Six Key Takeaways From the B2SMB Institute’s Leaders’ Forum

Winning, keeping, and growing customers can be difficult in any environment. For B2SMB professionals during the COVID-19 crisis, it’s been harder than ever. Centerfield’s President of Business Services Scott Norwalk joined seasoned leaders at the B2SMB Institute’s Leaders’ Forum in an important discussion on the opportunities and challenges facing this unique $500 billion marketplace today.

Norwalk’s particular session, “3 Big Views of the State of Small Business,” focused on the most important things all B2SMBs need to assimilate. Norwalk, alongside Eric Groves, CEO/Cofounder of Alignable, and Stephanie Gorski, Managing Director at Accenture, shared actionable insights from the latest research, including their strategies for growing customers in 2022 and beyond.

Here are six key takeaways:

1. Stay up to date on the latest in content marketing. Test out short-form video on your lead form page. Research shows that having one of your employees introduce the service and explain what to expect next could increase leads by up to 20 to 50 percent. 

2. Become a thought leader in your space. Proprietary research is pivotal. Within an oversaturated B2B market, it’s difficult to reach consumers before your competitors do. By launching your own surveys and research, you’re able to reach more consumers.

3. Learn how to balance personalization and automation. If you’re not using automation tools to optimize your marketing campaigns, you’re likely not seeing successful outcomes. But, if you don’t take the time to personalize your automation, you will see less-than-ideal conversion rates. Find the sweet spot.

4. Future-proof your business. Consider opportunities in future tech and determine how you can incorporate it in your business. Figure out how your company can break into the metaverse and get ahead of the trend — it’s going to be the next Zoom. 

5. Don’t be afraid to do something a little quirky or bold. It will almost always be well received. Looking to showcase data-heavy content? Don’t include it all on a slide because you’ll likely lose your audience. Instead, drop a QR code on the slide and let them review the data as you provide the narrative.

6. Create a customer advocacy program. The best way to convince somebody to buy something is by reading a review from a source they trust. By creating a customer advocacy program, you are showing the many faces of your loyal clients and building trust with future prospects. Having trouble getting people to submit feedback? Offer them an incentive (10 percent off, free month, etc.).