As any B2B marketer would agree, a primary purpose of their website and online activity is directed at generating leads to turn over to the sales team. And not just any lead, but top-quality leads that represent their target audience, big opportunity, and prospect data that is complete and accurate.
Even with a clear focus on lead generating activities that result in on-site conversion, marketers face challenges to reach their goals. In fact, a recent study by Demandbase indicates that 84% of B2B marketers felt their ability to generate new sales leads using their website needed moderate to strong improvement.
A full 87% of B2B marketers claim their website could be improved by Tracking and Reporting Unregistered/Anonymous Users. While the real value of a registered user differs across websites, B2B marketers have seen that website visitors who have logged in spend 54% more time on site (source: eBay), visit a site 9X more often and have 4X as many page views as anonymous site visitors (source: McKinsey). There’s no doubt that it’s critically important to identify and nurture these lead potentials when they arrive at your site.
Tactics that marketers use to encourage site visitors and potential buyers to introduce themselves typically includes offering gated content that requires a registration process to access. The challenge with typical registration is that you may not receive complete or accurate information, and if your form is beyond a couple questions, you’re likely to lose that site visitor.
Janrain Engage customers who offer LinkedIn or Salesforce identities as social login provider options are not only offering site visitors more choices, but offering options that make sense for the user and the marketer, resulting in benefits for both: faster registration for prospects, and accurate profile information for the marketer.
The Business Journals Experience 12% Increase in Site Registrations
With LinkedIn as a provider option, the B2B marketer has the opportunity to tap into the professional social graph of prospects, and with Salesforce, receive a verified business email address. When coupled with Janrain Engage Social Sharing, B2B marketers have an opportunity to further their reach in these networks, driving more qualified referrals back to their site.
Will social media play an important role for B2B marketers in the near future? We believe so and are seeing a growing interest from technology solution providers and other organizations that want to add a social element to their B2B website and marketing efforts. In Forrester’s report: Market Overview: 2011 Social Media Platforms For B2B Tech Marketing, they indicate:
Today, there is increased demand for social media platforms from B2B tech marketers that are using social media tactics to engage with business technology buyers.
VickiH
CJ_The@rkitekt