser?

20. The goal of the marketing optimiser
Maximise the business value of marketing activities
Maximise the Return On Investment (ROI) of marketing
campaigns
=CRO?

21. Maximise ROI

22. incremental margin generated
MINUS
cost of activity
ROI=
Maximise ROI = CRO ?

23. Fine B2C Landing Page
Buy Now!

24. Buy Now!

25. Buy Now!
75% convertible25% not convertible

26. B2C clickers are not convertible because:
• Misunderstood your ad
• Clicked by accident
• Can’t afford your product
• Outside geographic service area
• Just researching for a gift list / friend / family member
• …

27. Buy Now!
75% convertible25% not convertible

28. Buy Now!
75% convertible25% not convertible
15% conversion rate

29. Buy Now!
75% convertible25% not convertible
15% conversion rate
15% conversion rate
means converting 20%
of the convertible
visitors

30. In B2C, each conversion has a similar value
(maybe a range like $50-$150)
and so similar margin

32. incremental margin generated
MINUS
cost of activity
ROI=
Maximise ROI = CRO ?

33. In broad b2c:
Margins on each transaction are similar, so:
Maximise ROI =
maximise number of conversions =
maximise conversion rate
CRO = business optimisation!

34. Buy Now!
75% convertible25% not convertible
15% conversion rate

35. Fine B2B Landing Page
Call Us Now!

36. Fine B2B Landing Page
Call Us Now!

37. Niche B2B clickers are not convertible
because:
• Misunderstood your ad
• Clicked by accident
• Can’t afford your product
• Outside geographic service area
• Just researching

38. Niche B2B clickers are not convertible because:
• Misunderstood your ad
• Clicked by accident
• Can’t afford your product
• Outside geographic service are
• Just researching
• Competitors checking you out
• Job seekers
• Existing clients kicking tyres
• Students / market researchers
• Suppliers who want to sell to YOU
• Wrong person in a DMU
• Own team/agency testing the page
(!)
• …

39. Fine B2B Landing Page
Call Us Now!
15% convertible85% not convertible

40. Fine B2B Landing Page
Call Us Now!
15% convertible85% not convertible
15% conversion rate
means converting
100% of the
convertible visitors!

41. Fine B2B Landing Page
Call Us Now!
15% convertible85% not convertible
3% conversion rate

42. In niche B2B,
customers often vary a
LOT in value
$0
$1K
$1M

43. Fine B2B Landing Page
Call Us Now!
15% convertible85% not convertible
3% conversion rate

44. Fine B2B Landing Page
Call Us Now!
15% convertible85% not convertible
3% conversion rate
3% conversion rate =
$3K business value

45. Fine B2B Landing Page
Call Us Now!
15% convertible85% not convertible
1% conversion rate

46. Fine B2B Landing Page
Call Us Now!
15% convertible85% not convertible
1% conversion rate
1% conversion rate =
$1M business value

48. In niche b2b:
Margins on each transaction vary MASSIVELY, so:
Maximise ROI =
maximise value of conversions
which is NOT = maximise conversion rate
CRO is NOT = business optimisation!

49. Two ways to get b2b optimisation wrong
• CTR%
• # of video views / content engagement
• Unqualified lead numbers
• Conversion % for valid leads Optimises for low value
leads
Optimises for
unconvertible
majority

50. Watch our corporate
backgrounder video
Download our free best practice
guide!
Download our RFP template

51. Optimise the total value of incremental leads
for a given marketing spend
Pipeline Value Optimisation
= PVO not CRO

52. b2b sales processes are complex
• Many leads are “bad” or invalid / unqualified
• Many “good” leads don’t convert (50%+) or are not incremental
• In a niche b2b proposition, first click to purchase might take
12 months+
• …so in b2b I don’t KNOW the value of a lead for many months!
• And only Sales has this information

53. Marketing Automation
Pros:
• Joined-up picture of the lead gen and sales journeys
• Allows much more complete view of ROI
Cons:
• Needs a mature CRM system / buy-in from sales
• Cost of implementation and ongoing use
• Still complex to analyse / understand
• Still imperfect information

55. Real world optimisation for
niche b2b

57. Obsess about best practice

58. Acknowledgements:
• Oxford Innovation for permission to use these case studies
• Sharp Ahead and client team for the obsessive best practice!

