Substack has gained a reputation as one of the go-to tools for content creators looking to build and monetize their audience. With its user-friendly interface and built-in monetization features, Substack has become synonymous with newsletter publishing.
However, as the digital ecosystem continues to expand, it’s crucial for creators to explore alternatives that offer greater customization, diverse monetization options, and enhanced audience engagement tools.
Today, we’re taking a look at the top Substack alternatives that empower content creators and marketers to grow and monetize their audience.
What is Substack?
Substack is a platform that allows writers and content creators to publish and monetize their content. Launched in 2017, it has quickly become a popular choice for writers, journalists, and creators who want to build a direct relationship with their audience.
Substack offers a straightforward interface for writing blog-like content newsletters, hosting videos and podcasts, as well as a subscription model that allows creators to charge for their content, and built-in analytics to track performance.
Benefits of Using Substack
Whether you’re starting a new content venture or looking to scale an existing one, there are a few key reasons why Substack stands out in the creative community:
- 100% free to use, no matter how many posts you publish or how big your following becomes.
- Built-in monetization, that allows you to keep 90% of the revenue from your subscribers
- Podcast hosting (which can also be monetized)
- Automated email notifications, which send out to your subscribers as soon as you publish a new post.
- Clear metrics, so you can see how many subscribers you have, how people engage with your content, etc.
Why Look for Substack Alternatives?
There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all tech solution, and Substack is no exception to this rule.
While Substack is a powerful tool, B2B marketers might need additional flexibility and more advanced features. Whether it’s more robust automation capabilities, advanced design customization, or better integration with existing tools, exploring alternatives can provide solutions tailored to specific needs.
Here are a few current challenges that serious marketers face when using Substack to build, grow, and monetize an audience:
- No SEO value: Since your Substack content exists on a different URL than your website, you are effectively ensuring that web traffic is funneled away from your website URL.
- Email limitations: With Substack, you don’t have control over any of your emails. All your subscribers receive is a simple notification email. If you want to customize the content of the email—or send additional emails to promote your content—you’ll have to look elsewhere.
- List management: If you already use an ESP, adding Substack to the mix can make it tricky to properly manage your list of subscribers. If someone unsubscribes from Substack, for example, there’s no easy way to ensure that they’re also unsubscribed from your list on Hubspot, Mailchimp, or whichever platform you’re on.
- Costs increase with your success: Substack currently charges 10% per sale, which might be justified when you consider that you’re saving the cost of website hosting and an ESP subscription…until your monetization efforts start paying off. Creators who are bringing in $5K, or $50K, however, will see their Substack cost rising to $500 or $5K/month…without any additional features that other platforms can offer.
4 of the Best Substack Alternatives
1. FeedOtter
Best For: Professional marketers who want a better newsletter curation and automation tool, without having to host their content on an external site or manage multiple email lists.
Overview: FeedOtter is a web-based tool that helps marketers and content creators to automate and scale their email newsletter strategy.
With FeedOtter, you can create a Substack-like email that’s triggered by one or more RSS-feeds, so you know your subscribers are receiving notifications every time you publish your blog post. Since FeedOtter specifically addresses the email curation and automation side of amplifying your content, you are able to continue posting content on your own site for optimal visibility.
FeedOtter includes tools to scale your newsletters with FeedOtter, since it includes content curation tools that help teams to easily review and add relevant content to your email newsletters, whether the content comes from a blog, a website page, or even your TikTok account.
FeedOtter is designed to integrate seamlessly with top email marketing automation platforms, giving you the ultimate combination of content curating and automation—without losing access to the email metrics you need in your ESP.
Key Features:
- RSS-to-Email Automation: Automatically generates email newsletters from your blog’s RSS feed.
- Integration: Works well with HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot, Eloqua, MailChimp, and Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
- Customization: Offers customizable templates and layout options.
- Multiple Content Sources: Choose content for your emails from RSS feeds, curated pages, TikTok, Google Sheets, and more.
