🕵🏻‍♂️ B2B marketing & buyer's journey

Building a B2B marketing function that perfectly aligns with the buyer's journey.

Dear Trencher,

Do your B2B marketing programs fail to resonate with your target audience? 

You're not alone. 

In today's competitive market, a buyer-centric approach is crucial.

This newsletter unveils a 5-step framework to build a B2B marketing function that aligns perfectly with your buyer's journey.

Read on!

Step 1: GTM Alignment: A Foundation for Success

Building a strong B2B marketing function starts with a unified go-to-market (GTM) strategy.

This requires achieving alignment across all teams, including marketing, sales, client success, product, and key stakeholders. This alignment should encompass several key areas:

  • Shared Goals and Objectives: All teams should be working towards the same overarching goals, such as increasing market share or boosting customer lifetime value (LTV). By aligning on specific objectives, each team can tailor their efforts to drive collective success.

  • Prioritized Market Segments: Identify the specific customer segments with the highest potential for your business. This involves focusing on Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) that represent your perfect customer. Understanding your ICP, including : 

    • their buying committee structure (economic buyers, power users, decision-makers), 

    • their jobs-to-be-done (their specific tasks and goals), and 

    • the challenges they face that your product can solve

These are the information that will allow for targeted marketing and sales messaging that resonates deeply. 

GTM alignment ensures everyone is speaking the same language and working towards attracting, converting, and retaining the right customers.

Step 2: Deep Dive with Customer Research

GTM alignment sets the stage, but really, building a B2B marketing function that aligns with your buyer journey requires in-depth customer research. 

This research helps you map out the buyer journey and tailor your marketing efforts to address their specific needs at every stage. 

Here's how to gain valuable insights:

  • Buying Triggers: Identify the events or pain points that spark a customer's need for your product category. 

    • What initial challenges or frustrations prompted them to seek solutions?

    • Why are they looking for products like yours?

  • Research Process: Understand how your ideal customer researches potential solutions. 

    • Where do they look for information (specific websites, industry publications, social media)? 

    • What type of information are they seeking at this stage (general solution overviews, in-depth product comparisons)? 

    • What questions do they typically have when evaluating different options?

  • Decision-Making Process: Uncover the factors that influence your customer's final decision. 

    • Who is involved in the buying committee and what are their roles : economic buyer, power user, decision-maker?

  • Value Delivered: Learn how your product has positively impacted your best customers. 

    • What specific challenges did they face before using it, and 

    • What tangible improvements have they experienced?

  • Channels of Influence and Awareness: Identify the sources your ideal customer trusts for industry news and insights. 

    • Who are the key influencers they follow (industry analysts, publications, social media personalities)? 

“Understanding your prospects’ preferred channels allows you to strategically place your message where it will resonate most.”

  • Change Management: Explore the internal dynamics your buyers navigate.

    • What internal beliefs or processes might need to be shifted for your product to be adopted? 

    • How have successful customers presented the value proposition to their teams and stakeholders? 

By understanding these challenges, you can equip your marketing with messaging and resources that address potential roadblocks to adoption.

Step 3. Visualize the Buyer's Journey

Once you’re done with customer research, translate the insights you’ve collected into a visual representation of the buyer journey. This could be a flowchart or a customer journey map that illustrates the typical buying process for different members of the buying committee.

The map should capture:

  • Steps and Channels: The specific actions each committee member takes at various stages. What channels do they use to gather information (industry publications, social media, etc.)?

  • Internal Discussions: The key conversations that happen within the committee. What are their concerns and evaluation criteria?

  • Entry Points: When do different stakeholders (power users, decision-makers) enter the buying process?

Step 4. Key Marketing and Sales Programs: Aligning Activities with the Journey

With a clear understanding of the buyer’s journey, you can now map out targeted marketing and sales programs. 

You don't need 50 tactics.

Focus on a few key activities that deliver maximum impact at each stage : awareness, attention, demand generation, account activation, etc.

Step 5. Align Your Team: Assigning Roles for Success

Having a clear roadmap requires a well-oiled engine. Now that you've mapped out key marketing and sales activities, assign roles and responsibilities to your team.

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See you in Trenches 😉