Tag: b2b marketing

Those who embrace the forward march of technology are rewarded with massive boosts in efficiency and quality. The field of B2B marketing is no exception.

In the past several years, machine learning algorithms have been developed which allow computer systems to mimic human learning on superhuman scales. Researchers and computer scientists are just scratching the surface of the possible utility of these systems, but promising use cases have already been discovered in fields as diverse as healthcare, finance, and weather forecasts.

How can B2B marketers make use of these powerful algorithms to help make their lives easier and their messages more effective?

We’ll discuss what you need to know about machine learning in B2B marketing in today’s guide.

What Is Machine Learning?

Machine learning (ML) is a field of computer science that involves feeding data to computer systems and then using algorithms that allow the system to make predictions or take action.

Machines learn similarly to humans. For example, a young student who is just learning addition for the first time eventually can predict the outcome of any simple addition equation, even ones they’ve never seen before. Machines do the same thing, only far more efficiently.

Computers use complex algorithms to “learn” at a much faster rate than our human brains are capable of. This makes machine learning a powerful tool for automating tasks such as image and speech recognition or fraud detection.

Different Types of ML Algorithms

ML is still a burgeoning field of computer science. In the next several years, new types of algorithms will be developed, each with its pros and cons for marketers.

Here are a few of the most common ML algorithm types today so you can be familiar with their functions and get a feel for how you might use them:

• Supervised Learning Algorithms: These are trained on data that is labeled by the user so that the variables are known in advance. They are used to make predictions on new data based on what the system has learned from the input data.
• Unsupervised Learning: These are trained on data that is unlabeled so that the variables are unknown in advance. They can be used to identify patterns within the data without being given specific examples of what to look for.
• Reinforcement Learning: These algorithms learn by receiving feedback in the form of rewards or penalties based on the predictions they make. They are used to direct a system toward a desired behavior.

How B2B Marketers Use Machine Learning in B2B Marketing

Today, the best uses of machine learning algorithms are for tasks that require lots of repetition and benefit from increased accuracy. The fact that computers can perform these tasks far more efficiently than humans makes them perfect avenues to exploit this emerging technology.

Marketers spend a lot of time on repetitive tasks that can be better performed by a strong ML algorithm. Here are a few examples.

Data Analysis

Perhaps the strongest use of ML is to enable a computer to dig through reams of complex data quickly. Where a human could spend hours combing through information trying to spot patterns, an ML algorithm could accomplish the same task—with better quality—in just a few minutes.

One example of this is sentiment analysis. ML models can analyze customer feedback across any number of channels to gauge sentiment and report on trends. Marketers use this data to drive messaging and even influence product development.

Customer Segmentation

Marketers use supervised ML to better segment customers. By training an ML algorithm on the types of customers the business wants to target, the system learns to recognize them and the best way to reach them.

That’s not the only way ML helps segmentation, however. Marketers also use unsupervised ML algorithms to segment customers for them. This not only leads to better and more accurate segments but also reveals new customer segments that your business wasn’t targeting before.

Optimizing Marketing Campaigns

One key advantage of ML over a human is that the algorithm is far more efficient at learning and recognizing patterns. ML tests far more variables at one time and reports back accurately on its results.

When it comes to designing and optimizing marketing campaigns, this is powerful feedback that allows marketers to home in on the most effective messaging far more quickly than if they were simply A/B testing on their own.

Using ML to optimize and automate marketing campaigns is a quick way to boost ROI and deliver the best marketing campaigns to convert buyers.

Personalization for ABM Campaigns

Hushly is a big proponent of personalized, 1:1 account-based marketing for B2B marketers. The best ABM campaigns are those that are personalized for your targeted buyer. For example, check out our free B2B case study PDF and see how we were able to help NVIDIA personalize its complex messaging.

ML algorithms help the personalization process by learning about your ideal customers and how best to communicate with them. Machine learning models are used to personalize messages and offers, and improve customer engagement to boost conversion rates.

Predicting Consumer Behavior

Your B2B pipeline needs to keep moving. Identifying when customers are ready to make purchases is a big step toward converting them as efficiently as possible so you can begin the process of keeping them as a customer for years to come.

