Is B2B marketing losing its soul to data? How to redress the balance
Steve Jobs once said: “Technology alone is not enough. It’s technology married with the liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our hearts sing.”
Yet, with the arrival in b2b marketing of all things AI – ABM 2.0, hyper-targeting, personalisation-at-scale, predictive analytics etc, is there a danger of that marriage being rushed through the divorce courts?
There is little doubt that the advent of data & automation have completely revolutionised the way in which we connect with our prospects – and the proliferation of tools available to us allows a far deeper understanding of how our marketing efforts are working (or not). Our knowledge of our audience’s digital behaviour has never been higher, but does this ultra-sophisticated, all-bells-and-whistles approach neglect a critical piece of the puzzle?
A key piece of recent b2b marketing research flagged up the increase in personal (vs professional) preferences when going through the buying journey. As this bleeding of digital consumer behaviour into the business world continues unabated, it appears that b2b marketing is in danger of falling into the same traps its consumer counterpart has.
In the consumer space social media has become the mouthpiece for marketing and as the ad/martech has evolved, so has the proliferation of ‘personalised experiences’ (in other words, hyper targeting). The result? Anyone with a smartphone is now exposed to over 10,000 marketing messages every day. The word ‘noise’ doesn’t even begin to cover it.
In b2b marketing things could be heading in the same direction IF we continue to prioritise just the data. I understand why this is happening – we are under constant pressure to deliver against an avalanche of metrics and the tech available to us allows us more insight than we have ever had access to. However, it risks reducing marketing interactions to transactional exchanges.
What we consider to be the ‘human’ elements of marketing – creative storytelling, messaging, sentiment, empathy & nuance – are now viewed as secondary to the data, when both should be used together as equals to provide a fully rounded marketing strategy. Trust and authenticity come from these organic elements – and no amount of hyper-targeting or personalisation-at-scale tools will, in isolation, deliver them.
Conversely it’s difficult for marketers to quantify the ‘touchy-feely’ parts of a campaign, and in my experience the powers that be want demonstrable results tied back to ROI, not uplifts in brand sentiment. So what’s a poor b2b marketer to do?
The answer is actually right in front of us. In this age of 360⁰ marketing, it’s more possible than ever to create a GTM strategy that encompasses different elements of the marketing spectrum:
- The problem you are solving should be at the heart of everything you create
- Your messaging should centre around both the problem and why you are different
- Use data to support your differentiation story
- We talk about ‘storytelling’ a lot in b2b marketing; it’s often confused with the use of case studies (which have great value but are only one element of the storytelling ‘stack’). Ensure much of your content has a story-like structure as audiences respond far more positively to this approach vs a stream of information – particularly at the start of their buying journey.
- Use data points to highlight and reiterate each part of the story
- Video, video, video: two reasons why video is so much more powerful as a marketing medium
- It’s generally easier to keep them short & snappy, and as a result far easier to consume
- Far more difficult to ‘fake’ it using AI tools – it’s more authentic and as a result you can bring the individual’s and organization’s personality to life
- Once again – you guessed it – utilize the data to enhance the points you’re making
No marriage is perfect (just ask my wife), but if we use the right combination of data-based tools to inform and bolster our overarching messages to market – which are rooted in ‘soft’ marketing disciplines – it will reap far more positive results across the short and medium term, and yes, your ROI measurement will align with your brand sentiment. It’s a win-win.