What every Interview: Mark Herten on the development of the B2B Buyer Journey consumer feels in themselves is also becoming increasingly. Apparent in the business environment: the B2B customer journey is increasingly shifting to digital. According to the latest MC Kinsey studies, around 70% of the B2B buyer journey is now digital. What does. A this mean for B2B companies? How do they have to react or have they already acted? These are the questions we explored in this interview with Mark Herten, CEO of Deutschland.
what does this shift of the B2B buyer journey
into the digital space mean for German industrial companies?
Well, first I want to note that German B2B bahamas whatsapp number data companies often lag massively behind in terms of the digital buyer journey. If you look at the global market, the companies there are usually 10-15 years ahead in this area. The topic has been increasingly discussed in Germany since the Corona pandemic.
Previously, marketing and sales managers mainly relied on B2B trade fairs and events, which then fell away. Now, many of those responsible have been pleased about how much money they saved last year. But even though the results last year were 8 content marketing strategy examples that deliver leads not bad at all, this is too short-sighted. Many forget the buying cycles: that is, the leads that companies did not generate last year and this year will only show up in the results in the years to come. So there was no reason to be happy that money had been saved. Instead, one should have taken this money directly into one’s hand and invested it – the full amount. Unfortunately, that rarely happened. Only very, very few approach the chile lists digitalisation of their marketing and sales consistently enough –
individual measures do, but not in the final consequence.
What does that mean? In your opinion, what measures are currently crucial to reach B2B buyers and then also to convince them of their value?
Here I would like to go into 4 essential points:
B2B companies need to create visibility. Because if I’m not (or less) at trade fairs and events, I’m only visible to my existing customers, but not to new customers. For me, visibility includes PR, websites, social media, blogs, influencer relations and also offline activities such as involvement in associations, specialist communities or universities. Through all these activities, I have to manage to keep my brand present in the market.
The second is interaction opportunities. Since physical events are no longer available, I have to develop alternatives: these can be digital or hybrid events, webinars, surveys, customer visits, roadshows or product demonstrations via virtual reality – which, by the way, are usually much
cheaper than the big events.
Thirdly, I have to create digital information and purchase offers, because this is the only way to build up a digital customer experience. An own shop, a user community or an extranet with exclusive content, instructions, technical documentation, training videos, etc. for customers are possible here, for example.
Point four is, of course, digital lead generation activities or content marketing: white papers,