ML algorithms can be trained to predict customer behavior using past data. With incredible accuracy, these systems learn to identify which of your prospects are most ready to buy now based on factors like past purchasing behavior, website interaction, interaction with marketing messages, and even external factors such as holidays or economic trends.

ML can also identify which prospects are likely to churn, giving you the best chance to save the sale or cut your losses and move on to the next.

Optimizing Lead Nurture

A personalized landing page that displays relevant content to your buyer is a simple way to reduce friction and increase conversions.

An ML algorithm can be trained to identify what the best content to display to each buyer will be based on intent data. Then, it can automatically personalize your landing pages so that every buyer receives a rich and contextual buyer journey from the beginning.

The process of optimizing your landing pages will be ongoing as long as buyers and the marketplace keep evolving. ML can help you continually optimize your lead nurturing so you’re always ahead of the curve.

Hushly Provides the Benefits of ML For Your Marketing Operation Starting Today

From personalized landing pages to custom 1:1 ABM campaigns, Hushly has experience helping marketers grow their businesses using proven AI and ML tools.

Our simple-to-use, drag-and-drop system requires no internal developer and can be customized for any buyer within just a few minutes. This results in a scalable, optimizable marketing platform perfect for any business ready to grow. Brands use Hushly to enrich buyer experiences and maximize conversion rates.

Let Hushly create a demo for you today and start seeing the benefits of our platform.

A powerful tool for B2B marketers and sales teams, demand capture is a method of understanding who your ideal customers are, what they need, and how to target them. Believe it or not, roughly 79% of all marketing leads never convert into sales opportunities. Why? Because too often, brands focus their attention on the wrong people.

Instead of targeting those most likely to convert, they focus on those who are the easiest to get in front of. This is problematic for several reasons, the biggest of which is that it results in low conversions, impacting your bottom line. 

Instead of attempting to reach a broader audience, you need to narrow your focus to target only those who are ready to buy – that’s where demand capture comes into play. 

What is Demand Capture in Marketing?

Demand capture is a method of leveraging data and insights to identify prospects ready to convert into customers. It involves analyzing intent data to find those most likely to convert and then creating targeted campaigns tailored to their needs.

Is There a Difference Between Demand Capture and Demand Generation?

Yes. In a nutshell, demand generation focuses on building demand for your products or services, whereas demand capture is a strategy for actually converting those leads into customers. They’re two halves of the same process.

Source: Taikun Digital

How Does Demand Capture Work?

While approximately 91% of marketers say that lead generation is their top priority, only about 3% of your market is actively buying, with another 56% saying they’re not ready to buy. That means you need to be proactive in identifying who those 3% of buyers are so you can target them with the right information to convince them that you’re the answer to their problem.

The end goal of demand capture is to capture the attention of that small percentage of buyers who are actively looking for a solution to their problem and persuade them to buy from you. The only way to do that is through intent data. 

Intent data helps you understand your customers’ and prospects’ underlying motivations, needs, and interests. It’s collected from various sources, including web search activity, social media interactions, and email exchanges. By analyzing this data, you can uncover insights that can help you tailor your messaging to meet your customers’ needs better. 

Here are some ways you can collect intent data:

• Use advanced analytics tools that track and analyze user behavior on your website.
• Use user behavior data to create personas and identify the types of customers you want to target.
• Use keyword research to uncover trends in search terms that can help you better understand your customers’ interests. 
• Analyze the conversations and interactions of your customers on various social media platforms to gain valuable insights into their interests, needs, and preferences. 

While demand capture seems like it could be the perfect solution to your marketing challenges, it has its drawbacks, which is why it’s essential to understand the pros and cons of this approach. 

Advantages of Demand Capture

In addition to better understanding customer needs, demand capture can do the following:

• Help businesses identify new opportunities for growth. By collecting data on customer behavior and interests, companies can uncover trends in search terms and identify new markets to explore. 
• Personalize customer experiences. By collecting data on customer behavior and interests, businesses can tailor customer messages and offers based on their individual preferences. This can help increase engagement and customer loyalty, resulting in higher conversion rates and improved customer retention. 

