Has your B2B company embraced the new way to market?
Can you imagine not having cell phones in your business in today’s world? And yet cell phones have only existed, for the public, less than 30 years. Smart phones have been around for about 10 years.
Blackberry, and then Apple, changed the way we communicate with each other. And now Google, Facebook and Twitter have each given us other ways to stay in touch and get our message out.
Can you imagine not using email in your business, and your personal life? And yet email has only been around for about 20 years.
But something different is happening now.
Intel co-founder Gordon Moore described, in his 1965 paper, that the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years. Which basically means that the speed doubles.
That was almost 50 years ago. Now things are happening even faster. Particularly with the way you need to market your products and services to your clients.
When was the last time you heard anyone say, “Guess what we’re doing? We’re reengineering our business development processes.”
You don’t hear it, but if you’re not doing it, you will get left behind.
Almost all businesses have moved most other functions and processes to digital. Finance, accounting, manufacturing, even sales (CRM) have moved to some form of digital.
Nevertheless, marketing and selling are still done the old fashion way in most B2B businesses. Hire a sales person, give him/her a phone book, with a small bit of direction, and teach him/her how to do a demo of the product. Now, go get new business. As stated, maybe they use a CRM system as their only adoption of marketing/sales technology!
And yet 2/3 of marketers say that the practice of marketing has changed more in the last 2 years than in the last 50! (Adobe Systems Inc. 2013 study on DIGITAL DISTRESS: What Keeps Marketers Up at Night?)
Digital marketing is the new buzz word. It entails using all of the Internet tools available to you to grow your business. And yet most B2B businesses have been incredibly slow to use it for their growth.
Digital marketing means using the Internet tools so that your company is:
• Utilizing a website that is marketing oriented and interactive. A static brochure site doesn’t work anymore.
• Using social media to drive leads to your business, by engaging with your target ideal clients.
• Engaging your visitors with the new technologies of video, podcasts, webinars, etc.
• Getting involved with communities such as those found on LinkedIn.
• Using content to show your ideal audience that you are an expert in your field.
• And much more.
Is your company using digital marketing to build your business?
The world of marketing, and how to connect with potential buyers, has been turned on its head over the past few years.
Is your company keeping up?
Remember that over 80% of B2B buyers find your products and services before you even know they are looking.
Three new studies have shown why you need to have digital marketing as an integral part of your business, and why the CEO/COO needs to take a leading and hands on role to ensure that it happens.
You can view these studies here.
Embracing Digital Technology: A New Strategic Imperative – is an MIT Sloan Management Review. It looks at how enterprises are adopting digital technology and the risk of competitive obsolescence. It focuses on risks of not adopting, requirements for adopting, and obstacles to adoption of digital technologies. Since marketing is becoming increasingly digital, many of the insights, that the research has developed, apply.
Digital Distress: What Keeps Marketers Up at Night – a research report by Adobe, in conjunction with Advertising Week. It is a little less strategic than the Sloan study. Instead, it’s a series of data points presented in attractive graphs and illustrations. But, many of those data points give great insight!
Marketing2020 – a study prepared by the Association of National Advertisers, World Federation of Advertisers & EffectiveBrands, with Forbes partnership. It looks at how organizational structures can generate successful marketing in the coming years.
Kind regards,
Ian Dainty
416.277.4537
ian@b2bbusinesscoach.com
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