2. Medium
Best For: Writers looking to create long-form content while leveraging a built-in audience, without needing advanced customization.
Overview: Medium is a well-known platform for publishing and sharing content. It provides a built-in audience and community, which can be a significant advantage for writers looking to expand their reach.
The platform supports long-form content and encourages in-depth articles, allowing businesses to showcase thought leadership, share industry insights, and build credibility.
If you have high engagement on your posts (indicated through metrics like reads, claps, comments, and highlights), you might consider enrolling in the Partner Program, which provides monetization for high-performing content pieces.
Key Features:
- Built-in Audience: Access to Medium’s large and active user base.
- Monetization: Medium’s Partner Program allows writers to earn money based on engagement.
- Simple Publishing Tools: Easy-to-use editor and content management tools.
- Discoverability: High potential for content to be discovered through Medium’s recommendation algorithms.
3. Beehiiv
Best For: Creators seeking a balance between customization, monetization, and user-friendly design.
Overview: Beehiiv is a relatively new but rapidly growing newsletter platform that emphasizes customization and user experience.
At a first glance, you’ll notice a lot of similarities between Beehiiv and Substack: they both allow you to create and host your content on their platform, pinging subscribers with an email whenever a new post goes live.
On a more detailed level, Beehiiv offers more SEO optimization options as well as a “recommended” feature that helps other relevant readers to discover your content. They also allow you the flexibility to apply your own brand to landing pages (essentially sign up pages) so that you can promote and collect leads from day one.
Beehiiv does have a free plan that extends up to 2500 subscribers. Paid plans start at $39.20/month for more subscribers and/or additional features like premium subscriptions and email automations.
Key Features:
- Customizable Templates: Offers a wide range of designs that can be easily customized.
- Monetization Options: Allows both free and paid subscriptions.
- Advanced Analytics: Provides detailed insights into reader behavior and engagement.
- Growth Tools: Features designed to help grow your subscriber list, such as referral programs.
4. ConvertKit
Best For: Creators looking for a platform that combines email marketing with audience management and monetization features.
Overview: ConvertKit is a robust email marketing platform specifically designed for creators, offering comprehensive tools to help them grow and monetize their audience.
One of ConvertKit’s top features for anyone looking for a Substack alternative is its ability to create and manage monetized newsletters, allowing creators to charge for their content through paid subscriptions. This feature is seamlessly integrated into the platform, making it easy to set up, manage, and track recurring revenue from newsletter subscribers.
Users of ConvertKit cite increased deliverability (as opposed to Substack), as well as more robust analytics to help you understand exactly what’s working with your content—and where you can improve it.
Key Features:
- Subscriber Management: Advanced tools for managing and segmenting subscribers.
- Automation: Powerful automation features for targeted email campaigns.
- Customizable Forms: Easy-to-create forms for capturing leads.
- Monetization: Built-in tools for selling digital products and subscriptions.
Summary
There are so many great platforms out there for building, scaling, and monetizing an audience. For businesses—or creators looking to scale their work—the tools that support self-hosted content (like FeedOtter and ConvertKit) will likely stand out.
On the other hand, solo creators who prefer to focus on the content itself might be drawn to simpler platforms like Beehiiv or Medium.
In either case, take time to review your options—and best of luck as you grow and scale your audience.
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INTRODUCES INNOVATIVE ‘POWERPACK‘ TO REVOLUTIONIZE THE INDUSTRY
ATLANTA, July 10, 2023 /PRNewswire/ – ClickDimensions, the trailblazer in marketing automation solutions, today launched ClickDimensions PowerPack, their game-changing new product set to redefine the landscape of B2B sales and marketing. Designed to address the transformative changes in today’s buying process and to leverage Microsoft’s Power Platform, PowerPack introduces Simple Account-Based Sales & Marketing, a streamlined approach poised to revolutionize how small and medium-sized businesses engage with buyers, to deliver more effective outcomes.
