It’s the end of one year and start of another, this is the time when marketers and sales teams will look into their previous customer engagement strategies, point out the loopholes, and create a new one so they can rock their performance in the next year. This is where understanding buyer engagement in B2B is so crucial.
As per a report by Forrester, 56% of marketing/sales leaders say that improving customer experience will bring more engagement and more sales to the table. Also, customer experience is a top priority to support the company’s business strategy in the upcoming years.
What’s next for your customer engagement?
Simply put, customer engagement refers to the interaction and relationship between your customers and the organization. B2B marketers must focus on this relationship to evolve in 2023.
We have seen a drastic shift from physical to digital channels in the past two years and so, organizations must evaluate their customers to engage them now and in the coming years.
Top tips to hit the right B2B customer engagement
1. Hyper-personalized communications
See what Salesforce has to say about customer communication, 66% of customers expect their favorite brands to understand their unique needs and cater to their specific requirements. Unfortunately, only 34% of companies are treating their customers as per expectations.
B2B buyers are smarter than B2C ones. They not only want their sellers to sell their products or services but also educate them with a piece of news and information, resolve their concerns, and deliver relevant as well as custom product recommendations to them.
Hyper-personalized content can help marketers gain a competitive edge in 2023.
2. Channel specific content
We are talking about a personalized journey for buyers and it does entail the buyer receiving relevant information throughout his lifecycle with the brand. 55% of the B2B buyers indicate that they want to consume stories that resonate with them, and 32% want to read relevant content.
Among all the other content that buyers engage with, video remains a popular channel. Videos are engaging, and can convey the required information within a few seconds. A majority of the B2B buyers are convinced by the offerings after watching a video. B2B companies should use videos across all their marketing channels and sales funnels to engage with customers. Such videos could be embedded into sales outreach, for example, landing pages, social media, emails, and customer onboarding.
3. Developing a branded online community
Remote working and remote selling are rising, and amidst this digital hustle, it is difficult for companies to engage with their remote customers. As a result, online communities are seeing a resurgence. How do brands do it?
Well, B2B brands must offer a human connection to all their customers by creating a specific online community. Keeping the consumers in the limelight is crucial, and these online communities must be built with customers as the priority. The community must aim to bring all like-minded consumers together.
4. Conversational selling with AI at the forefront
The current engagement with B2B customers is happening casually through text, WhatsApp messages, emails, or chatbots. As the pandemic accelerated the adoption of conversational marketing and soon, it become a quick fix for a long-term solution. A majority of B2B marketers find conversational marketing solutions better and highly valuable.
We do not end at just intelligent chatbots, we are already seeing a copious number of technological advancements to improve the capabilities of voice AI and chatbots. With the latest technologies, customers will have more accessible communications with teams. AI-powered conversational selling will remain at the forefront in 2023 and beyond.
Read More: SalesTechStar Interview with Joe Dillon, Executive Vice President of Sales at Baffle
How does better customer engagement help your business?
Efforts taken to improve customer engagement can impact your business in positive ways. Customer engagement is a win-win situation for buyers and sellers, and these also meet the B2B customer expectations. Here are some benefits of increasing customer engagement:
- Better customer interactions and engagements. For example, we talked about conversational AI. A consumer will get all the fixes for the problem soon with a chatbot, and the customer will remain engaged with the brand for a longer time.
- Customer interactions offer customer insights that further help in improving marketing decisions and enhancing retargeting.
- Customer insights can also help to improve sales processes and the outreach methods of the business.
- Effective customer engagement leads to increased brand experience.
- Better customer engagement leads to more customer experience and satisfaction.
Wrapping Up
When we talk about the B2B sector, convenience plays a key role. At the same time, higher customer engagement and retention are crucial. As a result, B2B businesses need to structure their marketing models to cater to the needs of their customers.