Automating targeted and personalized B2B marketing campaigns
We all know the telecom industry: it provides utilities and services everyone will undoubtedly need at some point in their day-to-day lives. This means the addressable target market for a company in this domain is more or less equal to the population in a given geographical area.
Naturally, the B2C market is larger than the B2B market in terms of number of accounts, but not necessarily for other parameters. There are similarities but certainly also differences which might drive different infrastructure needs.
For example, because consumer business is quite transactional, clients always expect easy access to products and services. Providing an exceptional customer experience and customer service is what will make the difference.
In the B2C world, marketing is all about managing KPIs, such as keeping what is already there (churn management), upselling extra or new services to existing clients, and acquiring churned clients from competition.
When looking at technology choices that support marketing and sales activities, the emphasis is on at-scale personalization and quick opportunity conversions.
In the B2B world, however, things are slightly different.
Of course, the aforementioned KPIs count too and the transactional aspect to the business is present as well.
However, businesses buy differently than customers do; there are more variables, needs, products, and service-level requirements to take into account.
Larger organizations also require more decision-makers in the buying process compared to in B2C, where the decision-makers are only individuals (not groups).
Because B2B buying, and thus selling, is more complex, online marketing solutions for the more transactional B2C world (i.e., “click-and-instant-buy” scenarios) don’t make the cut.
Buyers don’t like to get sold to. They want to navigate through their buyer’s journey independently.
Digital marketing can and has to facilitate this navigation, which comprises a whole lot of different activities. An important one being the alignment with the sales function.
Traditionally, Telenet had been relying on a technology stack that served its residential business. While effective on a B2C level, B2B level marketing and sales demanded more.
Telenet realized that by improving the way they market specifically to businesses rather than just to consumers, they could tap into a whole other area of opportunity.
This includes various businesses ranging from SOHO (small office/home office) and SMEs to LEs.
That’s why Telenet turned to LeadFabric, a company that has been solving similar B2B marketing challenges since 2008.
LeadFabric assisted Telenet in selecting the right technology that would best match their internal planning and workflow management.
After deciding to go with Adobe Marketo Engage as their B2B marketing automation platform (MAP), the goal was to implement new “always-on” journeys in the most agile way possible: a multi-step process including KPIs for various campaigns that improve the way they target audiences, select the most appropriate communication channels, and monitor results.
Traditionally, marketers targeted people based on static lists – profiles that were taken at a certain point in time and then never updated again, even after those profiles had changed.
With marketing automation, marketers can target people dynamically.
By relying on a platform like Marketo, it’s possible to monitor certain changes (e.g., a person’s product interest, demographics and online behavior such as clicks, web visits, etc.) and therefore treat people differently based on that data.
Additionally, contacts can enter and leave segments automatically based on pre-defined filters or criteria that marketers set, ensuring their messaging always stays relevant. This big change from “traditional” to more dynamic targeting is what takes Telenet go beyond basic email marketing.
This resulted into a very agile delivery of highly targeted, personalized, and automated B2B marketing campaigns.
Today, Telenet can now better track leads throughout their buying journeys, allowing the marketing team to engage with audiences with more relevant and personalized messages at the best moments, and at every touchpoint.
What’s more, the regular monitoring and optimization of campaigns has helped ensure that Telenet’s sales team can follow-up and focus on high-quality leads that are ready to buy.
