3 key growth levers for B2B brands

The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly accelerated the digital transformation plans of B2B organizations as they felt the pressure to keep up in the race towards digital readiness. The speed of change, the shift towards greater marketing technology sophistication and heightened customer expectations have resulted in greater complexity and demand of the marketing function than ever before. How is it best to cut through the noise in the extremely crowded digital ecosystem? Where is there potential to capture more value, especially given growing customer demands and the relentless rise of digital self-serve systems?

B2B has become increasingly person-to-person in that it is real people (versus organizations) that choose, approve and use products and services. Real people with real expectations and real emotions.

For increased efficiency, B2B brands are expected to automate more while winning and engaging customers in a more personal and relevant way. As market dynamics continue to evolve, B2B marketers are required to demonstrate greater returns with more accountable data-driven ROI. Consequently, marketers are hungry for evidence-based insights to inform decisions and justify actions.

B2B International, the B2B market research specialist within Merkle B2B, has conducted a marketing pulse for the past seven years among marketing leaders of the most influential B2B brands. This year's study reveals the three key growth opportunities that B2B brands must embrace to thrive post-pandemic.

Brand impact - crafting a more visible and compelling brand position that drives demand.

Emotional impact - seeking emotional engagement with customers and connecting with them via more personalized and relevant messaging for deeper brand affinity.

CX impact - striving towards customer experience excellence to deliver higher customer lifetime value.

Map the customer journey in the new normal

The relatively mediocre performance of B2B organizations and their challenges delivering impactful brand and customer experiences in our digital-first world highlight huge opportunity for B2B brands to overtake their competitors. The following three considerations indicate how B2B marketers can get ahead.

Customer behaviors have changed with greater familiarity and the substantial increase of digital touchpoints, from where the buyer moves further and further into a "self-service" world - seeking information in the path-to-purchase to how they evaluate suppliers and interact with vendors. The more savvy B2B brand are those that understand how to best reach and influence customers throughout the journey in the right place at the right time, including the optimal digital touchpoints to leverage and how they play a role in the broader omnichannel experience.

The best-in-class B2B firms are those that deliver hyper-relevant, personalized experiences tailored to real people behind the digital touchpoints, and with messaging that is empathetic to individual main points and desires. This requires a recognition that we have an ongoing relationship with our customers and demands a deep understanding of the personas served, along with the appropriate tools and platforms to consolidate and leverage customer data.

Focus on long-term customer-centricity over quick wins.

The impact of the pandemic has led B2B organizations to seek more immediate returns with the biggest focus on demand generation, but the most successful B2B brands are those that invest in the total experience, recognizing that the greater payback comes from long-term customer lifetime value. The CX leaders know how to wow the customer through the likes of real-time responsiveness, personalization and AI-driven product recommendations, and they are more sophisticated in the loyalty metrics used to measure and improve customer-centricity.

The survey was run by B2B International in Q1 of 2021. The sample size comprised n=301 marketing, insight, CX and business strategy decision-makers across brands serving B2B audiences and focused on large businesses (the average revenue was $2.9 billion). The sample is international: 36% North America (predominantly U.S.); 40% Europe (predominantly UK & Germany); 24% APAC (Singapore & Australia). The full results of the survey are available on the B2B International website.