Digital marketing and sales processes
Come to stay
Nikolai Gogoll, Managing Director at Der Prozessmanagery
Published in: DiALOG - THE MAGAZINE FOR DIGITAL CHANGE | 2021
Sometimes change comes faster than you'd like. The coronavirus pandemic, which has banished the majority of communication to the internet, has demonstrated this. The result? - A complete transformation of many sales and marketing processes and a triumphant advance of the digital world. And this will not be a short-term thing. Already, 20-30% of customers in the B2B sector are prepared to return to non-digital consulting after the crisis. The virtual model is here to stay - according to a study by McKinsey Company, 90% of decision-makers are of this opinion and are reorganising their companies accordingly. So if you want to be successful in B2B marketing in the coming years, you need a change of perspective. You cannot expect a return to the status quo before the crisis.
Moving into the digital world
Communication has moved from the meeting room to the Internet. In order to assert yourself on the market now, or to make contact with your customers at all, you need to rethink your approach. And do so holistically. This means that digital customer contact should be more than just a video conference here and there. Think about how you can utilise the virtual space for your purposes. Think about formats such as online trade fairs or digital product demos. Which of your existing marketing strategies can be easily transferred? Which ones just need to be optimised? Where do you need completely new ideas? The 'move' to digital will be a success above all through innovative approaches - and not through a large budget. The most important thing here is flexibility. Your customers are by no means limited to one channel - and neither should you be. From LinkedIn to Facebook - in short, wherever your target group posts and comments - your marketing strategy must find a place. A tip: familiarise yourself with SEO techniques. This will ensure that your content appears in every search engine and does not disappear. A few well-placed keywords are often enough to ensure that you are present everywhere!Today's marketing must offer guidance and help and deal with what really matters to customers.
However, you should not only focus on digital channels when reaching customers. More importantly, almost the entire buying process now takes place online. What's the best way to deal with this? Make sure that you and your team are flexible here too. Only if you put an end to the "old trench warfare" between marketing and sales, refrain from "ego-posting" digital lead generation and create a joint inbound marketing process will you succeed:
- Generate a sufficient number of qualified leads, enabling you to achieve your sales targets more quickly.
- Establish a lead management process that enables you to develop supposedly cold leads to sales maturity.
- Create a consistently positive buying experience so that your existing customers become true fans of your brand, increasing repeat sales & referrals (and yes, you can do that even in a B2B context).
Utilising technical resources Yes - going digital brings problems that you would rather do without. But don't forget that there is one decisive advantage - and make the most of it! In the virtual world, every data stream is measurable. And this is exactly what helps you to increase the impact of your marketing. Through data analysis and the use of AI, you can analyse and assess the behaviour of your customers. This allows you to customise your marketing to your target group. Campaigns that fail completely are history. You save time and budget. To keep up in the world of modern marketing, you need to constantly keep your eyes open for new opportunities. Don't trust that everything will stay the same. Keep an eye on advances such as chatbot technologies. This is the only way to avoid being left behind.
Utilising technical resources
Yes - going digital brings problems that you would rather do without. But don't forget that there is one decisive advantage - and make the most of it! In the virtual world, every data stream is measurable. And this is exactly what helps you to increase the impact of your marketing. Through data analysis and the use of AI, you can analyse and assess the behaviour of your customers. This allows you to customise your marketing to your target group. Campaigns that fail completely are history. You save time and budget. To keep up in the world of modern marketing, you need to constantly keep your eyes open for new opportunities. Don't trust that everything will stay the same. Keep an eye on advances such as chatbot technologies. This is the only way to avoid being left behind.
Customer focus
Every company is now realising what inbound sales experts have already noticed in recent years. The demands of customers on sales and marketing have changed significantly. Anyone who sticks to simply selling their own product will be left behind in the coming years. Today's marketing must offer guidance and help and address what really matters to customers. For your strategy to be a resounding success, you therefore need a new focus - the people you want to reach. Keep your eyes and ears open at all times. How can your marketing offer help with problems? Contact your sales teams - they communicate with their customers and know about new pain points. And - feedback is irreplaceable! It's even easier to collect it digitally. Incorporate the findings from questionnaires and discussions into the optimisation of your projects.
But what is particularly important for communication in a crisis is humanity and empathy. The digital situation is not only unfamiliar to you. Be there for your customers here too and offer them holistic, humane support.
Rethinking marketing
The challenges posed by a crisis like the current one are not always pleasant. Sudden change in particular is never easy. BUT: it should not be ignored. B2B marketing companies around the world are now starting to rethink their industry. There is no way back now, only a step forward into a digital world. Say goodbye to old ways of thinking. Set new priorities in your planning and investments - digitality and relevance for the customer base should be the top priorities.One thing is certain: the crisis will pass. So don't forget to think long-term. Never lose sight of the future in your strategies and emerge stronger from this situation. After all, digital marketing and sales processes are here to stay!
Nikolai Gogoll entered the world of processes half a decade ago with the start-up DER PROZESSMANAGER. The management blog quickly became the most widely read specialist portal (more than 15,000 specialist readers per month) in the field of process management, robotic process automation and process mining. Since 2020, he and his agency TRIGGER01 have been supporting established companies in the implementation of digital marketing and sales processes, helping customers to become significantly more profitable and developing a long-term inbound marketing strategy for the respective companies. www.der-prozessmanager.de