Simple Account-Based Sales & Marketing lies at the core of PowerPack, crafted from a fusion of ClickDimensions’ unparalleled expertise in Sales & Marketing Automation implementations and insights from industry giants like Forrester, Gartner, and SBI. This cutting-edge POV represents a paradigm shift, empowering businesses of all sizes to optimize their revenue stack and revolutionize their sales and marketing strategies.
According to Mike Dickerson, CEO of ClickDimensions, “The biggest mistake companies make is organizing their Sales & Marketing efforts solely around their own selling actions, rather than aligning with the customer’s buying journey. It’s crucial to understand that businesses don’t make buying decisions; instead, it’s groups of 5-10 relevant individuals working within the organization who collectively decide to make a purchase.”
Dickerson continues, “ClickDimensions PowerPack was specifically developed to address this gap by combining our deep understanding of CRM and Marketing Automation with industry-leading research and best practices. We have simplified the complex processes and systems associated with account-based strategies, making them accessible and affordable for all businesses, no matter their size.”
PowerPack‘s revolutionary methodology is built on five fundamental actions necessary to execute Simple Account-Based Sales & Marketing:
By adopting the Simple Account-Based Sales & Marketing approach with PowerPack businesses can expect increased conversion rates and higher win rates, improved visibility into opportunities for both sales and marketing teams, and ultimately, accelerated growth.
Dickerson adds, “Until now, small and medium-sized businesses have been constrained by limited resources, hindering their ability to access and adopt the necessary technology to thrive. PowerPack levels the playing field, empowering these businesses to succeed in the modern B2B landscape.”
ClickDimensions PowerPack starts at an affordable $1099 per month for unlimited users, built with core solutions for B2B SMBs including CRM, Marketing Automation & Sales Engagement.
About ClickDimensions:
ClickDimensions is the technology solution for small to medium businesses (SMBs) that unifies all sales and marketing efforts and gives organizations more control over every lead. With a single unified platform, ClickDimensions helps SMBs take back control of their leads by giving them a way to reach every target, see every interaction, and connect everything together. That’s why over 3,000 organizations across the globe trust ClickDimensions. ClickDimensions | It’s your lead now.™ For more information, visit www.clickdimensions.com, follow @ClickDimensions on Twitter or email press@clickdimensions.com.
For interviews or to receive ClickDimensions‘ white paper on Simple Account-Based Sales & Marketing, please contact: leslie@mavencollectivemarketing.com |16043595459
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June 23, 2023
Due to today’s world being so defined by digital transformation and data-driven insights, marketing for business-to-business (B2B) industrial companies faces unique challenges. With industry-specific barriers and the ever-evolving digital marketing landscape, how do these companies keep up with the pace while remaining effective? As the B2B industrial sector is expected to reach $20.9 trillion by 2027, the stakes are high, and the importance of utilizing the right marketing strategies has never been greater.
But how can industrial B2B companies harness modern marketing technologies to drive growth and prove their value? That’s the question we’ll explore in our latest episode.
On this episode of the podcast “Get Vertical! With Mike McCalley,” host Mike McCalley interviewed Liliana Torres, Global Head of Marketing-Electrification Services Division at ABB. Torres is a leader who has experienced a journey from entry-level positions to heading marketing for a global division in a multinational company. The two discussed the changes that revolve around their career paths, the role of marketing technologies, and how to navigate marketing in the B2B industrial landscape.
Several other points that McCalley and Torres explored included:
- The transition from traditional marketing methods to utilizing modern marketing technologies.
- The challenges and advantages of implementing marketing automation in industrial B2B companies.
- How to continuously learn, adapt, and leverage marketing technologies to drive business objectives.
Liliana Torres has worked in the B2B industrial sector for almost 30 years. She began her career at The Brink’s Company before moving to GE, and finally landing a leadership role at ABB, where she’s been for five years. With her comprehensive experience and impressive track record, Torres has valuable insights into the evolution of marketing within the sector and the power of embracing change.
