THINK
we
The battle is over. B2B and
B2C are to be laid to rest at
the hands of a more personal
approach – it’s all about B2Me.
Why? Simple. Too much information,
too little time. Or, more precisely,
too much marketing! This may
sound strange from a company
that makes its way by producing
these marketing communications.
But it’s true. Media and channels
continue to grow exponentially, each
purporting to be the golden bullet,
each rapidly becoming saturated.
So this raises the inevitable question:
how do you get your messages to
stand out? The answer lies with
the three R’s:
Relevance
Businesses and the individuals within them
are different so your marketing needs to treat
them this way. It may sound harsh but people
only really care about one relationship: the
one they have with the brand. Your marketing
content and engagement needs to address
them based on their own needs and function.
A operations director in retail has a different
set of needs and agenda than a financial
director in IT.
It’s still staggering to find businesses trying
to adopt a “one size fits all approach” to their
communications. Or those unable to target
individual sectors and the different types of
audience within them with messages that are
relevant to them. Relevancy = return.
Reach
It’s always been true, but the importance of
customer data and audience engagement,
attention and retention is only going to grow.
Opt-in is no longer the reserve of database;
it’s now the entire brand. Your brand content
needs to add value to such an extent that
your audiences WANT to be engaged with
the brand in whatever media.
This adds a further important dimension to
the challenge. The diversification of media
will impact individuals’ preferences. Whilst it’s
true each generation becomes more capable
of consuming information from different
sources at one time, we are still only human.
People are choosing their channels. For some
it will be social, for others video. Hell, some
people might even still want to turn the printed
page! It’s no longer enough to engage or
deliver content in a single media. It needs
to be repurposed in different forms, each
taking into consideration the dimensions of
the media and channel of execution.
Response
Marketing is no longer a monologue, it’s a
dialogue and you need to be ready to listen
and respond. Learn and gain insight through
the myriad of metrics available. Don’t use
social media if you’re not prepared for a
conversation. Don’t work hard on your
content and then give it all away for nothing.
Give the audience an irresistible reason to
engage with you and make sure there’s a
channel open for them to do so! Remember
digital media is always on - 24/7/365.
The fourth R - Reason
True product differentiation is becoming
harder to define. It’s as much about how
your brand does what is does, as what it
does. The brand story and more importantly
is actions are becoming THE differentiation.
Thought leadership is one of the cornerstones
of content marketing - but actions speak
louder than words. It’s no longer enough for
only marketing to be charged with promoting
the brand and its messages.
The battle between B2B and B2C marketing has
long raged. For years, opinions have been strong
on the merits and differences between the two.
The arguments around need and want; the impact
of the Decision Making Unit (DMU) in B2B; the
channels and media open to big budget B2C
brands but not accessible to B2B.
It’s not about
B2B or B2C,
it’s about B2Me
:
