The Future of B2B Marketing: It's All About the People
By William Johnson
24 Feb 2023
B2B marketing has been an important part of our economy for a long time. While it does share some similarities with B2C marketing, such as exploiting the fundamentals of human psychology, it always requires a different approach to be effective. In recent years, however, B2B marketing has started to change and has become much more people-oriented than it has been in the past. Let's take a look at the future of B2B marketing and why this new approach is becoming more effective by offering a better customer experience.
Offering a Better B2B Customer Experience
In the past, B2B marketing was all about convincing your prospective customers that you could help them to save time, save money, or make money. Or all three at once in some cases. This made B2B marketing very simple and streamlined in comparison to B2C marketing. However, B2B is becoming more people-oriented and, therefore, more complex in its strategies as a result.
But what does "people-oriented" really mean? Basically, in order to run a successful B2B marketing campaign, marketers need to have a better understanding of their customers. It's no longer only about convincing a decision-maker that you can help them save/make money and save time. Now you need to understand their company culture, alignment of operational values, and their branding. In other words, more focused and customer-oriented B2B campaigns are more successful because the customer experience begins before money ever changes hands.
Everything You Need to Know About B2B Marketing Success
Beating the B2B Paradox
Naturally, this new approach to B2B raises some issues. How are you supposed to cast a wide marketing net if you need to focus so heavily on the individual needs of your prospects? The answer is lead nurturing. While lead nurturing is nothing new, its placement within the B2B marketing framework has changed a bit. Leads need to be qualified faster so that B2B marketers can engage in lead nurturing sooner.
As you can imagine, this approach means that B2B campaigns will need to be more focused than ever to weed out unqualified leads that are a waste of budget. The sooner a lead is qualified, the sooner you can begin the customer experience and market to them based on their own unique business needs.
The Bright Future of B2B Marketing
Anyone could look at this change in B2B marketing and immediately lament the fact that it will be more involved and require more effort and personalization per qualified lead. However, this higher focus on personalization and lead qualification can also help companies to make better use of their marketing budgets. By weeding out unqualified leads faster, a business can put its marketing budget to better use by nurturing leads with a higher chance of conversion. Done right, this new form of B2B can easily be more effective than previously used methods that were less people-oriented.