In January 2013, Forrester published 2013 B2B CMO Imperatives – Driving Growth With Customer Insights, Marketing Automation, and Content Marketing by Sheryl Waksman-Pattek. The report states that we are in the “Age of the Customer” in which 60% of B2B buying decisions are made before buyers engage with a vendor’s sales team. Buyers are online, they are using mobile devices at all hours of the day and they want relevant content that helps them select products and services that meet their needs. Forrester recommends that B2B CMOs:
- “Map the buyer’s journey and embed personas in their 2013 marketing plans. Business buyer personas that encapsulate buyer preferences and attitudes will help marketers move their strategies from a product feature/benefit focus to a customer value focus.”
- “… think of social and content as one and the same” and “map their content strategies to personas to effectively drive pipeline growth.”
The report also states “creating a thriving content marketing program within B2B organizations is a journey that requires the right organization skills, a firm strategy, discipline, and ongoing management and optimization.”
The Insanely Great Customer Journey
To help B2B companies differentiate themselves in this age of the customer and apply these best practices, KickStart Alliance has teamed up with Spice Catalyst, creators of “Creating an Insanely Great 2013 Customer Journey.”
A customer journey is everything prospects and customers experience as they engage with companies and their products and includes all states of a customer lifecycle. An Insanely Great Customer Journey builds lasting bonds that make your company the preferred source for everything you offer. A poor one leaves your customers always looking for alternatives.
Creating an Insanely Great 2013 Customer Journey leverages agile business acceleration concepts to help companies create and measure customer value at each stage. It does this by aligning strategy, campaigns, content, organizations, process, systems and analytics with well-informed and continually updated customer personas.
KickStart Alliance and Spice Catalyst can help you transform your marketing and sales operations so that your customer journey goes from good to insanely great by:
- conducting an assessment of your current operations
- leading agile business transformation engagements
- providing training and workshops for your teams
Learn more by checking out the Video Overview and cool Flipbook Sampler of the Creating an Insanely Great 2013 Customer Journey Business Acceleration Guide.