Commercial prospecting is the sinews of war and packaging industry is no exception to this vital business process. Still, many companies in your industry have not taken the step of digital marketing to generate qualified leads. However, in these times of high demand for the market, it is important to be recognizable (and spotted!) By your future customers directly on the internet. This is the principle of inbound marketing, a commercial prospecting technique that you can easily implement thanks to Hubspot. We explain everything in our article!

What is the meaning of inbound marketing? 

We hear more and more about inbound marketing in B2B markets. A true marketing strategy created in 2006, inbound is now establishing itself as an essential lead generation technique in the era of generalized Google search.

Whatever your sector (wood, plastic, cardboard, glass, paper, metal), your sales representatives must adapt their prospecting to this practice because traditional techniques are less and less efficient.

Unlike traditional canvassing strategies where you go to find the customer where he is, inbound marketing is about bringing the customer to you. This is the difference between outbound and inbound marketing. This is about redirecting everyone who is looking for a packaging solution on a search engine to your website and solutions.

These prospects will land directly on your website, and will contact you directly: you will know that they are already interested in your products. It will be easier for you to persuade him of the value of your packaging to his business, since he will have already seen your products and read relevant content written by you.

To start with inbound and apply it to your sales prospecting, you need to equip yourself with a suitable CRM tool: your sales teams will spend less time canvassing companies and more time converting them to inbound leads. into clients. Hubspot compiles all the tools necessary for inbound marketing: it is in fact both a marketing automation tool, a CRM, but also a content and social media management tool.

How Pack-2B and Hubspot help you boost your B2B sales prospecting?  

Pack-2B has prepared a four-step method for you to boost your business development through inbound marketing. As official Hubspot resellers, we support companies like yours in these steps to generate additional business and take the lead in digital marketing.

Define lead generation objectives and monitor them 

First essential step: know what you are getting into and put the means to get there. Set goals with the SMART method: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound, and track them to understand which channels are most effective. Inbounding also allows you to better control your marketing costs because it is a more ROI approach. .

Think like your buyer personas to better target your campaigns

The most strategic part of attracting customers to you is identifying them and knowing their needs. This part, if done well, represents 70% of the work. Depending on the type of packaging you sell, your personas can be logistics and purchasing directors, marketing directors, product managers and traders, here are some questions to ask yourself to get to know them better:

1. What are the needs of these targets (deadlines, sectors of activity, production scale, packaging, etc.)?
   
   
2. Which themes interest them (eco-responsibility, cost control, solidity of - packaging, food safety, personalization, etc.)?
   
   
3. Which materials are preferred by this type of customer for their packaging (cardboard, recycled and / or recyclable materials, plastics, kraft paper, etc.)?
   
   
4. Which arguments can you use to convince them to buy your product?

>>> LEARN MORE ABOUT : B2B Marketing and Packaging industry : how to boost your sales ?

Inbound puts your customer at the center of attention: the goal is not to sell them your packaging once. It is really about meeting their need and supporting them throughout the buying process. You have to bring him as much value as possible through your business relationship, to build loyalty, lead to re-purchases, and make him a long-term customer.

You must therefore follow your customer and communicate the right elements to them at each stage of your buying journey, which can be constructed as follows.

Let's take an example :

- Awareness of his need.

Your customer is developing a new cheese product, he needs specific packaging that meets the standards in force for foodstuffs. He searches the internet for existing packaging solutions for his products. Great, you've written a blog post on what to consider when choosing food packaging, and a white paper on the benefits of your patented cheese packaging.

- Consideration of your solutions.

Your prospect downloads your white paper. You have his contact details to call him back and present him the solutions that correspond to his project and send him an email with the case studies of your former clients, in the same sector of activity. He has selected you among the providers for his product.

- Purchase decision.

That's it, you are in discussion with the client and in the process of signing the contract. Send him a promotional offer or a comparative document highlighting the competitive advantages of your products to be sure to sign it.

Create high added value content and distribute it through blogs and forms 

A good practice for getting your customers to come to you is to create high-value content written for them based on their position in the buying journey. Thanks to this, you position yourself as an expert in your field, packaging and packaging.

Create white papers, blog posts, brochures, videos, infographics… to answer the questions your prospects have. For example, if you specialize in cosmetics and your customers are lipstick producers, write high value-added content on: What criteria should be taken into account when choosing lipstick packaging?

If your information really helps the prospect, you'll gain legitimacy and they'll be more likely to trust you when it comes to buying lipstick packaging.

Here are examples of content to create to maintain the business relationship.

- Discovery, and awareness of their needs (White papers, Guides, Reports, Studies and research ...)

- Consideration of your solutions (Webinars, Customer cases, Product sheets, etc.)

- Purchase decision (promotional offers, samples, comparisons of your products with those of competitors)

Especially at the awareness stage, this content must be free because it is necessary to gain the trust of your prospects: on the other hand, you can ask them for their contact details to send them a white paper: in exchange for your content, you will have their email address and / or phone number. This will allow you to contact him again to find out more about his projects and support him in his process.

It will of course be necessary to distribute this content on relevant media to attract the attention of your prospects in the right places (blog, social networks, website with "call-to-action" or clearly visible action buttons).

Lead nurturing using sequencing and workflow tools 

Hubspot also allows you to do lead nurturing, which literally means "nurture the lead". It's about building a relationship of trust with your prospect by sending them relevant content until their conversion into a customer. The right things sent at the right time can convince a lead to take the next steps in the buying journey. You can automate this part thanks to the e-mail sequencing, workflow and task creation features.

Here you are, now you know everything about what is necessary to set up in your business to accelerate your packaging sales. After the global pandemic of 2020, there is a strong demand in your market: now is the time to put in place an effective lead generation strategy.

Pack-2B is the only marketing agency specializing in packaging. Our experience of more than 20 years in this sector allows us to know your challenges which facilitates and accelerates the profitability of your marketing and digital marketing actions. So, to convert and retain customers effectively, don't wait because there is a unique strategy tailored to your needs, your culture and your business history. Get on the bandwagon, contact us!

>>> TO GO FURTHER  : Lead generation in the packaging industry: Best practices