B2B marketing managers today live in a data-driven world – a business data driven world to be exact. Information age technologies like the internet, data warehousing, business intelligence and analytics have evolved B2B marketing into a complex and exciting combination of science and art.
Much of the science revolves around the gathering and analysis of business data; then turning the analysis of that business data into compelling value propositions, messages, campaigns and face-to-face conversations.
Finding the triggers in business data
There are only two reasons a B2B company will respond to your marketing: to relieve pain or increase pleasure. In the B2B world it’s usually pain relief.
Business data is the key to success because a rich set of data helps you understand your prospects’ and customer’s business environments; and a rich set of business data is also the key to uncovering your prospects’ and customers’ pain points.
An accurate picture of your customers’ pain points is essential to building a compelling value proposition. In the B2B arena the value proposition is king, and in the next few BLOG posts we’re going to discuss how to collect and use business data to build compelling value propositions, successful campaigns and engaging face-to-face conversations.
About value propositions and audience segmentation
A value proposition is built around pain points, their negative impact, what capabilities your product or service brings to the table to alleviate the pain, and what value that creates. To do that effectively you need a deep understanding of your customer and their business, and the key to that understanding is business data.
In addition, unlike B2C marketing and sales where typically the buying authority is only one or two people (like a husband and wife or parent and child), in a B2B situation, especially with big ticket items or services, you have a complex buying authority. So, in addition to segmenting your target company list, you must also segment the buying authority within each company.
Typically the buying authority in a B2B situation can be segmented into:
- the technical buyer(s)
- the financial buyer(s)
- the end user buyer(s)
A value proposition must be developed for each because while there may be some common pain points across all three disciplines, each will have some pain points of their own that must be addressed in their language.
The more you can tailor your marketing messages and value proposition to a company and the individual disciplines within the buying authority, the more effective your business marketing campaigns and face-to-face conversations will be.
Here’s where business data comes into play in the above scenario. First of all, you need to be able to segment the companies in your business marketing list. If your business data list just contains names, addresses, phone number and e-mail addresses, at a minimum you’ll need to get SIC Codes appended to your business data list so that you can at least segment people by industry. Other business data like number of employees, number and location of offices will give you insight into the size of the company, and a data field for job title will help you segment the buying authorities.
In addition, a good marketing data services partner can provide you with data from off-line data services like public records, market research, government surveys, etc. This will give you information into a company’s operations and needs that will help you uncover pain points. For example, one could make inferences about potential pain points of companies among those that recently applied for construction permits, or companies that just purchased land, or companies that indicated they had open RFPs for IT projects in a market research survey.
At The V12 Group we provide a full range of business data services for business marketing managers. Our multi-channel business database combines postal, email, and phone data, as well as more than 15+ selectors to improve targeting. This includes firmagraphic and contact level demographic business data. Our business database has been DPV confirmed to have 99% deliverable addresses. We also can append business data from a wide range of additional on-line and off-line data resources.
Click here to contact us for more information on the power of business data in B2B marketing.
Your business data, when appended and cleansed by The V12 Group, will become a high-performance marketing tool.
Use our business data to reach your customers more efficiently. The V12 Group’s Database is a hybrid file built from compiled and proprietary data sources and combines postal, email, and phone data, as well as more than 20+ selects to improve targeting. This includes firmagraphic and contact level demographic data.
Contact us to get the most powerful business data for your next campaign.
Related posts:
- Precise Business Marketing with Audience Segmentation
- Success in Business Marketing
- Data Marketing for Business to Business Programs
- Business Data Generates and Nurtures Leads Effectively
- Business Marketing Lists for Better Targeting
- Making Your Business Data More Robust
- Business Marketing Lists Enhanced through QR Code Promotions and Data Appending
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