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Today I want to highlight a great B2B post by Apruve. Apruve sells a “B2B Credit Management and Automation Platform”. I can’t speak to the value of their product because I don’t use a service like that, but I sure can endorse their July 2017 blog post titled, “6 Ways to Successfully Market B2B Products Online”.
It’s All About Trust
Quoting Apruve: “At the core of every purchase is trust. A buyer should trust you enough, including the product or service you’re selling, to complete a transaction and hand you over their hard-earned money.”
Six Areas of Trust
So how do you develop trust with your potential customers a process that is as impersonal as online selling? Apruve breaks it down into 6 main areas:
- Have a clear value proposition
- Maintain a clear pricing structure
- Use high-quality product photos
- Take advantage of social proof
- Boost your site’s loading speed
- Simplify the checkout process
I obviously agree with all of these points or I wouldn’t have included them here! I’ll let Apruve add detail to each of these points. (There’s a link to the post at the bottom of this one.)
Taking Advantage of Social Proof
I do want to examine number 4 above, “Take Advantage of Social Proof”, in a bit more detail.
As cited in the Apruve post, TechCrunch believes there are five types of “social proof”:
- Referrals from credible experts, such as magazines and influential mom bloggers
- Endorsements by celebrities
- User reviews and testimonials, such as those featured on Yelp and other review sites
- Wisdom of the crowds, such as being listed in the top 10 most downloaded apps on iTunes
- Wisdom of your friends, just like Dropbox offering free storage space to users who convince their friends to sign up for the service
My point is this: As you can see from those five types, “social proof” is not making sure photos of your company outings are posted on your company Facebook and Instagram pages!It’s about gaining the trust of your potential customers.
Take a good look at that list and then review how much “social proof” your company has for its products or services. And if it has “social proof”, how much of that “social proof” is positive!
Link to post: 6 Ways to Successfully Market B2B Products Online
Note: My name is Dave Ingalls. If you need help with your SEO and/or Digital Marketing tasks, please review the B2B SEO Services and B2B Digital Marketing Services I offer.