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Chief Growth Officer (CGO) at HypeFactory, a global influencer marketing agency.
In today’s ever-changing social media ecosystem, business-to-business (B2B) companies confront unique obstacles when trying to connect and communicate with their intended audience. The goals of B2B social media marketing campaigns range from customer involvement and brand exposure to lead creation.
In this article, based on my 15-plus years of agency work and helping brands with their social media strategies, I’ll aim to provide B2B enterprises with a wide variety of social media marketing insights.
Social Media Mastery: Unleashing The Potential Of B2B Marketing Strategies
Social media has become an extremely potent medium for B2B organizations to build rapport with their clientele and expand their sphere of influence. If you want to succeed in the B2B social media space, you need to know how to use the correct platforms and create engaging content. Here are some tips for getting started.
Recognize your target market and diversify.
Complete in-depth market research to learn about the demographics, preferences and challenges of your intended audience. Create buyer personas to gain insight into your target audience’s goals, pain points and purchasing decisions. Make sure your content and messaging are tailored to their needs and problem spots. Also, diversify your social media presence rather than depending primarily on one network.
Utilize short-form video content.
Capitalize on the rising popularity of micro-videos to get your point out quickly. Put your products, services and expertise in the spotlight with captivating videos. To increase your content’s shareability, try using storytelling methods, animations or demonstrations. Promote the value of your offerings by highlighting their distinctive qualities in your content. Create an emotional connection with your audience by sharing behind-the-scenes corporate culture details and staff success stories.
Use account-based marketing.
Account-based marketing (ABM) is a method for identifying and pursuing high-value accounts. It entails constructing profiles of desirable clients, zeroing in on appropriate accounts, and developing targeted marketing initiatives to alleviate the problems faced by those clients. ABM seeks to cultivate meaningful connections with these accounts’ top decision-makers and produce account-specific messages and content in order to boost engagement and conversion rates. Get in touch with the decision-makers at those companies with a blend of targeted advertising, customized content and human interaction.
Use a wide variety of mediums.
Don’t put all your eggs in one social media basket. Establish a foothold on the platforms frequented by your intended demographic. LinkedIn is great for networking with other business professionals, but don’t forget about TikTok, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Spreading industry-related news, articles and other content can help raise brand recognition and spark in-depth discussions.
Embrace influencer collaborations.
Although more common with consumer-facing organizations, influencer marketing is quickly becoming a go-to tactic for businesses looking to increase their credibility, audience size and customer engagement. Join forces with well-known figures and respected experts in your field to boost your visibility and reputation. Find people whose views align with those of your intended customers, and put their knowledge and following to work for you. Promote user-generated content (such as reviews, testimonials and videos) from influential users to boost brand credibility.
Check up on progress and assess outcomes.
Use analytics tools often to monitor your social media performance. You may learn a lot about your audience’s preferences and the success of your strategy by analyzing key indicators such as engagement rates, click-through rates and conversion rates.
Unlocking TikTok’s Potential: Expert Tips For B2Bs To Master The Trendy Platform
I see a lot of businesses wanting to hop on whatever platform is new or trending, especially TikTok. If it makes sense for your brand, the video-sharing app can provide your B2B business with a unique opportunity to expose your brand’s personality to a younger, more diverse audience with its popular short-form video content. TikTok’s popularity is at an all-time high, and while there will inevitably be moments when a transition is required, it is critical for B2B businesses to learn how to optimize the platform and assess whether it’s worth investing time and money in the long run. Here are some key elements every B2B should consider when creating content for TikTok.
Creativeness and Ingenuity
Showcase your company’s ideas and ideals using TikTok’s one-of-a-kind blend of creativity and usability. Create content that is both real and intriguing by drawing inspiration from current events, challenges and insider information about the company.
