How is the customer journey changing? What tactics do I need to address these changes?
Product based differentiton is gone. Get rid of the problem - solution approach. Brand differentiation is now key. A company story should align to the buyer:
- Show the industry trend and market shift
- Talk about the threat
- Story the dream
The journey is constantly evolving and changing, for example, b2b smb customers now expect a b2c like experience (self service, fast sales cycle, quick checkout). Segmented messaging and targeting is necessary and relaying messages that administer value has shifted the landscape from a "catch all" b2b lead generation approach to quality.
Identify potential customer touch points
Buyers ultimately expect personalization to their needs, value driven content mapped to the buyer journey, and preferences along with immediate responses followed with a sales rep who understands their pain. Value and solution selling across the funnel is the emerging trend that will soon became the norm.
- Provide a solution to a problem
- Key in on value propositions and solution marketing
Integrating the customer experience and creating a consistent experience across touchpoints is key. Product marketers must adopt a more strategic approach to campaigns, partner experiences, and key in on the enrichment phase of the customer lifecycle - understanding how the prospect interacts with your website, product, ads, and even partner applications, across the entire lifecycle, whether its direct or indrect - from early in the buyers journey to customer succces, locking in on value and solution messaging will be crucial.
- Upselling / Cross Selling during land expansions will be needed, especially if you have multiple products.
As platforms became a necessity to ensure productivity and profitablity across organizations, also being aware of the partner experience will soon explode in value - customers are now coming from all angles, traditional and digital, and through channel marketing, messaging must be hyper aligned to their needs.
- Ensure your customer success is fantastic - this is critical and an utmost differentiator in most companies. Implementation and support should be a leading value propsition.
- Customer reviews are the new gold. Especially for SMB - once you go upmarket, analyst publications and gartner quadrants will be crucial to ensure trust.
- Post sale success is crucial - Key in on retention and engagment strategies.
- Integrate internal tech stacks and construct omnichannel campaigns - target specific segments and channels with the right messaging once you can fully understand the buyers journey.