Einfluss der Digitalisierung auf B2B-Vertriebsstrategien unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Social-Media-Marketing

Abstract

Companies are constantly faced with numerous challenges that they have to overcome in order to stay on the market. In recent years, one of the biggest challenges for many companies has been digitalization, which almost every company is confronted with. Especially since the global pandemic, many companies have been forced to digitize their business processes in order to stay on the market at all.3 In recent years, however, there has been a trend towards an increasing number of social networks. Not only are B2C companies integrating social networks into their sales strategies, but B2B companies are also on the rise.4 This bachelor thesis deals with the question of the extent to which B2B sales strategies are influenced by digitalization, particularly through the integration of social media. The bachelor thesis begins by discussing the influences of digitalization on companies in general. It then analyzes the goals and potential of social media, followed by the challenges that social media also entails. The next chapter deals with the influence of social media on customer trust and their loyalty to the company and whether social media plays a role in this. The final chapter looks at the recommendations for B2B companies when deciding to integrate social media. This includes different integration strategies, which platforms are most used in B2B and how to measure the effectiveness of social media. Qualitative research was conducted to gather insights. The first part of the bachelor thesis is the theoretical part, which was created through a literature review. The last chapter, however, is an empirical study in which experts took part in interviews in order to derive findings. The empirical part includes four interviews with experts who all have many years of experience in social media marketing and can therefore offer very practical insights. All statements are then compared in order to draw conclusions. After the in-depth analysis, the following findings can be derived: Although the literature shows that social media is equally important in both the B2C and B2B sectors, this cannot be clearly confirmed after the expert interviews. However, social media plays a very important role in the B2B sector, but is used more to build brand image and awareness than to sell products directly via social media. Personal contact remains increasingly important in the B2B sector in order to build customer trust. However, this is highly dependent on the companies, the products sold and the technological progress of B2B companies. Companies operating in the technology sector use social media much more frequently and for longer than those selling more traditional products. However, companies are increasingly being forced to build multiple touchpoints and operate more and more digitally in order to keep up with the competition and not to lose customers.

Date of Award	2024
Original language	German (Austria)
Supervisor	Stephanie Bauer (Supervisor)