At the present time, the traditional approach for selling complex B2B products or services is becoming increasingly ineffective. With 5+ figure deals and well-educated buyer committees, the buyer’s journey is much different and calls for a full-funnel B2B marketing approach in order to properly influence their decision. When utilizing a full funnel B2B marketing strategy, it is important to ensure that you have the right resources in place to support the process. This means having an experienced team that understands the landscape and is up to date with the latest industry trends and news. Additionally, having a range of marketing tools and technologies is also essential in order to capture and analyze data, and optimize your campaigns.
Another key factor to consider is the customer experience. At each step of the buyer’s journey, it is crucial to ensure that their experience is frictionless, informative, and ultimately enjoyable. By understanding their needs and addressing any potential pain points, you can build the trust and loyalty necessary to establish a successful relationship.
Great customer service is also a must. Being available to answer questions and address issues quickly and efficiently will go a long way towards building a strong bond with your customers. Automating processes when possible can also help streamline operations, freeing up time to focus on the customer and their needs.
Ultimately, a full funnel B2B marketing strategy is an effective approach to engage buyers and influence their decisions. By having the right resources in place, understanding customer needs, and providing great customer service, you can ensure success and maximize the potential of your campaigns.
Awareness
Grasping hold of the buyer’s challenges and opportunities is the first step towards creating awareness. Something has to trigger a shift in their priorities in order to drive them to search for solutions. Thought leadership, native content, and engagement on relevant channels and target communities is what can really make this happen.
Category Consideration
It is essential for the buyers to learn about the benefits of the proposed approach and the category it falls into. Providing case studies, guides, or webinars can help them gain clarity and form consensus before they move onto the next stage.
Demand Generation
At this point, the buyer will have formed a consensus on the category and are ready to move onto vendor discovery and evaluation. This is where demand generation comes in, helping buyers to reduce any friction from the decision-making process, capture demand, and influence their purchase criteria.
Accelerate Demand Generation & Activation
Demand generation activities such as those mentioned earlier will establish a pool of engaged accounts that can be targeted through ABM programs. This can help speed up and capture demand.
Customer Success
Now that the buyers have become customers, they will be onboarding and training team members and refining processes to get the most out of the acquired solution. It’s the job of the B2B marketer to make sure customers are successful and become advocates for the solution.
Expansion & Upsells
Customers can evolve and change their strategic priorities. It’s the responsibility of the B2B marketer to collect expansion insights and work alongside sales in order to avoid any churn or expand existing deals.
In Summary
No single approach is capable of influencing the entire buying journey of 5+ figure deals with educated buying committees. That is why a full-funnel B2B marketing strategy is needed, based on firm foundations and valuable customer insights.