We have all read how good marketing automation is and what it can do to reach your customers. You search the internet and you find endless articles about nurturing your users to bring greater returns to your business. But what happens when you work in a B2B environment, can the same methods that are used in a B2C environment really be used when selling your products or services to another business?
In 2014 Marketing Automation revenues were expected to top $1.2B, which is an increase of over 50% on the previous years (2012 $500m) (Source: http://blog.capterra.com/30-
We are now in January 2015, what does this year have in store for us. Well my prediction will be this growth will continue to increase, however not just in your traditional mass mail B2C market. 2015 is going to be the year of the Value in Marketing Automation.
Why is this?
Well putting aside the B2B and B2C terminology, we are actually just seeing more interest placed on the customer and that individuals buying habits. So it does not matter whether that person is buying consumer goods or is buying for their business, they are still becoming more educated, still researching into what they are buying and looking to be more informed about their purchasing decisions. People are becoming less careless about their business spending and tighter budgets means it is not as easy to get what they want. They will need to provide Value to their business and ensure the product they are purchasing has that Value proposition.
Value – How does Marketing Automation help that?
Well the fundamental principles of Marketing Automation is providing content, messaging and awareness about your product or service to your potential or existing customer base, correct? So how are you wrapping the value proposition into that? Marketing Automation platforms give you the intelligence about your customers to help them understand about you, but in more detail Nuture campaigns is a service in particular that can help with that. Nurture campaigns take your customer on a journey through your portfolio. What many people do is create a sequence of emails telling the customer how ‘great your are’ and how ‘Our product will save your life’. Have you ever heard of the expression “throwing mud at the wall and hoping it sticks?” well unfortunately this is all too common in Marketing. We bombard our future customers with communication that bares no relevance to the previous one. This is something we have all been guilty of at some point (even myself!!!). You want to ensure that If you take a person on a journey to provide that Value proposition around your product, that you are building a business case with them to collate and provide justification for purchase. Does this make any difference if your are B2C or B2B? With any consumer goods these days people are still trying to provide justification, and if not for budget constraints then for the amount of competition in the market place. Why would I go with company A when I can go with Company B… and the answer is Value.
In Practice:
Take your product or solution, understand its value proposition. Get your segment of data, understand your demographic and be critical. You do not want a broad data set as this can dilute the message you are getting across. Take your value proposition and apply it to your target demographic to create the messaging, put yourself in your future customers position and ask your self “so what does this mean to me?”. Then you are ready to create your nurture campaign around it. Simple!
So at this point you may be planning the rest of the years campaigns, when putting them together ask yourself this question receiving the email, the tweet, the white paper, what Value am I offering the person. In 2015 demonstrate how your business can embrace Marketing Automation to show Value.
Have you done this already? Let me know your thoughts, I am keen to understand your success.
Author: 
Lee Goodenough – blogger and expert in Lead Generation, Email Marketing and Marketing Automation
Owner of:
HelloLeadGeneration.com – Blog, Discuss, Share Lead Generation
MarketingAutomations.com
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Email me Lee@helloleadgeneration.com
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