The Covid-19 pandemic has not only put in place several new dynamics and shifts in typical B2B sales and marketing practices, it has also forced sales and marketing leaders to stay abreast of latest trends, as they change, based on new customer buying behaviors and choices, all while keeping a stronger –marketing and sales alignment process in place.
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Sales and marketing teams, business leaders of all departments are now getting set to prepare for a stronger Q2. 2021 is well on its way, with the first quarter almost behind us. While sales leaders and marketing teams redefine where their processes and their sales technologies and marketing technologies need to be optimized, what else should they be keeping foremost in mind?
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It’s time to sell and market your brand even on ecommerce platforms!
Given the rise of ecommerce automation tools today and the various ways in which tech innovators are enabling different industries to move to online selling formats while helping to boost their digital transformative efforts, sales and marketing leaders should compare sales figures of varied products and services from 2020 to now. Offline sales and brick and mortar establishments are still not functioning in full swing, the way they might have during the pre-pandemic days. This is why ecommerce sales rose through 2020 and is still seeing a significant rise in 2021. B2B sales and marketing teams who now need to upgrade their digital selling and digital marketing efforts also need to pay attention to this trend, to understand whether it makes sense to boost their brand presence and online selling efforts by using platforms where customers actually buy today are more prevalent. Marketing and sales strategies will never be the same as sales leaders and marketing heads try to dive deeper into the best possible ways to reach their customer where they are at, using more creative approaches and straying away from the traditional digital platforms and digital selling efforts.
Read More: SaleTechStar Interview with Maria Graham, Director of Sales, Nuspire
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Mobile and TV advertising, even YouTube advertising can be beneficial
While on the one hand, several studies have proved the rise and importance of ecommerce today, another key trend or sales / marketing channel that can provide benefits to customer-facing teams include mobile and even TV advertising. Low cost smartphones, smartphones with more sophisticated features are something most buyers (B2C and B2B) will rely on, for different purposes. With the rise of digital consumption habits, increased use of online streaming platforms along with changing online shopping behaviors, marketers and sales teams can use mobile ads and other similar forms of advertising to create brand recall and to even boost their brand image in front of the target audience. This will also sales leaders and marketing leaders to penetrate a wider audience segment while giving them the chance to showcase themselves on platforms that are not crowded (e.g LinkedIn) for better business effect.
Statistics have shown that people spend an average of 3 hours browsing video sites like YouTube, or other social media platforms coupled with the increased use of mobile content consumption signifies that sales and marketing teams have to pay more attention to these trends. As the consumption of different kinds of online channels like YouTube increases, optimization of these channels to boost brand outreach will have to become the norm. It’s time for mobile ads to gain more prominence in overall sales and marketing strategies. Sales and marketing leaders need to identify newer approaches to target their audiences using these mediums based on the demographics they are looking for.
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Using chatbots more effectively to boost customer service
AI-powered intelligent virtual assistants and chatbots can help marketing and sales leaders maintain a personal touch while enhancing the overall customer experience or online experience for prospects and customers. Sophisticated marketing technologies and sales technologies that help with text processing and automated cadences will boost the number of online conversations being handled by the sales or marketing reps while also making it easier to extract the relevant business intelligence needed to gain relevant insights on customer and prospect behavior. Today’s always-on largely digital only customers can visit a brand website at any time of the day and using the right tools to capture conversations and their data is key to helping brands drive more growth. Chatbots can serve this ‘’always-online’’ concept without affecting the usual workload or general business timings of the sales or marketing rep. Using the right tools or implementing AI powered platforms can help brands build deeper chatbot workflows that are interactive and those that can take a customer through their buying journey faster.
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Understanding how the use of Smart Home device advertising or messaging can help
Smart speakers and smart assistants (Siri, Amazon Echo, Google Home, etc) and their demand is on the rise, this is where out of the box sales and marketing leaders need to align their strategies to use these technologies to drive brand presence and messaging. Audio ads via these mediums, for instance, if planned strategically can ensure better optimize of remote sales and online marketing efforts, maybe even allowing marketers and sales leaders to have a new revenue and customer channel in future. It’s time for marketing and sales to similarly look at newer, creative channels, radio ads, online jingles and similar such mediums as new opportunities!
Today’s sales and marketing leaders have to look beyond the traditional email marketing, email prospecting, social media or pay per click options in order to stand out from the crowd and to start a more impactful conversation with their customers and prospects at large.