MAIN INSIGHT 22
Javier Lopez
EMEA DIGITAL MARKETING &
COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR
When it comes to customer acquisition, what are some changes that you’re noticing due to the pandemic and what can organisations do to adapt to these changes?
In the past, nearly 80% of our customer acquisition was done offline through different marketing activities, like exhibitions and trade shows. The pandemic put a stop to all of this, and as a result of that, the attitudes of B2B buyers have changed. Our customers had to continue doing business as usual but now they were doing it in a digital environment. So, the pandemic has accelerated this transformation to digital customer acquisition.
Also, now potential customers are much more willing to attend and participate in online events and "remote" demos and presentations, as opposed to face-to-face interactions. They are also much more willing to complete online questionnaires, surveys, or submission forms to provide us with business needs information.
I believe organisations should focus more on providing callbacks and remote demos and presentations as part of their customer acquisition process. The willingness of prospects to provide more information is increasing the quality of lead qualification. At the same time, it allows us to tailor and personalise our targeted advertising, landing pages, calls and demos.
Given that the digital environment is becoming the norm, what can marketing leaders do to encourage organisations to adopt a digital mindset?
The digital environment is definitely becoming the norm across the B2B landscape. I feel like the prospects and the customers are naturally adopting the digital mindset, while some organisations are still struggling with this.
For this to happen, organisations have to understand digital demand generation. They should utilise tools for data visualisation to analyse and observe different touch points. Using data visualisation to compare customer acquisition through offline events vs customer acquisition through digital channels and seeing the benefits of digital channels is how we encourage this shift.
I feel like the prospects and the customers are naturally adopting the digital mindset, while some organisations are still struggling with this.
All of this data allows us to get familiar with the prospect’s journey prior to their interaction with the salesperson.
How important is it for your organisation to track a buyer's digital activity e.g. intent, before proactively trying to market or sell to them?
This is extremely important. When it comes to tracking data, the first thing we want to know is the source: is the lead coming organically, is it coming through social advertising, is it coming from referrals, and so on? This information allows us to analyse the R.O.I. and determine where we should continue investing more.
Also, in our CRM, we’re training our sales team to understand different keywords generating the lead. All of this data allows us to get familiar with the prospect’s journey prior to their interaction with the salesperson. So, it’s not cold-calling anymore because salespeople are equipped with all this information. The prospect data and BANT (Budget-Authority-Needs-Time frame) questionnaire replies also triggers an automatic lead scoring process which additionally speeds up the sales cycle, as focusing on MQLs/SQLs.
What tools/techniques are you currently using to select your target audience?
Among many other things, we are segmenting and geo-localising our audience and profiling it to build an accurate customer profile. We're analysing keywords that generate our leads, and using BANT questionnaires to quantify each lead. For example, our landing page questionnaire allows us to get more details from prospects in the early stage. Aside from asking for their contact information, we ask them if they are interested in a product or a service and what their budget is. We enquire; do they have a time frame for that purchase? We also also try to educate them through answers offered to them. Based on their replies, we create different automated follow-up emails to try to better understand not only their answers, but the reason behind choosing those answers. Using this strategy, our conversion rate (defined as prospects completing built-in questionnaire in paid social) is above 3% across Europe region which is really high (or even higher depending on the country).
Another thing that seems to be working well is segmenting our audience demographics based on their location. Not only do audiences in different countries generally have different needs but this type of segmentation allows us to, for example, advertise only to people who are located within 100 km from our resellers, as opposed to advertising to every single business in the country.
Among many other things, we are segmenting and geo-localising our audience and profiling it to build an accurate customer profile.
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