The B2B buying process has undergone a transformation, and so has the B2B customer. Let’s roll the clock back in time. Information about your company, services, products and solutions was not readily available, or if it was, then not readily accessible. The sales representatives were the first touch points for your customers to gather any information about your services, and for your company to gather information about them and generate leads.
This was a time when salespeople were ‘actively’ trying to sell products and services to potential customers, which is otherwise known as ‘interruption marketing’. Traditional marketing tactics like direct mail, telemarketing, tradeshows, etc. were the means to reach out to prospects. And there was no way to gauge the interest of your target audience in your offerings.
Now let’s come back to the present. Customers are no longer waiting for your salesperson to ring the door bell, figuratively speaking. With the emergence of digital technologies came information abundance, and with it a highly informed B2B buyer. The internet, social media and other digital platforms have overwhelmed the target audience with information with a multitude of options and competitive offerings to consider. While earlier, the objective was to capture your prospects’ attention, the objective now is to focus the attention towards your company. The changing B2B landscape has thus necessitated a change in the tactics for marketers, and this is where digital marketing comes into the picture.
Take a look at the modern B2B customer. According to the Marketing Leadership Council, on average, customers progress 60% of the way through the purchase decision-making process before engaging a sales-rep. 78% of B2B buyers start their research with online search (Eloqua) and 33% of global B2B buyers use social media to engage with their vendors (Social media B2B). These statistics clearly show the upending of the customer’s role in the sales cycle.
The role of digital marketing is to address this shift in the sales process by reaching the target audience in the right stages. The one common thread running through the transformation is building relationships. How well marketers build strong digital relationships with the customer base can impact the success of the marketing objectives. Companies have thus modified their B2B marketing strategies to include the digital channels and platforms like email, social media, content marketing, etc. to improve the relationship-building process, establish a strong brand presence and drive lead generation and nurturing.
Digital Marketing helps marketers meet major marketing objectives that they face in a B2B landscape.
Strong brand presence: By reaching the target audience early on in the sales cycle with a focused and relevant approach, digital marketing helps establish a strong brand presence with the audience. Content marketing creates a strong impact by catering to the information needs of the customers throughout the entire sales process and drives the demand generation for the products and services.
Communication Framework: Gone are the days when marketers struggled to reach and educate your prospects with relevant information. Digital Marketing creates a communication framework through multiple options like email, websites, search engines and social media which expand the reach and at the same time, allow companies to establish communities where potential customers interact among themselves and with the company easily.
Lead Generation and Nurturing: By syndicating content and information across a variety of digital channels and networks, lead generation can be improved. Digital marketing enables implementing highly relevant and focused targeting for the campaigns which ensures that the number of ‘relevant’ leads goes up. Providing interesting educational content for these prospects can build a brand recall and product preference much before the buy stage.
Analytics and ROI: The challenge with traditional marketing tactics is a lack of, or minimal, scope for analytics and measuring the Return of Investment. Digital Marketing provides actionable, updated insights for marketers on their initiatives which allow them to fine tune and optimize them. It also enables the measurement of ROI for each initiative to evaluate which of them work at any specific time and make the marketing plans more effective.
With more innovations and technologies in the future, more and more companies are adopting digital marketing as a significant part of the marketing blueprint. Digital is indeed the future!
