Sales, Marketing, and digital trends in the customer journey in 2022
Moving the B2B journey through 2022 will be a little bit tricky due to all the post-pandemic inconveniences every business has dealt with. Luckily people have experienced negative experiences in this field before so they’re aware that for every problem there is a solution.
Becoming even more flexible and adjustable is a must if you want your business to endure this level of uncertainty. These adjustments can only help you to increase your conversion rates, and boost your performance, also keeping you right on track properly dealing with these challenging times.
Boosting Sales Velocity Using AI and Analytics
The core of successful consumer marketing is inevitably AI, Data Analytics, and machine learning. These are the tools that are essential for every company that wants to succeed and overcome the difficulties and pressure these recessions and inflation have caused.
To stay victorious in the B2B area you must take the advantages that data analytics provide for you like the capacity for collecting marketing and sales activities and all of the movement and interaction your customers have with your business. These activities are tracked on every channel, in one single perspective.
Analytics will help you with tracking the buying patterns of your clientele, measuring your ROI, and providing customer insights, while also gathering a vast amount of data. One of the many advantages AI provides is tracking online activity, which offers insights for further and deeper personalization of messaging content. Also, it provides intent data that permits sellers to target their in-market prospects.
Useful IDC Marketing and Sales Statistics
Here are some useful statistics from (IDC) International Data Corporation that can give you a pretty clear vision of the forecasted sales and marketing trends in the next couple of years.
- AI interactions and analytics technology by 2026 are estimated to deliver extremely deep engagement and personalized journey which will eliminate 40% of the human touchpoints of sales and marketing
- One of the greatest beliefs that 75% of the younger entrepreneurs have is that each business needs to take into account great responsibility in terms of creating a better world in general
- Before contacting a salesperson 44% of the B2B buyers tend to read three to five pieces of content
- Online content has a vast impact on making a purchasing decision, these statistics come from each 9 of 10 B2B buyers
Buyers Will Commit To Social Causes
The biggest percentage of B2B buyers consists of Gen Z and millennials that are prone to develop meaningful working and personal relationships in life. This also refers to their business making decisions when it comes to B2B sales and purchases.
One of the most important assets they respect in a company’s overall brand strategy is the support of social causes and charities, which reassures them they can trust the company and they can fully rely on a safe and long-term collaboration.
Consumers will Increase the Self-Purchasing Process
When it comes to buying or consuming, buyers or clients tend to make their research on the products they want to purchase, and they go further down the line of the buying journey before they even connect with a B2B sales rep.
This means that people start to favor digital or remote interactions, which explains the increased percentage, of 70%. Things will gradually change by 2025 with an additional increase of 10%, so providing extremely good content is essential for taking clients to the end of the buying funnel.
Focus on Creating Supreme Digital Content for Your Audience
If B2B companies want to succeed they must offer exquisite content to their customers, which provides high value simultaneously. As the interest in consuming digital information and content increases, companies must adapt and make it also easily accessible.
Successful companies should always invest money in creating content that is valid and that will attract customers if they want to remain competitive. The one that you’ll use to represent your goods and your services needs to be powerful and relevant, tailored according to your customer’s preferences. This means it should be available on every mobile device, and tablet, and in a voice, video, and visual format.
The content that millennials require comes in a digital form and it needs to be:
- Multichannel accessible
- It should be delivered quickly and on time
- It should provoke an emotional reaction in the customers
- Designed according to their needs
Increase Your Value Proposition
Companies tend to overwhelm their buyers with too much information, which instead of being helpful can only leave them confused. If you want your brand to distinguish itself from the others you need to offer a value proposition, meaning you need to pinpoint the most important assets of your products or services, and by doing so you will show your customers how your product can solve their problem.
This is crucial because people will buy from a brand that shows them affection and addresses their needs and wants properly, through constant listening and guidance. This way of communicating and taking care of their needs will lead to increased purchasing and sales repetition soon.
Increased Social Selling
Social media platforms are crucial for product placement and developing good B2B sales, so if you want your business to expand in the right direction this is a must. By using social selling your customers can research companies, read meaningful case studies, and watch product-related videos.
This can help them to make the right decision and to connect and engage with your brand, this is the way that you create the right kind of credibility for your company. People want to buy and collaborate with companies that are stable and offer multiple solutions, promotions, and benefits to their clientele.
Showing your clients that you’re an expert in your niche industry can only draw them to you and level up your business. People like to be treated with respect and feel the essence of the benefits they’ll get by purchasing your goods. This is the part of the strategy that will beat your competitors and will keep you on top of the game.
Personalized Journeys Guided by Sales Reps
The point of creating a hybrid journey for your targeted audience and your existing clients is using the combination of analog and digital touchpoints. One of the top companies worldwide is using the tactic of combining human and digital interplay to bring the customers right to the purchasing phase of the funnel.
The hint here lies in the sales rep role where suddenly instead of only stating features related to the products, he guides the customer throughout his buying journey, creating a unique experience where in the end he brings lassie safely home.
End Note: Today the way of B2B selling needs to be carefully tailored and the necessity of a good strategy is inevitable for good progress. Using both human and digital dynamics can only improve the whole selling experience and every business should adapt to this way of exchanging goods and services.