[ Blog ] Buying decisions in B2B make needing a digital strategy more important than ever

• Data explosion

• Social media

• Growth of channel and device choice

• Shifting customer demographics

• Determining content alongside the customer journey

• Encouraging your target audience to take action

 

If you’re involved with marketing today, you may have mixed feelings with your day to day role. The power of digital has opened doors to new channels and new ways of providing data, analytics and ROI metrics that have some marketers jumping for joy. However, the sheer number of channels, platforms and acronyms can be quite intimidating for many of us, no matter how advanced you consider yourself. According to Smart Insights, in 2015 more than half of marketers’ time was spent managing digital activities, meaning digital skills are now more important than ever. This proves that now is the time to start strategically planning activity if you want to see ROI.

 

For many marketers, a digital strategy seems a million miles away but with most businesses using at least one digital channel, we’re starting to see a shift in purchasing decisions. With the explosion of digital channels, social media, email marketing and the web, your prospects are already extremely well informed before a sales conversation begins. This means that they usually don’t want a conversation with you unless they are actually ready to buy. This of course means you will experience less conversations, but the added advantage remains in that sales are spending more time on qualified leads that are more likely to result in a sale.

 

Purchasing now really is in the customers hands. Inability to act fast may see you face certain challenges such as

 

• Little or no direction / lack of internal processes

• Lack of customer insight  and therefore losing out to competition

• No alignment between sales and marketing

• Poor and inconsistent brand/customer experience

• Wasted investment

 

In this guide, you will find information on how to develop a digital strategy that will integrate your online and offline marketing, bring coherence to your messaging and deliver a better customer journey.

 

If you’d like to understand more about how to build your digital strategy, download our guide: The Complete Guide to Developing a Powerful Digital Marketing Strategy