Disadvantages of Demand Capture

Some of the disadvantages of demand capture are:

• Can be costly and time-consuming. It requires businesses to invest in technology and resources to track necessary customer data, which can add up over time. Additionally, it can be difficult to interpret this data and make sense of it to make informed decisions.
• Can be seen as intrusive. By collecting customer data, businesses can gain access to personal information that customers may want to keep private. This can lead to privacy concerns and prevent customers from interacting with the company. One recent example of this was the debate over the death of third-party cookies in the online advertising industry. While many would argue that these cookies were intrusive and an invasion of privacy, others believed they were essential for the industry’s success. 
• Can be unreliable. It relies on customers providing accurate and honest information, which may not always be the case. Additionally, customer behavior can vary widely, making it difficult to predict and analyze customer trends accurately.

4 Demand Capture Methods That Work

Demand capture may seem a bit daunting initially, especially if you’ve never given it much thought. The good news? You’ve probably already been implementing some of the most common demand capture methods without even realizing it. 

Here are four of the most common demand capture methods that can help you make more sales and retain more customers:

1. Personalize Your Website for Your Ideal Customer Profile

Personalizing your website according to your ideal customer profile can help you create a personalized experience for your customers, making them feel like their needs are being met and valued. This can increase customer loyalty and engagement, with research proving that your customers are more influenced by brands that make them feel valued, appreciated, and respected. 

2. Build a Positive Reputation

Another demand capture tactic you may already be implementing is creating a positive brand reputation via social media, customer review sites, and forums. Positive word of mouth goes a long way in capturing the attention of your target market. 

Studies show that 90% of all buyers are more likely to convert after reading positive reviews, with 92% of B2B buyers taking it a step further, saying they’re more likely to purchase after reading a trusted review. 

These reviews can come from just about anywhere. Buyers are more likely to trust a brand that has positive reviews from multiple sources, including customer reviews and reviews from well-known review sites. 

Source: G2

3. Paid Search Campaigns

With paid search campaigns, you can target specific customers based on the keywords they use, their demographic information, or even their location. This allows you to reach a highly targeted audience, ensuring that those who are already searching for the solutions you have to offer are seeing your message. 

4. Use Intent Data for Retargeting

Finally, demand capture allows you to take the intent data you’re already collecting and use it for retargeting. Retargeting allows you to stay in front of your audience and remind them of your brand and the services you have to offer. This can be done through display ads, social media, or even email campaigns. 

Demand Capture Made Simple with Hushly

Demand capture is an integral part of an effective marketing strategy, as it provides brands with valuable customer information to help them better understand their needs and preferences. However, it can be difficult to accurately predict and analyze customer trends.

That’s where Hushly can help. Our demand capture tools help ensure that brands can get the most out of their efforts and turn them into success.

Ready to see how demand capture can help your business? Request your demo today. 

Broadly, go-to-market (GTM) refers to the act of bringing a new revenue-generating business practice to the right buyers.

In other words, GTM is the motion of your entire company (or at least the marketing and sales teams) when introducing a new product.

Naturally, there are many moving parts during this. The best GTM strategies match the level of complexity with a level of flexibility and resiliency. A great GTM strategy will bend but not break under the internal and external pressure of introducing a new product to the market.

More than just a strategy for one particular product, a GTM is also a philosophy and a distinct way of organizing your employees into a structure that best suits the needs of your upcoming product launch.

GTM is a complicated subject, so today’s blog will cover just what you need to know to get started on creating a GTM of your own.

What is GTM in B2B?

A GTM is not a single, one-off marketing or sales strategy for a single product launch.

Instead, you should imagine your GTM motion as the form your company takes when it’s about to launch a certain product or revenue source.

This form will need to be malleable to adapt to the needs of each individual launch. On top of this, your GTM needs to be structured in a way that holds employees responsible from the top down.

Ultimately, your GTM should be:

• A repeatable and iterative process for revenue source introductions.
• Scalable. In fact, a strong GTM may even answer the question of how to scale your business.
• A cultural force for your employees to rally around.

Types of GTM Motions

Before we get into the motions, let’s briefly mention the three main parts of a GTM: strategy, planning, and execution.

Each product launch will necessitate different strategies, planning, and execution, as well as a unique mixture of each.

