When you’re looking for a product or service, what’s the first thing you do 9 out of 10 times? Go online to google (the verb) that product/service so you can research it, get a feel for its value to you, and find out where you can buy it.

Right?

No matter if it’s in their business or personal life, people rely on the Internet to tell them the best brands of products and services. They usually start the process by googling a general term for that product/service. For B2B companies, showing up on the first page of those search results is critically important—the higher in the rankings, the better.

But if consistently addressing search engine optimization (SEO) is too time-intensive, or you don’t have the in-house knowledge to do that, or you just want to double up on the chances a prospect will find you when they’re looking for your product, you can try pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.

PPC 101

PPC stands for “pay-per-click.” In simplistic terms, you create a simple text ad with targeted keywords, and when someone clicks on that ad, you pay the website a small fee. Because you’re paying money per click, the website that is hosting your ad—commonly a search engine, but not always—will place it at the top of the search results, or the top of the page, or in the “news feed.” The more you’re willing to pay per click, the higher you’ll be listed in relation to other companies that have bid on those same keywords.

The top two results are ads that match the keywords “B2B software solutions.”

The Cost-friendliness of B2B PPC Ads

Paying $1 per click, for example, may seem like a lot, but it's really not, compared to the benefits you can receive. The people who click on the ad link tend to be more qualified prospects already looking for your product/service/solution. If not, they won’t click on it, and you won’t have to pay.

If you can convert a fraction of those who click on the ad, you’ll likely make more than enough in sales to make the PPC ad investment worth it.

Because it’s (by far) the most-used search engine in the world, you’d want to focus your PPC campaign on Google Ads. You can also advertise on social media sites and blogs that target the same audience as your marketing efforts.

The Benefits of a PPC Advertising Campaign for B2B Companies

If done right, PPC advertising can offer some enticing benefits for B2B companies:

• They’re cost-effective because you’re only paying when a user clicks on your ad and goes to your landing page or website, rather than paying for the ad to run for a length of time
• You can choose how much to pay
• It’s targeted, so you can choose your audience according to demographics and interests
• You can use PPC ads on many different sites: social media, search engines, blog posts, online newsletters
• It’s measurable, so you can determine how much return you’re getting on your investment
• It’s customizable—if it doesn’t seem to be working, you can make adjustments to improve performance
• You can see the impact of your PPC efforts almost immediately

It’s Not As Easy As it Looks, Though

But, as with any effective marketing strategy, a lot goes into crafting a successful PPC campaign. You’ll need to research and select the right target groups and keywords, write a relevant ad with the keywords in the right places, and make sure the landing page that the ad leads to is optimized for conversions.

That’s where a full-service B2B marketing/branding/creative agency like BayCreative can help. We’re experts in crafting content for a variety of marketing materials, including PPC campaigns. If you’re looking to increase your leads through the use of PPC ads, please let us know.

 All the best,
- Team BayCreative -

There are more than 500 million PowerPoint users and 30 million PowerPoint presentations created each day around the world. It’s a medium that B2B audiences are familiar and comfortable with, and a well-designed PowerPoint presentation will keep or recapture your audience’s attention.

Just as importantly, it’s a medium that puts presenters at ease: According to one study, 91 percent of people feel that a well-designed slide deck would make them feel more confident when giving a presentation.

The Advantages of PowerPoint

“PowerPoint presentations have a lot of advantages,” says Anne Spencer, a senior designer at BayCreative. “They have a ‘made for me’ feeling about them. Unlike a brochure, a presentation can feel like it’s been prepared for the specific meeting or occasion."

“It’s often the case a B2B executive, marketer or salesperson will find inspiration for something at the 11th hour, and it’s easy to make last-minute changes to slides because of its ‘open’ format that allows for easy edits to copy, imagery or animation," adds Arne Hurty, BayCreative's Chief Creative Officer. "And it’s a very flexible format. In the hands of a skilled designer, a PowerPoint presentation can have quality rivaling any presentation format. Even animation, when handled well, can make people forget they’re looking at a PowerPoint deck.”

