How to maintain relevance and relationships in uncertain times

For many B2B sales teams, face-to-face meetings and trade shows have long been the best place to woo new customers and solidify existing customer relationships. But now, sales and marketing teams need to collaborate to find new ways to keep in touch with their market.

Your brand is being put to a new test. With fewer chances to meet in person, digital branding and communications now become more important than ever in B2B.

Where trade shows are broad, digital channels give you the tools to place micro-focus on the needs of specific customers and leads.

Go deep

Now is a good time to strengthen your content marketing efforts and account-based marketing (ABM) approach. Identify your biggest prospects, really dig into their needs and create content and experiences that speak directly to them.

In this transition, marketing needs to support sales through the entire customer journey – it cannot just be pulling in marketing qualified leads and then handing them over. Today, the customer needs a relevant, targeted experience in each and every interaction with your brand.

Go lean

What can you do to stay relevant with a tight budget? Does your team finally have time for some blogging? LinkedIn and Twitter are powerful, but are there other organic, interactive online channels you can start using?

When it comes to sharing ideas and content, if you have an up-to-date email list, you already have a direct line to the customer. Just remember to use email respectfully and provide value, not just spam.

Go live

As more of us get used to working remotely, everyone will become more open to attending digital events. While hosting a live online event may seem intimidating, it doesn’t have to be complicated.

With a lean process, you can start generating leads for an online event in a few days. In many cases, you already have the content ready, and you may have a huge audience in your social channels waiting for the opportunity to engage with your brand.

While AR experiences will probably mature quickly, there are plenty of simple and affordable tools you can use today to create engaging live digital events. Be prepared, be consistent, be engaged, be yourself – and let the value or your brand shine through.

With a customer-focused approach, your attendees can create a lot of content themselves, making you simply a facilitator and a provider of answers. Rather than a sales pitch, if you give your attendees an opportunity to share and interact with their peers, you are sure to build trust with your audience.

Go forward

With the current changes, marketing has the responsibility to show results. This is time for marketing to step up.

So what does that look like? We’re working with our customers to find creative solutions and new opportunities. When borders are closing, we are about crossing borders and seeing the opportunities in our changing world.

CBC blog link: How B2B marketers are adapting to the recession

If you’d like to discuss your situation and options in detail, you can call Managing Partner Ralph Krøyer on +45 35 25 01 75 or drop him a line at rk@cbc.dk.