You might have already sketched the marketing plans for the coming year. But how about the same for the remaining few days of 2018? Most of the B2B companies consider the last quarter as the best time to review all the campaigns as well as other marketing activities carried out in that particular year. And, based on the outcome, they draft a better plan for the next year. But they fail to realize what more they can do in the last few days.
Although it’s not yet late, let us not waste our time anymore. Before you hit 2019, call your team and organize a discussion among the members about the innovative ideas and strategies you can implement in the next two months. Apart from offers and discounts, you need to think about some well-planned techniques, sophisticated and structured frameworks for your business operations. These strategies will also help you in 2019 and beyond if appropriately implemented. Let us see what they are.
1. Focus on Product Experience
If you wish to give a sense of joy to your customers, you must always focus on selling the experiences rather than just selling your product. You are not the only one to offer such products or services to the audience. Many companies produce similar products under a different brand. Hence you and your team must always concentrate on giving the best and exceptional product experience for your customers which will leave a long-lasting impression on their brain.
Think of customer experience as a product and emphasize more on it than your actual product. This strategy makes your customers feel valued and thereby their chances of doing business with you increases. Also, they encourage their friends and family to experience the same feel. That is, it helps in word-of-mouth marketing with no much effort from your end. To do so, you have to understand your customer’s buying journey and their behavioral pattern in advance before providing a personalized experience for them.
2. Provide Expert Perspective
You can find hundreds of thousands of marketing topics online. And, if you are one among them speaking about the same stuff again and again, your customers will not pay heed to you. Hence to draw their attention to every single word you utter, you must provide expert talks or write high-quality, unique contents. To do so, you must know about all the happenings in B2B market space. According to Demand Gen Report, 96% of buyers in B2B segment always like to receive content with input from thought leaders.
A straightforward solution is to conduct a survey within your segment and pick the most surprising and exciting trends from it. Let the experts in your team analyze it and write their insights on it to build credibility to the content. Using these data, you can publish a whitepaper, eBook, infographic, company reports, and share it in multiple channels including social media. The more you provide these kinds of exclusive and useful contents, the more it inspires the customers to read and know more about your brand.
3. Take the Help of Influencers
Influencer marketing, one of the most popular strategies used by B2C industries has now slowly entered the B2B space. As per BrizFeel report, more than 50% of users on the internet follow some celebrities or influencers on social media. The industry leaders realized this fact and started utilizing its power to generate the maximum number of leads. It is like hiring a third-party expert to host your event or speak about your brand. These experts will have a considerable number of followers on social media platforms, and hence there is no doubt in influencing your audiences to buy from you.
Now influencer marketing is used in almost every sector. That is, right from agriculture to machine learning industry. The B2C sectors take the help of TV Stars, models, and singers to promote their product, but you cannot follow the same since it does not fit the B2B market. So, it is always preferred to hire analysts, thought leaders, or researchers with dedicated followers as an influencer of your company.
4. Deliver Interactive Content
Your customers can find various articles and blogs online that answers their queries partially. So, they always prefer interactive contents which are easy to understand. Also, it does not consume much of their time compared to long articles. The audiences want to experience the information instead of only acquiring it. But, how to create such contents for your customers? Video stands as one of the good examples of these kinds of materials.
According to Forbes, 64% of the viewers purchase after watching the video. Also, Wordstream says that videos placed on landing pages can increase the conversion by 86%. This statistical report shows the importance of interactive contents such as videos. There are various tools online that lets you customize the videos with your customer’s name and other information in it while sending it as an attachment in the email.
Besides, you can also add call-to-action (CTA) buttons in it that allows the viewers to contact you. And, also clarify their queries regarding that particular product or service. With all these advanced technologies available online, try to utilize them in your marketing operations instead of always providing plain contents for your customers.
5. Creative Decision Making
The customers are growing younger, and their expectations are higher than before. It is because of technological impacts that changed the face of almost every segment in B2B space. Hence it is necessary for every industry in the B2B landscape to ditch the traditional marketing techniques and integrate bold personality to resonate the buyers of the new generation. The industry leaders must involve in creative decision making that comes along with the risk to stay ahead in the competition.
For now, you may not see a lot of changes or involvement of fun in B2B space. But to keep up with the rapidly evolving thoughts of customers, you must incorporate fun and creative ideas in your marketing strategies. Your customers get quickly bored with your old ads or promotional emails. Speak to your team members and bring some changes in your campaigns. The changes will not only make your customer’s eye sparkle but also helps you in improving the sales figure.
6. Synchronize Sales and Marketing Activities
Most of the companies keep their sales and marketing teams separate. But it is always advisable to bridge the gap between these two teams if you wish to see a reduced sales cycle. The members of the sales team communicate directly with your customers and help in creating opportunities through demos or meetings. Hence if you segregate them from the marketing team, your audiences might receive the wrong information. It will provide negative experience to your clients.
If you unite these two teams and if they work in synchronization, you can quickly provide a customized touch to your marketing activities. That is, the members of your sales department will know the pain point of your customers. And, based on this factor, the marketers can design the campaign that provides the solution to their pain in a more personalized way. Hence it is always recommended for both the teams to work together and bring more value to the brand perception.
7. Know How your Customers Communicate
Technology has advanced enormously over the last few years. Your customers also expect the same level of advancement in your services as well as your products. Hence your team must understand their communication preferences and act accordingly to make them feel valued. For instance, your customers may like to speak about their issue on social media platforms. In such scenarios, you can establish yourself in such channels and listen to their problems carefully.
Also, in a few cases, consumers prefer voice search instead of traditional search since it is easy and quick. Your team should take note of all these new advancements and try to integrate the same into the marketing mix. Try not to leave your customers abandoned anywhere. The more attention you give on their interests, their chances of doing business with you increases. Besides, they promote your brand without even asking.
You may have to invest some of your time to learn your customer’s behavior pattern or buying journey. But this tip will help you reap the ultimate benefit.
To Sum It Up
With much of the days remaining in 2018, it is the right time to plan the final quarter of this year. The marketing environment keeps changing a mile every minute, and it’s hard to predict what might happen tomorrow. So, it is always recommended to keep yourself updated with the current changes and be ready for the future. Plan more and make yourself better equipped beforehand, so you can manage the changes when it happens.
We listed some practical strategies that work the best for almost every B2B business globally. Pick at least a few of them and integrate them into your marketing mix. And, see positive changes in your lead generation as well as conversion rates. These strategies will not just be of help for the end of this year but also for the next. Hence implement them in this quarter and learn the changes you can do on it in the coming year.