The key that keeps coming up, though, is that the PowerPoint deck has to be well-designed. If your deck isn’t, you’re wasting your time.

So here are BayCreative's recommendations for creating compelling B2B PowerPoint presentations that capture and keep the audience’s attention.

Best Practices for B2B PowerPoint Presentations

• Keep is short: It’s easy, when preparing a deck, to ramble on. This is pretty natural and probably happens because people do their thinking while working on slides, essentially drafting the outline of what they want that slide to be instead of creating the actual slide. It’s important to edit back and be cognizant of the talk track that’s going to happen. You don’t need everything that’s being said to appear on the slide. Sometimes a simple image is the best way to accompany all that’s being said
• Keep it legible: In keeping with simple, consider how far people might be from the screen and how hard it is to read small type or see small images. Usually people are sitting pretty close to screens when working on slides, and it’s easy to forget how hard it might be to see that same copy from a distance
• Build around company messaging: PowerPoints should be in lockstep with all your most current messaging, visual ID, and campaign work
• Play off the speaker: The speaker is the star of the show and the PowerPoint is there to make them look good. The goal is rarely to have the audience staring at presentation slides during most of a presentation. Make slides that compliment what’s being said
• Consistency: You want to avoid a presentation looking like it was cobbled together from a bunch of other presentations. Have a consistency in design and style throughout a presentation; a theme or graphical continuity that carries through. There are a million ways of doing this, with color, fonts, imagery
• Thoughtful animation: Watch a movie or a show on TV. Notice the transitions from scene to scene. In almost every case, they are either abrupt changes of scenes or very quick fades. You don’t see scenes flying as a grid or spinning around to reveal themselves. Nor does it make sense to do that in your PowerPoint. Think about what’s going to serve best. A fancy transition is making more of a point about the transition than it is about the slide being transitioned to
• Keep it current: Update your slide as necessary, but especially when there’s some kind of a trigger—such as new messaging, new products, new executive hired, new competition, new event, or new industries you’re trying to penetrate

Give Power to Your Message—and Get Help If You Have Limited Resources

PowerPoint is tremendously flexible and portable, which makes it an effective marketing tool. It works for everything from small, intimate, sales presentations, to keynotes at large conferences and is a great tool for self-running presentations, either sent to people directly in email (because file sizes are small) or run at a tradeshow.

By following the best practices we've laid out, you can create great B2B PowerPoint presentations that look professional. Or, BayCreative can help you do it (here are some examples of our PowerPoint work).

Executives, marketers and sales reps often have too much on their plates to devote the time and resources necessary to build and maintain truly effective PowerPoint presentations. That’s where outside help like BayCreative can come in handy. If you need help creating outstanding PowerPoint presentations, please let us know.

 All the best,
- Team BayCreative -

The math is simple...

The more leads you have on qualified B2B prospects for your product, service or solution, the more customers you’ll end up with. That’s why 85% of B2B marketers say lead generation is their most important content marketing goal, and why 53% of marketers say half or more of their budget is allocated to lead gen.

By “lead generation,” we specifically mean cultivating the names and contact information of people and businesses who have shown interest in your product/service/solution. Once in place, lead generation campaigns allow you to fill out your sales funnel with qualified leads with little active effort on your part. Instead, you can you focus on converting those new prospects into customers.

Cultivating those leads takes time, but there is a straightforward method for doing so.

How B2B Lead Gen Works: An Overview.

An effective lead gen campaign is built around an offer of something of value to the prospect, such as a white paper or webinar that tells them how to solve a common problem. You create the piece, post it or the information for accessing it on a landing page on your website, and then post ads and send out emails and sales letters spreading word about the offer.

When the interested prospect signs up to access the material, they provide you with their contact information. Your sales team can then maintain contact with those prospects and gently move them down the sales funnel.

The Foundation of Any B2B Lead Generation Campaign is the All-Important Offer

The offer (sometimes called a "magnet") must hold some value for your prospects to convince them to share their contact information. After all, nobody enjoys getting sales calls, so they’re not going to just hand you their phone number or email address for nothing.

