By Paul Brunato & Bob Finlayson

Successful B2B marketing in today’s business environment is about understanding who your target audience is demographically and psychographically, and what they care about, i.e., their challenges, pain points and aspirations. This so you can craft touch points – events, webinars, email campaigns, thought leadership articles, social media posts, etc. – that engage your audience and lead them on their journey - to your door.

Most enterprise marketing leaders understand this, but implementing such an approach can be challenging. This is because customer personas are too-often based on anecdotal and incomplete data – largely from conversations sales teams have with customers and prospects – while insights into what customers and prospects care about are largely based on anecdotal data from product and engineering teams. Such data is often: (1) out of date, (2) based on too small a sample size and (3), due to human nature, skewed towards the perspective of those providing the data. 

Never fear! There is a solution, and that solution is data – and the strategic analysis and use of that data. 

Here are the three steps needed to get the data and insights that will accurately paint a picture of your customers and prospects, and help you understand their current pain points and aspirations – so you can create content, demand generation and account-based marketing programs that will drive engagement, build your brand and increase sales. 

Step One – Customer Personas

Create detailed customer personas based on large sets of digital data about the people you are targeting. Such personas should include demographic data such as gender and age, location, education, title/level, industry, etc., as well as psychographic data such as what ‘drives’ them, their values, how they make decisions, etc. Understanding the psychographic profile of your customers – and we are talking aggregate, not individual, data – is key to influencing their decisions in your favor. 

At Bold, when we create customer personas for our clients, we also include information about who influences them, what they read, what events they attend, and what brands they admire. This information helps you understand where to find your customers, who to partner with, and what media and other touch points will trigger engagement.

Step Two – Digital Audience Panels

Create digital audience panels to determine what your customers care about, what they are talking about with their peers and others, where they are struggling, and the influencers they engage with. Using these audience panels, zero in on conversations that relate to your industry and/or products and services. This will guide the creation of content that focuses on the target audience’s pain points, while offering solutions based on your products and services. 

Monitor your audience panels on an ongoing basis to keep apprised of trending topics, new developments, and changes in the perspective of your target audience based on market conditions, industry trends, etc., and on changes in the influencer landscape. We recommend developing a monthly list of proven high-engagement content topics to keep your marketing programs fresh. 

Step Three – Customer Journey Mapping

Carefully map the journey your prospects take trying to solve the problems your products or services can help with. Notice we did not say the journey they take trying to purchase your products or services. This is important.

At the beginning of their journey, they may not know about your company or your solution. They may not even yet know how to frame the problem they are facing in terms of vendor solutions. They are thinking about themselves and their issues, not about you and your solutions. But mapping their journey through the six stages from motivation to advocacy will enable you to develop marketing and sales strategies to engage them all along the way, dramatically increasing the likelihood they will purchase your products and services, expand their relationship with you once they do purchase, and even advocate for you with their peers at other enterprises. 

Conclusion – Bringing it All Together

Combining the knowledge you gain from your Customer Personas, the customer-focused topics derived from your Digital Audience Panels, and the engagement strategies that flow from your Customer Journey Map will enable you to craft winning content marketing campaigns, enhance demand generation activities and launch or improve account-based marketing programs. 

Remember, marketing content and touch points should not be about demonstrating how smart your company is – or how ‘expert’ your experts are. Rather, such content and touch points should be designed to help your target audience with their challenges and pain points. Such ‘gifts of knowledge’ will engage your target audience and demonstrate that you understand them, you feel their pain, and you can help. When done correctly, not only will they become customers, they will thank you for understanding them and solving their problems.

Author’s note: The tools needed to gather the type of data recommended herein are readily available. But we know it is challenging to use them in such a way as to yield the outcomes we discuss. And, implementing the proper analysis of the data once acquired requires processes that are difficult and time consuming to create. So, if you need help with any or all of the three recommended steps, please contact Paul Brunato or Bob Finlayson of Bold Marketing & Communications for a free consultation.