MARKET VIEW 14
Rachel Mcelroy
MARKETING DIRECTOR
What would you say are the fundamental considerations for B2B customer acquisition today?
In the last few years, we’ve all become much more used to digital customer experience and we had to adapt to it by changing the way we market and sell. But, I believe that even under these circumstances, it comes back to the absolute basics of marketing, which is understanding who you are, what your proposition is, what experience your buyers wish to have, and really understanding them as individuals.
You can create all the campaigns in the world, but if you don't understand who's actually buying from you, it's completely pointless. It goes back to knowing your customer and understanding where they want to be found and where they want to be spoken to. Whether that's on social media, through video content on YouTube, or something else entirely. Marketing is a constant learning curve, and we always have to look at and analyse what we're doing and how we can do it better.
I believe that even under these circumstances, it comes back to the absolute basics of marketing, which is understanding who you are, what your proposition is, what experience your buyers wish to have, and really understanding them as individuals.
What are your thoughts on marketing’s role to help salespeople develop their personal brand?
I believe personal branding is really important for salespeople and marketing teams are really good at helping sales teams build their personal brand to assist with social selling. Either by letting them go out and talk to people on platforms and take part in networking events or through creating blogs, webinars and other kinds of tools that show that a salesperson is an expert, that they understand the problems that exist in that sector, and that they can help to solve them.
Personal branding is often overlooked and it’s not just a quick LinkedIn post every week. Sales is all about putting yourself out there and marketing people know how to do that because they’re the ones who are constantly getting the brand and the services out there. So, I believe that marketing can really assist salespeople in creating that persona of somebody that people can trust and want to buy from.
I believe personal branding is really important for salespeople and marketing teams are really good at helping sales teams build their personal brand to assist with social selling.
Can you share any further thoughts on effective ways to connect with customers and prospects?
I think there's a lot of value in creating thought leaders out of your prospective customers and the best way to do that is by understanding them, finding shared values and shared commonalities between your organisation and what really makes them tick and then offering that value to them. From a service perspective, it’s really important to keep building a network of people who are aligned with your values and understand you as an organisation, because they are the ones that become your brand ambassadors.
From a service perspective, it’s really important to keep building a network of people who are aligned with your values and understand you as an organisation, because they are the ones that become your brand ambassadors.
RACHEL MCELROY
Marketing Director
CLOUD GATEWAY