How Personalization Transformed B2B Sales

Author: Janet Borges

Personalization has proven to be a highly profitable marketing strategy. Consider the following statistics pertaining to B2B personalization:

• By 2030, more than 45% of global revenue will be generated from hyper-personalization and AI programs. (PwC research)
• 74% of business buyers research online before making an offline purchase. (Forrester)
• According to a Salesforce survey, 83% of B2B buyers expressed that personalization is the key element to winning their business.
• More than 80% of prospects respond positively to personalized ads.
• 97% of marketers surveyed said ABM had a higher ROI than other marketing activities (Alterra Group)

Personalization uses customer data to tailor ads and offers to specific audiences. It involves the use of advanced data insights on the needs of the target group and provides products and services that will resolve a problem.

The ultimate goal of personalization is to segment the mass audience and curate business-specific ads to a segmented audience and solve their problems. As a marketer, you always try to engage deeper into the minds of the target segment. And personalization gets the job done. Let us explore how.

Why Personalization Is Crucial For B2B Sales?

Have you heard of the “cocktail party effect?” A study conducted by Colin Cherry in the 1950s reveals that people often filter out information that is not relevant to them. The study is referred to as the psychology of selective hearing. A similar phenomenon occurs when you bombard your audience with generic marketing messages. So, if you want to capture their attention, personalization is the way to go!

• According to Demand Gen Report, 7 – 95% of B2B buyers do business with providers who showcase an ability to lead throughout the entire buying process from the beginning
• The conversion rate for a personalized call to action (CTA) is 200% higher.
• 89% of consumers buy from brands that understand their needs
• 85% of consumers feel loyal to sellers who understand their preferences and beliefs
• Salesforce has revealed that the chances of closing a sale increase by 70% by sending a personalized message by understanding the pain points of prospective business owners.

ABM And Personalization – The Powerful Duo Transforming B2B Sales

Account-based marketing (ABM) focuses on creating highly-targeted marketing campaigns to appeal to user accounts. ABM relies on treating each user account not as a generic group, but as an individual. So, personalizing your marketing messages is vital to ensuring the success of your ABM campaigns.

• 53% of companies use big data to tap customer insights and increase the probabilities of sales and better ROI.
• More than 90% of marketers believe that ABM is essential to B2B marketing (SiriusDecisions)
• 84% of marketers using ABM experienced higher ROI than other marketing strategies.
• ABM delivers 97% higher ROI than other marketing strategies.
• 84% of organizations saw an improvement in reputation after deploying ABM.
• 85% of marketers said that ABM significantly benefited them by reducing churn rates and increasing customer retention.
• 83% of marketers report that ABM increases engagement with target accounts.
• 62%of marketers say they can see a measurable positive outcome since adopting ABM.

How You Can Grow B2B Sales Using Personalization

Here’s how you can enhance your B2B sales by understanding how personalization truly works:

• Understand the audience – More than 63% of consumers get annoyed with generic advertisements according to a study conducted by Marketo. The drivers of B2B customers are mostly business owners or experts who want to get educated and build greater ROI. Hence, providing value to the right audience is important.
• Reach out to the audience – According to a study by ITSMA, 92% of decision-makers give unsolicited email attention, even emails from a company with no ties. Hence, with ABM and personalization strategies like personalized ads, website content, and social media platforms like LinkedIn or emails, reaching the doorsteps of target accounts becomes easier.
• Purchase motivation – B2B customers reach out for expert support, efficiency, and financial incentives. So understand what your target account wants before optimizing personalized content.
• Purpose of purchase – Understand why your prospects want to purchase. It could be to find long-term solutions in tech, contracts, sales, data, relationships, and so on. Hence, customers are driven by logic and expertise.
• Process of purchase – The process can be refined in 3 stages – awareness, consideration, and final decision.
• Use digital tools – The combination of big data and technology plays the most prominent role in building account-based personalized marketing strategies and boosting B2B sales immensely.

How To Analyze The Effectiveness Of Personalization Through Metrics

After a successful application of personalized marketing strategies, it is crucial to analyze the results to review the return on investments, curate the target of the group, identify profitable channels and develop better strategies.

• Engagement – More than 75% of buyers consider the “vendor’s website” and content as the most influential resource in purchase decisions. Hence, website personalization with relevant lead magnets, relevant CTA (Call to Action), and hero brand personality has a greater chance of generating leads and engagements for a B2B seller.
• Consumption – 94% of buyers consume content on the potential vendor’s website, 50% on social media, and 55% consume downloaded whitepapers. Analyzing the content’s views, downloads and other data will help curate the target group further.
• Sales – Aligning the sales and marketing team will enable the company to grow by 27%. The rise in sales is the best measure to analyze the strategies and growth in revenue.

• Customer retention rate – Maintaining customer retention is significant because 80% of sales come from existing customers.

• Length of the buying cycle – Personalization and ABM must focus on reducing the buying cycle to eliminate other competitors because 90% of the US find personalized content appealing.

To Sum Up

Personalization has transformed the B2B marketing and sales landscape. Gone are the days of bombarding your customers with generic marketing messages. A customized message that appeals to a customer’s specific needs is how you drive business growth today.

Personalization demands you infuse additional efforts to understand your audience accurately. Applying personalization and ABM strategies to generate leads and grow B2B sales will enable B2B sellers to provide a rewarding and long-lasting experience, and also maintain customer retention.