Customer expectations are rapidly evolving. Business buyers now expect personalized, real-time marketing that’s just as seamless as what a regular consumer would experience. This means B2B marketers must be on the cutting edge of marketing trends. Luckily, there are now innovative tools, tactics, and measurements B2B marketers can use to keep up with what today’s buyers want.
We’ve gathered some key insights from Salesforce’s Trends and Tactics Driving Marketing ROI report to identify four ways marketers can succeed and raise their ROI to greater levels.
1. Let customer expectations guide priorities
Customer expectations should be your guide when it comes to setting up your B2B marketing program, as the most successful marketers base their strategies and tactics on their customers’ priorities.
Consequently, real-time engagement has become part of the course in successful B2B marketing, as 71% of customers now expect real-time communication from brands, according to Salesforce’s latest State of the Connected Customer report. To keep up with expectations, marketers are focusing their efforts accordingly – 89% of marketers identify real-time engagement as a priority.
Success, of course, goes beyond just goal-setting. Marketers are modernizing their toolboxes for personalization and other in-demand strategies. In fact, 89% of marketers list modernizing their tools and technologies as a priority, and 88% have also recognized the vital importance of unifying their customer data sources.
So ensure that your technology stack, tools, and data are still razor sharp to keep your B2B marketing program at the head of the pack.
2. Collaborate Across Teams
Full-funnel marketing is in, and business silos are out. 78% of customers, including business buyers, now expect consistent interactions across departments. That means your marketing, sales, and service teams can no longer operate in their own separate worlds.
Ninety three percent of high performing marketing teams have integrated their marketing and advertising stacks to ensure all communications are synced across all departments. Kiss silos goodbye, and welcome integrated departments – marketing, sales, commerce, and service teams must share common goals to ensure B2B marketing success.
3. Use channels strategically across the customer journey
In B2B marketing, channels aren’t one-size-fits-all. Buyers in the consideration phase have different preferences for communication than long-time customers engaged in upsell. According to the Trends and Tactics Driving Marketing ROI report, B2B marketers fine-tune their marketing playbook according to each channel’s strength at different points in the complex customer lifecycle.
4. Harness the power of artificial intelligence
Marketers have been quick to adopt AI because it drives ROI throughout the entire customer lifecycle. From data analysis to personalisation, marketers are creating better, more satisfying customer experiences in just a few clicks with AI. Among marketers surveyed, 88% report major or moderate ROI from analysing and applying customer data with AI, and 82% report the same from digital advertising personalization. With AI, the possibilities — and your potential ROI — are endless.
This blog post is an adaption of an article by Salesforce. To read the original article, click here (https://www.salesforce.com/eu/blog/2020/07/b2b-marketers-drive-roi.html).
