Pierre Herubel, a well-known figure in B2B marketing, advises companies in a recent LinkedIn post to focus on “studying the audience first and understanding why and how they buy.” This data-driven approach is crucial for developing targeted, effective marketing strategies.

Listen to our conversation on the Top B2B Marketing Strategies for 2024. Closed-Won!

Understanding Your Audience to Drive Success

In 2024, knowing your customer is the cornerstone of any B2B marketing plan. Herubel emphasizes that understanding both “why” your audience buys and “how” they make purchasing decisions will dictate the message and where it should be delivered. By studying the behavior and preferences of your ideal customer profile (ICP), marketers can fine-tune their strategies and allocate resources accordingly.

This sentiment is echoed by Matt Swain, a mid-market growth strategist, who states, “It’s all about studying our ICP and understanding their buying habits—that’s the key to unlocking targeted marketing strategies.” Knowing your audience informs not only the creative aspects of marketing but also where to focus efforts for the best return on investment.

Prioritizing Short-Term and Long-Term Tactics

Balancing immediate results with long-term growth is another critical challenge in 2024. Many experts, including B2B growth marketing leaders like Or Livne, advocate for a mix of both short-term and long-term tactics. Livne notes, “The most effective strategy is to combine 2-4 long-term goals with short-term tactics. The need to capture early adopters versus crossing the chasm is essential in B2B SaaS.”

Herubel has created a quadrant model to help businesses visualize this balance. He categorizes marketing efforts based on the speed of results and the level of resource investment, offering a guide to “diversifying tactics for fast results and long-term outcomes.” For instance, outbound campaigns and paid ads might bring quick wins, while content marketing and SEO offer scalable growth over time.

Fast Results: Outbound Campaigns and Paid Ads

For companies looking to generate immediate traction, outbound campaigns and paid advertising remain reliable tools. These tactics target high-intent buyers and can quickly drive leads, especially when paired with well-researched ICP data. Paid ads, in particular, help capture demand at key moments in the buyer’s journey. As Karthik Subramanian points out, “Proving marketing isn’t an expense but a driver of results is key when talking to CFOs.”

Outbound campaigns, such as account-based marketing (ABM) initiatives, allow for highly targeted approaches. “Mid-funnel plays with fast ROI like targeted outbound and paid demand capture are critical,” says Liran Herlinger, a fractional CMO specializing in startup growth. Herlinger believes that, especially for lean teams, focusing on a few key channels can yield better results than spreading efforts too thin.

Long-Term Growth: Content Strategy and SEO

While short-term tactics can generate quick results, long-term strategies like content marketing and SEO are essential for sustained growth. Building an SEO machine, as Herubel suggests, “is a slow burn but critical for long-term, scalable lead generation.” By consistently creating high-quality, relevant content that resonates with your audience, businesses can establish authority in their niche and drive organic traffic.

SEO, when combined with content marketing, offers compounding benefits over time. “Combining tactics like SEO and ads retargeting can bring 10x more results,” notes Gaspard Pastural, a product marketing freelancer. This integrated approach ensures that brands remain top of mind while also capturing potential buyers at different stages of the decision-making process.

Leveraging AI for Personalization

One of the emerging trends in B2B marketing for 2024 is the use of AI to enhance personalization and efficiency. Companies are increasingly turning to AI-powered tools to analyze customer data, personalize content, and optimize campaigns. As Cubeo AI points out, “AI-driven content personalization is becoming crucial for scaling efforts efficiently.”

AI can help businesses tailor their messaging to individual prospects, making every interaction more relevant and increasing the likelihood of conversion. Whether it’s through chatbots, dynamic content, or predictive analytics, AI can enable B2B marketers to create highly personalized experiences that resonate with their target audience.

Crafting a Balanced Marketing Plan for 2024

B2B marketing in 2024 demands a strategic blend of short-term and long-term tactics underpinned by a deep understanding of the target audience. As Herubel emphasizes, “The right tactics should always start from your audience.” Whether it’s leveraging fast-result tactics like paid ads and outbound campaigns or investing in long-term strategies like content marketing and SEO, success will come to those who can adapt to the changing needs of their buyers while efficiently allocating resources.

By prioritizing both immediate wins and scalable growth, B2B marketers can drive demand, foster lasting relationships, and position their companies for success in the year ahead.

“Too often, companies try to shoehorn prospects into their desired sales cycle, rather than adapting to how customers actually evaluate solutions,” says Liran Herlinger, a B2B marketing strategist. The need for marketers to rethink their approach is more critical than ever, as B2B buyers have evolved. In 2024, buyers are more informed, independent, and driven by their own research before contacting sales teams.

The Evolving B2B Buyer Journey

The modern B2B buyer loves to conduct their research and compare options before ever speaking to a sales representative. According to Pierre Herubel, an expert in B2B content strategy, buyers prefer to “self-educate” and want access to insightful content that helps them understand the solutions available. “Skipping straight to demand capture might seem efficient, but without building trust and awareness through demand creation, you’re missing the foundation that helps buyers make informed decisions,” Herubel explains.

As B2B marketers, it’s vital to respect this evolving journey. Attempting to rush the process or push for quick demos is no longer effective and often results in buyers flagging your outreach as spam. Instead, you need to develop a marketing strategy that aligns with how buyers actually behave today. “It’s all about creating value before trying to capture demand,” adds Vidhya Boopathi, a digital marketing strategist.

The Importance of Demand Creation

Herubel emphasizes a two-pronged approach: Demand Creation and Demand Capture. Demand creation focuses on building awareness, interest, and authority. This is the phase where you need to produce valuable, educational content, such as blog posts, podcasts, webinars, and case studies, that positions your brand as a thought leader in the space.

“Buyers crave education, not a hard sell,” Herlinger points out. The goal is to grow interest organically by understanding where your audience seeks insights and what type of information they need to move forward in their research. It’s a long-term play but one that pays off by nurturing potential buyers who already trust your brand when they are ready to engage with your sales team.

By running content programs and fine-tuning your messaging, marketers can build authority in their space. Companies that fail to prioritize demand creation will struggle to stay relevant in a market where buyers increasingly value information over immediate sales pitches.

Demand Capture: Turning Interest into Sales

While demand creation is about education and trust-building, Demand Capture focuses on transforming that interest into sales opportunities. This is where a well-structured system comes into play. Interested buyers won’t magically convert into customers; they need the right prompts at the right time.

“Optimizing your system for inbound demand is crucial,” says Matt Swain, a marketing expert. “You need to have a well-designed funnel that accommodates the buyer’s timeline, not your own.” This means ensuring that your website, social media, and other inbound channels are optimized for conversions while also engaging in warm outbound actions like retargeting and direct messaging.

Sophisticated attribution tools also play a role here, helping you understand where your leads are coming from and how to best nurture them. “You need to mix traditional attribution tools with self-attribution reporting to get a complete picture,” advises Herubel. This blended approach allows for a more accurate understanding of what’s driving conversions.

Balancing Creation and Capture

One of the common mistakes many companies make is over-emphasizing demand capture at the expense of demand creation. “The difference between being seen as spam and a trusted partner is in the details of how you engage,” says Mukesh Jangid, a business consultant. Focusing too heavily on the capture phase without first investing in creation can result in wasted resources and a frustrated customer base.

