"THE GROWTH BLOG" - A RESOURCE FOR B2B LEADERS, MARKETERS, SALES & SERVICE PROFESSIONALS

The impact of AI technology on B2B sales and marketing is a lot less dramatic and dsystopian than in many areas,  where it may pose some genuinely scary threats to life as we know it. However, it is already bringing opportunities and challenges for many B2B marketers and salespeople.

One early challenge for B2B go-to-market teams is the proliferation of copycat content generated by AI algorithms. If you think your target audience are experiencing digital fatigue now -  you ain't seen nothing yet!  Soon your heartfelt blog, proven sales playbook, LinkedIn post, carefully crafted case studies and artfully created eBooks will be swamped by a Tsunami of competently written but utterly vanilla schlock.  Your ability to influence your buyers as they move through their buying journey maybe be forever weakened.

In this blog post, we will provide some suggestions that we hope will help businesses to stand out in the era of copycat content. By focusing on unique value propositions, personalised messaging, human connection, creativity and trust, you can differentiate your brand and make a lasting impact in the crowded digital space.

In the world of businesses who sell to other businesses, the buyer's decision-making process has grown increasingly complex, leading to longer sales cycles and lower conversion rates.

But some organisations have solved this challenge. In this blog post, we will explore actionable tips for navigating this complex B2B decision-making process. In short, success means providing the right message and content, at the right time, to the right people in the buying centre. Master this and you will become dramatically more successful.

Building authentic relationships with your audience has become paramount in an age where digital fatigue is at an all-time high. With trust levels dwindling and competition increasing, businesses must focus on creating genuine connections to break through the noise and engage their leads and customers. This blog post will explore the importance of building authentic relationships and provide practical strategies to help you foster meaningful connections in the digital realm.

As a B2B salesperson or marketer do you feel sorry for your leads and prospects? You should and here's why...

Buying B2B solutions for your organisation is a long hard slog. Gartner says the median B2B buying group consists of between 6 and 10 people. Each of these people need four to five pieces of information to help them. Usually, around 83% of the time they have gone and sourced this information themselves.

Then starts the painful process of achieving consensus and a concrete action plan. 

Brent Adamson, a Gartner distinguished VP, puts it this way.

"The hardest part about B2B solutions isn't selling them but buying them. Today's buying journey has effectively reached a tipping point where it's become unnavigable without a significant amount of help" 

And this is where you come in. The B2B salesperson and marketer plays a significant role in providing that help. Here's how.

Quick quiz...Which one of these cold email subject lines is the most effective?

1. "Hey!"
2. "Important message!"
3. "Buy our product!"
4. "Opportunity of a lifetime!"
5. "You won't believe what we're offering!"
6. "URGENT: Last chance to save!"
7. "Quick question!"
8. "Free stuff inside!"
9. "Make money fast!"
10. "Don't miss out on this amazing deal!"

Answer: Of course, absolutely none of them!

Good B2B Marketers and sales people understand that their job is to help, educate and facilitate the buying process. Your content is a vital part of your persuasion toolkit, however it must be aligned to where your buyer is in their buying journey. The wrong message at the wrong time won't work or worse, might even alienate a prospect.

The buying process consists of four stages:

Marketing automation is especially important for non-profit organisations because it can help them operate more efficiently and effectively with limited resources. By automating repetitive and time-consuming marketing tasks and by using technology to better segment and personalise their outreach, non-profit organisations can save a great deal of time and simultaneously actually improve donation rates. It frees up time to focus on their core mission and goals while still reaching their target audience.

Donor lifecycle management (DLM) or customer lifecycle management as it's more generically called, should be a core process for non-profit organisations in ANZ . It aims to link each stage of the donor journey, from initial awareness to advocacy, and to build strong, long-lasting relationships with supporters.

DLM helps to ensure that every touchpoint with a supporter is meaningful and impactful. By carefully managing each stage of the journey, non-profits can create personalised experiences for their supporters, which builds a sense of trust and loyalty. This, in turn, leads to increased donations and advocacy, as supporters are more likely to engage with an organisation that they trust.

Equally it helps ensure the time and money spent by the non-profit is directed and effective.

How do I start?

Swimming, as your audience does, in a sea of endless content, creating emails that people actually read can feel like you're drowning; fighting a losing battle. The answer however is simple.

Build compelling content.

That's it really. Three little words. Thank you and have a nice day!

If only it was that easy. Of course, those three little words are deceptively simple But with some clear thinking and planning it's perfectly possible, to maintain and indeed increase your email nurture open rates.

Nurture emails play a specific role in marketing. To support your target audience with the right information as they work their way through their decision making process.

"Deliver the right information at the right time." 

Here is a 5 step recipe we use when we are building email nurture campaigns for our clients.

Tweets, Tik Toks, Slacks, IMs, WhatsApps, Insta feeds.

If you are like the vast majority of business people your next twenty four hours will be a blizzard of micro content. Your personal and professional lives will blur into one. The demands for your attention will be unrelenting, thirty seconds here, five seconds there. An assault on your senses. Your challenge? To simply make sense of and order the information coming at you in a way that allows you to make thoughtful, coherent decisions. 

As B2B Marketers and sellers, the temptation is to join the frenzy, amp up the volume of content we fire at our hapless target audiences, Buyer personas and (worst of all) our actual identified leads.

"Surely if we do enough of it some of it will stick, right?"

However there is a multitude of research that suggests this might just be the exact opposite of the right approach.