So your offer has to be informative and narrowly tailored to your prospects. Give them something they can use right now, and if it happens to be connected to your product, that’s great. (It should definitely connect with your product/solution/service. Don’t give them a baseball card price guide if you sell CRM software.)

What Content Will Work Best for Your Lead Gen Offer?

Some formats perform better than others at converting leads; it all depends on your audience. What would they prefer—an eBook or a webinar? A white paper or an online demo?

According to Hubspot, here are the types of offers that generate the most amount of leads, in order of performance:

• eBooks or guides that explain how to do or accomplish something or that walks the audience through a process
• Templates or presentations that make their job easier, lay out a step-by-step process, or provide them with a script
• Research and special reports, which are more educational and are especially popular among service companies
• White papers that have a topic of high interest to prospects. These are frequently about a new technology, recent innovation, or a new way of doing something
• Kits, which are really multiple offers packaged together. These often include a brochure, video card or CD with a demo, customer success stories, technical specs, and more. These work best with prospects who already know your company
• Live webinars and on-demand videos, which are really a white paper or special report done in an instructional format

It’s important to test different types of offers with your audience to determine what works best for your company.

How to Get Your Lead Gen Campaign Done

63% of marketers say their top challenge is generating enough traffic and leads. That’s partially because they don’t have the internal resources to devote to it: 61% of B2B marketers report that a lack of resources such as staff, funding, and time is the biggest obstacle to successful lead gen efforts.

At BayCreative, we can provide you with the expert resources for a successful lead generation campaign that targets the right audience with the right content. If you’re ready to fill your sales funnel with qualified prospects, please just let us know. 

All the best,
- Team BayCreative -

Since 1998 BayCreative has served as a trusted digital partner to some of the best brands in the U.S. and beyond, providing a full suite of marketing, creative and branding services. With the rise of social media and other digital platforms, the cultural significance of brands has never been higher, with good brands having a staying power like never before. The services BayCreative provides allows businesses and organizations to elevate their brands to praise and success, and they have earned us some praise ourselves.

Our agency is pleased to share that independent research firm Clutch has just named BayCreative as an industry leader among brand consultants in San Francisco. Clutch is a B2B ratings and reviews platform that uses data-driven research and client reviews to help businesses make more meaningful partnerships. After being the subject of this research, BayCreative was ranked among the leading 15 agencies, out of almost 400 of the top branding firms in San Francisco.

"Although we have Clutch analysts to thank for this recognition, we owe most of it to our extraordinary clients," notes Arne Hurty, the agency's Chief Creative Officer and Founder. 

According to Clutch, the most important factor they consider when evaluating firms is what the agency's clients have to say about them, and BayCreative clients have delivered! Hurty continues, "more than 20 BayCreative clients have shared their stories of working with us, and as a result we have an outstanding rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars."

Although we have received a large amount of feedback, we were struck by the words of one of our clients. When asked what they found impressive about BayCreative, they responded by saying:

“BayCreative demonstrates excellent listening, flexibility, a clear sense of design, and a knack for creative problem-solving. The team works closely with us to accommodate changes to the statement of work and never turns down a request.”

Scott Danish, BayCreative President and Co-owner, reflects "We strive to be a valuable partner on every project we complete, and reviews like this let us know that we are hitting our mark. We appreciate this opportunity to keep track of how we are performing for our clients, and we cannot wait to see what else they have to say about us."

BayCreative may have been recognized by Clutch as a 2019 Top Branding Industry Leader, but the quality of our full suite of digital marketing and creative services has also been commended. We are excited to be featured as one of the top digital agencies in San Francisco on "The Manifest." The Manifest is a sister-site to Clutch, and serves as a resource for small to midsize firms, providing industry insights and how-to guides. In addition, BayCreative garnered recognition over the past two years from Clutch as a: Top California Service Provider, a Top Digital Agency, a Top Video Production Company, a Top Ad & Marketing Agency and Top Web Designer.

