B2C companies have mastered the science and art of digital marketing, moving billions of dollars of goods and services entirely online without the use of any sales rep. Think Amazon, Netflix, Uber, DoorDash, Spotify, and more.
These digital sellers have taught customers to search for what they want to find, check reviews, and make a purchase without speaking to a single human.
Then B2B sellers expect these digital customers to forget all of that when they come to work the next morning and call someone to find out about something or even to book a demo.
As we have said elsewhere 70% of the buyer’s journey is now completed before buyers even reach out to a sales rep.
Which means that digital marketing has to complete that 70% by:
- Developing a variety of digital content, aimed at different stakeholders in the same company—finance, legal/compliance, technology, operations, sales, etc.
- Creating the content in a variety of media including text, infographic, video, audio, live webinars, and more
- Distributing content through a variety of channels and platforms including email, social, web properties, digital advertising, and virtual meetings.
Today, digital marketing is as indispensable to B2B sellers as it is to B2C. In fact, there is no longer B2B vs B2C. In the digital era, it is all B2P—business to person.
Regardless of whether that person is buying for herself or her organization, she expects the same experience—easily search to find potential solutions for her problem, get deep content in a variety of media, see it across multiple platforms, read references and reviews, and finally make her decision to engage the vendor.