B2B marketing has seen simpler times – which isn’t a bad thing. But today’s digital landscape has changed everything. B2B customer behaviors – from how they understand and purchase products to how they evaluate and interact with a brand – have shifted how agencies employ marketing tactics to make a greater impact.
In supporting a client’s digital evolution, the greatest influence an agency can have is to utilize exactly what their client does best. A strong agency will push companies to think bigger and create a unique experience for their client’s target audience.
Reach goals with smart objectives
A digital strategy is no different than a traditional marketing strategy – a B2B company sets its goal, sets its target audience, and launches a campaign. The main difference when it comes to a digital campaign is the number of levers to pull is so much greater, including the high number of data inputs that are leveraged to measure success.
Primary and secondary goals are critical to a digital campaign’s success. For example, primary goals may include how you grow your marketing campaign, track ROI, and earn more sales. Whereas your secondary goals might be understanding how you stack up against the competition through industry trend research. But it’s important to remember, when it comes to your sales team, sales goals are not marketing goals, and the best path is to find middle ground for every objective.
The beauty of the customer journey
A customer journey is a beautiful thing. Ultimately, it means you understand the motivators that influence decision-making to help build a long-term relationship.
Putting yourself through an actual customer journey as you ideate your campaign will help you when considering your goals. What would be the ideal experience to get where you want your customer to go? Would it be one you’d want to take if you were the customer? Campaigns rarely create conversion through a single source. A customer journey is an intricate map that identifies the valuable insights about your customer that leads to conversion. Utilizing these multiple channels that work together make for a successful digital marketing campaign.
Placing data first
Data informs your customer journey. This is the era of intelligence and the customer now expects as much. Starting with data gives companies and agencies the ability to use objective facts as leverage, and then use creative strategy to build upon that to tell a compelling story. From there, measured results show what you can learn from a campaign. Each campaign should be backed with actionable insight that was gained from the previous campaign, making your approach an evolution of knowledge.
Digital presence is no longer an option. It’s a necessity to survive and grow. Success is not possible by using one marketing channel, so companies and agencies must work together to communicate the same message across all channels.
