It’s Not Just a Buzzword—It’s a Requirement
When examining the future of B2B marketing, it’s impossible not to think about the impact of the customer journey on marketing strategy. It’s not just B2C companies that are making it a priority; it’s a frequent discussion with B2B clients I deal with every day. A recent whitepaper by LinkedIn® and Salesforce, “The State of Marketing Leadership: How Senior-Level Marketers are Redefining Succcess and Integrating the Customer Journey,” addresses this issue with details about the current state of the customer journey and where companies and marketing agencies should focus their efforts to be successful.
What I’ve seen with my clients is the same as what the whitepaper says—that the customer journey isn’t just a buzzword, it’s actually a requirement for companies who want to succeed. It’s more important than ever to deliver very personalized brand experiences to customers if you want to get true engagement out of them. But when push comes to shove, it’s easier for many B2B marketers to maintain the status quo than to meet this new challenge. My favorite part of the whitepaper that proves that—and this is a classic marketing mistake—is that despite the widespread agreement among B2B marketers that the concept of the customer journey is important, only 37% of B2B marketers surveyed have adopted the term into their business strategy. Huh?
So why is that? Because it’s a challenge and clear roadmaps aren’t necessarily laid out for adopters of the customer journey. The whitepaper goes on to say that marketers who integrated the customer journey into their strategy found the most effective tactics for success were tools like marketing analytics, CRM tools, and content management. Nonetheless, one of the largest obstacles expressed by them was that these tools and data systems were not always integrated with each other.
There are a few things that B2B marketers will need to do to enhance the customer journey experience:
- Better integration and analysis of data systems
- Faster and more thorough adoption of mobile marketing
- Mapping the customer journey by designating important touchpoints
- Testing new tools like marketing automation, videos, content marketing, guided selling, and landing pages
For more insights from the whitepaper, click here to download.