Understanding that B2B marketing is a marathon, not a sprint, is key to long-term success. “Reducing friction in demand capture and making the buyer’s journey intuitive and seamless is where the magic happens,” adds Kalyan LC, a fractional CMO. By balancing the need to create interest and authority before capturing leads, companies can position themselves as trusted advisors rather than pushy vendors.

2024 B2B Buyer Relies on Content to Guide Decisions

The modern buyer values control over their purchasing process and increasingly relies on content to guide their decision-making. “It’s all about understanding their process and adapting your strategy accordingly,” says Joud Altanji, a content marketing specialist.

Companies that succeed in B2B marketing will be those that can effectively align their demand creation efforts with the real-world behaviors of their buyers. “In 2024 and beyond, aligning your marketing with how buyers purchase is not optional—it’s mandatory,” Herubel asserts. By respecting the buyer’s journey and meeting them where they are, rather than forcing them into a premature sales conversation, B2B companies can build lasting relationships and, ultimately, drive more conversions.

Aligning your marketing with how B2B companies buy in 2024 requires a strategic balance of educating, nurturing, and engaging buyers throughout their journey. Marketers who adapt to these new realities will find themselves in a position of strength, while those who cling to outdated tactics will struggle to keep up.

This common pitfall—jumping on the latest marketing trends without understanding how your customers make purchasing decisions—leads companies down the wrong path. Rather than trying to be everywhere at once, spreading resources too thin, Saez and other experts advocate for a more strategic approach: aligning marketing efforts with the buyer’s journey.

Analyzing the Buying Process: A Critical First Step

The foundation of any effective GTM strategy lies in understanding how your customers buy. Saez advises marketers to take a deep dive into two crucial factors: the complexity of the buying process and the sales cycle. “Ask yourself, how long and difficult is your client’s buying journey? How do they make their purchasing decisions?” she explains. Understanding these elements helps marketers tailor their approach and ensures they aren’t wasting resources on strategies that won’t resonate with their target audience.

Adam Birnbaum, a fractional CMO with experience in tech companies, expands on this point: “It’s not just about the products you’re selling, it’s about the people behind the buying decisions. Complex B2B buying committees, each with their own agendas and pain points, require a nuanced approach to ensure that every stakeholder is addressed.”

This emphasis on personalizing the GTM strategy to match the buyer’s journey is echoed by other industry voices. Jayedur Rahman, a B2B lead generation specialist, highlights the importance of mapping the buyer’s journey before jumping into tactical execution. “A well-thought-out plan prevents you from wasting time and budget on the wrong tactics. It’s the difference between strategic growth and spinning your wheels,” Rahman notes.

Investing in the Right Resources

Once the buying process is fully understood, the next step is determining what resources are necessary to nail down the GTM strategy. This includes not only time and budget but also the potential need for additional personnel or external expertise. As Saez points out, “You need to ask yourself: how many resources do I need to implement this strategy? Do I need to invest in extra headcount, or should I bring in external experts to help guide my teams?”

Maxim Poulsen, a growth automation specialist, offers an insightful take on the future of GTM strategies: “I wonder if, in the future, new GTM strategies will actually redefine how people buy rather than just adapt to current trends. We’re already seeing this a lot with product-led growth (PLG).” This forward-thinking perspective suggests that the evolution of marketing strategies may influence how businesses make purchasing decisions, not just the other way around.

Avoiding the Trap of Trend-Chasing

A common trap many marketers fall into is chasing the latest trend without ensuring it aligns with their customers’ actual needs. Saez emphasizes the importance of rational decision-making over trend-chasing. “B2B marketing shouldn’t be about jumping on trends just because they’re cool,” she says. “Good marketers apply rational thinking and common sense, ensuring their strategies are rooted in real buyer insights rather than hype.”

This sentiment is shared by many in the industry. Alan Hale, a B2B market researcher, remarks, “Too many SaaS and tech founders take pride in not understanding their customers, but that’s a Darwinian approach. Only those who truly grasp their buyers’ needs will thrive.”

It’s not just about following trends but about creating strategies that align with buyer behaviors. “Off-the-shelf strategies don’t work,” says Sara Stella Lattanzio, head of marketing at Stryber. “The hard part is adjusting them to your specific context. It’s all about finding what resonates with your audience, rather than blindly copying what worked for someone else.”

Building the Customer Journey

Understanding the buying process isn’t just about aligning your sales tactics; it also helps structure the entire customer journey. As marketing consultant Thibault Genon-Catalot explains, “A customer journey map allows you to picture every step of the buyer’s experience. This is essential for building a solid sales process, avoiding client frustration, and ensuring that your marketing content supports the buyer at each stage of the journey.”

Genon-Catalot advocates for a structured approach to building the customer journey: “Ask questions like, ‘What actions is the buyer taking at this step? What pain points are they experiencing? How can we help them move forward?’ Answering these questions helps align your marketing and sales teams, ensuring they’re all on the same page.”

The Shift from Seller-Centric to Buyer-Centric Strategies

Many marketers still focus too heavily on the product they’re selling rather than how their customers are buying. “That’s the real problem,” says Paul Viviers, a sustainable branding expert. “Most marketers think about their product first, but the most successful companies are those that focus on understanding and meeting their buyers where they are.”

Saez reinforces this notion, stressing the need for a shift from a seller-centric to a buyer-centric mindset. “It’s not about what you’re offering, but about how your customers are navigating their buying decisions. When you make that shift, everything falls into place—your messaging, your resources, your timing.”

A Strategic Approach to B2B Marketing

Crafting a successful GTM strategy in the B2B space requires a deep understanding of how buyers navigate complex sales processes. Rather than jumping into the latest marketing trends, marketers need to take a step back and analyze how their buyers make purchasing decisions. As Saez aptly puts it, “When you take the time to understand your customers’ buying process, you’re no longer guessing. You’re building a smart, data-driven GTM plan that leads to sustainable growth.”

By aligning marketing strategies with the buyer’s journey, investing in the right resources, and avoiding the pitfalls of trend-chasing, B2B companies can position themselves for long-term success in an increasingly competitive marketplace. As Saez concludes, “It’s about working smarter, not harder.”

Without cookies, marketers can’t easily track user activity across websites, thus reducing opportunities to personalize and promote relevant offers. While a digital landscape without cookies might seem bleak, remember that refined customer data hasn’t always been so readily available. Before cookies, mainstream advertising cast a wide net to acquire new customers, but in a post-cookie era, you can do better. Learn today’s techniques, strategies, and analytics that allow marketers to identify and target their ideal customers — no cookies needed.

1. Predictive Analytics 

While your customers are certainly unique, there are common behaviors, life stages, and trends that can inform your marketing tactics. Most businesses already have buyer personas that help determine messaging and campaigns. Predictive analytics takes personas to the next level by analyzing historical data and identifying patterns and trends. The results of this analysis help predict user behaviors and preferences, which then support personalized experiences at scale.  

Customer actions are at the core of this approach, which helps inform marketing messages so they are relevant and useful. We’ve all received tone-deaf, mass emails that are so generic they feel almost offensive. Instead, build predictive audiences to tailor messaging to people most likely to make a purchase. This way, marketers can be proactive with messaging that anticipates customer needs and presents a solution and option to buy.

Use consumer behavior to assign a score to determine what kind of messaging to deliver and when. A higher engagement score means they’re more likely to buy and warrant additional messaging and calls to action. After your messaging campaign has been completed, review the results to determine efficacy and make improvements. With each interaction, your predictive model improves and you can further refine new audiences.

