5 Reasons Why B2B Omni Channel Marketing is the Future of Business Growth
B2B omni channel marketing is the practice of creating a seamless and consistent customer experience across multiple channels, both online and offline. It is a customer-centric approach that aims to meet the needs and preferences of B2B buyers, who are increasingly using various channels to research, compare, and purchase products and services.
In this article, we will explore why B2B omni channel marketing is the future of business growth, and how you can implement it effectively in your organization. Here are the main benefits of B2B omni channel marketing:
Key Takeaways
B2B omni channel marketing is the practice of creating a seamless and consistent customer experience across multiple channels, both online and offline.
B2B omni channel marketing can help you grow your business by increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty, boosting sales performance and revenue, reducing costs and improving efficiency, enhancing customer insights and innovation, and aligning with the changing buyer behavior and expectations.
To implement B2B omni channel marketing effectively, you need to define your goals and objectives, understand your target audience, map out your customer journey, create your content strategy, choose your tools and platforms, test and optimize your strategy.
1. It increases customer satisfaction and loyalty
B2B buyers expect to have a smooth and personalized journey with their suppliers, regardless of the channel they use. According to McKinsey, 94% of B2B decision makers view today’s omni channel reality as being as effective or more than before COVID-19 . By providing a consistent and relevant experience across all touchpoints, you can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, which in turn leads to higher retention and lifetime value.
2. It boosts sales performance and revenue
B2B omni channel marketing can help you reach more prospects, generate more leads, and close more deals. By using multiple channels to interact with your target audience, you can increase your brand awareness, visibility, and credibility. You can also leverage data and analytics to optimize your messaging, offers, and pricing for each channel and segment. Moreover, you can enable your sales team to sell more effectively by providing them with the right tools and information at the right time. According to McKinsey, 83% of B2B leaders believe that omni channel selling is a more successful way to prospect and secure new business than traditional methods .
3. It reduces costs and improves efficiency
B2B omni channel marketing can help you reduce costs and improve efficiency by streamlining your processes and systems. By integrating your channels and platforms, you can eliminate silos and redundancies, and improve collaboration and communication across your organization. You can also automate and scale your marketing activities, such as lead generation, nurturing, and qualification, using tools like email, webinars, chatbots, and AI. This can free up your resources and allow you to focus on more strategic and creative tasks.
4. It enhances customer insights and innovation
B2B omni channel marketing can help you enhance your customer insights and innovation by collecting and analyzing data from multiple sources. By tracking and measuring your customer behavior, feedback, and preferences across different channels, you can gain a deeper understanding of their needs, pain points, challenges, and goals. You can also identify new opportunities, trends, and gaps in the market that you can address with your products or services. By using data-driven insights, you can create more value for your customers and differentiate yourself from your competitors.
5. It aligns with the changing buyer behavior and expectations
B2B omni channel marketing aligns with the changing buyer behavior and expectations that have been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. B2B buyers are now more digital-savvy, self-reliant, and demanding than ever before. They use multiple channels to research, compare, and purchase products or services, often without interacting with a salesperson. They also expect to have a fast, easy, convenient, and personalized experience with their suppliers. By adopting an omni channel approach, you can meet these expectations and stay relevant in the evolving B2B landscape.
How to Implement B2B Omni Channel Marketing Effectively
Implementing B2B omni channel marketing effectively requires a strategic plan that involves the following steps:
- Define your goals and objectives. What are you trying to achieve with your omni channel strategy? How will you measure your success? What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) that you will track?
- Understand your target audience. Who are your ideal customers? What are their characteristics, needs, preferences, behaviors, and motivations? How do they make buying decisions? What are their preferred channels of communication?
- Map out your customer journey. How do your customers interact with your brand across different channels? What are the stages of their buying process? What are the touchpoints that influence their decisions? What are the pain points or challenges that they face along the way?
- Create your content strategy. What type of content will you create for each channel and stage of the customer journey? How will you tailor your content to suit your audience’s needs and preferences? How will you deliver your content in an engaging and compelling way?
- Choose your tools and platforms. What tools and platforms will you use to execute your omni channel strategy? How will you integrate them to ensure a seamless customer experience? How will you manage and optimize them to ensure efficiency and effectiveness?
