Tuesday 3 September 2013

Things To Keep In Mind When Creating Your B2B Marketing Profile


Advertising is generally thought of as a description or presentation of a product, service or company in order to persuade people to buy it.  B2B marketplace is a great way to advertise or promote your goods or services. The amount spent on advertising in the B2B sector is very low compared to other consumer marketing.

Things You Should Know About B2B Marketplace

A B2B sale involves complex products unlike in a regular consumer sale. Generally, a consumer product is standardized and can be purchased without any technical knowledge of the product. On the other hand, an industrialized product has various complexities. In B2B sales, a raw material manufacturer might sell his product to an owner of a complex manufacturing plant. For example, a cotton manufacturer will sell his cotton to a mill to manufacture cloth. Here, an expert from the mill will closely scrutinize the quality of the cotton before purchasing it.
The advertising campaign should be drafted keeping in mind the quantity of goods to be sold. In a business to consumer sale (B2C), the quantity purchased by a consumer is much less, where as a business purchase is bought in bulk. This means a business client will surely put in great thought before buying your product since his large investment is at stake. A good trade discount or economic ordering quantities (EOQ) will induce the buyers to buy the product.
A B2B market is a common platform where buyers and sellers come together and hence it makes it easy for a company to find business leads though such a portal.
Business relations also play a vital role in B2B marketing. Cordial business relations help to generate trust and good business. In a B2B marketplace it is easier to create a long term business association once you satisfy the needs of your client. If the industry buyer is convinced about the authenticity of your product, you will find a long term business deal.
Some of the important things to bear in mind while creating your business profile are as follows:
  • Rational Buyers – Unlike consumers, B2B has to target professional buyers. Hence, you have to keep in mind that mere blabbering about your product is not going to help. The buyer is going to closely examine your product to ascertain its quality and authenticity.
  • Know Your Product – A professional buyer has prior knowledge of his requirements. So, any sort of pretence or efforts to sell your product might prove hypocritical. It will surely be obtuse to think that you can mesmerize the buyer with any promotional gimmicks. Therefore, make sure you have a logical presentation of your products before your clients.
  • Know Your Market – Knowing your buyers need beforehand is very important. It is always beneficial to research a bit about the clients demand in advance so as to provide appropriate service.
  • Research – A good market survey proves helpful to find the target groups or businesses for your product. A survey will give you confidence to present your product before the client. A B2B client is rational and hence cannot be tricked into buying your product. Here your market research will prove very vital to know the client’s demand.
  • Advertising Strategy – An economic instability in the market fiercely affects the business. In such situations a highly good advertising strategy will help your business survive the economic fallout. B2B advertising might not lead to growth during economic stagnancy but will surely help you secure your position in the market. An investment in advertising during economic downturn portrays a positive image of your business before your clients.
  • Look At Your Options – It is crucial to analyse all options available to reach your desired customers. The web is enriched with various business to business directories to directly contact your counterparts. All you have to do is market your products wisely on these portals. Other modes to promote your business include the print media, trade events, etc.
  • Budget – While you indulge in various modes of advertising it is important to keep a track of your budget. It is advisable to formulate a budget for your advertising campaign well in advance. This will promote a good marketing strategy and yield desired results.
So start marketing your business today!