2. Consent-Based Marketing Using First-Party Data

It’s always polite to ask permission, and today it’s almost baffling that requesting access to data wasn’t always the norm. Enhance your current data collection process to incorporate as many opportunities for customers to provide explicit consent. When ingesting new customer information, add an opt-in checkbox for marketing messaging for each contact type. Give customers autonomy to choose email, text, or both, while setting expectations for frequency.

Leverage the data you collect from your website, app, and specific interactions to gain insights into user behavior and preferences. Use a customer relationship management platform to track interactions, including chat and abandoned cart data to refine messaging. Sync owned data to customer journeys and automations that present unique offers like discount codes for abandoned carts. Owned data can even help present upselling opportunities during checkout by offering can’t-miss deals on relevant products.

Craft your request with your customers’ aims in mind to improve the odds of agreeing to marketing messaging. A pet food retailer might request permission to provide customized product suggestions that your pet might love. Skincare retailers might facilitate reorder reminders for prior purchases, which can help ensure customers never run out of their favorites. Be transparent in how you collect and use customer data to build trust and long-term relationships with your audience.

3. Contextual Targeting

Some generalizations are reasonable to make, especially when grouping audience types and preferences. People visiting a site about training for a marathon are likely to be interested in the best shoes for long-distance running. This approach, called contextual targeting, involves aligning ads with site content versus user behavior or data. As one of the oldest strategies in the marketing book, it still has a place in your toolkit. As sites niche down and individual influencers refine their audiences, half of the work is already done for you.

Leverage site-provided data and statistics to determine which presents the right audience for your offer. Analyze the context of the content on the page to align messaging with individual posts and categories. Readers of a do-it-yourself site might respond well to marketing from a custom-blend paint retailer, especially if there’s a tutorial. Link your offer to color guides, videos, and examples that resonate with readers already engaged in DIY. 

By syncing up your offer alongside content users visit independently, you’re coexisting with their digital space. This way, your offer is relevant and has an increased likelihood of resulting in a sale and long-term relationship. Brands that do this will also convey respect for users’ privacy while effectively targeting customers by interest.

Embrace Alternative Tracking Methods and Respect Customer Privacy

The less reliant your strategies are on cookies, the more agile and effective your marketing efforts will be. By reducing your reliance on cookies, you’re building an owned knowledge base. Use alternative tracking methods like predictive analytics that you can refine and improve over time. Align strategies with industry data and forecasts, and invest in first-party data capabilities. 

Facilitate test groups to see which tools and approaches yield the greatest reward while respecting your customers’ digital privacy. Focus on delivering value to your customers, adjusting your messaging based on first-party data and customer feedback. When you do, you’ll reach and engage your customers authentically, maintain data privacy, and grow your business.

According to Walker, the power of generative AI lies in its ability to extend the brand voice uniformly at scale, multiplying the brand’s ability to engage with customers without sacrificing the personal touch. “Generative AI enables us to amplify, speed up, and enhance productivity while injecting machine-generated creativity with human emotion, which is vital for maintaining the authenticity at the heart of trust-building,” Walker explained.

The application of generative AI goes beyond automating mundane tasks by enabling marketers to deliver personalized customer experiences efficiently. This technology fosters a new partnership between human creativity and machine efficiency. The key, Walker notes, is skillful prompt writing, ensuring that AI-generated content aligns seamlessly with strategic brand initiatives and effectively communicates the brand’s core values.

Moreover, Walker highlighted the critical role of data quality and accuracy in AI implementation, a fundamental component that Salesforce emphasizes in its marketing strategies. “Ensuring data integrity is paramount. It not only builds trust within our teams but also enhances our interactions across the organization, aligning every function towards common metrics that reflect our customer engagement’s true impact,” she stated.

This meticulous approach to data enables AI to be a game changer in the B2B space, particularly in understanding and influencing the customer’s path to conversion. By integrating AI into their operations, companies like Salesforce can manage vast arrays of data to uncover insights that drive more strategic, informed marketing decisions.

Walker also touched upon the evolving role of marketers in this AI-driven landscape. The advent of AI requires marketers to continually refine their skills, ensuring they are equipped to oversee AI operations while leveraging their unique creative capabilities to enhance AI outputs.

As B2B companies navigate the integration of AI into their marketing strategies, the challenge remains to maintain the human elements that foster deep business relationships. For Salesforce, this means using AI not just for automation but as a strategic ally in crafting more meaningful, personalized customer interactions.

As Walker from Salesforce and other leaders look forward, the synergy between AI and human creativity in the B2B sector is promising and pivotal. It offers a dual benefit: streamlining operations and setting a new standard in customer engagement. In this light, AI is not just a technological upgrade but a revolutionary approach to redefining market norms and enhancing brand value in the competitive landscape of B2B marketing.

Dave Gerhardt, VP of Marketing at Drift, was recently interviewed on the B2B Growth podcast by John Rougeux who is VP of Marketing at Skyfii. Gerhardt discusses conversational marketing as a new B2B product category and how it is changing marketing from reaching out to you later to a conversation that is happening now:

Conversational Marketing is About Connecting You Now

Conversational marketing is a whole new way of thinking about marketing and sales. The traditional way of doing marketing and sales is all about later. Come to my website and fill out this form and somebody is going to reach out to you later, when it’s convenient for them. The big shift that is happening in marketing and business over the last five to ten years is customers have all the power today. You can’t make people wait. Information is free now.

I can find anything I want to know about a company without ever having to go to your website. It’s crazy to think that you are going to force people to go to your website, fill out a form, wait three days to hear back from your sales team, and then get a demo. Conversational is all about connecting you now with the people who are ready to buy now while they are live on your website.

B2P – Marketing to People

It’s not about buyers. It’s not about sellers. It’s not about sales. It’s not about marketing. It’s about people. That’s how people all communicate online today. I pressed one button in my car and I got a list. I ordered something from Amazon while I was here this morning to send back to my house and it’s going to be there tomorrow when I get home. There are countless examples of that. That is how we all behave online in our real lives today.

But then something happens weird happens. We go to our jobs in B2B and none of the tools that we use match how we actually buy as real people. That’s the most exciting thing to me about conversational marketing. It’s really closing the gap between B2C and B2B. We just call it B2P, marketing to people.

What Ties Our Products Together is Conversation

We have an email product and we have a landing page product. Black and white versions of those people would say everybody has email, everybody has landing pages. The thing that ties those together is conversation. That forces us to think about what is conversational email? What is conversational landing pages? What is conversational whatever? That one word forces our product team to think about how can we change this? If our fundamental stance as a company is that the internet should be one conversation, then how does that weave into everything that we build?

Ultimately what we care about is that email becomes a conversation. Meaning, the way that marketers have had to use email the last decade is a one-way channel. Email is meant to be a two-way channel. Marketers have been using it as, “John come to my webinar.” What happens if you actually respond to that email? Most of the time you can’t because it’s donotreply@ or it just goes to some inbox where nobody is answering it. That is a terrible experience. Our belief is that if you reply, “Hey actually I can’t make it. Can you reregister my colleague?” That should get handled. We are thinking of that from an evolution standpoint.