Educational and Informative Content
You’re probably already trying to establish your company as a thought leader by publishing white papers, blog articles and other educational materials. Taking this a step further by making short films that teach, demonstrate or provide quick suggestions about some of your findings/insights can be a great way to add value for your audience.
Cooperate With Related Parties and Employees
Having influencers or employees who are active on TikTok may do wonders for your brand’s exposure and credibility. Motivate people to spread content they’ve created that promotes your brand or highlights the value of your offerings.
Trends and Challenges in Using Hashtags
Get your name out there and interact with the TikTok community by taking part in trending hashtag challenges. In order to get more people to use your brand’s authorized hashtag, you might host your own branded challenges relating to your business or products.
Using TikTok Ads
To expand your reach and get more conversions, you may want to make use of TikTok’s advertising features, including in-feed ads, branded effects and sponsored hashtags. Keep your ad content relevant, amusing and succinct to ensure success on TikTok.
Conclusion
To succeed in today’s marketing landscape, companies need to be flexible and innovative. B2B companies may boost their market visibility, strengthen relationships with existing customers, and power future growth by implementing social media strategies like these into their marketing efforts. Remember that there is no finish line in learning, testing and refining the art of B2B marketing. By keeping them updated, inspiring innovation and recommending strategies, you can keep your team thriving and overcome challenges in the dynamic field of business-to-business marketing.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
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COLUMBUS, Ohio, May 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Minds On, a B2B digital marketing agency, announced today that it will be changing its name to Intero Digital. Over the past 30 months, Colorado Springs-based Intero Digital has joined forces with five digital marketing agencies to offer comprehensive strategies to clients within its all-in-one design. Within its umbrella, Intero Digital now has specialized divisions focused on Amazon, content marketing, PR, search engine marketing (SEM), SEO, social media, and web.
Founded in 2002, Minds On is an award-winning digital marketing agency that blends business and marketing savvy with a passion for design and technology to create strategies that propel businesses forward. As B2B marketing and technology veterans, the agency intimately understands the challenges facing clients with complex sales cycles, multiple target audiences, and constant pressure to show results. To address those challenges, the B2B arm offers sales tools, integrated multichannel campaigns, branding and messaging, marketing and sales alignment solutions, and website design and development.
“We are thrilled to announce that Minds On has joined forces with the best agencies across the country to form Intero Digital,” Randy James, co-funder and VP of Client Services, said. “This strategic move allows us to expand our services and offerings to our clients while still maintaining the same level of excellence and personalized attention they have come to expect from us over the past 21 years. Our commitment to our clients’ success remains unchanged, and we are excited to take our services to the next level with the power of the Intero brand.”
Tom Augustine, Minds On’s co-founder and president, is particularly excited about this new chapter in the company’s journey. He explained, “Joining Intero Digital represents a significant milestone for Minds On, and we are honored to be part of such a distinguished collective of agencies. With the new resources and expertise available to us, we have already proven that we can offer even greater value to our clients, helping them achieve their business goals and objectives. We are also excited about the opportunities this presents to our team as we expand from a 13-person agency to a 350+ agency.”
Intero Digital is committed to evolving with the ever-evolving digital marketing industry. Intero Digital offers the following digital marketing services to drive results for its clients:
- SEO
- SEM (paid media)
- B2B lead generation
- Social media management
- Amazon advertising and optimization
- Guest-contributed articles
- PR
- Content marketing
- Blog posts
- Email marketing
- Link building
- Influencer marketing
- Graphic design
- Video creation and optimization
- Conversion rate optimization
- Branding
- Sales enablement
- Website design and development
Augustine said, “We are excited to take our clients’ businesses to new heights, and we look forward to the opportunities that this partnership brings to our team and our community.”
About Intero Digital
Intero Digital is a next-level digital marketing agency that helps businesses fulfill their potential by leveraging integrated digital marketing strategies. Offering full-funnel solutions that reach customers where they’re at, Intero Digital’s digital experts become an extension of clients’ marketing teams and lean into innovation to keep their clients ahead of the competition. For more information, visit https://www.interodigital.com.
