4 reasons why segmentation matters in B2B landing pages

What makes B2B different than consumer marketing?

The answer to that question is, not coincidentally, an excellent list of the reasons why segmentation is so important in B2B online marketing — in particular, the post-click marketing work of landing pages and conversion paths:

1. Complex offerings, many value propositions

Most products and services offered to businesses are more complex than their consumer counterparts. In this case, “complex” is not a euphemism for “poorly designed and unnecessarily hard to use”. Rather, the jobs that B2B products and services are purchased for tend to be more challenging and elaborate — buying CRM software for your enterprise is an inherently bigger deal than deciding which detergent to buy at Target. Even when simple products are sold at scale to other businesses, suddenly pricing, availability, payment terms, delivery terms, return policies, etc. can all become major issues.

Due to this complexity, there are often many different value propositions within your B2B offerings — and which proposition will appeal most to a particular prospect can vary significantly. On top of this, even two prospects attracted to the same value proposition may frame it in a different way. After all, B2B offerings are enablers for others to achieve their business objectives, and each B2B customer is (rightfully) thinking about solutions in the context and language of their own business.

Why segmentation matters: the sooner you can identify and address the right value proposition for a prospect, described in terms of their worldview, the better success you will have in winning their business.

2. Multiple people in the sales cycle

Recommenders, influencers, decision makers — most B2B purchases involve more than one person. The larger or more important a particular purchase is, the more people likely to be involved. To close the sale, you ideally want to satisfy all of them — and at the very least win over the right alliance. However, each of these participants has their own perspective and set of issues. A marketer championing a new CRM is looking for certain capabilities to support their new strategy, while an IT manager is in the loop to evaluate the security and maintainability of the solution.

Keep in mind, the choices people make in their B2B purchases can end up in their performance reviews. Each participant sees their areas of concerns as not just risk for their company — but risk for their personal careers as well. Even if these are auxiliary roles for the main objective of the solution, everybody’s own career is a primary concern to themselves.

Why segmentation matters: you must speak directly to the hopes and concerns of each participant in the purchase decision, not only to answer their questions, but to signal that you recognize and appreciate their role, and that you are committed to serving their needs as well.

3. Relatively long sales cycles with multiple stages

Because of the complexity and the number of people involved, most B2B sales tend to take a while from first contact to final close. Throughout this process, there are distinct stages that buyers progress through — initial research, selection of relevant vendors, evaluation of vendors in iterative elimination rounds, determination of a preferred vendor, and final negotiations.

During each of these stages, participants on the buyer’s side are seeking information that helps them move from one stage to the next. In early research, your thought leadership — white papers, webinars — is the most valuable material to get to prospects, to frame everything that comes next. As the process shifts toward vendor selection, case studies, reviews, and competitive comparisons can help you stand out. In the final stages, connecting people at live events and offering time-sensitive incentives can have the greatest impact.

Why segmentation matters: B2B buyers are effectively different segments at the beginning of sales cycles than they are at the end, and you want to focus on helping them move to their next stage — and make sure you’re using the right tactics for the right moment in their decision process.

4. Wide disparity between your best and worst prospects

All businesses have some customers who are better than others. But particularly in B2B, there can be tremendous variance between customers in their scale and profitability for your business. Think of car buying. Consumers might vary between spending $10,000 to $100,000 for a car. But businesses, buying or leasing commercial vehicles, may range from spending $25,000 for a company van to $25,000,000 for a whole delivery fleet.

In B2B sales and marketing, the time and money you have to spend on prospects is your most precious asset. If you can identify your best prospects earlier in the funnel, and proportionally spend more on them throughout the sales cycle ahead, you will have a major competitive advantage over competitors who commoditize their online engagements.

Why segmentation matters: This isn’t just about optimizing your investment. Your best prospects are likely to identify issues and opportunities than are different than the rest, and you want to address them as early and as specifically as possible.