The same thing with landing pages. Most landing pages today are static. You go to the landing page, put a bunch of info in and you are gone. What if that was a real-time conversation on the page? That one topic has to weave itself into everything we do from a product perspective.

>> Listen to the complete interview with Drift Marketing VP Dave Gerhardt on the B2B Growth podcast.

Avishai Sharon, Co-founder & CEO of TrenDemon, discussed their software on ILTV:

How Do You Connect Content Marketing to Sales?

My personal background was heading a marketing agency for many years and one of my biggest struggles was how do I prove our value and our effort to our customers and how do you connect the impact of what we call content marketing to business goals and to sales? When we couldn’t find an easy way to show that correlation three and a half years ago we went ahead and founded TrenDemon to help companies do just that.

We connect their marketing efforts, which today rely mostly on content, you want your audience to consume valuable content, as opposed to just advertising. The big challenge is how do you attribute those efforts to sales? There’s actually a prior problem, how do you actually map the customer journey? How do you track those different touch points into one picture?

Reverse Engineering Successful Customer Journeys

The first thing we do is look at all the different touchpoints that a customer has had over his lifecycle. We ask the question, not just where do they come from, but how deep was their engagement? Did they actually watch the video? Did they actually read the article? Then you can start reverse engineering those successful journeys and say what’s common about all of these successful journeys.

What we found, and this is the interesting thing, we’re working with over 90 companies today worldwide and the vast majority of content the companies produce, over 90 percent, is ineffective at driving business goals. As you guys know it’s very expensive to create quality content and it takes a lot of effort.

If People Read the Right Content They Will Covert to a Sale

The second interesting thing is that if you do manage to find those 10 percent and you find a way to get it in front of the right people you’re actually able to improve dramatically your results. So there’s not just a correlation between what buyers did beforehand, there’s also a causation, a causal relationship, that if people read the right content at the right time they’re more likely to follow a path. We’re not probably as sophisticated as we believe that we are.

We’re a SaaS company, a cloud-based solution. We’re working a lot in the US and one of our biggest markets and growing markets is Japan. They’re investing a lot of content and a lot on technology. Essentially, because we look at the customer journey and not necessarily specific languages we can operate in any environment which allows us to grow pretty much anywhere. As long as they have content, which means that they’re producing something other than just advertising, they want people and audiences to actually engage with what they’re producing and they do have some business outcomes that they’re looking to measure.

About TrenDemon:

Founded in 2013, TrenDemon is the world’s leading content marketing attribution and optimization solution, helping marketers prove and improve their content’s impact.

TrenDemon insights can help you uncover your content marketing ROI, impact on business goals, and engagement to help guide the content strategy. Our optimization units will help you increase conversions and shorten time to convert on your owned assets.

TrenDemon proudly serves a wide range of customers, from Fortune 500s and brands to SaaS, B2B, and financial companies and is backed by leading VCs.

Evolution of Loyalty Programs

As of 2020, a staggering 90% of companies had some sort of loyalty program in place. The importance of customer loyalty has been proven time and again, and most brands – regardless of the industry – are trying to capitalize on a special bond with their clients. The concept is still incredibly relevant in 2024 – only now, catering to the needs of the overstimulated, socially and eco-conscious customers is becoming increasingly difficult. Gone are the days of simple punch cards; loyalty programs have to implement more and more advanced initiatives to provide customers with immersive experiences and keep up with their ever-changing values. The future of loyalty programs lies in ultra-personalized offerings, sustainable initiatives, and the ability to connect with clients on an authentic, deeper level.

Customer Loyalty Trends 2024

Based on what we’ve been observing in 2023, here are the top customer loyalty trends we believe will continue or start to blossom in the next couple of months:

1. Loyal Customers in 2024

The first point on our list is not as much a trend as it is a suggestion but one that you can’t start a loyalty strategy without. Who are your customers in 2024? With societal changes and the influx of Gen-Z members in the consumerism market, it makes sense to ask that question. Because modern customers care like never before. They care about the Earth, equality, ethical practices, and shared values. They support brands promoting social responsibility and environmentally sustainable products. They’re also very in tune with modern technologies and expect the “phygital” experiences.

2. Social Media Engagement

Increased customer engagement is one of the most important goals of any loyalty program. In 2024, we have a variety of tools that help achieve it – and social media is definitely one of them. More and more businesses leverage social platforms to foster meaningful connections. After all, 62% of millennials say they are more likely to become loyal customers if a brand engages them on social networks. Whether through targeted content or rewarding loyalty members for interacting with the brand’s communication channels, social media can be an excellent platform to boost engagement, and its importance is poised for growth.

3. Sustainability

With 69% of customers willing to spend more on eco-products, it’s safe to say that green loyalty programs are 2024’s next big thing. Companies are recognizing the need to go sustainable and are praised for their efforts to make consumerism less harmful to the planet. One example of such an initiative is Starbucks’ Reusable Cup or IKEA Family’s Buy Back Programs that reward members for sustainable choices – and work in favor of these brands’ image in the meantime.

4. Blockchain-Based Loyalty Solutions

In times of increased cyberattack risk, more and more people are worried about the safety of their assets and data. That’s why blockchain, offering unparalleled transparency and security, is becoming increasingly prevalent in the world of loyalty programs. The technology is used in various rewards schemes, such as AirAsia BIG Loyalty and Singapore Airlines KrisPay, where it ensures the integrity and traceability of transactions, providing customers with a secure and convenient way to redeem rewards. If you don’t use it yet, 2024 may be the perfect time to start.

5. Interactive Gamification

While gamification in loyalty programs is hardly a new trend, it’s definitely still one to follow. By incorporating elements of fun and competition, gamification is excellent at driving customer engagement and fostering deeper connections with an audience. One great example of how it’s done in 2024 is Starbucks Odyssey – an extension of the Starbucks Rewards Program that encourages members to participate in online games, quizzes, and other fun activities in return for “Journey Stamps” (non-fungible tokens) and Odyssey Points that can later be redeemed for exclusive experiences.

6. Seamless Omnichannel Experience

Companies using various channels have 2.5 times higher purchase frequency compared to those using one channel. It’s not surprising, considering that for modern customers, navigating many different channels at once is like second skin. That’s why providing them with a seamless omnichannel experience should be a standard, not a luxury. Yet, just over 10% of companies claim their omnichannel game is strong. To get ahead and gain a competitive advantage, make sure you integrate various channels through which customers can interact with your business. Use the power of AI to combine the in-store and online shopping experiences for cross-channel integration and consistent branding.

7. AI in Loyalty Program

In 2023, the global AI market size was close to $208 billion. By 2030, the market size is expected to reach nearly $2 trillion. Using artificial intelligence to boost business performance is now the new norm, and its impact will only continue to grow. In the world of loyalty marketing, AI can be a great tool for predictive analytics, dynamic pricing optimization, customer segmentation, creating tiered loyalty programs, and hyper-personalization. AI’s capabilities in terms of enhancing loyalty programs are truly mind-blowing, and it’s very safe to assume they will be put to use more and more in the future, which is why you should jump on that bandwagon sooner rather than later.

Customer Loyalty Redefined

As we navigate the evolving landscape of customer loyalty in 2024, it’s evident that businesses are embracing innovative strategies to build lasting connections with their audience. From leveraging social engagement and gamification to embracing blockchain technology and predictive analytics, the future of loyalty programs is poised for unprecedented growth and evolution.

