In a world saturated with B2B marketing, personalization is key to standing out and staying relevant. Although B2B connections are “business-to-business”, for every exchange of communications and information there are human beings on both ends. The biggest challenge in B2B personalization is creating contents that different people can connect with. Personalization breaks down the frustrating walls of a sales cycle by speeding up the process of conversion and business retention, thereby transforming a usually cold transaction into a human exchange.
If Bill Gates was right when he said, “Content is King,” then in today’s competitive B2B space, “Personalized Content” is the crown.
What is B2B Personalization?
In simple terms, B2B personalization is understanding the needs of your clients and curating your communications and offers to fit the needs of your clients individually.
There is no denying that B2B buyers are not shopping for fun. They are focused and deliberate. Unlike B2C (business-to-consumer) buyers, their purchasing decisions are based on specific needs that are integral to the success of their business. The quicker they make that purchase, the sooner they trust the system. It is the responsibility of the B2B seller to ensure that the sales experience delivers on a promise of a responsive personalized solution.
Why is Personalization Important in B2B?
The power of personalization can never be overemphasized. According to Salesforce’s Fourth Annual State of Marketing report, “65% of business buyers are likely to switch brands if a vendor doesn’t personalize communications to their company.” That is a colossal loss, both profit-wise and opportunity-wise.
Data Gathering
Buyers learn and research about your company long before using the contact page on your website to reach out to your business. It is important to support their efforts by making sure you gather enough information about them, by analyzing customer preferences, location information, social media activity and how best to customize your products and services to fulfill their needs.
Analyzing collected data eases the process of market segmentation. Market segmentation requires that you divide your market into smaller groups of common needs.
B2B Customers Want Specific Information
In B2B marketing, content engagement leads to conversion. To ensure you communicate the right messages to the right people at the right time, be deliberate with your content by personalizing your communication using market segmentation to determine where your customer is in the buying journey and curating your content to support them.
Your customer needs to believe that you understand them and can fulfil their needs. This is where you reflect all the information you gathered about them. Your personalized solution will be impactful and will address meaningful human connections if your value proposition provides details such as “This is who we are. This is what we do. This is who you are. This is where you need us. Here is our detailed plan about how we can assist you.”
Personalized Customer Experience
A personalized customer experience is an indispensable strategy for customer acquisition and retention. Business purchasing decisions are made by human beings who are accustomed to quick, easy and personalized online interactions and they expect same upon visiting your website. Amazon and Alibaba are typical examples of businesses that provide on-site personalization. Upon visiting these sites, you are presented with information on similar or complementary products to those you have recently purchased.
Think about the specific needs of each customer. Think about how you can save them time by streamlining your communications towards the right solution to meet their specific needs. Personalization is important in B2B, it might seem like an overwhelming task, but it pays off in the long run.
If your expertise is not marketing, building marketing programs for personalization, segmentation, and targeted content might seem overwhelming. Luckily for you, this is exactly our expertise at BrandUp Strategy. If you would like to learn how we can help you personalize your marketing and communications to grow your business call or email us.
BrandUp Strategy
(813) 435-3636
info@brandupstrategy.com
www.BrandUpStrategy.com
