IN OUR HEADS
April 12, 2022
Over the past few years while working with various B2B clients across verticals, RAPP has seen multiple patterns emerge. Through analysis of internal data and industry expert research, we’ve identified four pillars as key focus areas for enterprise B2B companies: "building consensus," "bending the pipeline," "buying purpose," and "bridging with sales."
The first pillar, building consensus, is critically important. As enterprises move to the cloud and transform into more digitally centered operations, there are more considerations around consensus-building and input from key stakeholders for major purchases and partnerships. Building this consensus is crucial to getting buy-in across various parts of the organization.
For one of our major cybersecurity clients, we found that a fairly junior-level security analyst was causing companies to exit the path to purchase during an evaluation of a key feature. Traditionally, we would not have focused on creating content or even targeting that particular persona with any sort of communication, but in this case, we shifted focus and budget, which yielded much higher conversion rates.
The second pillar, bending the pipeline, factors heavily into RAPP’s ability to help accelerate sales for clients. Pipelines are becoming less rigid as companies offer multiple ways to purchase and/or engage. RAPP has a tremendous Center of Excellence and capability in applying data and technology to experiences and integrating them into operational processes to connect with potential customers. This allows us to identify places in the journey we can "bend the pipeline" and accelerate the path to purchase.
Buying purpose, the third pillar, must exist across all communications and marketing efforts. As every marketer now knows, company purpose has become crucial in a world that puts more emphasis on what brands stand for and why they are in business.
With every touchpoint and message, a company is representing two things:
- What they stand for.
- How they are supporting their stances with services and/or products.
This doesn’t equate to corporate social responsibility or shouting from rooftops which political party you support. The kind of purpose we are talking about needs to be more aligned to your business mission, as this purpose should be clear in everything you do and not just what you say. Studies show that a strong majority of consumers (64%) prefer to buy from companies that put their purposes front and center in their communications and that more than half of buyers (53%) are willing to spend more for brands that take stands on important societal issues.
The fourth pillar, bridging with sales, can be challenging for many businesses. We’ve seen sales departments lean on advertising and marketing teams for changes in the market, to provide data and information, and to unearth new ways to move customers along the purchasing process. RAPP helps organizations build these bridges by creating tools and ways for individuals on those teams to connect. By incorporating feedback and asking for sales teams’ opinions, the organizations bring together sales and marketing when it comes to making marketing experience decisions that are lead generation-driven.
When companies can build those four pillars and make them central to operations, there emerges a fifth "B": business results. That’s what RAPP as an agency focuses on at all times — that’s our purpose.
