CEO of Anteriad, a leading provider of B2B marketing solutions. Data-Driven. Tech-Enabled. Growth-Obsessed.
Many B2B marketers have successfully transitioned their strategy to include more digital channels as a result of Covid-19, when business buyers moved online as events, sales meetings and direct mail were put on hold. Even as in-person sales and marketing bounces back, this move online has only gotten more pronounced, according to a new research report that my company sponsored.
Today, the report finds, it’s not enough for B2B marketers to use digital channels like email, mobile and e-commerce. Simply communicating online doesn’t get at the deeper changes happening to the B2B purchase journey.
Marketers also need to build solutions for the “consumerization” of the B2B buyer. As B2B buyers start to use digital channels the way B2C buyers do (embracing social, video, commerce and content), B2B marketers need to step up with the appropriate experiences, and that means using more data and insights to drive a new strategy.
Use data to understand your buyer better.
Not every digital buyer is created equal. B2B buyers are embracing consumer-like elements, including self-service on their websites, but Forrester has found that the story is actually pretty nuanced. For example, Forrester’s report finds that while younger B2B buyers tend to be more receptive to self-service compared to older generations, they are also more likely to express dissatisfaction with their buying experience.
This indicates that even if younger buyers embrace self-service options, they likely need some human interactivity and communication to ensure they are happy along their purchase journey. For a B2B marketer, these findings point to one way forward: It’s critical to use buyer data to understand unique buyer needs.
• Understand the new buyer funnel. Take time to map out all buyer behaviors, and make note of behaviors that are “blind spots” where your marketing strategy hasn’t addressed changes. For example, some companies have added new stakeholders to their buying group, such as a chief privacy officer, while other companies may have younger buyers who have embraced mobile and are looking for more mobile-friendly content. These elements might not yet be addressed by a B2B marketer’s current strategy.
• Segment buyers in the funnel. While an overall assessment can help identify big gaps, successful marketing is built on a more individualized approach, and that requires deeper analysis. Look at buyers across a number of different factors such as title, location, budget size, company size and more.
• Embrace newer data and insights. Our recent research finds that the highest performing marketers embrace a wide variety of data, including intent data, which can help marketers pinpoint exactly where buyers are in the purchase funnel. Analyzing elements like recency, frequency and monetary value (RFM) can help marketers gain additional insights around the velocity and potential ROI of focusing on different leads.
Set up a cycle of success.
After these initial elements are in place, B2B marketers have what they need for the next major improvement: implementing a “test and learn” approach. With insights to feed the testing process, start trying new tactics to see what works with different kinds of buyers.
Simply launching a new strategy, such as email triggers or SMS messaging is not a guaranteed way to drive ROI. Rather, it’s the beginning of a learning process that will need to be improved over time. Different customers will react differently, so it’s important for marketers to consider layers of personalization in their approach. For example, testing different messaging cadences based on velocity metrics can help marketers find a formula that can be repeated with new leads.
The beauty of embracing a data-driven approach to marketing is that there is always fresh data to feed the cycle of optimization. As leads go through the funnel, marketers can start attaching revenue and value metrics to the new elements, creating higher confidence, which can act as a lever to get more budget and drive more sales.
Bring it all together with multichannel orchestration.
As marketers get a better picture of their buyers, it becomes clear that different channels interact with one another to create the complete picture of the buyer journey. No insight happens in a vacuum. While a buyer might have clicked on an SMS link to download an infographic, there is a trail of other activity happening before and after that click that provides the full picture of a buyer.
Conduct multichannel analysis to understand how your different channels interact and how different buyer groups respond to them. For example, it might make sense to trigger an email or a call directly after someone clicks on an ad or website, or it might make sense instead to wait a few days.
The rapid shifts to digital not only changed the channels that matter for B2B marketers, they’ve changed B2B marketing from what was once a relatively predictable set of activities to a much more dynamic, data-driven discipline.
I think the evolution of buyer behavior will only continue, including everything from virtual experiences to connected TV (CTV), AI-based interactions and more. Using data to understand buyer behavior and analyze the value of different marketing actions can create a new foundation that marketers can rely on to expand and improve, even as their buyers change over time.
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