Scott Heimes, Chief Marketing Officer at Zipwhip, discusses how two-way text messaging can be an extremely effective way to communicate with your customers in an interview on the B2B Growth Podcast:

76% of Consumers Have Received Text From Businesses

Over 76 percent of consumers have received some kind of text from a business. The most common are appointment reminders or bank alerts. This really just scratches the surface. Texting has so many applications beyond just alerts and reminders. There are sales and marketing, discount coupons and giveaways, customer support and service, recruiting and staffing, and internal communications at places like educational institutions. It’s so new and businesses are continuing to innovate in this medium. There are a lot of powerful use cases for businesses.

We have over 30,000 businesses using our software today. They range from very small businesses like yoga studios or lawn care services all the way up to multi-billion dollar insurance companies that are using our solution in their claim call centers. Industries include financial services, staffing and recruiting, healthcare, legal, and more. We have 156 professional sports teams that use our solution. They use it for ticket sales and customer service. There are lots of fitness gyms, radio and TV stations that use our text solution as well. It really does run the gamut of anybody that wants to communicate with their customers via this preferred medium.

Report Shows Increasing Use of Texting by Businesses

I just talked to the Director of Communications for the Sound Transit Authority, the public transit authority in Seattle, who uses our solution. They publish an 800 number to text or call when people see problems on the trains. Rather than get on the phone and calling, more and more people are texting those alerts. It’s really an interesting use case. Another one is during a recent hurricane down in Houston we had an insurance agent that was using our software to communicate with all of his customers in the area because the phone lines were largely down. Texting was working well to create engagement and communication during those tough times.

We recently created a report called the State of Texting which is a deep research study that highlights the adoption curve of text messaging as a business communication tool. It identifies how many consumers are already being texted by businesses as well as many other key insights and trends. One of the things we saw was that there are a lot of one-way texting tools where you get an alert from your doctor’s office, for instance, but you can’t respond to it. It was actually fired off by a CRM using an API that was just one way.

Text is a Great Way to Increase Engagement

Increasingly, consumers would prefer to be able to respond to those texts and have an actual interaction with a human on the other side to either reschedual that appointment or alert them that they are going to be five minutes late or something like that. We are seeing a trend where people want to be able to respond to texts and have an interaction as opposed to continuing to be one way.

For businesses, the communication channels of email and phone are just becoming less and less effective. Text is a great way to increase your engagement and responsiveness with consumers. They’ll actually respond to a text. One of the things we are doing as a company is everything we can to maintain the purity of the texting medium to make sure that spam doesn’t leak its way into this channel.

>> Listen to the complete interview with Zipwhip CMO Scott Heimes on the B2B Growth podcast.

Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Marketing, discusses how B2B influencer marketing can be a highly effective force in driving leads and conversions for companies. Lee was interviewed by Tim Washer at the 2019 Content Marketing World Conference & Expo:

Influencer Marketing Is Powerful Because Of Influence Itself

Influencer marketing is powerful because of influence itself, not about the people. Influence has always been a factor in being persuasive and being effective as a communicator, as a marketer, and really being able to tap into the dynamics of that. The psychology and sociology of that is something that is everlasting, it’s evergreen. While there are trends in terms of tactics that come and go, there’s this consumerization of B2B. B2C influencers are misbehaving and have fake followers, etc. and some of that’s leaking over into B2B. But I think that’ll reconcile a little bit and kind of clean itself out. In the future brands are going to be looking at influence as a really key component of their holistic marketing strategy internally and externally.

A lot of people when they think of influencer marketing they think of a Kardashian or some people think of something like Baddiewinkle, a 90-year-old woman who wears hip-hop clothes and now has her own makeup line on Sephora versus someone like Tamara McCleary interviewing an executive at Dell about the right IT infrastructure for doing edge computing. That’s really what it’s about in B2B.

B2B Influencers Actually Have To Have The Main Expertise

One of the big differences between B2B and B2C influencers is that in B2B you actually have to have the main expertise. You actually have to be knowledgeable and have a depth of that expertise in what it is that you’re influential about. It’s also important to have a network for distribution and a place to publish your content. It’s great to have a personality and that’s less common in B2B, where you have charisma. Well, lack of personality is a form of personality I suppose. 

The good thing is that we’ve figured out ways to coach folks that have that domain expertise and an active following but they’re not necessarily used to being social. We are coaching them in how to activate themselves and to pull out the best of what they have to share in a way that’s very promotable. Many of them start to open up a little bit after we show them how to do it.

B2B Influencer Marketing Adds Up To Nurture and Conversion

In the planning stages (with a client looking to promote something) we’ll look at the topics that are important around the announcement and how it affects customers and how customers will think of that news and how it’ll affect or change their lives. Those topics are then what we want to be influential about. We’ll use those keywords or topics to search our network using influencer marketing software to find who is influential around those topics, who’s publishing content, who self-identifies around that topic, and whose audience is actually activated around that topic. We find those people who have trusted voices with an active community and we invite them to collaborate on content and give their opinion about the announcement. 

We co-create content with them in concert with brand messaging. So now instead of people just ignoring the press release we actually have storytelling happening with these different voices. You have this intersection of one or two or three or four influencers talking about this topic and those audiences intersect and cross. They intersect across channels too. Your customer is hearing this credible message not only from the brand but also from people that they trust in different channels. That all adds up to yes. That all adds up to nurture and ultimately conversion.

Referred to as data sovereignty, this is the idea that data should be under the control of its users (through their government). For example, American policymakers want to make sure that the data of TikTok users in the USA is stored and processed in data servers located in the US, putting them under American regulation, away from foreign government access and exposure to threats (because of poor data protection regulations and technologies).

This may make sense, but it also creates new challenges for those that collect, store, and use the data. There are benefits in tightening regulations on data storage and access, but there are also valid concerns over them, especially when taking into account the disruption these regulations bring. Here are the answers to some of the most important questions about data sovereignty, especially as it relates to digital marketing.

How does data sovereignty affect cross-country digital marketing?

The main goal of data sovereignty is to empower governments to have jurisdiction over the data of their citizens. This jurisdiction is aimed at addressing critical concerns like privacy, cybersecurity, and data misuse or abuse. It is a controversial move, but it has been gaining ground in many countries because of the increasing cases of state-backed data security and privacy violations, growing nationalist sentiments, and the economic benefits of having data stored locally.

Data sovereignty policies do not necessarily disregard cross-country digital marketing. It makes the process more complicated, though. Instead of having straightforward access to data from an overseas or cross-border location, marketers will have to set up new layers of operations to comply with local laws. Facebook, for example, cannot process the data of its EU users in real-time to guide its advertising strategies because of a recent EU court ruling that prevents Meta from transmitting the data of EU citizens to US or non-EU servers in line with Article 46(1) of GDPR.

This restriction does not prevent Meta from conducting marketing or advertising activities in Europe, but the company has to have its EU team or subsidiary perform the data accumulation and analysis per the region’s laws. The output would then be transmitted to Meta’s headquarters for the corresponding action. Another option is for Meta to also establish an independent or autonomous operation in the EU to more agilely respond to local data and trends. This means more costs and longer processes.

Does data sovereignty prohibit the storage and processing of data outside of the country of origin?

