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  • Pages
  • Editions
01 Cover
02 Contents
03 Introduction
04 Thoughts from the CEO
05 Survey Poll Results
06 Market Views
07 James McCormick
08 Suresh Balasubramanian
09 John Steinert
10 Melissa Alonso
11 Trinity Nguyen
12 Peter Isaacson
13 Kay Kienast
14 Nick Panayi
15 Juliana Pereira
16 Kacyn Goranson
17 Andrea Palten
18 Paige Asady
19 Lara Daniel
20 Kevin Alansky
21 Leslie Murdock
22 Leela Gill
23 Ellie Ahmadi
24 Josh Linard
25 Heather Larrabee
26 Joseph Lee
27 Erin Marks
28 Kenneth Dec
29 Lisa Viselli
30 Carla Sierra Fitzgerald
31 Randy Latimer
32 Rosina Feser
33 Rohit Wadhwa
34 Aash Sood
35 Gloria Zhu
36 Prash Shenoy
37 Dana Salman
38 Sidi Saliu
39 Avi Bhatnagar
40 Harsha Kotikela
41 Jeff Platon
42 MJ Patent
43 Jake Knight
44 Vicky Cunningham
45 Chris Collier
46 Payal Mathur
47 Jayashree Rajan
48 Seth Steinman
49 Michael Baer
50 Shaleen Dhrobra
51 Carmen Goldstein
52 Chris Leger
53 Joe Bresler
54 Moira Van den Akker
55 Matt Hummel
56 Rusty Bishop
57 Stephen O'Brien
58 Anastasia Shegidevich
59 Andrew Davies
60 Diana Henderson
61 HiIlary Oliver
62 Katie Draper
63 Kevin Rippon
64 Olusegun Ekundayo
65 Laurence Baker
66 Annie Wissner
67 Melissa Liedkie
68 Josh Harris
69 Wayne Gratton
70 Rich Smith
71 Three Tips
72 A Brief Exploration
73 About Network Sunday
74 About TechPros.io

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INTERVIEW WITH


Jake Knight

ABM Manager

B2B Customer Acquisition: The role of human engagement in a world of digital-first enterprise marketing

The buying journey is no longer controlled by sales teams - the buyers themselves are now in charge.

Has the buying journey changed in recent years?

The way that businesses buy software and tools is changing dramatically, particularly as millennials are increasingly taking over decision making positions from their older colleagues. The buying journey is no longer controlled by sales teams - the buyers themselves are now in charge. Buyers are comfortable and confident enough in their research abilities that they can complete entire purchasing decisions without ever talking to a sales representative.

Businesses that force potential customers to speak with a sales representative before making a purchase will be missing out on some opportunities. The ability for product sign ups without any interaction with a sales team needs to become the standard. Free trials, self-serve demonstrations & resources and other forms of product-led-growth should be the focus of any business that wants to create independent buying journeys for their customers. Alongside this, give your customers the opportunity to speak with a customer success manager if needed - although the majority of purchases will likely become entirely independent, some will still need specific questions answered.

The traditional, transactional relationship between sales and marketing teams is no longer relevant.

Should marketing still be viewed as a lead generation department?

The traditional, transactional relationship between sales and marketing teams is no longer relevant. The role of marketing has evolved beyond simply generating leads and providing content for their sales colleagues to share. As they increasingly share a common goal of increasing revenue, the relationship needs to be far more collaborative. After marketing teams research the industry and customer pain points to produce relevant content, it is up to the sales team to provide feedback on that content’s performance. If the sales team are asked the same questions regularly, then it is clearly an opportunity for the marketing team to produce content around. If sales and marketing teams can make this back and forth conversation a regular feature of their working lives, then they stand a far better chance of joint success.

Millennials respond best to advertisements that don’t feel like advertisements.

JAKE KNIGHT

ABM Manager

STORYBLOK

What do businesses need to think about when advertising to millennials?

Because social media and digital content has been present for their whole lives, millennials are very good at ignoring advertising if they think it is not relevant or adds no value to their lives. The advertising that does resonate with them is typically entertainment focused rather than education focused. Millennials respond best to advertisements that don’t feel like advertisements. But most enterprise organizations are not ready for the challenge of reaching millennials with advertising that feels organic to their native platforms.

Businesses become too focused on their product or service and naturally gravitate towards creating educational content instead of entertaining content. Millennials only want educational content as they get deeper into their buying journeys, not towards the start of them. When businesses dress up educational content and try to be funny with it, it falls flat and immediately turns the consumer off. There are two things that businesses need to do if they want to create advertising that successfully engages millennials. The first is to have a really clear picture of what problem they are solving for their target audience. The second is to accept that they don’t have all the answers themselves, and to seek external agency help in producing their advertising. External agencies have an expertise in storytelling that most enterprise organizations simply can’t match.

Storyblok is a Headless Content Management System that provides developers with all the flexibility they need to build reliable and fast websites whilst giving content creators with no coding skills the ability to edit content independently of the developer.

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Vicky Cunningham, ONTRA

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