You’ve no doubt noticed that “customer experience” or “customer journey” is all the rage in B2C marketing right now.
It’s all about creating a seamless and humanized experience for leads and current customers across multiple platforms – but should a B2B marketing agency take a similar strategy?
Well, your B2B buyers are also consumers for the 16 hours a day they’re not at work.
They want you to treat them like individual human beings – not merely extensions of the company they work for.
Here’s how to choose a marketing company that understands the importance of forming a human connection with prospects, leads, and current customers.
How to Choose a B2B Marketing Agency
There’s a new concept in marketing called B2E (everyone) or B2P (people).
It means that at the end of the day, you’re marketing to individual people – even if you’re targeting full teams or entire companies as part of an ABM strategy.
In our digital world that relies on data, it’s easy to neglect that there’s a single person behind every email address and number. They deserve to be treated that way and your B2B marketing agency should understand that.
They Understand That the Line Is Blurring Between B2B and B2C
83% of B2B buyers – compared to 84% of consumers – say that the key to winning their business is treating them like a human being.
Personalization is vital for meeting B2B expectations now. 85% of B2Bs say that they might look elsewhere if a business doesn’t take steps to personalize the very first interaction – that’s a lot of pressure!
Features like adaptive content hubs, content bingeing, and self-nurturing landing pages can help you meet buyer expectations and create the personalized experience they want – whether they realize it or not.
An adaptive content hub offers personalized content recommendations to every visitor based on their browsing behavior. Here’s what it looks like in action:
They Take Steps to Clean Up Your Data
Discouraging research shows that only 1 out of 5 organizations are running effective personalization strategies.
Why? Well, one big problem is that they’re not working with accurate data.
Business data starts to rot a lot faster than consumer data. People change jobs, get promotions, switch roles at a company – all of this impacts your personalization strategy (especially if you’re running an account-based marketing strategy).
In fact, up to 62% of organizations are working with data that’s nearly half incorrect.
Your B2B marketing agency should strive to help you collect genuine leads with features like human lead verification and clean up the bad data you already have so you can create a successful B2B marketing strategy.
A B2B Marketing Agency Should Help You Create an ABM Strategy
Frankly, not every B2B marketing agency has the skills or resources to help you develop an effective account-based marketing strategy. However, they should at least mention the topic and point you in the right direction.
When it comes to personalization, it doesn’t get much better than ABM because you’re personalizing content with a specific company and job role in mind.
They Understand the Importance of Integrated Marketing and Social Selling
What do the most lucrative industries have in common? They use effective social selling strategies.
Social selling involves much more than posting on social media. Your marketing company should understand that social selling involves the following:
- Participating in conversations
- Connecting with your best customers
- Building a strong brand authority on the right platforms
Social strategies are important because they show customers and leads that you care about and value their opinions and problems.
Your B2B Marketing Agency Should Have an Effective Exit Intent Strategy
What happens when a lead tabs away from your website? If you’re throwing a form at them, you’re just pushing them away even further, faster.
Instead, give them more of what they came to your website for: great content.
No one wants to fill out a form as they’re trying to walk out the door. Instead, use personalized popups like this:
A B2B Marketing Agency Should Put Mobile Experience First
Research from Think with Google shows that roughly 70% of all B2B searches will happen on mobile devices in 2020. Furthermore, B2Bs will spend between two and three hours each day researching from their smartphones.
A mobile-friendly website is a necessity – not a luxury – and there’s nothing less mobile-friendly than forms and fully gated content.
When a lead arrives at your website from a Google search result or a link they found on social media and they’re hit with a form before they can access your content, they’re not going to deal with filling out the form on their phone. They’re just going to hit the back button and look for the information somewhere else.
Instead, let your content breathe. Let your leads browse your website at their own pace and provide their email address when they’re good and ready.
They Mention Plans to Create a Customer Management Strategy
65% of business buyers say they’d consider switching vendors if a company didn’t start personalizing communication. Your marketing agency should track intent data so you can continue nurturing current customers before they jump ship.
The buyer’s journey doesn’t end after you close the sale. Give them personalized content to build your relationship in the long-term and maintain your customer base.
Level-up Your B2B Marketing Strategy with Personalization
A B2B marketing agency should immediately take steps to personalize the buyer experience across your website and landing pages. Forms and fully gated content have no place on mobile screens – they just push your visitors away and tell them to find the information somewhere else.
Instead, we recommend lifting the blockade on your content so your leads can self-nurture and educate themselves. It works, too. In fact, you can skyrocket your lead conversions by 51% and content engagement by 305%!
Want to see what a B2B marketing strategy without forms can accomplish? Check out our personalized exit-intent popups.