Social Media B2B

I have spent much of my “spare” time recently thinking about the B2B corporate Web site and what is wrong with it. I thought about the tactics of it for a while and that prompted my post about making a corporate site into a social network. However, I wasn’t thinking big enough. The problem with the corporate web site is that we need to change our expectations of what they should be doing. Currently, many companies think of a corporate Web site as a digital brochure that can help generate leads. This old way of thinking means that the Web site has a line item in the budget every year for “upgrades and improvement”

The corporate Web site should be completely removed from the marketing budget.

The corporate Web site should have nothing to do with the marketing budget. Instead, it should be a source of direct revenue. It should be treated like a business unit that can drive revenue. It is not only a passive lead generation tool. Sure, it can still generate leads, but it should do more than that. Every company has information that is valuable to someone: vendors, customers, analysts, etc.

Ideas For Monetizing Corporate B2B Web sites

1. Become A Niche Affiliate Marketer – If you work with distributors and other third party organizations to sell your product then you probably have a listing of them on your Web site. Why not charge some of them for better positioning on the list or negotiate higher margins in exchange for offering featured positioning and promotion. This is a controversial issue for some companies because they do not want to publicly show favoritism to a certain distributor. I would argue that you aren’t. Everyone has the opportunity to take this positioning, it is simply a business decision.

2. Monetize Data Through Paid Subscription – The great thing about business is that almost always someone has data and information that someone else wants. If this is the case for your business, then why not sell it. Do you have data that shows manufacturing patterns, risk assessments, industry certifications, and much more? Why not create a paid subscription area of your Web site where those interested could pay a monthly fee to have access to it.

Note: I am talking about data that is related to your business but is not valuable to your competitors. Instead, it is valuable to vendors in other industries.

3. Sell Direct – The complex supply and distribution chains that currently exist in many industries are in place for practical reasons. However, many of the situations that forced the need for distributors and independent sales reps are beginning to change. Due to the availability that the web provides to sell and distribute products and a relatively low cost, business-to-business companies have an opportunity to begin to shift to a direct sales model. Direct online sales isn’t going to replace the distributor any time soon, but it offers an opportunity to increase margins on a portion of sales which can help improve cash flow in current rough economic times.

Do I think that this approach would work with every B2B company? Probably not. However, trade associations, manufacturers and other groups under the larger B2B umbrella are in a position to make an important change. The competitive advantage and additional resources that could be leveraged from transforming a brochure site into one that generates direct revenue is a key opportunity to beat the competition.

Would do you think? Could your company do this?

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