It’s no secret that the oil and gas industry has a history of lagging behind others in terms of embracing digital marketing and online tactics. But, after the events of the last two years, it’s become increasingly more important for businesses to begin adjusting their strategies to a more digital model.
According to IBM, 80% of Business-to-Business buyers now expect the same buying experience as Business-to-Consumer customers. This means that regardless of industry, buyers want easy access to information and convenience when it comes to moving to the next steps. Consider the way you make purchases in your own life, whether it’s a car, a refrigerator, or something else – generally, your starting point for research will be the internet. What you see online can have a dramatic effect on your view of the products you’re reviewing and will likely impact your final purchase decision.
As with most industries, the largest energy product and services companies are leading the charge in the shift to digital. If you take a moment to Google some of the best-known businesses in the space, such as Baker Hughes or Halliburton, you will see the vast amounts of content displayed on their websites, giving prospective customers the ability to do extensive research quickly and conveniently.
Why do these companies do this? Don’t they want buyers to have to reach out to sales?
Of course, they do, but they know that 57% of the purchase process is complete before B2B buyers contact a company. If a buyer cannot easily find what they are looking for in your digital presence, they’ll move on to your competitors, and you’ll miss out on a possible sale.
While large, multi-million (or billion) dollar companies will obviously have far greater budgets and resources for their marketing efforts, there are plenty of cost-effective approaches to enhance online visibility.
One way to boost the budget for your digital transformation is to use the Government of Canada’s $4 billion Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP), which helps businesses get online, give their e-commerce presence a boost or digitalize business operations. Explore the grant and what your business could qualify for here: https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/152.nsf/eng/home
On top of grants, one of the of the most effective ways to find what’ll work best for your business is to talk to an expert. ActiveConversion has been providing digital marketing solutions to the oil and gas industry for over a decade. You can learn more about ActiveConversion here (www.activeconversion.com) and explore our case studies (https://activeconversion.com/resources/case-studies/).