Rethinking how to target B2B buyers
The B2B sales cycle is only becoming more disparate, exacerbated by the proliferation of digital channels and the increased number of people involved in the B2B buying cycle.
Now a new marketing post by LinkedIn Ads provides further food for thought: “B2B marketing has long outgrown the confines of the funnel. It’s time to rethink this model and explore a more cyclical strategy that reflects the true nature of the B2B buyer journey…The brand remembered is the brand bought.”
It’s surely time to drop the idea of a linear “funnel” and re-imagine a more complex and disparate route in and around the funnel. This means B2B organizations need to target buyers with more complex and disparate content strategies while at the same time keeping their message fresh in the minds of target buyers. Remember they’re the people still making the purchasing decisions with their brains, not an AI bot!
LinkedIn Ads flags three content types to suit this more cyclical, less linear journey:
- TOFU (Top of Funnel) content – to generate awareness, provide initial education on relevant topics, and establish your brand as a thought leader. Think articles and comments from SMEs on key industry issues
- MOFU (Middle of Funnel) – focuses on nurturing the leads generated in the TOFU stage. Blogs for instance, can be a great way to explore the tech behind solutions or technical webinars
- BOFU (Bottom of Funnel) – to drive conversions and close deals by providing detailed information about solutions. Think evangelism through customer case studies or factsheets and checklists
The next step is, who to target? Well, you heard it here first! Read on to see how to target the diverse personas that make up B2B buying groups in today’s digitized marketplace.
In today’s digital-first buying cycle, targeting a B2B campaign is much more intricate than throwing darts and seeing what lands. I would usually say spray and pray but because our team in the office has been enjoying the resurgence of darts with the recent PDC World Darts Championship in Alexandra Palace in London, I decided to run with a hot topic!
Landing a prospect may not be as short a time cycle as a 170 checkout or winning a best of five sets – up to 3 years versus 30 minutes!) in the B2B sales process but it does requires a lot of precision targeting. Per Forrester, the typical pool of people in a buying group for a complex B2B solution is now 5-10 people, with each individual expected to gather 4-5 pieces of information. To make the best possible decision, organizations solicit input from a range of internal voices before landing on a solution.
Targeting that select pool of buyers is more than simply a numbers game – especially when you consider they are just 5-6 people, likely in a sub-segment of a larger industry, each with different interests and priorities and opinions.
The buying cycle treble
When planning campaigns, IBA is always mindful of the purchasers, ratifiers, and influencers involved in every buying cycle. Each persona brings a different perspective to the buying process.
- Purchasers – directly involved in procurement of a new technology or solution
- Ratifiers – often sanction the purchase from a strategic or financial perspective
- Influencers – will likely be asked for their opinion on the validity or applicability of a solution to business operations
Let’s explore these roles through the lens of three key positions who might make up a buying group and analyze the different tactics to ensure B2B PR campaigns are aligned to attract all of them. We’ll start in medias res of the organizational hierarchy.
1. Functional managers – Finding the organizational bullseye
We’ll start with those departmental and operational leaders that have huge sway in working with procurement teams to initiate and even down select preferred vendors for key solutions. These functional managers are responsible for the operations the solution will be used to support and therefore are the key purchasers. This could be a VP of Factory Operations in a manufacturing context, VP of Distribution in a retail setting, VP of Maintenance for an Airline, and so on.
They are the ones only too aware of the key pain points of their industry and sector and issues with current systems. This is where targeted industry-specific messaging will attract their attention. How can a solution quicken factory production, or alleviate distribution/supply chain bottlenecks, or improve aircraft turnaround times in the maintenance hangar?
They will also likely be readers of industry-specific media. Like their counterparts in their particular sector, they want to stay abreast of the latest developments in their market. It follows that PR content then needs to be targeted to the leading media outlets in the required sector. But remember we aren’t talking about millions of readers, more likely a captive audience of 10,000 – 100,000 captive UVPMs.
2. C-suite – Going for the top
Unless we’re talking about small businesses – CEOs will not commonly crop up in PR campaign targeting, but their colleagues in the C-suite are certainly involved in ratifying and signing off any large ticket purchases such as B2B tech/solutions. CIOs will certainly analyze the technological implications of new solutions, while CFOs who hold the purse strings want justification for the CAPEX, OPEX, and ROI of the purchase.
This means ensuring not just industry exposure from a PR campaign. Is your organization leading the way in AI-enabled operational gains, are your solutions based on lightweight architecture that can be quickly and easily deployed, how will it benefit our customers, or are there huge cost efficiency gains to replace traditional paper-based models or siloed systems? These are the messages C-suite execs want to understand as they’re worried whether the solution works, not how it works.
Of course, it’s not just the message that’s important, it’s where to land it. Business level targets are a good bet here, and IBA has good traction positioning messages around new deployment models and how new customer demands can be met with publications including CIO.com, Wall Street Journal, Venture Beat, Fast Company, and many more. But it works the other way too, with industry publications adding endorsement of the value of a solution. One of the standout buying examples for an IBA client closing a sale came from the CEO of British Sugar purchasing a solution based on a piece he read in Sugar Beet Weekly!
3. End-users – Ready for checkout
While the above two categories of buyer may be more senior, it’s often easy to overlook the value of buy-in from those further down the organization chart. Buying groups now increasingly include end-users who interact with critical systems on a daily basis. They are often the ‘hidden buyers’ in the B2B buying group and are best placed to speak to the usability and applicability of a new solution – and their voices are being heard to influence decision making!
Lean B2B explains: “With the growing consumerization of enterprise software, more teams controlling their budgets and the choice of the products they use, and the growing importance of UX at work, the influence of user buyers on the buying journey is bound to grow over time.”
While target media may be similar to the purchasers who work in a particular department or operation area, employee resistance to digital change is well documented, so it’s important to not fall at the final hurdle of a selection process. So, the message of needs to be adjusted. Here it’s important to focus on the day-to-day end-user benefits, how your solution will make their work better, and make them look good – but remember to make sure they’re feeling heard and understood with the functionality and systems being given to them.
Game On: Securing B2B success with targeted PR
In the high-stakes game of B2B sales, knowing your ‘buyer’ is paramount – and knowing that the numerous faces or persona that make up that prospective ‘buyer’ may go from GenZ to boomer, influencer to user, investor to buyer with different interests, priorities and opinions. A targeted PR campaign to help land new prospects and sales is a no brainer. By carefully targeting your messaging to the needs and preferences of purchasers, ratifiers, and influencers, you can increase your chances of hitting the bullseye and securing that coveted prize.
Jamie Kightley is Head of Client Services at IBA International.