Danish adds "the BayCreative team is proud to receive this praise, but we recognize that we did not earn it alone. Thank you to all of our amazing clients... we absolutely could not have done this without you. If you are pleased with the work we have done for you, feel free to submit your own BayCreative review on Clutch. And if you are looking to elevate your brand and your business, don’t hesitate to drop us a line. These first two decades have been kind to BayCreative, and we cannot wait to see what the next few hold for us!"

All the best,
- Team BayCreative -

Beating the bushes for new clients can be disheartening. You make calls and constantly get voicemail. Send emails and a majority go unopened. Follow up and get ignored. Make a fabulous offer… and get ignored some more. You pay for a display ad in a trade publication and hope the right people happen to see it at the right time.

There’s an easier, less expensive, and more effective way to consistently fill your sales funnel with targeted prospects: B2B inbound marketing.

According to Demand Metric, inbound marketing generates three times more leads than traditional methods—and costs 62 percent less. So it seems like a worthwhile addition to your B2B marketing program. 

What is B2B inbound marketing? And why is it effective?

Why B2B Inbound Marketing Works

HubSpot coined the phrase “inbound marketing” in 2006. It means using a combination of relevant, informative content in various channels to increase your brand’s reach and draw people to your website, landing page, or tradeshow booth rather than outwardly pushing your brand, product, or service onto prospects. You attract people’s attention, engage with them, convert them to customers, and then delight them with more useful content.

It’s effective because by offering your audience something of interest and value, you’re cutting through their innate skepticism of advertising. If fact, it’s like you’re not even advertising at all. Rather, you’re communicating and helping them, and that difference can be powerful. You’re building trust, credibility, and momentum with your prospects and customers. 

Most Successful B2B Inbound Marketing Channels

The key to a successful inbound marketing program is to create content specifically designed to appeal to your targeted customers. Here are the most common channels used in inbound marketing:

• Thought leadership pieces such as white papers, eBooks, and infographics that you post on your website or present on industry websites. Those pieces of content show audience members how to do something in a new and/or better way. If the reader likes what they read, they may look around your website to learn more.
• Case studies. Here you’re showing the audience how an organization similar to their own solved a common problem—and maybe your reader will benefit from a similar approach.
• A Blog (like this one!) that offers useful, practical advice that the audience can act on.
• Videos that can take on the role of thought leadership, customer testimonials, product demos or blog posts.
• Social media campaigns that offer quick insights into trends or useful tips and tricks.
• Targeted pay-per-click campaigns on social media and online community pages that offer the promise of something relevant and useful to the viewer. It’s important that you deliver on that promise.

Inbound or Outbound? Both

An inbound marketing element can take some of the frustration and stress out of your marketing efforts by bringing prospects to you while you focus on outbound marketing efforts. That’s the key to an effective marketing strategy: It should incorporate both inbound and outbound marketing to capture the greatest number of prospects.

Lead Nurturing Accelerates the Sales Cycle

If someone choses to convert on your website (fill out a form) for certain types of content, you begin to identify at what level they are in your sales funnel. Designing and programming a series of lead nurturing workflows will help nurture these leads through the funnel over time in an automated fashion. Each month, as you add additional digital assets, these nurturing strategies get updated. It is common to have many of these campaigns running on your website.

Why?  Companies that automate marketing activity see up to a 10% revenue increase in just 6-9 months. (Source: Gartner Research).

Generally, it takes multiple touch points to successfully create a prospect. By building a relationship with a buyer, you can deliver the right content at the right time to move them to the next stage in the buying cycle. This allows you to deliver more highly qualified leads to your sales team and shorten the sales cycle when that conversation begins.

Email Marketing is Still an Efficient Way to Generate Leads at a Reasonable Cost

When you offer your website visitors useful or entertaining content, they choose to opt-in to your information by converting on your website forms. Email marketing is used to keep relationships with leads strong and to promote new content for effective lead nurturing.

Why? 50% of qualified leads are simply not ready to buy. (Source: Gartner Research)

Just because a website visitor becomes a lead doesn’t mean he or she is ready to buy. Email marketing is a great way to keep your name in front of your prospects. Moreover, one email blast can have different messages for different segments of your list. These highly targeted lists can improve your open and click-through rate, increasing engagement with a lead.

