B2B Marketing 101 – For many B2B marketers, the normal marketing funnel that motivates prospects to self-identify then move to a sales funnel, is ingrained in our minds. However, within the Age of the Customer, the funnel has evolved to reflect a brand new customer expectation requiring sales and marketing to figure in tandem.
With this in mind, B2B marketers must gauge how their current B2B marketing strategy is associated with the psychology of the buyer journey. In other words, B2B marketers must posses the skills to craft a marketing strategy supported on the predominance of the customer.
So, we’ve outlined a series of steps to follow when crafting a customer-centric B2B marketing strategy. Ask yourself and your team, “have we checked the subsequent boxes when crafting our B2B marketing strategy?”
IDENTIFY TARGET PERSONAS IN YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY
Going through the exercise to develop personas supported by market and customer research is prime to understanding not only who is your audience but the way to engage them in a buyer journey. Incorporating marketing personas makes websites two to 5 times more practical and easier to use by targeted users. However, only 44% of B2B marketers use buyer personas. So, ensure your B2B marketing strategy includes persona-based experiences that moves buyers forward in their journey together with your brand.
MAP A PERSONA-BASED CUSTOMER JOURNEY TO DRIVE YOUR B2B MARKETING STRATEGY
Building out your influencer and decision personas to know your audience is merely a part of the method of laying a customer-centric foundation for your strategy. Next is to map the touch points of your buyer journey through all buyer stages. so as to shut the loop from awareness to revenue it is important to understand the touch points along the journey that are motivators and detractors in order to influence all parts of the customer experience. When developing your B2B marketing strategy answer the subsequent , “How do I craft a technique with the framework that aligns together with your customer’s journey to realize clarity and define priority?”
DEFINE AND MEASURE B2B MARKETING STRATEGY GOALS & METRICS
Perhaps a no brainer for a data-driven B2B marketer is clearly-defined metrics for achievement. With a heightened emphasis on personalization and customer experience (CX), B2B marketing goals and metrics must be established to measure the success of the marketing efforts supporting a customer’s progression through the customer journey. Your B2B marketing strategy must outline how it’ll create direct contribution to revenue with a return and fuel high growth.
A recent case study example from a technology platform and services clients is Viewpointe, a number one private cloud managed services provider. Viewpointe was challenged with continuing to interact customers over the course of a 6+ month sales cycle. After unmistakably defining their B2B marketing objectives, they aligned their content marketing strategy with their persona-based customer journey. As a result, Viewpointe stayed engaged with their customers throughout the customer journey and closed more deals. A method Viewpointe measured customer engagement lift was a 52% increase in persona aligned website content and 164% increase in blog content engagement from organic search referrals.
YOUR B2B MARKETING STRATEGY INCORPORATES ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS WITH SALES
Referring back to our earlier customer funnel illustration, the normal hand-off from marketing to sales, with no feedback circuit when a lead is “flipped over the fence to sales”, causing misalignment between B2B marketing and sales teams. In fact, 25% of B2B marketers don’t have any idea what’s their customer conversion rate. within the Age of the Customer, your marketing strategy should outline the way to burst out the proverbial fence and instead encourage inter-team collaboration. Ensuring this marketing and sales alignment is crucial to making a uniform customer experience along a buyer’s journey. Being intentional about sharing insights between teams is a method to encourage broad acceptance of a successful B2B marketing strategy execution.
YOUR NEXT STEP
With only 45% of B2B marketers confident that they need decent, if not high, levels of customer centricity, the time to is now to author your new B2B marketing strategy that elevates you above your competition.
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