Why Smart Marketers Are Targeting the Other 97%

Reaching out to seasoned B2B buying teams is a task that requires subtlety, creativity, and flawless timing. So once savvy sellers glimpse their intentions through, their sales and marketing teams can work together, gently nudging these potential clients along their sales funnels.

Why Do Only 3% Of B2B Website Visitors Complete Forms?

That’s a shocking statistic, indicating that a vast majority of visitors prefer to avoid self-identification. Why? Presumably out of concern for the consequences. And this is a red flag for over-eager marketers.

There are indeed many reasons why such a tiny proportion of B2B website visitors are reluctant to complete lead-generating forms. They may well include:

Irrelevance: If the website’s content fails to speak to visitors’ needs, they see little value in filling out a form;

No incentive: Visitors may not see any reason to complete a form if there is no immediate reward for their time and data;

Mistrust: Many visitors are wary of unfamiliar websites and companies, leaving them hesitant about providing personal information;

Too difficult: Forms that are complex or detailed can discourage visitors, especially when not user-friendly.

Thinking Outside the B2B Marketing Box

This dislike of commitment among B2B procurement officers was documented as far back as 2014. Surveys have indicated form completion rates hovering between 2% and 5% for close to a decade. And all these faceless visitors represent lost reach-out opportunities for companies.

The most disturbing implication here is that 97% of marketing budget allocations used to attract website visitors are failing to break through this wall of anonymity. For pro-active B2B marketers, this is a clear sign that it’s time to leverage all available buying signals, prioritizing possibilities and tailoring responses to pre-defined personas.

A Hidden Marketing Goldmine

This uncharted and unplumbed 97% is a real game-changer for far-sighted sellers. As B2B procurement officers research wares across thousands of websites, they leave trails of digital breadcrumbs.

These digital tracks build up into an untapped reservoir of priceless insights. And it’s still largely unexplored, often underestimated, and generally misunderstood. In parallel, all these missed opportunities hint at the wealth of information lying around unheeded. and packed with actionable intent.

New Paths Need Innovative Approaches

For almost two decades, businesses have focused on luring consumers through interesting content presented on eye-catching websites. But the real challenge is far more than simply attracting steady traffic flows.

This is because most B2B purchases are team decisions, with multiple inputs. Depending on company size, procurement teams tend to expand with headcounts, rising from seven members in small companies to twenty people in larger corporations.

Every one of them has their own fields of expertise, with experience-based preferences and contacts built up during years on the job. Consequently, each procurement team member needs a personalized approach for maximum response.

Piggybacking on Anonymous B2B Visitor Signals

Businesses can identify new clients and target their marketing campaigns by using indications from anonymous B2B visitors. There are already several ways of doing this, and more will doubtlessly appear as Google makes good on its decision to phase out third-party cookies.

Website analytics tools monitor user behaviors, including pages visited, their interactions, and time spent on websites. This offers valuable clues on which visitors are more likely to be interested in a company’s goods or services;

Personalization makes content and messaging specific to each visitor, by using website customization tools to respond to their interests, boosting engagement and (hopefully!) conversion rates too;

Account-based marketing (ABM) targets particular businesses or sectors through individualized marketing campaigns, if company representatives frequently view pages displaying specific goods or services;

Retargeting website visitors displays messages tailored to people who have already been to your website by using specialized ads. This can improve the likelihood that they will become consumers by keeping your brand at the forefront of their minds.