Any answer to what’s next in B2B marketing must involve an increasing focus on buyers as people rather than just business to business. This human element has attracted a lot of play in the B2B marketing lately and it’s justifiable to a great extent.
There are several changes and trends that help you stay ahead in the B2B marketing world. For example, paid, earned, owned and shared media. But, the glue that combines the different departments, tactics and technologies is the common ground and goals.
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Only if the business marketers start viewing the B2B marketing from the buyer’s perspective, they will be able to create more meaningful marketing experiences for buyers. Let’s capture deeper insights to the B2B marketing from a customer centric viewpoint.
One of the biggest changes in the B2B Marketing field is the rapidly increasing technology budget for CMO. In fact, it is predicted that the CMO will have a larger IT budget than the CIO by 2017.
As the three aspects converge viz. the Marketing, Sales and Customer Service, CMOs are being asked to take on the responsibility for creating brand awareness and generating leads, along with nurturing those generated leads by delivering information that encourages purchase. Moreover, he is held responsible to provide relevant and timely customer service communications. As such, it won’t be wrong to say that NextGen CRM is all about personalizing and enhancing the B2B buyer’s journey of product research, buying and usage; and the CMO is increasingly becoming the company’s Chief Journey Officer rather than just the Marketing Officer.
In the coming days, no specific distinction will prevail in the different types of marketing viz. the B2B and B2C. In fact, the distinction will become irrelevant because everything will be marketed to the individual, and controlled by your smart devices.
Take an example of an alarm waking you up in the morning. It won’t just wake you up, it will update you regarding the latest traffic news and a reminder to leave early; may be because your car is almost out of fuel. As you listen to the other reports on your phone, you will find all the commercials customized for you. For instance, you might hear a promo on a new product/service fueled from the Google search you did last night.
An upcoming study of organizations globally will provide a clear evidence that it is not actually the businesses that buy, but the human beings that act as a force behind decisions that affect the buying process. This revelation will certainly send shocking waves to the communities that sell to businesses. The BP2BP (Business Person-to-Business Person) will replace B2B.
Thinly-veiled principles will be adopted from consumer marketing like strategy telling, copywriting, and b-Learning. Copywriters will have more freedom in their writing. Stock photo websites will probably see a drop in sales. It will be really hard for some businesses to accept that business people arrive with the same hopes, fears and aspirations that drive consumer decisions.
