2 b or no 2 b?
The topic I’m about to discuss may sound a bit tragic: horrifying truth about Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) marketing approaches. I must confess that they are dead, both of them are dead. Irrespective of options they have and benefits they used to bring — I believe they are no longer good, at least for the IT outsourcing industry.
Business environment today completely differs from that just several years ago. With the uncontrolled and rapid development of wireless technologies and devices, marketing uses different client touch points now And these approaches are personal more than ever — they all about person, but a specific person within a specific business environment. Think of yourself, being a marketing or a sales person you do google your contacts, aren’t you? The Internet is the first noun to cross your mind when you hear about marketing outsourcing. In fact it is so, Internet indeed is the most convenient modern marketing tool.
With the rapid evolution of human-internet interaction, we became less and less formal in our business communication. We try to be as personal as it is possible, trying to add more and more personal tunes to the communication with our potential customers. So, what’s next, are B2C and B2B approaches gone for good?
Let’s take an imaginary but very typical IT outsourcing customer. It can be a big corporation with people in suits, mid-size IT company with guys in casual clothes, or just a startup of two people or a unknown entrepreneur with one-million idea. As you see, your target client’s profile is very divergent, so what should you do with personal approach to such a different audience? How you can reach them all. So let’s discuss it below.
Human-centered message. Create it and then let the business benefits be the added value. Describe business benefits from the position of human being of flesh and blood. You no longer communicate with a vogue image of a business entity, you communicate with a person instead. This person will read, accept and share your message, if you as a message initiator accept individual needs from a business point of view.
The understanding of no differences between B2B and B2C gives you a wider perspective on your marketing strategy: you can skip the dull B2B conferences which give you no or very small value and concentrate on B2C events, where product creators are talk and listen to you directly. Moreover, you should extend your social media research and promotion budget giving your company simple human face.
Human-centric marketing approach is the key to an effective IT outsourcing business. Put an individual at the center of your campaign. While you are planning your company’s promotion and communication, think of a person your entire campaign is targeted at. What type of message they would like? How long the video should be so that they watch it till the end? Generate more and answer all these questions and you’ll see what is essential for you marketing approach.
Do not offer standard things like quality just because of at least two reasons:
- everyone stresses it
- quality is not a value, it is a must
Offer them something like influence, great partnership, creative power, innovative ideas and their implementation, engineering talent, and knowledge.
Of course, every company is a unique one, which once again stresses you should never use universal approaches which unfortunately often resembles something like sell now, marketing strategy after. Do not forget that every strategy is based on your research data and experience, whereas and a great pipeline grows out of your strategy but the approach behind it all is more than one vague business can offer to another.
Please share your experience, opinion and questions in your comments or write to us: contact@artitmarketing.com; www.artitmarketing.com
