A Lucrative Connection: Getting Personal with the B2B Buyer
A common mistake digital marketers make is confusing consumption for connection. Visitors come to the website, browse multiple pages, and stay for a while, yet conversion rates are dismal. Read on to see how personalization can help.
Digital Marketing is all about Personalization
For all of the visibility and engagement online marketing offers, it also presents an imposing hurdle — pervasive anonymity and a lack of opportunities for genuine human connection. You can throw a million dollars to bring a million visitors to generic landing pages, but your ROI most likely won’t justify the expense. Therefore, mass consumption does not always result in viable and lucrative connections. What does, however, is personalization.
An email will never feel quite as impressive as a warm smile and a handshake, obviously. But personalization, such as referring to a person’s name or content that’s relevant to them, goes a long way toward building a connection without physically interacting with a would-be customer.
Data Doesn’t Lie
Now, more than ever before, digital technology has allowed us to nurture, engage and convert potential customers by gaining insight into the data behind their online persona. Those online behaviors, on-page actions and general engagement speak volumes about the type of customer this anonymous individual really is. For many B2B marketers, one of the most important assessments is the type of customer that will lift sales. It is estimated that 98% of online consumers are currently misunderstood by companies hoping to gain their business.
Once you know what a visitor is viewing (via web analytics) and what their interest level may be (via lead scoring), you should personalize marketing materials that will resonate with the particular focus and state of mind of the customer. Cut through the annoying cold calls and generic email forms and rely instead on personalized assets to achieve measurably higher conversion rates throughout the sales funnel.
Too few online marketers are exploring the myriad of personalization opportunities available. If you were to visit an online marketing conference today, you’d discover that the majority of industry “shop talk” hovers on the issue of email campaign strategy. While emails are an excellent way to reach prospective clients, that channel lacks the omnipresence of automated display advertising, which offers a light, persistent touch on ABM target accounts.
You’re probably thinking, “sorry, but my B2B sales cycle doesn’t operate at the speed of my B2C counterparts because ads can’t engender the trust created through weeks and months of emails and phone calls.” True, the most personalized display ad cannot replace a knowledgeable sales representative. What it can do, however, is ensure that sales representatives get their foot in the door through increased brand awareness, giving them a potential customer to convert. It is estimated that companies deploying personalized strategies experience a 19% increase in sales over their competitors.
Stay Top-of-Mind Throughout the Sales Cycle
Staying top-of-mind during the sales cycle is a challenge for B2B marketers. Deploying personalized campaigns across a diverse array of channels goes a long way. Lead scoring, personalization, and nurturing via email are some of the ways to build compelling responses for buyers based on their behavior, ensuring that your messaging is both timely and contextually accurate. Thanks to account-based marketing ad platforms, like ListenLoop, you can extend that level of personalization to your ads, too.
B2B buyers have so many options available to them when purchasing products and services. Finding your way to the top of the heap should be your number one priority. Companies that adopt more personalized approaches to digital marketing reap quantifiable benefits, so consider how you will enhance your digital campaigns with personalization.