Media inquiries: For additional information, please contact
Contact: Tom Augustine
Phone: 740-548-1645, ext.102
Email: [email protected]
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Dave Jones of agency True argues that a new era marks the end of the old B2B boys’ club.
As marketing press and LinkedIn feeds fill with increasingly imaginative uses of ChatGPT and generative AI, you could be forgiven for thinking that the idea of digital transformation is a little dated.
But escape the myopic buzz of adland and you’ll find whole sections of the economy that are embarking on their journey toward digital transformation.
In the world of business-to-business marketing in particular, a combination of lengthy sales cycles, complicated purchasing processes and a focus on long-running client relationships have insulated many organizations from the wave of disruption that has reshaped most consumer markets.
But across several recent projects in our work at True, we are seeing something interesting.
A new breed of marketers and entrepreneurs are going into some of the most niche B2B industries and finding opportunities for disruption.
Implementing modern approaches to customer experiences, digital communications and platforms is giving them an edge. In even the most unlikely and old-school sectors, innovation is flourishing.
Recruitment
Take recruitment, a growing industry with a difficult reputation and – traditionally, at least – a reliance on face-to-face relationships and occasionally overly pushy salespeople.
But forward-thinking clients are starting to change all that. They understand that they can generate just as much value for clients by sharing market insight around pay, conditions and employee engagement as they can through their network of contacts and candidates.
If you can make those insights available through an online portal or smartphone app, all the better.
They are also investing in digital onboarding journeys that use facial recognition technology to ensure that their clients comply with government right-to-work legislation.
Not only does this speed up and simplify the onboarding process for the candidate, but gives peace of mind to clients who need assurance that their new employees or contractors really are who they say they are.
Financial advisors
Or look at Independent Financial Advisors, a group more associated with provincial golf courses than cutting-edge technology.
Since Covid, we have seen a growing desire amongst younger IFAs to adopt more technologically sophisticated ways of working.
They are rolling out mobile apps that allow clients to check their portfolios when it suits them. They are using digital signature tools to speed up lengthy approval processes and introducing marketing automation software to send emails that help clients navigate key moments in the financial year.
They no longer see these as nice-to-have activities but as a core part of the service that their clients are coming to expect. As time goes on, you can be sure the market share of this new breed will grow.
Heavy industry
Brands selling into the mining, shipping or heavy-lifting industries might be the last place you would expect to see the digitization of marketing processes.
Like many niche B2B sectors, the market is made up of small, tightly connected groups of buyers, often with years of experience and specialist knowledge.
That can lead to an idle mindset amongst salespeople, with a black book full of contacts, as to thinking: why bother with digital marketing or pushing an online presence?
But as all kinds of heavy industry come under increasing pressure to behave in more environmentally sustainable ways, decision-makers are evaluating suppliers and partners against new criteria.
Buyers are turning to search engines to do their homework, increasing the need for marketers to consider SEO, PPC and content marketing strategies, where previously they could have relied on stands and conferences and salespeople armed with PowerPoint presentations and print collateral.
Changing expectations
The truth is that whichever niche sector you operate in, your customers are used to the modern digital experiences now provided by their bank, retailer, telecoms or entertainment brands.
Their expectations are formed by their experiences of consumer products and services and, in their role as a B2B customer, they are more likely to choose those brands that best live up to them.
Being a B2B business or operating in a niche sector is no longer an excuse for old-fashioned processes and customers’ experiences. The rewards are there for those willing to innovate.
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Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.
As the economy slows, B2B marketers are being challenged with longer sales cycles, lower deal amounts and churning customers. If that isn’t enough, many companies are slashing marketing spend.
