We need to move on to the understanding that every buying journey a prospect takes is unique. It is our job to enable them to follow this journey in their own way and provide them with the information to help them make informed purchasing decisions.
Not only do we help buyers make informed decisions, but we also help them make decisions faster. To realize that customers are not following a linear process, we need to understand that they are accessing and engaging with content that resonates with them at that particular point in time – even if that means they are from an earlier stage of another Funnel originate.
We must therefore look for ways to enable this navigation between stages and funnels in a unified experience, rather than trying to control what they see, at what time, and at what stage.
This is a programming approach that, in simple terms, is not defined by time. This is in contrast to the more general campaign approach, which has a defined start and end date.
A program view can consist of multiple marketing funnels with different content topics and goals. With the program view, however, users can access this content at any time and thus navigate through the buying journey themselves.
To enable a program view, the types of marketing technology and the architecture that informs their build must be aligned with this approach. For example, the lead scoring model, which scores a lead indicating the ideal time to involve sales, should be developed across funnels rather than at the funnel level.
That way, the lead scoring can reflect a full view of the prospect, rather than at the campaign or funnel level.
One type of marketing technology that can play an important role here is personalizing websites like Personyze. Personyze offers the ability to provide content recommendations to users using a combination of pre-defined recommendations overlaid with machine learning.
The beauty of using this type of technology is that it takes into account the interests and behaviors of the audience, and learns what combinations of content will best lead to achieving the company’s goals. This allows users to define their own trip instead of defining the trip based on assumptions.
It is important to note that for this approach and types of technology to be effective, users must be served a variety of content at any given time. This increases the chances of:
- Delivering content that resonates with a specific user
- Increasing the speed at which the usage moves through the journey, and
- Providing more information for the machine to learn from – ultimately better and more relevant content recommendations.
This approach is often developed over time. However, it is very important to consider this approach from the start so that the content, user experience, and technology architecture are developed with this lens in mind.
With this approach, we can help users make informed purchasing decisions faster and more freely, rather than sending them down a path that we believe is best.
More information is available at www.demographica.co.za. You can also follow Demographica on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
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