It’s that time again: how will B2B marketers stack up in 2020?
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Green Hat’s comprehensive report sizing up Australia’s B2B marketing landscape for the year to come, has begun.
Green Hat will once again serve B2B marketers with their annual diagnosis – how they have improved, where they fall short and how best-in-class marketers are doing it. Want to be represented in the report? Take part in the survey.
The 2019 edition of the report identified ‘ROI’ and ‘proving marketing impact’ as B2B marketers’ greatest hurdles, followed by a struggle with CX and the implementation of marketing technology.
According to the report, in 2019 the gap between best-in-class B2B marketers and the rest of the bunch looks more like a chasm, with industry leaders planning far more effectively across all areas and major gaps in lead generation, nurture marketing, marketing technology integration and content marketing.
Andrew Haussegger, managing director of Green Hat, told Marketing the smartest marketers are seeing that a strategic approach to the customer is paying off.
“Why is the gap widening? You have to pull three things together. You’ve got to have the right processes in place (which are related to your plan, your lead management processes and your customer journey) and then putting them in, you’re activating them through the use of some processes and flows supported by technology. If you’re missing one of those areas, it’s going to be difficult to succeed.”
This year also saw many B2B marketers playing catch up with their B2C peers in terms of CX optimisation. Business marketers are showing greater interest in understanding their customers and tweaking experiences accordingly. Nevertheless, CX optimisation remains a principal challenge.
The report found that in 2019 73% had developed either customer journey maps, personas or both.
“If you asked for the one word that describes the key driver for your customers, I think a lot of them would talk about emotion and emotive buying, drawing on emotions,” Haussegger told Marketing.
“It’s not as prevalent in B2B, but it’s still there. What have we learned? There are going to be small steps along the way. If someone were to ask, ‘how do I get started on improving my B2B experience for my customer?’ The first thing I would be asking is: do you understand how your customer buys? Customers have changed the way they buy, but many of the sellers haven’t changed the way they sell.”
Have your say and join more than 500 industry peers in contributing to Australia’s most important and comprehensive treatise on B2B marketing.
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Image credit:Marten Bjork
