The goal of marketers used to be to capture a buyer’s attention in 8 seconds or less. Today that target has shrunk (along with humans’ attention spans, it seems) to zero. With consumers now connected 24/7, marketers must be on their marks to go at any given moment, ready to deliver a seamless omnichannel experience in real time.
Real-time marketing is now a must-have for B2B success. Fueled by a variety of drivers, such as improved targeting capabilities, the evolution of data management solutions and advanced analytics, marketing in the moment has become the trend – and the customer expectation – with relevant messages triggered across channels that respond to what customers are doing now.
Here are some ways you can make real time a reality for your company:
1. Perfect the short-form video: Video has been a favorite of B2B companies for some time now, with 58% of B2B marketers believing that the medium is an effective form of marketing. And they’re right:
– Posts with videos attract three times more inbound links than plain-text posts.
– Viewers spend 100% more time on pages that have videos.
– 90% of all Internet traffic in 2017 is predicted to be video.
But many businesses have struggled to figure out how to make their content fit in a quick-consumption model. Moving forward, perfecting short-form video and being able to capture and to draw in viewers within 5 to 10 seconds is going to be the norm.
2. Shorten buyers’ search time: As mobile devices keep consumers constantly connected, marketers are not the only ones being kept on their toes; search engines are also changing how they operate in order to become more consumer-centric. Engines are overhauling their algorithms to deliver more relevant,quality content to consumers. And new initiatives, such as schema.org, a collaboration among Google, Microsoft and Yahoo that creates a structured data markup schema supported by major search engines, are changing the way search results are displayed as well. What does this all mean? Relevance matters. Those companies that produce the highest-quality, most-targeted content are likely to be given front-door access to those consumers requesting information.
3. Make content-delivery automatic. Developing relevant, engaging content and waiting to be found is not enough. Marketers know that they now have to be able to deliver it to the right people at the right time and at the right place. However, 79% of B2B marketers are not yet engaging in lead scoring, which could be argued as the easiest part of lead life-cycle management. Those businesses that take action have an opportunity to gain an advantage.
4. Move from one-to-many to one-to-one: Businesses’ ability to target a very specific audience and segment them has become increasingly better, and these capabilities are only going to continue to expand. As more data delivers more insights into buyers’ behaviors, hyper-segmentation and targeting can enable companies to market one-on-one with highly personalized messaging.
5. Know what buyers want before they themselves do. Data analytics helps marketers decide not only what to do now but also what they should do next. As more information is accumulated about user -behavior, the use of predictive analytics is sure to expand, enabling marketers to identify and target activities that predict purchase behavior and serve relevant messaging and offers when that behavior is captured.
Producing compelling content for the right buyer in the right stage of the buyer journey can be daunting. But those businesses that embrace new methods of gathering information about their buyers and connecting with them through new channels can be better prepared to act in the moment and deliver relevant, memorable experiences that keep buyers coming back for more.
Learn more must-haves for B2B success. Register now for the August 14 gyro webinar, “6 Trends for B2B Marketing Success: Year-to-Date Check-in,” to learn what trends you should be acting on to raise your marketing to the next level and attract buyers to your brand.
——————–
Cristina Heise – VP, Buyer Experience Planning, gyro Cincinnati
Cristina Heise is responsible at gyro Cincinnati for bringing human-centered design thinking to brand communications and to user experiences across multiple touchpoints, including human, static and/or interactive. She helps the client and agency team focus on designing user-centric solutions that meet business challenges, fulfill users’ goals and succeed in the marketplace.
With over 15 years of experience in the interactive design field, Heise is adept at working in such diverse industries as marketing, digital publication, consumer electronics, hardware and software, e-commerce, knowledge management, and training and curricula development. Over the years, Heise has worked on various brands, including Folgers Coffee, Pringles and Brown-Forman Corporation.