- Test and optimize your strategy. How will you test and optimize your omni channel strategy? How will you collect and analyze data from your channels and platforms? How will you use the data to improve your performance and results?
Tips
- Omni channel marketing can help you increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, boost sales performance and revenue, reduce costs and improve efficiency, enhance customer insights and innovation, and align with the changing buyer behavior and expectations.
- To implement omni channel marketing effectively, you need to define your goals and objectives, understand your target audience, map out your customer journey, create your content strategy, choose your tools and platforms, test and optimize your strategy.
- Omni channel marketing requires a strategic plan that involves multiple channels, platforms, tools, content types, formats, and metrics.
B2B Omni-Channel Marketing: A Statistical Report
B2B omni-channel marketing is a customer-centric approach that involves optimizing all the sales channels to reach, engage and satisfy the customers. It means making goods and services available to customers on their preferred channels, whether it is face-to-face, remote, or digital self-serve. B2B omni-channel marketing has become the new normal in a year that has been anything but normal due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trends and Insights
According to a survey by McKinsey, B2B customers now regularly use ten or more channels to interact with suppliers, up from just five in 2016. The survey also found that 94% of respondents view today’s B2B omni-channel reality as being as effective or more than before COVID-19. Moreover, 83% of B2B leaders believe that omni-channel selling is a more successful way to prospect and secure new business than traditional methods.
Another finding from the survey is that buyers are more willing than ever before to spend big through remote or online sales channels, with 35% willing to spend $500,000 or more in a single transaction, up from 27% in February 2021. And 77% of B2B customers are also willing to spend $50,000 or more. The survey also revealed that B2B budget projections are robust, with six in ten respondents planning to maintain or grow their operating expenditure investments over the next five years, and nearly half planning to expand their capital expenditure.
B2B omni-channel marketing is not a trend, but a necessity for B2B sales in the post-pandemic world. It requires a holistic and customer-centric strategy that leverages the strengths of each channel and provides a seamless and consistent experience for the buyers. B2B omni-channel marketing also offers significant opportunities for growth and differentiation for B2B suppliers who can adapt and innovate in this dynamic environment.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q1: What is the difference between omni channel and multi channel marketing?
A: Multi channel marketing is the practice of using multiple channels to reach and engage customers, but without creating a consistent and integrated experience across them. Omni channel marketing is the practice of creating a seamless and consistent customer experience across multiple channels, both online and offline.
Q2: What are some examples of omni channel marketing channels?
A: Some examples of omni channel marketing channels are website, email, social media, video, webinars, podcasts, blogs, ebooks, whitepapers, case studies, testimonials, reviews, chatbots, live chat, phone, SMS, direct mail, events, trade shows, and more.
Q3: What are some best practices for omni channel marketing?
A: Some best practices for omni channel marketing are:
- Start with your customer in mind. Understand their needs, preferences, behaviors, and expectations.
- Align your channels and platforms. Ensure that they are integrated and synchronized to provide a smooth and consistent customer experience.
- Personalize your content and messaging. Tailor your content and messaging to suit your audience’s needs and preferences, and deliver it in an engaging and compelling way.
- Use data and analytics. Track and measure your performance and results across your channels and platforms, and use the data to improve your strategy and tactics.
- Test and optimize your strategy. Experiment with different channels, content, offers, and formats, and optimize your strategy based on the feedback and results.
References:
http://www.llbean.com/customerService/aboutLLBean/images/110408_About-LLB.pdf
http://www.newtown.org.uk/pages/a-brief-history-of-newtown-2
https://www.essentialretail.com/news/54c8b612683f8-best-buy-and-the-birth-of-customer-centricity/
http://thefinancialbrand.com/49871/digital-banking-omnichannel-definition/
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/b2b-sales-omnichannel-everywhere-every-time
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/omnichannel-in-b2b-sales-the-new-normal-in-a-year-that-has-been-anything-but
https://www.smartinsights.com/b2b-digital-marketing/omni-channel-b2b-marketing/
https://b2bmarketingeast.wbresearch.com/blog/implementing-a-customer-centric-b2b-omnichannel-strategy
https://www.hushly.com/blog/b2b-omnichannel-marketing/
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