June 2023 Edition
Talking Points
The B2B buyer journey is evolving into an increasingly self-guided path. It’s important we transform our marketing plans to align with this behavior because the buyer journey of the future is going to be even more self-directed.
Buyers Are Doing Their Homework
Buyers are now Googling for information, evaluating solutions, and traveling further down the purchase path before they reveal themselves to the businesses they’re curious about.
What does that mean? It means they know what they want before they ever engage with a company. Consequently, organizations must now transform the way they approach these astute buyers. They must reconsider every touch point and how they address them.
Customize Every Contact
The secret to future success will be personalization. Companies will need to align their marketing strategies with buyer journeys by gathering all the customer data they possess and customizing their communications upon every contact.
Such data includes a prospect’s company and industry, as well as any search information regarding specific interests. By knowing these details, you can customize your content and engage prospects in a more meaningful way so that they quickly associate their needs with your marketing.
Your objective should be to encourage mutually beneficial connections during which customers make their interest, or email address known to you while you offer information that will assist them as they mull over their buying choices.
Invest in the Future
Much like the consumer e-commerce market has thrived in recent years, the B2B e-commerce market will follow suit. Yet, considering the enormous scale of business transactions, enabling seamless experiences and self-serve transactions for some solutions will require a massive rethink at the corporate level. But it will be worth the effort. Simply put, companies that additionally cater to direct, self-guided buyer journeys will reap the greatest rewards. They’ll establish more new customer relationships, and those customers will be far more loyal.
It’s already happening. Industry giants like Cisco, for example, have invested in personalized website experiences like the ones you see at their My Cisco customized workspace integration site.
By continuing to align with the self-directed buyer, organizations will start to build the capabilities needed to truly anticipate and delight their customers in the future.
Based on How B2B Marketers Can Align with the Self-Directed Buyer Journey
