Although it’s easy to see all the dramatic changes taking place in our physical world, changes in the digital world are often less noticeable.
The long-lasting effects of the pandemic aside, there are many internal and external forces pushing companies to accelerate their transition to digital.
The single most critical driver of change in the B2B space is changing customer expectations.
Millennials are now 50% of the workforce, and many have moved into positions that make executive and purchasing decisions. The generation coming behind them, Gen Z, is the first fully digital generation.
These new B2B customers and employees want everything to be online, available, accessible, convenient, seamless and fast, forcing companies to rethink every aspect of their strategies and programs – from brand building to lead generation to customer experience and more.
And while Millennials were willing to work with companies and help them become more tech-savvy, Gen Zers simply expect them to have this all figured out by now.
Being fully digital is no longer simply a goal to be achieved in the future – it’s a must-have for any company that wants to thrive today.
If we have learned anything in the past two years, it’s that all business is a digital business. Managing all operations, communications, business development, marketing, client services and projects remotely has created an urgent need to rely on digital systems to help us where people cannot.
As personal and business activities have shifted online, marketing has been presented with a unique opportunity to lead companies into the future.
We’ve already seen a drastic change in the way prospective clients and employees research, find and select companies.
Online search has become the number one source for making informed decisions. This will only continue to accelerate.
Studies show that today’s B2B customers trust digital sources (such as search engines, corporate websites and social media) significantly more than advice from a company’s representative or a sales professional.
This means your company must be found and seen as an expert online – web, search, social, video, industry blogs, webinars and podcasts.
Think beyond traditional B2B marketing “best practices.” For example, as consumers, we check ratings and reviews when considering a new purchase. What’s the equivalent of those on the B2B side? It’s testimonials, customer success stories, industry research, reports and data that support your company’s point of view, or a mention or relevant content from industry influencers.
Is local marketing important? Then ask clients to leave Google reviews for each of your office locations. To overcome any internal resistance, don’t think of them as consumer reviews – think of Google reviews as client testimonials and apply the same process for securing them.
Your website is more critical than ever. It’s a proactive member of your business development and marketing team and a lead generation and recruitment tool.
Today’s buyer journeys are largely self-directed and so your company’s website must attract, engage and convert. It must answer questions and provide the right information to the right visitors at the right time in their decision-making process.
It must also offer a path for deeper engagement. At the very least, your website should allow prospects to initiate their first contact without leaving the site.
Start by asking: How can we automate our marketing and sales process in a way that enables prospects to connect and convert with less human – but more human-like – contact?
Tactics such as providing self-directed online options for initial information intake; automating the new client and employee onboarding process; and adding chatbots, messaging and context-specific online forms for customer engagement align perfectly with how most people like to connect, engage and conduct business today.
You may be thinking, “Wait! What? Our offerings are too complex to automate with a chatbot!” That may be true in general, but since your team can’t be everywhere 24/7, bots are the next best thing and it’s worth challenging your assumptions.
Fortunately, today’s technologies make it possible!
Navigating your company through a website redesign is not an easy task, but it doesn’t have to be an ordeal. For more detailed information on the entire process from planning through post-launch, checklists and tips on avoiding common mistakes, download this e-guide.
At the basic level, personalization could mean creating and presenting highly relevant, tailored content and campaigns to individual audience groups. However, the goal is to create very individualized, very one-on-one, real-time interactions and experiences and use technology to do it at scale.
Think about how online retailers provide recommendations for what you may also like based on your shopping history or search patterns. Your website could be dynamically presenting relevant case studies and educational content based on your prospects’ behaviors or actions.
Marketers need to start looking at the engagement process through the eyes of prospective clients and employees, not the company. Think about what your website visitors want, for example – not what your marketing team wants, which is lead generation, but what they want:
We need to shift the way we think about the people we want to engage. Don’t think leads and funnels, think “having conversations with people we can help” – and doing so digitally.
Email has an ability many channels don’t: creating valuable, personal touches – at scale. (David Newman, Founder, Do It! Marketing)
Email marketing continues to be one of the most effective communication channels – unfortunately, it’s not used properly most of the time. The truth is: nobody wants to receive your generic, company-centric newsletters!
Your audiences want relevant, personalized content and offers that help them do their jobs, building trust and confidence in your company.
The reason email campaigns can be so powerful is that they can be so very targeted! To deliver more tailored and personalized messages and content to your subscribers, segment your email database into smaller groups.
Marketers who segment their campaigns notice as much as a 760% increase in ROI.
How you approach segmentation depends on your overall business and marketing strategy, the number of marketers and industries you serve, your geographic footprint, and so on.
Tailor your email content by industry, geography, job roles or other criteria, such as stages in the customer employee journey, where you should be serving up targeted content and calls to action.
It could be challenging for B2B companies to leverage channels traditionally perceived as highly youth- or consumer-focused, but you have to meet your audiences where they are.
Although there’s no standard prescription for what channels to use, learn where your specific audiences are and keep an eye on where they’re headed next.
If your company has always relied heavily on face-to-face interactions and live events, use the time you would normally spend doing in-person networking and attending events to do the same activities on LinkedIn.
But before you can successfully conduct business on LinkedIn, you need to make sure that your company page and key staff profiles help – rather than hinder – your progress.
In today’s virtual world, showing up online – and how you show up online – is as important as showing up in person, especially since you never know when someone may be researching you on LinkedIn. Do your company’s leaders and key staff make the best first impression on LinkedIn? Do their profiles build credibility and trust?
This article talks about using LinkedIn for marketing and business development.
To personalize content and experiences at a granular level and to present tailored communications to individual customers, you need to have meaningful customer data.
And B2B companies have to get much better at asking for information.
44% of Gen Zers are more likely to provide their personal data if it means they’ll receive a more personalized digital experience over a generic one. (Source: WPengine “Reality Bytes: The Digital Experience Is the Human Experience”)
Fortunately, we don’t need to know highly personal details like their shoe size. A few pieces of information could help your firm considerably improve personalization. For example, collecting your site visitors’ information about their industry, geography or job roles will help tailor content with what’s most relevant.
Even something as simple as scheduling emails and social media posts based on the East Coast and West Coast time zones isn’t possible unless you have this data. So stop asking only for email addresses in your subscribe form for fear that people may not want to subscribe. If they don’t, they probably don’t have real interest in your firm or what it has to say and offer. If they do see value, they will gladly “pay” with some basic info in exchange for more relevant content and communications.
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