Batch and blast is dead
It’s true that email will remain a vital tool in the B2B marketers box of tricks. However, there is a growing sense of frustration that it doesn’t work as well as it used to. After all we’ve all become more adept at blocking, ignoring and screening the vast stream of information available to us.
Only a small minority of B2B marketers, in fact less than 15% according to Sirius Decisions, use sophisticated email tools. That means 85% are approaching email marketing with tactics that have not changed in years; one large email blast after another to the prospect database at monthly or quarterly intervals.
They’ve probably gotten a lot of mileage out of these antiquated “push” email-marketing tools. However, market dynamics have changed quite radically in recent years with the proliferation of marketing channels.
One-dimensional outbound email marketing tools are living on borrowed time. 2010 B2B marketing requires a little new thinking and a lot more sophisticated demand management techniques. At the core of this new approach is ‘marketing rhythm’. B2B agencies unable to raise their game will left behind as clients seek partners able to utilize these new tools.
“Customers’ buying processes have evolved in our world of ubiquitous, instant, global communication … but companies’ selling processes have for the most part stayed the same.” says Thomas Stewart, Editor Harvard Business Review.
The key message is that the way buyers use the web to make purchasing decisions is new and different but for the most part B2B organisations have yet to adapt their sales and marketing engines to the new reality.
There is so much noise out there. Decision-makers are drowning in irrelevant and untimely messages from a multitude of vendors. This means a B2B marketing agencies efforts are have less and less impact. The pressure of providing a campaign that delivers immediate results is doomed to fail because the client sales cycles are known to be 6-12 months. Still the campaign is ‘pushed’ out as it better than doing nothing.
As an example of the new B2B marketing dynamics Marketing Sherpa tells us that 80% of technology decision-makers believe they found their vendors, rather than vendors proactively finding them. The truth is buyers find us and are in full control. It’s no wonder that old school marketing in the new information age is not performing.
Leave a Reply