Data sovereignty does not necessarily mean the absolute prevention of the storage and processing of data outside the country of origin, Some companies may be able to cut deals with governments to allow cross-border data transfers. Still, this affects the agility and scalability of multinational digital marketing campaigns. It is a significant hurdle to the activities of companies that operate multi-nationally. It prevents the seamless movement of data across different jurisdictions, thus restricting the ability to personalize marketing campaigns and target specific audiences.

Data sovereignty has similarities with data localization but they are not always the same. The thrust of the former is about having control over the data generated within a country or jurisdiction. The latter focuses on setting requirements to have certain types of data stored and processed within a specific country or jurisdiction. These data may not always be generated within the country of the government imposing the localization requirement, but they usually involve the citizens of the said government.

How much data is affected by data sovereignty?

An Oliver Wyman study shows that around 92 percent of the data in the Western world is stored in the United States. These are mostly data collected by tech companies, social media, and subscription services in particular. For the longest time, American companies have enjoyed the benefits of quick access to data, allowing them to come up with informed business strategies and decisions quickly and efficiently.

The popularity of American digital services in Asia, Africa, South America, and other non-western regions shows the data advantage of many American companies. With many governments now showing keenness to having data sovereignty laws, this advantage is quickly eroding. 

However, this means that local companies or subsidiaries of multinational digital marketing businesses are getting a boost. They are becoming more relevant as companies need them to comply with data sovereignty, localization, and residency policies. This bodes well for local economies, as it forces businesses to use local servers and have local operations for data processing.

Does data sovereignty make data safer and less prone to abuse?

One of the main arguments in favor of data sovereignty and localization is security. For the proponents, their data is safer if it is in their territory and covered by their laws. There have been many complaints about multinational companies abusing the information about consumers in different parts of the world, with some accused of bombarding consumers with incessant ads across different channels. Others have also been accused of selling data to third parties.

For the most part, data sovereignty does make data less accessible to abusers and threat actors. However, this benefit is limited to the kind of laws or policies a country imposes. Requiring companies to store data locally is not enough. There must be existing laws that ensure privacy and make access to this data secure.

Does data sovereignty benefit digital marketers?

While the effects of digital sovereignty regulations usually mean hurdles or constraints for digital marketers, it does help in two main ways: building trust and supporting local marketing industries. These may not completely compensate for the convenience and efficiency of being able to seamlessly access data across borders, but they are significant enough benefits.

Amid reports of high-profile data breaches and privacy violations, it is understandable that many consumers are becoming wary of the data management practices of multinational companies. The data breaches affecting companies like Yahoo, LinkedIn, Facebook, Alibaba, Weibo, and Adobe demonstrate how risky it is to have data that is free-flowing across national borders. Data sovereignty helps allay fears of more breaches, fostering trust and transparency.

On the other hand, being forced to have local operations to lawfully access and process data is a boon to digital marketers in different locations. It helps create more jobs, although many companies may eventually turn to AI-driven automation to become more efficient.

Striking a balance

Cross-border data transfers are essential for multinational companies and marketers that are trying to reach a global audience. Data sovereignty regulations can mean obstacles as they entail complex legal frameworks and the need to negotiate data transfer agreements. These can limit the agility and scalability of global marketing campaigns, adversely affecting the speed and efficiency of reaching diverse audiences across borders. Nevertheless, digital marketers or multinational companies, in general, are quick to adapt.

Data sovereignty may be seen as a hurdle, but innovative and forward-thinking companies know how to find their way around. They can forge industry collaborations and turn responsible data-handling practices into useful tools to unlock the full potential of digital marketing in an increasingly data-driven world.

Scott Tousley, Senior Team Lead of User Acquisition for all products at HubSpot, was recently interviewed on the B2B Growth Podcast by David Kelly, General Manager at Sumo Dojo. Tousley discusses how HubSpot is using Surround Sound Marketing Strategy to drive leads and sales:

Surround Sound Marketing Strategy Starting to Take Off

There is a very smart individual at HubSpot named Alex Birkett based out of Austin, Texas. He is working on this concept that is really starting to take off called Surround Sound Strategy. Essentially what that means is that it runs with the notion that marketers are selfish. All we care about is how do we drive more traffic to our website. I don’t care where it comes from. Whether it comes from search or social or referral traffic or email, it doesn’t matter. You’re always looking at how do I get more traffic to my website? The reality is that when we are trying to buy something you don’t go to one website. You go to multiple different websites when you are trying to make a purchasing decision.

For example, I’m in South Lake Tahoe right now. One search I just did recently was “best bars in South Lake Tahoe.” I wanted to see a list and I wanted to see some reviews from a couple of different websites. I also like to surf, so let’s say I’m in the market for a new shortboard. So I search for “best shortboards 2019.” First, I’ll read a listicle, then I will go back to Google and I will click on the next list. Then I will go back again and click on the next list. Then I will start to narrow my decision based on seeing the same thing over and over. Once I narrow it down I will do a versus search such as “lost puddle jumper” vs. “channel islands average joe.” I’ve narrowed my decision at that point.

We Want To Be At All Stages of the Purchasing Decision

What we are trying to do at HubSpot right now is figure out how to be everywhere. We want to be at all stages of that purchasing decision when people are searching for “what is the best blank that exists today.” Well, there are a ton of lists that are out there and a ton of review sites and HubSpot’s B2B software (has to be there). There are a lot of review sites just dominating search engines right now like Capterra, G2 Crowd, and Software Advice. A lot of those are pay to play. You have got to pay to get listed on what appears when you land via search. Most of them are.

But listicles are free. Not only are they free to get added to, but they are free to create. That’s one of the biggest things we are working on right now. How do we change our mindset from being so obsessed at driving traffic to our website? How do we make sure that HubSpot’s brand is everywhere when you are doing your product research and you are on many different websites? We actually sometimes prefer that we drive traffic to multiple different websites where we are listed versus just to our own. It’s good for social grouping.

Listen to the full interview with HubSpot’s Scott Tousley.

Nirosha Methananda, Vice President of Marketing at Bombora, discusses the challenges of marketing without annoying your potential customers by bombarding them with marketing messages in an interview with Logan Lyles on the B2B Growth Podcast:

Marketing Is Really About the Customer Experience

As a B2B marketer, I get marketed to a lot. It’s something that I have increasingly noticed and I’m probably not the only one. That’s just becoming part of the experience in terms of being inundated with different messaging and different calls and this, that, and the other. Use this, do this, buy this, whatever it is. It’s really not a great experience. It doesn’t necessarily provide value. Marketers are so busy as it is, and I know that is applicable across the board with everyone we are marketing to. Being able to cut through the noise and having an understanding of all these different things is very challenging. 

Having on top of it being inundated with this constant flow of messaging like meet me, meet me, meet me, is not very helpful. That’s one of the things that I’m passionate about. It’s really about customer experience. I think that is something fundamental to marketing. I feel like we have gone down this path of almost over automating and having to constantly pounce on people without necessarily being conscious and mindful of what their experience is on the other end. From my experience, it’s leading to me switching off and ignoring messages. I’m sure I’m not the only one. 

Create a Marketing Strategy That’s Not Annoying

It also leads to this annoyance and irritation which leads to distrust of brands and that’s not great for this industry. From a customer perspective those bad experiences, unfortunately, more than good experiences, they stay with you for longer and you remember that. Another thing that we don’t necessarily think of is that it’s wasteful. It’s wasteful of time and it’s wasteful of money especially for marketing and sales where money is a precious resource. It’s not something to be wasted. That’s basically why I’m passionate about creating a marketing strategy that’s not annoying.

