For the last couple of years, it has been impossible not to come across some fancy buzzwords, such as: content marketing, personalization, hyper-segmentation, targeting etc. The popularity and controversy of these subjects has grown progressively as people seem to learn more and more about digital marketing and how it affects them.
However, these things are practically mundane to every marketer, since they are just new, catchy and rephrased ways to explain the standard process of marketing: set your goals-chose target audience-work efficiently-satisfy needs.
Regardless of the semantics, something that every marketer should do is to distinguish the basic target audience they aim at. Firstly, we need to answer the question: ‘Is our company’s product intended for personal usage or our main goal is to make a transaction with another business?’
Differentiating these two situations are crucial for every aspect of creating the marketing strategy since the tactics for achieving the goals are quite non-similar.
While B2C focuses on satisfying consumers’ needs in a personal and more emotional way, B2B sees the customers as rational, logical-driven individuals that seek the most cost-effective transaction for their business.
First things first: in order to succeed, you need to know what you want to succeed in. Set your goals, and make sure they are realistic, measurable and consistent with your customers need.
As to segmentation, something that really eases marketers to get through B2B customers thick skin is to create buying personas. This seems to be really helpful in the process of classifying the customers into few groups with their own mutual characteristics, their struggles, interests and as weird as it seems, you need to identify the type of communication they find repulsive.
Many content creators force themselves to write in a distinctive, complicated vocabulary to make sure they sound somewhat ‘professional’. Specification of the product you’re offering implemented in a short, concise, readable text, translated in the tone of voice they prefer to hear is the most basic formula for a successful content.
Keep in mind that the decision makers are human, just like you. They have the need for entertainment as well as information, just like you. Try to understand their buying persona instead of trying to over-impress them.