With that being said, CMOs can see significant short-term improvements that will help them power through the forecasted downturn by focusing on these areas of their business:
Related: 5 Mistakes To Avoid in Your Digital Marketing
1. Optimizing campaigns for offline conversion events
Your most important priority should be to integrate your advertising platforms with your CRM or demand-gen platform. This will allow you to optimize your ad campaigns for bottom-funnel conversion events. This is especially important when using Google since you can use Google’s algorithm to optimize your campaigns for bottom-of-funnel events. If you have a sales team that takes inbound calls, make sure to get third-party call analytics software that can track calls by channel and down to the most granular source. Having phone tracking will let you identify which marketing channel is contributing to sales and help you make budget allocation decisions.
2. Marketing channels with short-term CAC payback periods
Privacy changes have made marketing attribution tools less reliable in the last two years and makes finding winning campaigns more complex. To overcome this, you can ask users on form sign-ups or post-purchase surveys how they found your business. While also not 100% reliable, these self-reported attribution workflows can help you see which channel is driving the most sales. Based on what customers are telling you and what your other attribution tools show, you can then allocate budget by channel based on their relative performance and pause what’s not working.
3. Your best customer cohorts
When sales performance starts to drop, investigate your data to see which customer cohorts are underperforming or churning, and exclude them from your ad targeting. This could be unprofitable business verticals, job titles, geographic regions, age or other demographic cohorts. If you have a revenue intelligence platform to listen to and/or transcribe call recordings, analyze the calls that resulted in demos and sales.
For example, if calls show a spike in Fintech startups that are purchasing your product, test new ad creative with what they say they like about your product and test landing pages with matching messaging. On the media buying front, see if you can improve targeting for this cohort and get more ads to serve it.
It’s also important to keep track of buyer personas. You can figure out which persona to focus on by running a report on all your customers and their respective job title, and then focus your marketing on the personas with the highest lead count. Make sure to arm your prospects with the metrics they look for — that is, you’ll need to show that the service or solution is an investment, not a cost.
Related: Digital Marketing 101 for Entrepreneurs
4. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Focus on the segments that are driving the most revenue for your business — such as landing pages, product pages and pricing pages. Use a qualitative analytics tool that can view what users are clicking on as they interact with your site. If you are running paid advertising campaigns, it’s important to not run the tests on all your campaigns. Carve out at least 80% of your budget for the campaigns that are carrying your quota and the rest for testing out new ideas.
Next on your list is improving page loading speed. For every additional second it takes the page to load, conversion rates drop by up to 20%. A good benchmark is a loading time below three seconds. Another time-sensitive indicator to optimize for is lead response times. Ideally, you should attempt to phone, text or email a prospective lead within five minutes. Just doing this will help increase conversion rates by double digits.
Of course, it takes resources to do these things. But making these changes during a downturn, if done right, will help you improve performance and build a data-driven and winning business.
Related: How to Adjust Your Marketing to Survive a Recession
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NEW YORK and LONDON, April 13, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — McKinsey & Company’s latest Global B2B Pulse reveals that market share winners are going all in on omnichannel, even in uncertain times.
In particular, companies that reported a 10+ percent increase in market share last year deployed five specific omnichannel strategies in concert:
- Hybrid sales teams and capabilities
- Highly personalized marketing
- Advanced sales technology usage
- Third-party marketplaces strategies
- Ecommerce excellence in owned platforms
Each strategy is valuable on its own, but they are most powerful when combined. Companies who invested in all five were twice as likely to gain market share than companies who adopted only one.
The Global B2B Pulse research analyzed responses from nearly 3,800 sales and marketing leaders across 13 countries. Since 2016, the B2B Pulse has gathered insights from almost 25,000 decision makers globally. This year’s Pulse reveals that omnichannel is now a must-have requirement in B2B marketing and sales.
Additional insights and trends include:
Personalization shifts up a gear
77 percent of companies using direct 1:1 personalization saw an increase in market share. But companies showing the strongest market share growth – more than 10 percent a year – were overwhelmingly investing in sophisticated tactics that go beyond account-based marketing, like hyper-personalization. This form of personalization is growing most in Brazil, India, and the US, and driving market share growth particularly in the global energy and materials (GEM), finance, banking, and insurance, and telecommunications, media, and technology (TMT) sectors.
Market share winners are also investing in new sales tools that aid hyper-personalization. For example, 64 percent of share winners are using bots. Tools like these are increasingly used to accelerate and sharpen personalization for every customer at each stage of the buying journey. Stronger personalization helps ensure customers are presented with the right message, the right call to action, and the right products and solutions, all at the right time.
Appetite for high-value e-commerce transactions on the rise
The Pulse research also showed that, like last year, ~70 percent of decision makers are prepared to spend up to $500,000 in a single e-commerce transaction. Meanwhile, the number of buyers willing to spend up to $10 million in a single e-commerce transaction rose by 83 percent. This trend is particularly prominent in China, India, and the US – and especially within the global energy and materials (GEM); telecommunications, media, and technology (TMT); and advanced industries sectors.
B2B marketplaces present clear growth opportunity
In a significant shift from legacy methods, 35 percent of B2B decision-makers now rate e-commerce as their most effective sales channel. The companies winning the most market share enable their customers to buy online through multiple channels. For instance, 48 percent of growing organizations sell via industry-specific marketplaces, while only 13 percent of organizations losing market share do. E-commerce comes ahead of in-person sales (26 percent), videoconferencing (12 percent), email (10 percent), and telephone (8 percent). The best results demand investment in experimentation and optimization over time. Strong execution requires consistent optimization, experimentation, and training for internal teams.
More than half of winning companies use hybrid sales teams
Hybrid sales models, which involve sales staff meeting with customers both in-person and remotely, were used by 57 percent of companies that are growing their market share. For companies losing market share, that figure is 40 percent. Today’s B2B customers need sales leaders to be available not only in-person, but also through remote sales meetings, virtual demonstrations, and digital relationship management.
This increased use of larger hybrid teams is particularly linked with market share growth in the telecommunications, media, and technology, global finance, banking and insurance, as well as travel, transportation, and logistics sectors.
Jennifer Stanley, Partner, McKinsey & Company:
“These trends we are seeing continue to shake things up for companies. And the signals are clear – customers know exactly what, where, how, and when they want things. What’s even more clear? Companies that adapt and respond to those needs and provide value are being rewarded in multiple ways – from higher retention rates, higher sales, and higher market share.”
Candace Lun Plotkin, Partner, McKinsey & Company:
“It’s a defining moment for sales and marketing leaders. Companies that are defying the odds and going all in on critical investments and growth levers are realizing market share gains at a faster clip. What this means for those who are looking to emerge stronger, is that growth – even in this difficult climate – is attainable. It comes down to charting that path and taking decisive action.”
For more insights, see the full report.
About the survey
McKinsey’s Global B2B Pulse has been published annually since 2016 and has now gathered insights from over 25,000 decision-makers. The most recent survey of 3,800 leaders across 13 countries (Brazil, Chile, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom, and United States) was conducted in December 2022.
About Growth, Marketing & Sales, McKinsey & Company
The mission of the McKinsey Growth, Marketing & Sales Practice is to help leaders of both consumer and business-to-business organizations drive sustainable and inclusive growth, through meaningful transformations and marketing-driven profit. The practice helps its clients set their strategic direction, develop their marketing and sales capabilities, and connect their organization to realize the full potential of today’s omnichannel opportunities. Clients benefit from McKinsey’s experience in core areas of marketing such as branding, customer insights, marketing ROI, digital marketing, CLM pricing, and sales and channel management.
For more information, please contact:
US media contact: Alyssa Kehoe, Digennaro Communications, McKinsey-DiGennaro@digennaro-usa.com, +1 917 518 8422
UK media contact: Ruth Jones/Becca Ross, 3THINKRS, mckinsey@3thinkrs.com, +44 0208 0872843
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