As an example, our Intent Event was our first flagship event that we did last year. It was a closed event so we did have limited numbers and we were limited as to what we could do with promotion. What we did was try to have mindfulness around what we were sending out and ensuring that it was helpful. Making sure that the recipients, the people that we invited, were given all the relevant information, but there was brevity in the communication as well as encouraging them to participate without forcing them to be there. 

There was certainly some urgency around some of our communication but it wasn’t you need to attend this and this is why you must attend this. It was more about being a bit more subtle in presenting them the idea and the concept of what it was, why it would help them, and exactly the information that they needed. What that meant was not sending out multiple emails, being very controlled around it, really thinking about what the experience was before the event, to during the event, to after the event. We were really focused on the customer and making sure that all of the content and communication was educational and helpful.

Video content that achieves these goals ensures you drive engagement and foster meaningful connections. Therefore, crafting a video strategy that is unique and compelling is essential to your success. Discover why it matters in how you prepare your video strategy and how to create one that is relevant to your audience.

The Importance of Creating a Video Marketing Strategy

A well-crafted video strategy is key for planning how you will create content that generates interest, builds connections and fosters brand affinity. Yet, how you make the video is important because it impacts how much the content will speak to your audience’s emotions and needs. In turn, this enables you to spark meaningful conversations and position your brand as a go-to source for valuable inspiration. 

Additionally, a video strategy that resonates with your audience increases shareability, amplifying your reach and brand visibility. As viewers connect with your content, they will be sure to share it with their networks, giving your brand the traction it needs to succeed. In an era where attention is scarce — investing in a captivating video strategy and good lighting will be the ingredient to increasing engagement and achieving long-term growth. 

How to Craft a Relatable Video Strategy

If you are ready to produce a video strategy that truly resonates with your audience, follow these tips below.

1. Define Your Target Audience

Knowing your target audience will help you craft a video strategy that resonates. Start by defining the demographics of your ideal viewers, such as age, gender, location and income level. This tactic will give you the information needed to create tailored content that is relevant and engaging.

Once you have defined those specifics, you can start getting into the psychographics of the target audience. Consider exploring aspects like their values, beliefs and motivations. Identifying their emotional drivers will form a deeper connection with your audience, helping you craft more relatable videos your viewers will appreciate.

Lastly, get to know your audience more by digging into the platforms they frequent and the content they consume. This information will allow you to choose the most effective channels and formats for your video content.

2. Set Clear Objectives for Your Video Strategy

Your video strategy needs clearly defined goals to align your efforts with your overall marketing objectives. That way, you can create a purposeful plan that drives the desired results. Additionally, your goals allow you to measure your video marketing success, enabling you to optimize your strategy over time.

Yet, how do you know which objectives to choose for your strategy? The first simple step is to consider your broader marketing and business goals. Then, assess how your video content will support these goals. For example, your objectives may be increasing brand awareness, generating leads, engaging consumers or driving sales conversions.

Be specific and measurable in setting your objectives, and establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to track your progress. That way, your goals are clear, and you can create an intentional video strategy that delivers meaningful results.

3. Optimize for Search Engines and Social Media Platforms

Integrating this step within your video strategy is essential for improving online visibility and reach. You can easily achieve this by implementing SEO best practices for your video content to enhance its chances of appearing in search results and garnering views. Similarly, it helps to tailor your video content on social media platforms to increase engagement and organic growth.

Start optimizing by researching keywords your audience will use to search for your content. Then incorporate these relevant terms into your video titles, descriptions and tags.

To increase your video’s visibility on social media, consider your users’ behaviors on each channel and adapt your video formats, lengths and posting schedules accordingly.

4. Develop a Compelling Narrative

Stories are great for evoking emotions and maintaining viewer interest. However, it would be best if you incorporated certain storytelling techniques to create unique content. The only factor is that many marketers need help integrating storytelling into a brand’s content, as many struggle with this tactic.

The most simple way to create a compelling narrative is to focus on the human element within your content. Share relatable experiences, challenges and successes the viewers can empathize with in your videos. By incorporating some of these elements into your video strategy, you can create stories that connect with your audience emotionally.

However, it is important to consider your audience’s pain points when telling compelling stories. Oftentimes, this allows you to provide solutions and demonstrate how your products or services can alleviate their problems. Essentially, you can think of it as weaving a story into your video content so you create an impactful experience for viewers.

5. Choose the Right Type of Video Content

The type of videos you share with your audience also influences how your strategy resonates with your target audience. For instance, 94% of digital marketers agree that video content improves users’ knowledge. Yet, how you create your content will impact their understanding and decision-making processes.

Consider your objectives, target audience and suitable formats. You can engage your audience effectively when creating the right type of video content. The most popular types of videos are educational, social media stories and live streaming, webinars, testimonials and product demonstrations.

For example, if you decide educational videos will be the most effective, create informative content such as tutorials, how-tos and explainers. These will be the most sufficient in positioning your brand as an expert in your industry. 

When you consider the different types of video content, you can craft a diverse, engaging strategy that caters to your audience’s preferences.

6. Improve Your Video Strategy by Leveraging Analytics

Take advantage of your video’s analytics to measure your strategy’s effectiveness and identify improvement areas. You can start by tracking your KPIs, such as views, watch time and conversions, to gain insights about your content and make data-driven decisions for optimization.

However, it is important to remember that you must regularly review your data performance to indicate what resonates with your audience. When analyzing your results, consider the types of content that drive the most engagement. Then, use that information to create more of what works. 

Beyond looking at the numbers, you can also gather feedback through comments and social media interactions. That way, you can refine your content and narrative and ensure it remains relevant and engaging for your target audience.

Engage Your Audience With a Resonant Video Strategy

A video strategy that resonates with your target audience is vital for driving engagement, conversions and brand awareness. Yet, creating a powerful video strategy takes clear objectives and marketing best practices. Captivate your audience like never before by focusing on the steps above. That way, you can craft a winning video strategy for your brand and audience.

Microsoft unveiled Viva Sales in mid-2022, touting it as “a new seller experience application.” The app is designed to work with various CRMs and integrate their data with Microsoft’s suite of apps.

The company is now integrating ChatGPT into Viva Sales so salespeople can use the AI to write emails for them. According to Bloomberg, the software “will cull data from customer records and Office email software. That information will then be used to generate emails containing personalized text, pricing details and promotions.”

Microsoft is investing heavily in ChatGPT and its creator, OpenAI. The company is planning to unveil a version of Bing that utilizes a new and improved version, and has invested billions in OpenAI.

The company clearly sees potential for ChatGPT to help it in its efforts to take on Salesforce’s dominance in the CRM market.

Nirosha Methananda, Vice President of Marketing at Bombora, discusses the challenges of marketing without annoying your potential customers by bombarding them with marketing messages in an interview with Logan Lyles on the B2B Growth Podcast:

Marketing Is Really About the Customer Experience

As a B2B marketer, I get marketed to a lot. It’s something that I have increasingly noticed and I’m probably not the only one. That’s just becoming part of the experience in terms of being inundated with different messaging and different calls and this, that, and the other. Use this, do this, buy this, whatever it is. It’s really not a great experience. It doesn’t necessarily provide value. Marketers are so busy as it is, and I know that is applicable across the board with everyone we are marketing to. Being able to cut through the noise and having an understanding of all these different things is very challenging. 

