Given the long sales cycle, digital marketing in the B2B technology sector has remained relatively static, focused only on incremental changes. However, business leaders are realizing that in today’s climate, incremental innovation is like walking on quicksand – it will keep you busy, but you won’t get very far.
As in every other industry, the marketing funnel has evolved. More and more B2B buying behavior is online and takes place well before the buyer ever gets in touch with the vendor. As we build and deploy the robust digital infrastructure necessary to reach the buyers, who are increasingly insanely busy, we need to:
Personalization is the holy grail in B2C marketing. The benefits of monitoring, understanding and predicting an individual’s behavior to create targeted, meaningful, real-time interactions are undeniable. In B2B digital marketing the process is more complex because the buying unit made of many individuals. Therefore propensity data is vital to personalize inbound visits from B2B buyers. B2B digital marketing also requires that we look at the entire sales funnel and develop a content strategy that adapts to the buyer journey based on intent and persona.
While most industry experts particularly in B2B technology sales turn to more selective communities for information over channels like Twitter and Facebook, I predict a return to social in coming years for B2B technical product marketing. With a more sophisticated use of social we can understand who the true influencers are in the buying unit, then surround them with meaningful content and measure the activities we trigger them to take part in. Ultimately the goal is to get them to create organic, engaging content about our brand that carries credibility.
Pilot programs are essential for 2 reasons: One, they can be used to test assumptions before making significant investments. Two, they can be used to understand more quickly how activities might play out against primary KPIs in order to maximize an organizations returns. For example, how can content be sequenced to drive high value activities during the purchase cycle such as driving a download, doing an online product demo or filling out a product evaluation more quickly. By defining these high value activities and checking the metrics early using pilots, we can consistently iterate and improve throughout a given time period.
In the omni-channel journey across the website, email, social channel and mobile, relevant content pushes the buyer further into the sales funnel. Using firmographic and behavioral data to customize web and mobile experiences, marketers can build relationships with buyers, guide them and accelerate the purchase cycle. The goal is to make content experiences consistent and additive in a sequence that makes sense based on their behaviors and research needs.
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