Balancing Buyer and Product Strategies for B2B
Balancing buyer and product strategies in B2B content marketing involves blending customer personalization with solution selling. Find out how an emerging approach harmonizes these two objectives to deliver more engaging brand messaging.
As I was working with a few clients this week, I noticed an interesting dilemma with which a lot of B2B content marketers are struggling. Should your brand target specific buyer groups, or should it showcase the features and benefits of its product offerings?
Of course, like most dilemmas, the short answer is, “why not both?” Even so, like most short answers, it’s not quite that easy in practice.
Today’s B2B content marketing has become highly personalized. That’s partly because we now have the digital technology to customize messaging on a global scale - what Alvin Toffler called “de-massified media.”
Human Beings Make Business Decisions
Personalization also results from a growing awareness that real, live human beings make business decisions, making the personal touch equally important in B2B and B2C marketing. Another driver for personalization is a shift in buyer behaviour and expectations.
Studies show that 81% of your potential clients now research your brand online long before they contact anyone working at your company. They’ve likely gone over at least a dozen items about your product offerings before reaching out to your sales force.
That means the crucial first impression that traditional sales representatives have provided now comes from your brand’s online content. So B2B marketing material needs to foster personal connections with your target audience.
Personal Connections Versus Differentiation
At the same time, your B2B brand needs to be competitive. If you have a patent or some other unique business advantage, you may be tempted to think you have no competition, but you’re still up against your customer’s other spending options.
So, you need to be able to differentiate your product offerings by presenting a distinctive value proposition. That calls for solution selling on top of the conventional B2B approach of itemizing features, benefits and specifications.
Buyer-based and product-based marketing may not seem to conflict at first glance, but there are some tensions between the two approaches. The tension springs from the distinction between addressing buyers’ perspectives and spotlighting solutions.
Tailored Versus General Messaging
For example, focusing on buyer groups calls for very specific, tailored messaging that builds customer relationships. Yet, focusing on products calls for broader positioning that promotes the value of your solutions to a general audience.
Another difference between the two approaches is that buyer-based content marketing calls for flexibility, while product-based marketing requires consistency. How does your team balance the need to adapt to evolving buyer expectations and preferences while communicating a consistent value proposition across multiple channels?
Similarly, there’s a tension between achieving long-term customer relationship goals and a more transactional approach. Focusing on buyer groups takes more time and effort but usually yields long-term relationships, while focusing on features and benefits may generate quick leads without establishing any brand connection.
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Emotion Versus Logic
Ultimately, the dissonance between these approaches boils down to emotion versus logic. Although B2B content marketers traditionally shy away from emotional appeal, personalization requires it, while product marketing emphasizes logical problem solving.
Too much focus on buyer groups can leave potential customers struggling to grasp the tangible value of your brand’s offerings. Conversely, B2B marketing content that doesn’t empathize with a potential customer’s challenges and pain points may not engage your audience.
Some of my clients are striking an innovative balance that resolves this dilemma. A different emphasis seems to be developing recently.
Innovative Balance Resolves Dilemma
In this format, personalized content begins as usual, outlining current developments and typical struggles facing each buyer category. However it then quickly shifts into a closely curated set of product solutions, subtly connecting selected features and benefits to the highlighted pain points covered in the lead-in.
This approach connects with each buyer category but, at the same time, it highlights concrete solutions in a relatable context. It’s a way to navigate between the hazards of creating evocative but vague personalized content versus churning out the drab and fact-centred material that gives B2B marketing a bad name.
Markets and the business world in general are in a constant state of flux. The emerging trends in B2B content marketing arise from social shifts like the pandemic, social media and, above all, a digitally-native generation becoming decision makers and influencers throughout the economy.
Likely to See More Innovations
We’re likely to see more innovations that strike new balances between buyer-based and product-based B2B content marketing as these trends progress. We’re all going to need to adapt and innovate in the “interesting times” that seem to lie ahead.
What’s unlikely to change is the need for B2B marketers to find creative ways to reach targeted potential customers while showcasing their brands’ unique solutions.
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I'm a freelance writer and commercial blogger, creating marketing content for select business-to-business clients in Canada and the United States. Feel free to contact me to discuss your needs.