7 Reasons You Need to Personalize the B2B Buyer Journey

The line between the B2C journey and B2B buyer journey isn’t so clear-cut anymore.

Even the traditional professional workplace doesn’t look the same these days with 70% of professionals around the world working from home or away from the office at least one day each week.

In an increasingly digital world, buyers seamlessly tab from their personalized Amazon shopping list to your B2B website.

Buyers aren’t pivoting out of consumer mode and back into business mode all day – they expect the same consumer-style experience from your brand that Amazon provides.

The truth is, your buyers know that these personalization algorithms exist and are easy to implement.

If you’re not employing personalization tactics, your buyers will start to ask why – is it because you don’t care about their experience? They’ll assume you don’t, and they’ll look elsewhere.

Here’s why personalization is vital in 2020.

Before Jumping into Personalizing the B2B Buyer Journey, You Need to Clean Up Your Data

First things first, don’t even try to implement a personalization strategy without first cleaning up your data.

If your data isn’t accurate and up to date, you’ll end up wasting a bunch of money on technology and advertising that doesn’t reach the right people with the right content – it won’t deliver results.

According to Forrester buyer journey research, only 1 out of 5 organizations have effective personalization strategies – that’s only 20%! 88% of these organizations know that buyers expect more relevant and personalized content, but they can’t seem to implement an effective strategy.

One major issue is that B2Bs still create generic content. However, most poor personalization efforts can be traced to bad intel.

62% of businesses make marketing decisions based on data that’s up to 40% incorrect.

B2B personalization is a little harder than B2C because business data has a shorter expiration date. People change jobs, get promotions, businesses grow – all of this impacts your account-based marketing and personalization strategies.

Why Is Personalizing the B2B Buyer Journey Essential in 2020?

Personalization isn’t just “nice to have” anymore. It’s vital for staying competitive in every industry, generating leads, and even keeping your current customers engaged.

1. How Much of the Buyer’s Journey Is Digital? Up to 90%

Buyers complete between 57% and 90% of the sales process before they speak to anyone at your company.

Your website is your best sales and marketing asset. When leads and prospects visit your website, they need to find content that speaks to them and their specific needs.

If they don’t find it because your content is too generic (or it’s hidden behind a form), they’ll just look for it somewhere else.

2. Buyers (and Customers) Expect a Consumer-Like Buying Experience

The numbers really speak for themselves here.

• 83% of B2Bs say the key to winning their business is treating them like a human being.
• Forrester buyer’s journey research shows that 85% of buyers will dismiss your brand if you don’t at least try to personalize the first interaction.
• 65% of businesses will consider switching vendors if a company doesn’t personalize communications.

Source: Salesforce

3. Personalizing the B2B Buyer Journey Is Essential for an Effective ABM Strategy

92% of companies call an ABM strategy a “must-have” while 84% say it delivers higher ROI than other marketing strategies. The key is effective personalization.

The most recent research from Harvard Business Review shows that between six and seven people are involved in every buying process. From end-users to C-level decision-makers, you need relevant personalization strategies for every person at each company.

4. Automation and AI Make It Easy to Personalize the B2B Buyer Journey

Personalizing the B2B buyer journey doesn’t have to be tedious and frustrating.

You can easily personalize every visitor’s experience – whether known or anonymous – with data you already have.

AI, machine learning, and plug-and-play automation technology take out the hard work.

5. Personalizing the B2B Buyer Journey Can Help You Learn About Your Target Audience

As you create content for all your leads, you can’t help but learn more about your target audience.

Through monitoring their behavior, which blogs they enjoy, where they’re at in the buying process, and other pieces of intel, you can connect with your current – and future – leads on a deeper level.

By the time they finally touch base with someone on your sales team, you’ll have a better understanding of their mindset. You can also use this deeper knowledge to explore new protentional market segments.

6. Your Competitors Are Already Developing Personalization Strategies

Most B2Bs already use some kind of personalization strategies like using a subscriber’s real name in the subject line.

However, only 20% are offering effective deep-level personalization strategies based on browsing behavior and other pieces of data.

When asked about personalization, almost all B2B marketers will say it’s extremely important and will even grow in importance in the coming years.

Your competitors are already developing and trying to implement their plans.

7. A Personalized B2B Buyer Journey for Every Lead Boosts Your ROI

From email marketing automated drip campaigns, companies that personalize the B2B buyer journey drive more revenue and a higher ROI from their marketing strategies than those that don’t.

Simply put, personalized content is naturally more relevant. It provides better answers to questions, has a deeper understanding of problems, and is just overall more interesting.

That’s why 79% of companies that exceed their revenue goals have a well-documented personalization strategy.

Create the Website Your Leads Want

Your leads expect a uniquely personalized experience. Hushly can help you stay ahead of the competition with highly relevant and personalized content! With our adaptive content hubs, self-nurturing landing pages, and content bingeing features, you can boost lead conversions by 51%.

With Hushly’s human lead verification system, you can make sure you’re always working with the most accurate and current information to create your personalized content. Plus, we’ll never make you pay to use our platform – you’ll ONLY pay a flat rate for the genuine leads you generate.

See how an adaptive content hub works in action now!

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