Having on top of it being inundated with this constant flow of messaging like meet me, meet me, meet me, is not very helpful. That’s one of the things that I’m passionate about. It’s really about customer experience. I think that is something fundamental to marketing. I feel like we have gone down this path of almost over automating and having to constantly pounce on people without necessarily being conscious and mindful of what their experience is on the other end. From my experience, it’s leading to me switching off and ignoring messages. I’m sure I’m not the only one. 

Create a Marketing Strategy That’s Not Annoying

It also leads to this annoyance and irritation which leads to distrust of brands and that’s not great for this industry. From a customer perspective those bad experiences, unfortunately, more than good experiences, they stay with you for longer and you remember that. Another thing that we don’t necessarily think of is that it’s wasteful. It’s wasteful of time and it’s wasteful of money especially for marketing and sales where money is a precious resource. It’s not something to be wasted. That’s basically why I’m passionate about creating a marketing strategy that’s not annoying.

As an example, our Intent Event was our first flagship event that we did last year. It was a closed event so we did have limited numbers and we were limited as to what we could do with promotion. What we did was try to have mindfulness around what we were sending out and ensuring that it was helpful. Making sure that the recipients, the people that we invited, were given all the relevant information, but there was brevity in the communication as well as encouraging them to participate without forcing them to be there. 

There was certainly some urgency around some of our communication but it wasn’t you need to attend this and this is why you must attend this. It was more about being a bit more subtle in presenting them the idea and the concept of what it was, why it would help them, and exactly the information that they needed. What that meant was not sending out multiple emails, being very controlled around it, really thinking about what the experience was before the event, to during the event, to after the event. We were really focused on the customer and making sure that all of the content and communication was educational and helpful.

Jeff Bezos founded and led Amazon from a tiny startup to one of the biggest, most valuable companies in the world. Throughout that journey, his top priority was always the customer. In fact, according to Forbes’ Bill Murphy, Jr., in the 23 shareholder letters Bezos wrote, the word “customer” appears 443 times, more than any other keyword he normally talked about. In contrast, “Amazon” only appears 340 times.

There’s no doubt that Bezos’ almost obsessive focus on the customer is much of the reason Amazon has been the success it has. Whatever other missteps the company has taken along its journey, whatever other issues it may have, Amazon became the behemoth it is by delivering what the customer wants at a price they want it.

Interestingly, at the company’s most recent quarterly call, Jassy appeared to be shifting focus away from the customer somewhat. As Murphy writes, Jassy outlined his priorities as follows:

1. “[P]robably the No. 1 priority that I spen[d] time with the team on is reducing our cost to serve in our operations network …”
2. “The second thing, priority-wise, I would talk about is just speed. We believe they’re continuing to get products to customers faster, makes customers happier, and they also converted a higher rate when they can see promises of deliveries that are faster …”
3. “I think pricing being sharp is always important. But particularly in this type of uncertain economy, where customers are very conscious about how much they’re spending … we’ll continue to work really hard on being sharp on pricing … “
4. “And then just the customer experience improvements that we’re working all the time … we will continue to work very hard on those customer experiences, and we have a lot more planned …”

Putting aside that Jassy has four priorities — which Murphy argues is broad enough to count as not having any real priorities — Jassy lists the “customer experience” as the fourth and last priority.

It is true that Jassy mentions ‘making customers happier’ in his second priority, but that’s not the focus of Number Two. The focus is having faster logistics…which will result in the customers being happier.

While Jassy is clearly concerned with happy customers, it appears he does not have the same focus on that metric as Bezos did. Whether this works for Amazon, or undermines what has made the company great, remains to be seen.

Since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, the company has been looking for new ways to monetize its platform. According to Matt Navarra, Social Media Consultant, the company is already contacting businesses to tell them it will cost $1,000 to keep their gold verified status. In addition, it will cost $50 per month for each affiliate account.

Microsoft unveiled Viva Sales in mid-2022, touting it as “a new seller experience application.” The app is designed to work with various CRMs and integrate their data with Microsoft’s suite of apps.

The company is now integrating ChatGPT into Viva Sales so salespeople can use the AI to write emails for them. According to Bloomberg, the software “will cull data from customer records and Office email software. That information will then be used to generate emails containing personalized text, pricing details and promotions.”

Microsoft is investing heavily in ChatGPT and its creator, OpenAI. The company is planning to unveil a version of Bing that utilizes a new and improved version, and has invested billions in OpenAI.

The company clearly sees potential for ChatGPT to help it in its efforts to take on Salesforce’s dominance in the CRM market.

Dave Gerhardt, VP of Marketing at Drift, was recently interviewed on the B2B Growth podcast by John Rougeux who is VP of Marketing at Skyfii. Gerhardt discusses conversational marketing as a new B2B product category and how it is changing marketing from reaching out to you later to a conversation that is happening now:

Conversational Marketing is About Connecting You Now

Conversational marketing is a whole new way of thinking about marketing and sales. The traditional way of doing marketing and sales is all about later. Come to my website and fill out this form and somebody is going to reach out to you later, when it’s convenient for them. The big shift that is happening in marketing and business over the last five to ten years is customers have all the power today. You can’t make people wait. Information is free now.

I can find anything I want to know about a company without ever having to go to your website. It’s crazy to think that you are going to force people to go to your website, fill out a form, wait three days to hear back from your sales team, and then get a demo. Conversational is all about connecting you now with the people who are ready to buy now while they are live on your website.

B2P – Marketing to People

It’s not about buyers. It’s not about sellers. It’s not about sales. It’s not about marketing. It’s about people. That’s how people all communicate online today. I pressed one button in my car and I got a list. I ordered something from Amazon while I was here this morning to send back to my house and it’s going to be there tomorrow when I get home. There are countless examples of that. That is how we all behave online in our real lives today.

But then something happens weird happens. We go to our jobs in B2B and none of the tools that we use match how we actually buy as real people. That’s the most exciting thing to me about conversational marketing. It’s really closing the gap between B2C and B2B. We just call it B2P, marketing to people.

What Ties Our Products Together is Conversation

We have an email product and we have a landing page product. Black and white versions of those people would say everybody has email, everybody has landing pages. The thing that ties those together is conversation. That forces us to think about what is conversational email? What is conversational landing pages? What is conversational whatever? That one word forces our product team to think about how can we change this? If our fundamental stance as a company is that the internet should be one conversation, then how does that weave into everything that we build?

Ultimately what we care about is that email becomes a conversation. Meaning, the way that marketers have had to use email the last decade is a one-way channel. Email is meant to be a two-way channel. Marketers have been using it as, “John come to my webinar.” What happens if you actually respond to that email? Most of the time you can’t because it’s donotreply@ or it just goes to some inbox where nobody is answering it. That is a terrible experience. Our belief is that if you reply, “Hey actually I can’t make it. Can you reregister my colleague?” That should get handled. We are thinking of that from an evolution standpoint.

The same thing with landing pages. Most landing pages today are static. You go to the landing page, put a bunch of info in and you are gone. What if that was a real-time conversation on the page? That one topic has to weave itself into everything we do from a product perspective.

>> Listen to the complete interview with Drift Marketing VP Dave Gerhardt on the B2B Growth podcast.