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5 tips to make your B2B marketing automation strategy work

B2B marketing automation isn’t just “nice to have” anymore, it’s a must. In an era of information overload, customers expect personalized journeys. Here’s what that means for marketers today

The deluge of information in modern times has led to daily bombing of the average human brain with a vast volume of data. In this era of information overload, it takes a lot to grab someone’s attention. Customers today expect tailored journeys. But providing customers with personalised messaging takes a lot of time and effort. First, you need to get acquainted with your customer and get a clear insight into what they’re looking for. You need to create content specifically tailored to that need, and provide the content at the right time. Then, if it turns out your target customers are not sales-ready, you need to start the process all over again. Seems like a hell of a job, no?

Well, today there’s a nifty little tool that enables you to do just that. It’s called marketing automation. First launched in the nineties, marketing automation refers to the use of software and technologies to target customers with automated marketing messages across various platforms. Marketing automation done well allows businesses to very specifically target certain customer profiles and provide these profiles with the right content at the right time, raising visibility and generating interest as a result.

5 expert tips to make your marketing automation strategy work

A well-thought-out marketing automation strategy based on the right technologies provides your organization with a much-needed insight into which marketing programs work, and which don’t. And, moreover, it gives you a platform to actually improve what doesn’t work. This is how you do it: Automate repetitive tasks

First thing first. As you implement marketing automation software for your business, you need to evaluate your marketing processes. Which repetitive tasks are taking your marketing admins a lot of time? In a B2B environment, ideal tasks for marketing automation are CRM updates, manual lead follow-up and prospect nurturing. Automating these types of tasks can save you a lot of time—and often a marketing automation platform will perform better than a human anyway.

Set realistic expectations

Overall, the sales cycle in B2B is longer than in B2C. When it comes to making big investments, people like to spend more time before they take the plunge. Marketing automation can be extremely valuable, but you also need to be realistic. In a B2B environment, your main marketing automation focus should be lead nurturing. Lead scoring and behavior-based workflows can help marketers determine the perfect moments for follow-up—and notify sales teams appropriately. This is how:

Look into lead scoring

When it comes to leads, quality beats quantity. If you’re looking to raise awareness about, let’s say, the latest HPE storage launch, you want to generate leads that dispose of the right budget and have the authority to make a big decision about investments. This is where lead scoring comes in. With a long sales cycle, knowledge of your prospects’ demographics is critical. The ability to monitor behavior on your website, track engagement with your messaging, and collect data in a series of meaningful trade-offs is a major weapon in your arsenal.

Create behavior-based workflows

We’re all special little snowflakes with varying interests, areas of expertise and frames of reference. Selling a phone to your best friend requires an entirely different approach than selling it to your grandmother. Most salespeople are aware of that. And marketing department need to come to grips with this, too. By using marketing automation software, you can get a clear insight into what your customer wants. This allows you to automatically tailor messages based on that behavior.

Automate social media messaging

We’ve all been there: you’re waiting for the train to come and you get distracted. Your friend just told you that Apple has released a new iPhone model, and you’re excited to know more. So, you search for the new iPhone on Coolblue or BOL.com and a few hours later, ads for that specific iPhone start popping up everywhere on your social media profile. Social media had emerged as a powerful channel for marketing, providing a great opportunity to nurture leads that aren’t ready to buy. We know we all end up wanting that iPhone.

By automating repetitive tasks, looking into lead scoring and behavior-based workflows, and using the power of social media to your advantage, marketing automation provides B2B marketers with a solid platform to test and tune their marketing campaigns. Not sure where to start? Send us a message, we’d love to help you figure out the details.

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