Sometimes in B2B marketing, we forget that it’s actually people we’re marketing to, not a corporation. Yes, that person works for a company, and yes that company is what may need your goods or services. But at the end of the day, it’s a person who is going to make that purchasing decision. When you focus on that person, and treat them like a person, that’s where magic can happen.
A personal touch
Ask yourself if you’d rather be seen as just another cog in the machine, or if you’d rather be seen as an individual. Not really a difficult answer. We’d all rather be seen and treated as an individual. So why aren’t more B2B marketers adopting a personalized marketing approach? They mistakenly think it’s more complicated or not worth the effort.
If you’re looking to kick off a more personal buyer journey, you can start by meeting your audience where they are—online. Don’t interrupt them with unsolicited calls, or worse, make them fill out tedious forms. Instead, use 3rd party intent data to know when they’re really looking and are open to being marketed to.
Remember, your job isn’t to sell, it’s to help them along the consumer journey. It’s about making the buyer feel in charge of the process. To do that, you can leverage DRIFT to create personalized playbooks to integrate seamlessly into the sales funnel.
None of the ‘B’s in B2B stand for boring
If you want people to get excited about your goods or services, then make an exciting campaign about them. There’s no rule that says B2B marketing has to be bland or banal. Far from it. You’re marketing to people, the same people that B2C creative is targeting, just with a different offering.
When we said before to meet them where they are, you also want to market to them in a way that fits in. If they’re scrolling on Instagram or Reddit, they’re looking for an entertaining escape. If you target them with something stale, they’ll skip it faster than you can say “B2B marketing fail.” Instead, if you can give them something that entertains them while informing them, you’ve got a good chance of moving them along the sales funnel.
Game the system
We mean that literally. Turn your marketing into a game. It’ll be interactive, informative, fun, and most importantly, not feel like a marketing ploy. When done right, your audience will spend more time on your site and think of your brand in a positive light.
Don’t worry. The fun and games are still marketing. That means you’ll get valuable information on a customer, what they’re looking for, and where they are in the buying process.
Basically, you’re increasing client engagement and stickiness. Through gamification, you can have your cake and eat it too. Or in this case, have your clients and prospects earn badges and learn more about your products (i.e. DRIFT certifications). It lowers the educational sales bar and increases engagement and account growth.
Save the thesaurus for Scrabble
Does anyone like jargon or buzzwords? No, really. Why fill your marketing with fluff language that makes it seem like you’re trying too hard? When we say you should speak your audience’s language, we mean you should speak like a person. You are a person yourself, aren’t you? Or have the robots already taken over?
Supposing that you are a person, our message is simple; keep it simple. People don’t have time to try and figure out what you’re trying to say.
By keeping it simple, you don’t have to waste time on explaining the “what.” Rather, you can start building a relationship.
In life, they say to treat others as you would like to be treated. The same holds true in marketing. If you treat your customers and prospects as you would like to be treated, they’ll feel good about moving along your sales funnel. It’s simple, really.
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