We love a challenge. We choose to do the hard things because it makes us better. If you are a B2B marketer, you understand this.
In the world of B2C, you target your audience with a hook, set an offer, nurture them, and convert them. You can even upsell them, and nurture them again for repeat buyers.
In the world of B2B, a buyer is way more in control.
It usually looks something like this:
They have to first feel that they have a problem. At some point, it will get bad enough or they will suffer enough, that they ask some peers what they do, how they solved it, and who to talk to. HOPEFULLY, they know and say your name. They may check out your website or your LinkedIn. You may or may not know they are “shopping.” Then, they lose interest. Their pain goes away and so does their attention. Two months later it comes back. So they come back and reach out, and schedule a meeting. The meeting goes great but they don’t commit – normally out of fear of making the wrong decision, so they do the “wise thing” and get some other proposals. Then they take an extended holiday. You send some emails, but get ghosted. One month after you remove them from your pipeline, they show up and ask for the contract to get started.
It’s hard to track that lead to the effectiveness of your ads, landing pages, emails, and cadence. It probably wasn’t zero… but probably not 100% either. And that’s the fun of B2B marketing.
We can’t rely on just one “thing.” We also can’t truly measure the ROI of that one “thing.” It ALL works together. Just remember, the buyer is really in control.
