We've learned by now that B2B marketing often involves targeting a market-savvy and knowledgeable audience. However, usually the selling business is full of knowledgeable experts as well, and quite often they rely on their experience and instinct to make marketing decisions "on a whim." While there is no denying that industry experience is a powerful resource, B2B companies that rely on instinct rather than data run the risk of generating ineffective or even damaging, marketing strategies and campaigns.
Remember the difference between B2B and B2C consumer buying habits. Do B2B consumers generally make purchases on a whim? Most likely no. Therefore, should your marketing be done on a whim?
Here are some examples of how to conduct data driven marketing and apply it to your marketing strategy.
Start with secondary market research
Doing some simple online research or reading industry reports can get you started on your data driven marketing. Be careful with simple online searches as Internet information can be out of date and/or incorrect, therefore be sure you are using credible sites. Invest in industry reports that outline market trends and statistics as well as consumer behavior. This can give you a start on where to position your marketing campaigns, generate ideas for your content marketing pieces and even understand what the competition may be doing.
Move into Primary Research Tools
Surveys that are focused on data may be the best way to analyze customer behavior. A survey with a good mix of qualitative and quantitative questions is best so it gives people a change to explain their answers. It is best to follow these surveys up with some kind of focus group or interviews. There is no better market research that feedback directly from the target market.
In-depth Website Analytics
One of the leading sources of sales conversion rates in B2B marketing is the company's website. Therefore, the website's performance is essential. Most companies just look at unique visitors, time spent on the site and maybe the number of pages visited. However, in-depth analytics - provided by sources such as Google Analytics and Hubspot - can go in great detail.
In addition to the above-mentioned statistics, marketers should also analyze the location and language of visitors as well as the viewing mode - are people accessing your site from a PC or mobile? What operating system is it?
Using analytics, marketers can also follow a visitor's typical navigation. Where are they going after the homepage (if they are navigating away from the home page)? For example, if the most popular page after the homepage is your Career page, your top website visitors might be students job hunting.
Use the demographic and geographic statistics to adjust how you market your website content. Using the navigation data to understand how to map your website - should you be putting more keywords on the homepage or linking your important services pages? It comes down to what you want your potential customers to see.
Email Marketing Campaigns
Reports have demonstrated that email marketing is actually has one of the lowest sales conversion rates in B2B marketing. When trying to solicit a sale or meeting through a commercial email, many potential customers may be turned off. Or quite simply, in the B2B environment where decisions aren't made on a whim, consumers aren't going to select your company based on an email.
Email marketing campaigns can be useful in building brand awareness so marketers should analyze open rates and click-through rates. They should also look at if the email was accessed by computer or mobile/tablet and the operating system used. This will allow marketers to optimize the email for the right format.
If the main goal of your email campaigns are lead generation, use open rates and click through rates to track potentially interested customers so your sales team can follow up.
Social Media Analytics
This is usually where B2B marketers run into roadblocks with their company's management. In some B2B companies, social media isn't considered a serious market tool, and it surely isn't encouraged among those who aren't on the marketing team.
The reality is that social media is just as important as your website strategy. B2B consumers are constantly hovering on LinkedIn and are more active on Twitter than you think. In addition to following your company's social media analytics such as followers and status interaction, marketers should also be tracking their employees' use of social media.
Demonstrating to top management how consumers find your website via social media (such as LinkedIn or the company blog) can convince them to get the rest of the company on board.
Think Outside the Box!
Besides using data-driven marketing to strategically define your markets and audience, use the data to create your company's unique selling proposition and stand out against the competition. Proper analytics can show marketers what market to target and the best way to do it, and if your competitor is following the same path it should lead marketers to be creative and find the one marketing channel the competition isn't using.