Make the Investment in B2B Inbound Marketing

Whatever mix you incorporate into your marketing efforts, you’ll need to invest either dollars or time. If you’re bandwidth is running thin and you need expert support, BayCreative can help. Please just let us know.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

From Forbes: “In order to stand out today, brands need something more. They need to focus on selectively, strategically positioning themselves as true thought leaders.”

From Neil Patel: “22 Inbound Marketing Strategies Your Startup Needs to Start Using Today”

In 2018, 52.2 percent of web traffic came from mobile devices. Another study found that on average, people consume 69 percent of their media on smartphones.

According to Google, 53 percent of mobile website visitors leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load, yet, most mobile websites still take longer than this. Putting people off with a poor mobile experience means you are losing them at the moment of their peak interest. Sure, they might make a note or check you out on their laptop later, but in terms of the relationship with the viewer, it’s terrible timing.

These stats are motivating to say the least, and it’s clear a website not optimized for mobile is not giving your audience what they need. But what shall we do about creating a great mobile experience?

To start, consider that mobile users are by definition less patient and more distracted. They’re usually out and about, and they’re viewing your website on a device designed to distract. Phone calls, alerts, pings, Twitter, Facebook, are all right there ready to draw attention away from your visitor.

Having a great mobile experience is about a lot more than just having a responsive site build. Design and writing, tailored for mobile, can play a big part and can help you compete with all those other distractions.

Here Are 5 Key Strategies for Making a Great B2B Mobile-Friendly Website

• Swap for mobile
  Consider substituting content for mobile. Along with the sizing adjustments built into a responsive design, are ways to swap content as well. You may have a diagram with a horizontal orientation at the laptop size, but swap it out with a vertically oriented version for mobile. You might shorten some content, or provide links to content that would otherwise be in a longer piece?

• Be wary of the scroll
  People have no problem scrolling—it’s even fun. But too much of it can be a pain, and be wary of long paragraphs and long blocks of copy. Try to break up the content with subheads, small graphics, paragraph breaks, etc. Pace those features in a long story so they can help the reader navigate a long story.

• Fat thumbs welcome
  Few things are more frustrating than tiny, tiny buttons that you’re lucky to click after the 3rd or 4th try. Make your buttons and other “clickables” big (even if that means a little more scrolling). And this goes double for pop-ups and splash screens. Frustration quickly turns to irritation, not unlike that person who stands a little too close while talking to you.

• Write progressively
  Whether your views are “progressive” or not, write content that starts at a high level and gets into the details as you go. Especially in the mobile universe where your attention span is anybody’s guess. People appreciate knowing what they are getting into with a story. Briefly finding out the main points up front, and then being presented with the option to delve deeper, gives readers options. You might even get some bookmarked pages out of this.

• Give them a clear path to follow
  Unlike print and other form factors for bigger screens, it’s difficult for readers on mobile to navigate story components like sidebars and other “featured” elements. Try to avoid long detours from the main story flow. That said, do include pull quotes and other shorter items in the flow. (Per the prior tip–those help readers to stay oriented).

Partner with BayCreative for an Exceptional B2B Mobile-Friendly Website

Creating a B2B website optimized for mobile devices requires both expert design and a well-thought-out approach to content. BayCreative employs experienced web designers and talented writers to help our clients develop sites that visitors can read and interact with no matter what device they’re using. If you’re considering updating your website, give us a call.

We are recognized as a top California Web Design Company on DesignRush.