Start by considering how you intend to bring your product to market. Is sales leading the charge with outbounds? Or are you taking a more subtle approach and looking to integrate with partners and scale alongside the ecosystem?

Here are three examples of GTM motion types and how the planning, strategy, and execution look for each one.

Inbound-Led

• Strategy: Utilize content marketing to drive traffic to conversion channels.
• Planning: Since this is a fairly traditional strategy, your organization shouldn’t need to move too much to accommodate it. Still, all players with skin in the game need to be involved in the strategy session. This means having sales and marketing together with senior leadership determine what success looks like before any decisions are finalized.
• Execution: Your marketing team will generate and capture demand with high-quality content. MQLs will be forwarded to sales for outbound follow-up.

Category-Led

• Strategy: Become a category leader by introducing a new movement or idea that’s meant to transform the marketplace.
• Planning: Generating an idea or concept on this level takes decades of experience and knowledge. If your leadership team has something they think can truly change things, it’s time to figure out how to tell people about it.
• Execution: You’ll need to establish the credibility of an industry leader. Results are king here – legions of happy customers will be all the proof you need.

Product-Led

• Strategy: Let the quality of your product be the loudest voice in the customer’s head. If you have something customers don’t think they can live without, you’ve got a source of revenue and an invaluable business partnership.
• Planning: Your product should be made from the ground up to influence customers. A combination of free and paid features can help here – customers will stick around if value is being provided for nothing in return.
• Execution: It’s so good that users will naturally spend the time to experience the product and use it to facilitate further deals and feature discovery. Sales and marketing should be on hand ready to take advantage of the demand your product will generate for itself.

4 Go-To-Market Strategy Tips

Here are a few tips when creating a GTM strategy from scratch.

1. Resist the Urge to Assign a Single Owner

It’s tempting to eliminate the possibility of “too many cooks in the kitchen” by assigning a single employee to hold responsible for the GTM. We believe this is a mistake.

It’s more important that the entire organization feels the pressure of accountability. Naturally, since more people are involved and being held responsible, there are more angles to consider and more employees to keep happy.

However, this increase in the challenge of people management should be offset by the increased synchronicity of your operation.

2. Be Comfortable Introducing New Roles and Responsibilities

It’s not necessary to change your entire org chart every time you launch a new product. But it is critically important that employees on all levels get comfortable with slightly different roles regularly.

The more each employee knows about how to operate in diverse roles, the easier it will be for them to adapt under pressure. This kind of adaptability is exactly what a strong GTM motion should aim for.

3. Emphasize the Team Nature of GTM

Business is a team game. GTM, being one of the most important aspects of your business, is the ultimate teambuilding tool.

Look at your upcoming GTM motion as an opportunity for your business to prove it belongs. Each employee in your organization should be involved in and aware of the strategy and what they’re expected to contribute. Motivating employees is its own challenge, but you can start by emphasizing the unique nature of the situation (a product launch) from the top down.

4. Choose One Strategy and Stick to It

When faced with such a large decision, it can be difficult to even begin searching for the correct path. This problem will only be exacerbated when you’re involving so many employees from disparate areas of your company, each of whom will bring unique concerns and perspectives.

Don’t fall for the trap of assuming you can perfect a GTM in a board room.

Avoid decision paralysis. Don’t worry about if your GTM motion is perfect – because it isn’t! No plan ever is. Instead of waiting around for the exact right moment, or for when you no longer feel any anxiety or uncertainty about your plan, pick a path and stick to it.

You can and will adapt on the fly as issues arise.

What is a Good B2B GTM Strategy?

Every great GTM strategy should be distinct from all the ones used before it.

The simple reason for this is that no two companies, let alone product launches, are ever the same. No two moments in time can be directly compared. No material conditions are ever identical. Your GTM strategy should follow this principle as well. Bruce Lee once observed that water takes the shape of any container it enters, yet is never anything other than water.

Your GTM strategy should be like water: true to itself but adaptable enough to generate solutions to problems in real time and ultimately take whatever shape is needed to drive growth.

If you’re interested in learning more, Hushly’s Efficient Growth at Scale eBook contains even more information on creating GTM strategies at any scale.