63. Best practices
• Dedicated landing page with “message match”
• Clear, concise main heading and entry text (5 second rule)
• Well-worded CTA in a contrasting colour
• Design guides the eye to CTA and key messages
• Choice of telephone or form fill (click to call on mobile)
• Social proof
• Repeated CTA
• Two-step conversion process using lightbox
• Self-qualifying text
• Minimal form fields
• Lowest possible attention ratio

67. Some common battles
• Use of dedicated conversion-optimised landing pages
– Websites don’t convert
• Brand colours/fonts vs conversion – contrast, readability
– “Would you rather have an on-brand campaign that fails or an off-
brand one that succeeds?”
• Number of form fields and number of compulsory form fields
– “Would you rather know everything about a handful of bad leads or just
enough about lots of great leads?”
• Too much copy
– More concise always wins (readers vs skimmers)
• Pricing and qualification criteria
– Being more specific gives MORE good leads (as well as fewer bad
ones)

68. all types of business.

69. Input from sales – lead handover
• “Your message” field can be like telepathy!
• Ask sales for more:
– What questions do incoming leads have?
• Points to missing information
• Care required: sometimes questions are good!
– Common types of “bad” lead which could be excluded
• Pricing

70. Real world measurement / metrics for
niche b2b

71. Common problems
• Attribution is complicated
• Web->phone is tricky
• Linking to sales/CRM is complex
• …
• Can easily end up with a measurement project not an
optimisation project

72. Some basics
• Count leads and attribute them to a channel / campaign
• You WILL “leak” leads to telephone / email channels
– (and generic search/other channels -> brand search)
• Sometimes 75%+ “leakage”
• Web->phone call tracking helps but complex and still not
perfect
• Simple approach: apply a correction factor (say 2x)

73. Input from sales – lead quality
• Assign a simple input lead quality score ASAP to each new lead
– Contactable
– Plausible buyer
– Not a “tyre kicker”
• Start with binary good / bad at the point the lead is received
– Can make this more sophisticated over time
• Keep count as the campaign runs, but…
• …don’t worry about tracking the sales cycle over time

74. Cost #leads CPL # good leads Cost per good lead
Campaign 1 £8,500 23 £369.57 4 £2,125
Campaign 2 £24,750 18 £1,375.00 14 £1,768
Campaign 3 £18,100 16 £1,131.25 9 £2,011

75. Input from sales – retrospective review
• Look back on campaigns after 1-2x typical buying cycle
has elapsed
• Allows long-term optimisation of marketing mix
• Requires some pipeline tracking or CRM support from
sales

76. Cost #closed Value ROAS
Campaign 1 £8,500 1 92,150£ 10.8
Campaign 2 £24,750 3 675,975£ 27.3
Campaign 3 £18,100 2 223,360£ 12.3

77. Web analytics measures
Be careful about reading health books. You
may die of a misprint.
Mark Twain

78. Fine B2B Landing Page
Call Us Now!
15% convertible85% not convertible
1% conversion rate

79. Web analytics can still be useful (with care) in
b2b optimisation
• Standardise your designs as much as possible for
aggregate stats
• You CAN assign lead quality scores…but brings some
complexity
– User data import in Google Analytics
– Conversion import in AdWords
• Look at user journeys for some known good leads

80. Views #leads Conv%
LP 1 6 0 0%
LP 2 13 0 0%
LP 3 9 0 0%
LP 4 7 1 14%
LP 5 10 0 0%
…
LP 99 18 1 6%

81. Views #leads Conv%
LP template 1 518 3 0.6%
LP template 2 688 18 2.6%
LP template 3 323 10 3.1%

83. Web analytics can still be useful (with care) in
b2b optimisation
• Track conversions and segment/profile them for “hygiene”
– Mobile vs PC
– Premium mobile devices
• Use micro conversions AS A GUIDE to check Information
Architecture & usability (Google Tag Manager helps with these)
– Video views (%age complete)
– PDF downloads
– Social shares
– Scroll depth
– Button presses in 2-step LP forms

84. Page views 281
Leads 6
Video views 2
Device type Views Leads Conv%
Computer 494 12 2.4%
Premium mobile 291 2 0.7%
Other mobile 181 0 0.0%

85. Mining for gold: summary
• Niche b2b and mass b2c are very different, don’t assume
everything transfers across
• Beware of optimising the wrong thing – think PVO not CRO!
• ROI is very difficult to measure, but you can optimise anyway
• Obsess about best practice for conversion design
– Borrow / steal other people’s
– Develop your own
• Sales evaluation is complex
– Simple lead scoring and evaluation is much better than nothing
• Web analytics has a place, used intelligently

86. Mining for gold: optimising for
niche b2b
Dr John Woods MBA
jw@sharpahead.com
www.sharpahead.com