While you are reading this, your company’s potential and current prospects are online analyzing and comparing multiple solutions (if you are lucky or have done your homework, yours is included). This is the digital age in which information is at hand (or should be at hand) for B2B buyers. So before you know it, they have already studied your market options. So when your sales team finally reaches them, they will find it difficult to change their mind. For this, it is critical that you strike first. Think that contacting your prospects through several channels provides you with maximum exposure to the content you want them to see, and therefore increases your chances of influencing their decision.
But how? In a consistent, holistic, and Social Media-savvy way through an omnichannel Marketing strategy. Sounds nice, right? You probably already are familiar with that concept but can you differentiate it from multi-channel?
| Multichannel | Omnichannel | |
|---|---|---|
| Purchasing journey | Multi-touchpoints are available but do not share consistent and integrated content, brand, and system. | A variety of integrated and consistently branded touchpoints offer a unified experience for the customer. It makes it easier for the customer to identify the brand. Additionally, it benefits them with the possibility of picking up a conversation they started with your company via one channel (for example, via LinkedIn) through another channel (an unscheduled call). |
| Customer | The multiple touchpoints are centered around the brand, product, or service. | The customer is always at the center and addressed with a 360° strategy considering its preferences. |
| Channels | Independent, siloed, and static. | Customized to the customer profile and behavior, channels work in a complementary fashion. They talk to each other. |
How to define the target?
To be efficient it is generally useful to perform an account-based marketing (ABM) strategy that centers its resources on a specific group of target accounts. This allows customizing the campaigns based on the distinctive attributes and needs of the defined accounts groups. A good step to define your target group may be to determine first which is your objective: do you want to win new accounts or upsell to the current ones? Do you know which are the accounts where your value proposition best scratches their itch?
How to define the channels?
Now that you have identified your prospects, you set up the channels that your target audience frequents but knowing that what you will implement is an omnichannel approach. It might include some or all of the following channels: Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn), Search Engines (Google), IP display, and Email Marketing. All these channels need to be organized to work together and complement each other’s strengths.
What content works best in an Omnichannel strategy?
The content must be centered at an account level (not at the product or service level) and deliver a consistent and complementary experience across all channels. With that said, it is important to understand that messages need to be specifically designed for each channel and, this is the most crucial aspect, delivered in a timely manner. Timing is measured by the sales funnel status and it can be summarized in these three sequential stages:
- Awareness.
First level: This is the inception phase. Generate general awareness of your brand to the prospects that don’t know you or share info about new products or services with your current customers. With account-based IP display advertising or email marketing, you can direct flow to your other channels such as your website, blog, and social pages.Second level: Highlight your target accounts’ pain points to solve a problem they didn’t know they had. For this, you can use IP display advertising, and account-based retargeting campaigns on Google and Social Media (such as Facebook and Instagram).
- Consideration. Convince prospects that now is the right time to engage in a call with your sales team. You can try LinkedIn marketing tools featuring appealing content such as a case study or a recorded or live webinar.
- Decision. Through the already identified preferred channels of your customer, remind them of their problem and highlight your company’s value, benefits, and proficiency. You should start seeing more deals closing by now.
Extra tip: Once deals are closed, you need to continue cultivating your relationships with all the accounts. For this, you can use after-sale email marketing or LinkedIn chat. To stay in touch offer surveys, blog posts, customer newsletters, new product launch news, and product upgrades.
What kind of expertise will you need?
Running a successful omnichannel ABM program requires a wide range of skills. You’ll need everything from strategy, planning, creative, and copywriting to account mapping, ad operations, email marketing operations, social marketing campaign management, and more. Because so much is involved across multiple channels, many B2B companies choose to work with us, based on our deep experience in marketing and resourceful best practices toolkit that rapidly results in a wider reach and higher ratio to close deals.
