Effective use of web analytics to measure marketing campaigns, and offering customers an easy-to-use website, are two common traits of successful online B2B companies, Forrester Research says.

There are many digital commerce tactics, and a few that are particularly common among successful companies, Forrester Research Inc. says in a report issued last week.

One trait of the most forward-thinking e-commerce practitioners is applying web analytics data to measure the success of marketing campaigns, says the report, which features a “digital maturity model” to evaluate a company’s B2B digital progress.

Another common trait of successful companies is having a clearly defined method of providing a good online customer experience—such as using web analytics to determine the website design and online buying features that produce the most interactivity—and, in turn, sales—from customer visits.

Forrester refers such stand-out e-commerce practitioners as “differentiators.” Based on a 2016 survey of more than 1,000 “marketing decision makers,” it found that 97% of companies it defined as differentiators had a “clearly defined customer experience strategy,” and that 93% of them applied analytics to measure the success of their marketing campaigns.

By comparison, among companies it defined as “skeptics” of digital strategies, only 38% had a clearly defined customer experience strategy and 46% applied analytics to measure the success of marketing.

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To help skeptics get more involved in digital strategies, Forrester suggests that digital “change agents” within such companies devise small projects—such as interacting with new customer prospects through social media—that can quickly prove to senior executives that digital strategies can produce useful results. “B2B digital pros can make the case for investment in digital by piloting small projects and gradually nudging executives toward new habits,” Forrester says.

In an example of a differentiator’s strategy, Forrester refers to a meat distributor that developed a mobile app designed to let clients scan barcodes to quickly re-order products. The app also freed up the distributor’s sales reps to “focus on large orders and seasonal buying” instead of helping customers with routine orders.

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