By Sam Narisi
Publications Editor/Lead Writer
Integrate Marketing Solutions
Frost & Sullivan
One of the most critical aspects of successful marketing is understanding buyer preferences and adapting strategies to keep them in line with what potential customers want and expect.
However, while buyers’ preferences are
constantly and quickly changing, marketing organizations are often slower to
evolve.
Lately, changes in customer behavior have
come especially quickly, as trends such as mobile technology and easier access
to information along with increased pressures to make smarter and more
financially sound buying decisions have altered what customers do during the
buying cycle and what ultimately influences their decisions.
To avoid losing business to the
competition, marketers should look at three key areas where many business buyers
feel their needs aren’t being met:
Time
These days, people want and expect everything
faster, and that goes for their communications with businesses. Marketers need
to change their strategies to keep up.
Leads should be contacted soon after they
take an action while their interest is still high, Rob Butters, Principle
Analyst with Frost &Sullivan, said recently in his marketing tips video blog. Responders who are contacted in
the first hour of the first day are typically very receptive to the call,
Butters said. After the first day, success rates usually drop by more than 50%.
Buyers are increasingly demanding quick responses, and if they don’t get them,
they’ll likely buy from someone else, according to a survey from Velocify and Zogby
analytics.
The poll featured responses from 1,000
adults who had submitting queries to get more information about a company’s
products or services, including a third who were buying on behalf of a business.
Among the respondents, more than 60% said
if they don’t get a response with 24 hours, they feel the company is going too
slow. In fact, 29% even expect a response within the hour.
Failure to meet those demands is costing
companies business, as 64% of business buyers said a slow response has
influenced their purchasing decisions. And 71% said the first company that
responds to them has the advantage.
Time becomes less important after an initial
contact has been made, according to Velocify. The majority (62%) said they
preferred to be contacted by the same salesperson every time even if it meant
waiting longer, while the rest want to be called as quickly as possible by
whoever is available. However, most still said they aren’t willing to wait more
than a day so they can speak with the same person.
Information
In addition to the speed of contact,
today’s customers crave information and content. They’re putting in more effort
to be better informed about products and services well before they get in touch
with the business. That’s especially true in B2B sales,
according to Velocify. Among business buyers surveyed, 62% said they typically
spend three hours or longer researching before submitting an inquiry.
In many cases, businesses can improve
simply by giving buyers the information they ask for. More than half of
respondents in Velocify’s survey said they’ve had an experience in which
they’ve submitted an inquiry but never got a response.
Customers also do research on their own,
and they expect content from a variety of different sources. Two-thirds of
business buyers say they’ve been increasing the number of sources they use to
research vendors, according to a recent survey
from Demand Gen Report. Therefore, marketers must make sure they’re offering
plenty of content in a variety of formats and through a variety of channels.
One area that content should focus on: the
financial benefit for customers. Close to half (45%) of survey respondents said
they’re conducting more detailed ROI and cost analyses than in the past.
- Articles and resources targeted to my industry (45%), and
- Case study examples of other companies similar to mine (27%).
Mobility
The increasing use of mobile devices is one
of the top trends affecting marketers, as those smartphones and tablets are
changing the way buyers want to communicate with companies.
As Butters said during a recent webinar, B2C marketers have largely figured out mobile
marketing, while B2B marketers lag behind. While specific strategies will vary
based on industry and customer base, it’s important that organizations create a
mobile strategy.
However, the majority of companies (71%)
rate their mobile marketing efforts as average or worse, according to a Frost
& Sullivan survey of marketing executives. While some tools such as
mobile apps and mobile-optimized web pages and emails are currently being used,
businesses are failing to take advantage of other important strategies,
including mobile-social integration, text messaging, mobile ads, and
location-based targeting.
Insufficient budgets and a lack of a
defined strategy are two of the biggest obstacles in the way of more effective
mobile marketing, according to survey respondents. But despite those
challenges, mobility is critical for marketers, and in fact, it may be even
more important for B2B marketing than B2C. According to Velocify’s survey, 63%
of business buyers have done a significant amount of their research on a mobile
device, compared to 28% of consumers.
The bottom line: Buyers want a lot of
information, and they want to be able to access it wherever they are at any
given time, with whatever device they have available. Likewise, they expect
quick contact and hate feeling ignored by the companies they want to do
business with. It’s up to marketers to change their strategies to meet those
demands and stay ahead of the competition.
About
the Author:
Sam Narisi is the Publications Editor for Frost & Sullivan’s
Integrated Marketing Solutions Practice, which helps companies grow their
business through all stages of the customer buying cycle. For more marketing
information and insight, visit Frost & Sullivan’s IMS Knowledge Center.
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