Launching a business has become far more complex over the last ten years. According to Investopedia – which analyzed years of data – out of the 843,320 new businesses that sprouted to life by the year-end of March 2021, 168,664 will fail within the first few years. Still, some of the most successful entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, Ikutaro Kakehashi, and Brian Chesky first dealt with failed companies.
That doesn’t hide the fact that the consistent statistic is, by the fifth year of business, 50% will fail. That number increases to 70% after ten years, according to Investopedia. Yet, there are still ways to take a business launch to the next level to mitigate failure risks. Let’s explore.
Be Buyer-Centric From The Start
Most of the attention surrounding a brand launch centres around the product or service and how to sell it – it’s the strategies that support product or service launches that grow a business. Yet, according to research by B2B International, just 14% of B2B brands are completely buyer-centric – that’s probably why B2B brands have an average customer satisfaction score below 50%, according to research by Writers Block.
The distinct lack of satisfaction might stem from the ever-growing desires from buyers that demand a B2C-like experience – 73% of them do, to be exact. What’s one thing that B2C brands do well to support a consumer-centric business approach? Loyalty programs and B2B brands can do it even better. Structured reward programs – click here for an example – are something 85% of buyers now look for before partnering with a business.
More spending, more referrals, and more brand awareness are what you can expect from introducing a loyalty program from the off.
Explore B2B eCommerce
Some insightful statistics support the need to consider an eCommerce-based business model. B2B buyers spend more time browsing the web doing independent research than they do weighing up options, and 85% of them found their supplier online before the supplier found them. Plus, in 2020, the global eCommerce market value was $6.64 trillion with an expected CAGR of 18.7% from now until 2028 – there’s a huge potential to capitalize on the growth of B2B eCommerce.
The growth of B2B eCommerce may be linked to the statistic that 73% of people involved in the buying cycle are millennials, all of which grew up in a technological growth era. Therefore, traditional B2B sales results aren’t favoured. Explore Shopify to see how easy it is to create a B2B eCommerce website to facilitate sales.
Get Social
Again, this might be fuelled by the fact such a large percentage of B2B buyers are from the millennial and Gen Z generations – but 84% of C-level and VP-level use social media to influence their decision. And 83% of B2B marketers use it to draw in new businesses. Those same marketers say that 80% of leads come from adverts on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a social media platform geared towards businesses, so it makes sense.
Interestingly, TikTok could be the next big platform to explore. TikTok’s key driver for traffic is that people use the app to learn. With more than one billion active users, it could be somewhat untapped potential for B2B brands to explore.
But don’t discount them all. HubSpot says that for every social media page a brand is active on, ROI and effectiveness can increase by 35% – a figure largely fuelled by the fact that most social media marketing is free.
Target Email Marketing
Even though the modern era of B2B business seems to move towards new marketing approaches – including the rising stars that are NFTs and the Metaverse – email marketing won’t go amiss. In fact, it’s essential. It’s something 81% of B2B marketers agree is their most used form of content marketing, and it’s a key metric that 90% of marketers track.
Plus, with an average return of investment of $42 for every $1 spent, it’s well worth exploring from the off. A professional newsletter detailing the launch of your business does bring positive results.
There are a million topics to speak about when launching a business. Everything from product pricing to the cost of procurement comes into question – but it’s the seemingly minor details like those mentioned above that really define a successful B2B launch. How will you use this advice to aid your business launch?
