The B2B marketing landscape gets trickier and more treacherous by the year. Buyer journeys are increasingly complex, there’s more and more stakeholders involved in decision making. The result is a labyrinth you can easily get lost in. B2B organisations are becoming increasingly faceless with potential suppliers. Physical touchpoints and interactions are waning. It’s a time for marketing to step in and deliver the right messages at the right time to the right people right across the conversion journey. Potential purchasers need a message that’s as personal as it is true.
Our CEO, Mat and Strategy Director, Sarah recently hosted a webinar deep diving into the nuances and complexities that make up these muddy B2B marketing waters. They covered:
/ AI’s impact on B2B marketing
/ The enduring relevance of email
/ The importance of brand differentiation and distinction
/ Using unique data for engaging and inspiring content
/ The intricacies of the B2B buying journey.
Sounds like something that’s right up your street? Don’t worry if you’ve missed it. We’ve distilled the discussion into a blog. Here’s our guide to the B2B marketing world in 2024. and how to make the most of its opportunities.
Balancing the double-edged AI sword
AI's role in transforming B2B marketing is both immense and double-edged. On one hand, it promises smarter targeting, efficient marketing operations, and highly personalized customer interactions. On the other, there's a risk of diminishing the purchase experience with over-reliance on generative AI content.
Research from Forrester shows that B2B customers are concerned that AI will increase the volume of content that does little to educate and inform. B2B customers, and especially C-Level and senior decision makers particularly value thought leadership and original research.
The answer lies in balance. Leverage AI to enhance, not replace, the human element of content marketing. Use AI for faster, smarter targeting and unique data points and research. That will help frame buying opportunities and customer understanding of category development and innovation.
The power of email
Many predicted it to fail and for a medium consisting of spam and crowded inboxes, email remains as powerful and trusted as ever, a cornerstone of B2B communication. With 56% of buyers still favour it for receiving B2B offers.
The key to its success lies in relevance and personalisation. Authentic engagement, selective sending, and enhanced personalisation are not just best practices but necessities in today's crowded digital landscape. Relevancy to a customer’s context and category have never been so important.
Brand Distinction: Beyond the beige
B2B offerings can often appear homogeneous, developing a distinctive brand proposition has never been more critical.
A great example of developing a distinctive brand is Salesforce, they operate in a category where it can be difficult to distinguish between similar CRM platforms. Salesforce has successfully built its brand through emotional storytelling, community engagement, and thought leadership. It shows that a strong, recognisable brand transcends traditional sales tactics, contributing to a deeper connection with the audience, and delivering higher saliency. Making it top of mind whenever organisations are considering a new CRM partner.
Content Creation: Utilise your unique data
A view and outlook that goes hand in hand with AI generated content - B2B decision makers most value unique, data-driven content that stands out in a sea of generic marketing materials.
Companies like Okta use their data to create content that is not only valuable but also unique to their audience's needs.
Shell Motor Oil provides its distributors and end customers with data related to its unique insights into potential market trends. This supports in buying products efficiently and with the capability to respond to potential price fluctuations, which helps customers to maximise margins on oil purchasing.
Both approaches not only distinguish their content from their competitors' but also cements them as a thought leader in their industry.
Finding, harnessing and using such unique data may seem a difficult approach to pull off, especially if you’re a lot smaller than a company such as Shell. But every B2B organisation has access to unique knowledge and data on their category and their customers. Therefore, every company has the power to be a thought-leader.
It's all about demonstrating expertise, values, and the ability to innovate.
The B2B Buying journey: Your audience is your compass
An average of seven people are involved in purchase decisions and there’s an increased reliance on digital touchpoints. Mapping this journey across customer experience and empathy provides valuable insights into the customer's mindset.
If you understand your customers' barriers, needs and positive or negative experiences at each phase of the conversion journey, you can ensure to create the right message, in the right format, in the right brand touchpoint.
Set SMART Objectives
To drive B2B marketing efficiency and effectiveness, it’s vital that marketing efforts are aligned to your business goals.
Setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timely) objectives is vital. SMART objectives should include clearly defined goals aligned to business outcomes. Examples of this include:
- Increasing share of search by 10% using paid programmatic advertising to drive brand and product awareness
- Optimising the brand website for conversion, to drive a 0.5% increase in lead creation rates
Touchpoints are priority no.1
As we’ve seen, customers are spending less and less time in face-to-face meetings with potential suppliers, meaning that digital marketing touchpoints are increasingly important, especially at early phases of the conversion journey. This shows the paramount importance of search in enabling product and brand discovery and the development of a connected digital ecosystem that engages customer stakeholders at each phase of the conversion journey.
Conclusion
Yes, the marketing waters are getting muddier. But wherever there’s challenge, there brings opportunity. From the best use of AI to create B2B content, to the importance of brand building and knowing your customers’ journey, it’s all about understanding and harnessing.
If you’re a CMO – create a better and more in-depth data infrastructure. Every company or person has the power to be a thought leader they just need the right information.
If you’re a Digital Marketer – think about how AI can help and enhance what you create. It’s a moment in the current landscape where you could either get ahead or get left behind in a sea of bland AI generated content.
For us all as consumers – In-depth understanding of consumers is the first step to making the B2B buying journey easier. It means you can give us the right message at the right time.