By M Muneer: The year that has gone by was a great year for some B2B companies but for some it was a really struggling one. And many of those who struggled will continue to face the music even this year in terms of business growth. What marketing strategies these companies deployed last year and what will work for them in this year? How have the successful ones used the social or digital media and how did they look at building relationships? Many experts believe 2012 has been a tipping point year for many B2B companies. In India at least, it is the year many companies embraced several new marketing initiatives such as automation software, social media and even steps to align sales and marketing functions. And for those who were successful last year, the proof of the pudding was clear. They took big bold steps in an industry where things change ever so incrementally. Integration was the biggest success story for B2B marketing. Just as in companies that use balanced scorecards for driving strategy execution, integration actually broke down silos in marketing. The IT folks and marketeers now work closely to ensure that the content and other details are optimised for search engines. Blogs and social media have found resonance not just with PR and marketing but also with the corner office and downwards. One interesting thing was that people have moved on from just whitepaper as content. Companies have realised that it is more critical to connect with your prospects via Facebook or Twitter or blog than with just a passive one-way white paper or research report. To be an effective B2B marketeer, one has to understand how different activities work together and drive communication in a consistent manner. Content that is optimised will be found in most search engines. Social media will help in driving your content to people far beyond your own social networks. Mobile devices will allow access to your content at any time. Putting all these in a cohesive manner will help you drive both topline and bottom-line growth by improving the lead generation. Till about 2010 most B2B marketeers treated digital media as just another channel. Digital has never been a serious consideration in any marketing mix. In most companies, digital was a silo within the marketing department and so integration was a task. But last year made the sea change in this direction as marketing heads started treating digital not just as another channel but also much more as an integral part of marketing strategy. To my mind social media is the most spectacular thing that has happened in recent times for business. It has indeed changed the entire landscape for marketeers. It has been a challenge for marketeers to figure out how to deal with a world where customers, prospects, vendors, channel partners and employees have a voice that is quite powerful than that of the brand. B2B companies have realised the importance of social media in their marketing mix much more this year but it is still not fully understood. A recent research found that 67% of B2B marketing executives recognise social media as a very important channel to interact with customers, partners and stakeholders but only 6% could say that their organisation was leveraging it heavily. Social media is here to stay and is not a fad. It has been embraced by the world at large, by both consumers and business professionals, and that’s not going to change. The growing use of marketing automation tools has become a trend among B2B marketeers. But most of them have not realised that the technology is only a tool and not a solution to all their problems. Like all tools that seem to be game changers, a cult begins to arise around them. These tools and techniques are being promoted as the key to sales success. Unfortunately for them, the principles of selling have not undergone any change. Especially when it comes to selling complex and high involvement products and services. In B2B it is still the ability of building trust, relationships and communicating the value proposition. No technology can override this process due to lack of personal touch and feel. Social media and technology can assist in the process by streamlining and enabling but in the final analysis a sale is consummated only after a good listener can engage the key stakeholders in an organisation in a consultative dialogue about what keeps them up at night and how to best find a solution that will help them to sleep better. The writer is CEO and MD of CustomerLab)
Source: mydigitalfc.com,
Image: Flickr.com
