New study finds 3 steps for boosting your B2B marketing effectiveness

2020 was full of disruption and fast pivoting across the marketing spectrum. But for B2B marketers—whose plans are often anchored around in-person events—this period changed the playbook on how to reach crucial business decision-makers. To learn more about how the business decision-making process has changed—and how marketers are adapting accordingly—Twitter partnered with Bain on a new research study. What we found surprised us: There’s quite a disconnect between how marketers think they influence the buying process and how they actually do. What B2B decision-makers say about your brand is more important than anything you tell them yourself. But there’s a silver lining: You can influence the conversations they’re having about you. What if we stopped thinking of B2B as anything other than still just selling and marketing to people? Here’s how to do it in three easy steps: Step 1: Create opportunities that foster connection. In this new environment, marketing hasn’t lost its importance. What has changed, however, is that 50% of buyers expect networking to be harder in a virtual environment. They’re concerned they won’t have the opportunity to interact with vendors the way they used to. Successful marketers are investing their time and resources in creating online platforms where buyers and vendors can communicate and form connections. In fact, winning marketers are 25% more active in community-building marketing activities than other marketers. They’re getting creative and getting in on virtual events, webinars and executive Q&As. Some, such as Salesforce, have pivoted their entire event strategy to providing thought leadership in online forums, streamed directly on social media platforms such as Twitter. To ensure these interactions generate community conversation around their brands, marketers are using social platforms as the central hubs. It’s a smart move: According to another study, one in three business decision-makers already uses Twitter to connect and network with buyers and vendors. Step 2: Connect with the C-suite’s secret weapon. According to our study with Bain, nearly 90% of business decision-makers say that middle management provides key inputs into the decision-making process—from providing recommendations on vendors to testing demo products—but only 33% of B2B marketers in our study assumed this was the case. Middle managers also happen to be the audience you are most capable of reaching on social media. They trust social media to discover new products, and they spend more time on these platforms than senior members during the workday. They are also more likely to attend virtual events and webinars. Twitter’s great in that you can start to find people in certain fields and their near real time perspective. You also then get to interact with them directly and “network”. That’s just my experience and opinion Step 3: Flip B2B to B2H. Remember: You’re not communicating with a business, you’re communicating with humans about business products and services. That’s why during this time, we have seen brands shift their focus to their relationships with their customers. Brand leadership has taken advantage of social media to connect with consumers on a human-to-human level, providing recognizable voices for their brands. And winning marketers have resisted the temptation to divert all their marketing spend to lead generation, focusing energy instead on building brand awareness and affinity. In fact, winning marketers were 31% more likely than other marketers to drive brand awareness through digital channels, especially with programs addressing the challenges their customers are facing while working from home and in their personal lives. Let’s shine a light on the ways organizations are coming together while creating opportunity for others. Share your remote work success story, tag #WhenRemoteWorks and @SlackHQ, and we’ll donate $5 to @YearUp (up to $200K). https://t.co/am6LoIPmKM Time to step it up It’s not enough just to get your brand’s message out there. By following these three steps, you can influence the conversation and convince people within the buying community that you’re worth the spend. And if you’re lucky, those buyers may even spread the word about you, acting as your own spokespeople. The article “How to level up B2B marketing in three steps” first appeared on Marketing.Twitter.com Sources: About Twitter Twitter is what’s happening in the world and what people are talking about right now. From breaking news and entertainment to sports, politics and everyday interests, see every side of the story. Join the open conversation. Watch live streaming events. Available in more than 40 languages around the world, the service can be accessed via twitter.com, an array of mobile devices and SMS. For more information, please visit about.twitter.com, follow @Twitter, and download the Twitter app at twitter.com/download.

New study finds 3 steps for boosting your B2B marketing effectiveness

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