B2B firms are adopting B2C personalization strategies as more businesses go digital. And more business buyers demand consumer-style buying experiences. B2B personalization strategies and requirements are different from B2C.
B2B personalization also involves more refined segmentation than a typical B2C program. B2B personalization involves a more refined segmentation compared to a typical B2C campaign. This is why B2B marketers often use Account-Based Marketing ( ABM) as a strategy to support their personalization program.
- Gartner describes ABM as a way to “execute personalized messaging at scale” for B2B companies.
- DemandGen surveyed nearly half (47%) of marketers and found that they used ABM to ensure they were targeting the correct stakeholders in companies with which they wanted to do business.
That said, to be truly effective, B2B personalization and ABM programs need customer feedback–also referred to as voice-of-the-customer data–to create a human-centered customer experience (CX).
Human-centered CX provides the data B2B firms need to reach their ABM objectives because it goes well beyond site analytics or behavioral data and takes into account the opinions and feedback of customers.
How can a human-centered CX strategy help your business achieve its goals?
Human-centered approaches can help you and your business stand out from the competition.
ABM is becoming more important in B2B Marketing: 61% of respondents in the DemandGen survey cited above said that they would spend more money on ABM during the next year. B2B organizations will have to keep up with the improved CX that ABM, coupled with voice-of-the-customer data, can provide.
Voice-of-the-customer data can also help close the gap between customer expectations for personalization and the reality of what companies offer.
Salesforce’s State of the Connected Consumer report revealed that 85% of B2B buyers expect their sales reps to show they understand the business of their customers. Nearly the same number (84%) also said that they are more willing to purchase from companies that understand the business goals of their customers. Although 57% of B2B buyers believe that sales reps don’t understand their customer’s business, they do not often.
Where can you get voice-of-the-customer data?
One of the most popular ways to collect voice-of-the-customer data is by conducting surveys that collect Net Promoter Score and other information via email, text, or website form. Focus groups can be held with customers to learn what they think about your CX, product, and service delivery, and what you need or don’t yet offer.
Social listening tools are able to gather customer mentions of your products and brand on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Reddit forums, and blog posts. This feedback will help you better understand your customers’ problems and gauge the reputation of your brand across all social media channels.
You can also analyze and collect feedback from your customers and employees in the field.
It’s crucial to create a system that allows employees to communicate what customers say. Speech analytics software is useful at the organizational or departmental level. It can analyze word choices, emotion, and tone in customer’s speech when they contact your service center. This will reveal trends and problems, as well as possible solutions.
Each one-on-one discussion your sales team has can provide you with valuable insights not only into the customer’s business goals and needs but also into their preferences for how they would like to be contacted and how they make purchasing decisions.
How can B2B campaigns be human-centric?
ABM allows your sales and marketing teams to create an ideal customer profile and then identify prospects who match this profile. Voice-of-customer information can then help you to understand what these prospective customers are doing, their goals, and what vendors they need.
You can then create better individual experiences.
- More effective email messaging: When reaching out to B2B prospects, for example, Industry-specific personalization will be more effective than company-specific personalization. B2B buyers want vendors who are familiar with their industry.
- Retargeting Smarter through Social Media Display Ads: By understanding your prospects’ industries and goals, you can customize your ads according to their online activities.
- Personalized website experiences: Customize your landing pages to your ABM targets and display the products or services that are most relevant when these targets visit your sales portal.