B2B Portal: A Business Platform to Ultimate Productivity Improvement

by: Surya Patra
If somebody tells you that your present corporate website can be converted to a B2B portal which will help you significantly improve your company’s productivity in both of the two primary factors: Revenue Growth and Cost Saving, and that the portal can be launched in a matter of months with a very reasonable investment, what will be your reaction? Read on to learn how corporations all over the world are missing out from an opportunity, which can revolutionize the way they manage their businesses.
What is a B2B portal?
A portal is defined as an access point to World Wide Web. A portal is a combination of web pages, features and services which become a primary destination for users. The word was first used to describe the sites of popular Internet access providers or search engines such as AOL, MSN and Yahoo! At a later stage, the word “portal” evolved into something bigger covering business websites, where a corporate portal or enterprise information portal acts as a base for employees, customers, suppliers and other associates of a company to access corporate information and web services. A B2B portal is a distinct kind of website with features to conduct electronic business and manage significant parts of corporate business processes.
Benefits of having a B2B portal
Today, B2B portals are not just a fancy idea! They are an absolute necessity for all enterprises of any shape and size. The advantages of having a quality B2B portal are massive. Implementation of a true high quality B2B portal could have immediate impact on company productivity.
Revenue Growth
Revenue Increase from Existing Clients
Existing clients get faster and easier access to product information, quicker response to their requests, get better customer support and are able to buy products online.
Revenue Increase from Value Added Services
Once a B2B portal is set as the primary sales channel, freed resources can be used to create more value added services for clients. Some of the services that the portal may offer also could be utilized to generate more value.
Cost Savings
Order Processing Cost
If the B2B portal integrates supply chain management solution, it will reduce the cost of processing orders drastically. Studies show that similar solution can reduce cost of processing a purchase order from US$ 70 down in average to US$ 6 only.
Sales and support costs
Automated sales and customer support features integrated in the solution is capable of reducing overhead costs up to 30 percent.
Inventory keeping costs
Clearer visibility and forecasting ability thanks to various features of the B2B portal may help companies considerably reduce inventory keeping costs.
Other key benefits include:
Low customer acquisition cost
Branding the portal on the Internet effectively will help attracting customers from new sources. The cost of acquiring customers through online channels is always cheaper than other traditional methods.
Improve customer service
Ability to have constant interaction with customers through the B2B portal helps companies serve customers better. The B2B portal solution allows tracking the whole ordering process from payment to delivery and brings greater efficiency in customer service.
Reduce sourcing time cycle
The customers can select products from the integrated marketplace of the B2B portal and either sends purchase orders or using the shopping cart buy products out right. Buyers handle all their procurement related correspondence from a consolidated working page, which helps them react instantly and reduce time in document processing.
Community participation
Company buyers and sellers can create communities surrounding the B2B portal’s discussion board. This helps getting valuable feedbacks on time, building new partnerships using the networking ability of a community, and disseminating important information through out the members easily.
Real time access to current product information
Current information of a product is vital for an accurate buying decision. Updating product content and other information using customized forms as it is necessary, the company can help buyers and other associates take critical decision promptly.
Control rogue spending
Consolidated and automated procurement and approval method stops maverick buying in a company.
Main components of a B2B portal
Supply Chain Management
Supply chain management solutions can deliver great values to company’s existing systems. Implementation of these solutions will help achieving incredibly high return on investment and will have tremendous impact on company’s business, which include: better productivity, faster order processing, greater visibility, the elimination of maverick; or unplanned purchasing, etc.
Marketplace
This is the venue where the enterprises can post their products for sale. A sophisticated shopping cart will be integrated into the electronic marketplace in order to automate the buying process.
Auction
Electronic auction system can use both English and Dutch auction methods. For convenience the auction component can be integrated into the electronic marketplace. Online auction helps liquidate surplus goods easily.
Reverse Auction
This solution allows the company to automate electronic procurement, where suppliers compete for business real time online.
Storefront for Participants
Each associate of the B2B portal will get a Storefront that may reflect profile of the company, its products, services or other information.
Forum
A Forum or a Discussion Board is an organized, on-line interactive message board where participants conduct discussion on a set of topics by posting questions, comments and responses.
Internal Messaging System
Sophisticated Internal Messaging System allows a participant of the B2B portal send and receive messages from other participants and the company. Since the messages do not leave a secured server, participants would not be worried about sending sensitive information over the Internet.
Classified
Catalog based bulletin board allows company associates to post important notices in various predefined formats.
Directory of Companies
This is a listing of all registered associates of the B2B portal either by business category or by alphabetical order. An advanced search engine tool is incorporated in order to find a company based on data provided.
E-catalog
E-catalog a?? a hierarchy of product and service categories based on UNSPCS, a global products and services classification method that covers the broadest collection of industries and commodities available today, and designed to facilitate e-commerce transactions by providing geography-independent common nomenclature system.
Product Content Adding System
Product adding mechanism based on either easy-to-use wizard or simple but detail forms allow users to integrate products or services with accurate and up-to-date information.
Product Notification
The system can generate an alert and send by email to a user, who requested to inform once a particular product or service gets added to the E-catalog.
Numerous other features could be incorporated to an existing B2B portal depending on requirement, such as: News Aggregation using RSS feed, Contact Management, Electronic Journal, Press Room, Document Repository, etc.
Time needed to set up
Using ready made B2B Portal components from a provider like Rusbiz.com a medium size portal can be build or integrated to existing website within three to four months.
By developing a B2B portal ahead of your major competitors you can give your business a significant boost and make your company stand out from the crowd.

China completes the largest building in the world - architecture designboom art technology

it's one of the superlatives destined for a record book: 'what is the world's largest building?' a year ago the answer would have been dubai's international airport terminal 3, but as of july 1st the new century global center in the fiercely-growing mega-city of chengdu undoubtedly takes the title.  with 1.2 million square feet spread out over 18 stories in a glass and steel structure, the program includes what one might expect for a building of this scale: a 14-screen imax theater, shops, restaurants, offices, hotels (yes, plural), the reconstruction of an entire mediterranean village, an artificial beach with realistic sunsets and sea breezes orchestrated by the help of an LED wall (in a contemporary 'truman show' fashion), and a 500,000 ft2 art center next door designed by none other than zaha hadid. to make some spatial comparisons, the building could comfortably house three pentagons or 20 sydney opera houses. it's important to add as well that the entire structure was constructed in just a year, and stands as a testament to the will and ability of the chinese
The world's biggest building in pictures
A Look Inside The Largest Building In The World, China’s New Century Global Center