We’ve previously talked about how B2B white papers can help bring in leads, convert those leads, and establish your company as a thought leader in the industry. All of those benefits hold true for eBooks, too:

• In Demand Gen’s “2017 Content Preferences Survey Report,” 63 percent of buyers said they were willing to register and share personal information in exchange for an eBook

• By identifying and solving problems in your industry, you show that you know your stuff, that you’ve paid attention to the industry and are an intelligent player in it

• By demonstrating your knowledge of the industry, you present yourself as an attractive option when researchers, the government, or the media are looking for someone in your industry to talk about a topic

• If you present real solutions to real problems, the audience will come to trust you, which can have a profound effect when it’s purchasing time

• By highlighting the features that are unique to your product/solution, you’re showing how it’s different from the competition’s

• Since B2B buyers rely on content to research and make purchasing decisions, eBooks allow you to present them with the research they’re seeking—and to suggest solutions to common problems that make your solution attractive

eBooks vs. White Papers

In B2B settings, eBooks are similar to white papers in that they explore a problem or antiquated process and then offer a solution or new way of doing the process. But eBooks take a wider look at the topic.

Here are a few ways the two are similar (and yet different.) We think they complement each other:

• eBooks are more about “how to” do something, while white papers take a closer look at a specific topic

• eBooks are broken into smaller chapters and use more bullets and pull-out boxes to maximize skimming and scanning; white papers tend to look denser and are more linear

• eBooks are based on ideas and trends of interest; white papers tend to be more data-centric and based on formal research

• eBools tend to be less scholarly, less formal, and less technical in language and tone; white papers have a more scholarly, technical tone

• eBooks will bring in more data—including deeper looks at trends, reviews, and more curated content used elsewhere

• eBooks are frequently used to initiate the buying process; white papers educate buyers through the decision-making process

Because of these similarities (and differences), eBooks are generally used in the earlier stages of the buying process—when the audience is still trying to narrow down their options and preferences—and white papers later in the process.

So, Which Is Best for a B2B Inbound Marketing Program?

In our experience, a combination of eBooks and white papers build a robust, effective inbound marketing program. That’s not just our observation, though: In the “2017 Content Preferences Survey Report,” 77 percent of buyers said they used white papers in the past year to research B2B purchasing decisions, and 67 percent said they used eBooks.

If you think one or the other might be right for you—or you’re unsure which is best at this time—please let us know. At BayCreative, we excel at creating engaging content of varying depth and lengths to fit our clients’ needs. When you’re ready to go, just reach out to us.

In a new study, 48 percent of B2B decision makers polled said B2B advertising is boring, and only 22 percent feel B2B advertising prompts them to take the next step in the purchase funnel.

In other words, current and traditional B2B advertising isn’t doing its job. In the same survey, 82 percent of decision makers said they wished B2B had the creativity associated with B2C. Eighty-one percent said they feel they would make better decisions if B2B advertising was more engaging.

The way forward with B2B advertising is clear: make it more creative and engaging for the audience.

As we’ve said before, even in B2B advertising, you’re talking to people, selling to people, not machines. Your content needs to speak to those people.

How do you engage them?

BayCreative specializes in creating engaging content for B2B clients, so we’ve offered an 8 step checklist below.

8 Step Checklist to Focus on Your B2B Audience

1. First and foremost, create content for a specific audience. That seems common sense, but so often, B2B content is created once, for all audiences, even though your audience is actually segmented. And because it’s created for all audiences, it comes across as too technical or too dumbed down, and the pain points don’t relate to the decision maker reading the content, or the messaging is simply off. Engaging content relies on knowing the specific audience you’re targeting and tapping into their hopes, fears, pain points, and situation.
   
2. Create content of value for the customer. Teach them something, or show them something they didn’t know.
   
3. Create stories that highlight your product/solution’s features and benefits, rather than list them. Case studies and videos are particularly good for this, but white papers and eBooks work well, too.
   
4. Include numbers that tell a story of why your product or service is such a valuable option for the company. That tangible evidence of value will have them wanting to know more if you’ve targeted your content correctly.
   
5. Share data. In the “2017 Content Preference Survey Report,” 76 percent of B2B buyers said that more data and research content would improve the quality of content provided by B2B vendors.
   
6. Consider tying your content to current events. People are interested in current events, so your content is more likely to engage them if it’s tied to current events.
   
7. Create a consistent, seamless brand message. The audience will become familiar and comfortable with your story and want to continue following it.
   
8. Keep it simple and easy to read. There’s no reason to show off how smart you are. You’re creating content to connect with the audience, not to inflate your own ego. Don’t write like an MBA. Write it right at the level that’s appropriate for your audience, and that’s usually going to be a lower level than you think. When you’re writing for a B2B audience, you want to be professional, but you don’t have to use overly technical language. Revise your content one more time to simplify concepts and explanations.
   

In Demand Gen’s “2017 Content Preferences Survey Report,” nearly half of B2B buyers said they rely more on content to research and make purchasing decisions than they did the previous year. And 77 percent of respondents said they used white papers for that research.

When asked reasons why they selected a particular vendor over others, 66 percent of respondents in Demand Gen’s “2018 B2B Buyers Survey Report,” rated “Demonstrated a stronger knowledge of the solution area and the business landscape” as significant; 65 percent ranked “Provided informational content that was easy to consume” significant.

Finally, 56 percent of respondents in that survey said thought leadership content such as white papers was important when they visited the website of potential solution providers.

So, do you have white papers on your website?

A white paper is a persuasive, authoritative, in-depth report on a specific topic that presents a problem and provides a solution. It’s not an overtly promotional document—the best white papers won’t mention the producing company’s solution until the end—but many or all of the features needed for the solution can be found—twist ending!—in the solution sold by the company that produced the white paper.

Not to brag, but we’ve helped a lot of enterprise, mid-market and SMB companies tell their B2B customer success stories. Doing so is always fun, and it helps our customers show prospects how the vendor’s solution has solved a problem that a company similar to the prospect’s company was having—and that they likely have themselves.

It’s important to show prospects that their peers are getting benefits from your solution, and to do so in their own words, because studies show that 53 percent of B2B buyers rely on peer recommendations before making any purchase decisions.

But there’s commonly one challenge we come across when building those stories: The customer has a challenge communicating the measurable performance improvements (metrics or key performance indicators [KPIs]) they’re seeing as a result of the new solution/product/service.

They may say "sales have increased", or they "definitely have better relationships with their clients and prospects", but they’re not able to give tangible data that supports those claims. Sales increases could be attributed to a number of factors, they’ll mention. Or they’re not sure how much interaction they had with clients and prospects before the implementation. 

And therein lies the problem: They don’t have enough “before” data for a great before-and-after comparison. And without strong, tangible data to support your solution’s impact, your success story will be weaker than it should.

For Convincing B2B Customer Success Stories, Start Early—Before The Implementation
But you (or we) can fix that problem easily enough. It just takes forethought.

You need to start collecting data before the implementation even begins. Early in the process have your marketing people ask the client questions like: "What are your specific goals?" and "What do you hope to accomplish with this solution?" 

Based on their responses, you’ll be able to figure out two or three areas that should improve after the implementation. Look at those areas and collect metrics associated with them. Write those metrics down for later. Then, after the implementation has been successful and the customer has (hopefully) been getting those anticipated results, go back and get those same metrics, which will now show improvements.

That will make for a persuasive before-and-after comparison. 

Other Roadblocks to Compelling Data—And How to Overcome Them
Sometimes, the lack of before numbers isn’t the problem. I have seen a variety of reasons why a customer hasn’t been able to provide solid measurable performance results: Some clients try to keep performance metrics confidential; others don’t invest in measuring performance results as well as they should; for others, the solution hasn’t been implemented long enough for good performance metrics; and, in some cases, the performance metrics aren’t that good, so they’re hesitant about divulging them.

I'd like to offer two quick tips if you’re having trouble getting great metrics from a customer:

• Consider waiting longer; if you do, will you be able to better measure impact and KPIs?
• If they’re concerned about revealing confidential numbers, or if the numbers aren’t really that impressive, consider using percentage improvements. An increase in sales from 50 to 60 a year might not sound too impressive, but a 20 percent increase in sales does!

BayCreative: We Get Them Talking
At BayCreative, we’re experts at drawing out the kinds of metrics that create strong B2B customer success stories. So if you’re looking to build your library, and tell some great stories, please let us know.