We have been hearing from our clients over the past few months that it’s a tough market out there for B2B sales (and by extension, B2B marketing).
Research backs up this anecdotal evidence, with B2B sales cycles continuing to lengthen over the past year.
For example, Dentsu’s B2B Superpowers Index has been tracking buying cycles since 2021, citing an increase of 54 days in average decision making time.
The reasons for this include economic uncertainty; more stakeholders making more collaborative decisions; deep, digital-first research; and the growing complexity of solutions – and the ecosystems into which new products and services have to integrate.
So, what do these longer decision cycles mean for B2B marketers?
On this page:
Brand First
Nothing matters more than brand, specifically trust and expertise.
B2B marketers must focus on building their organisation’s brand credibility, elevating thought leaders, amplifying case studies, testimonials, contract wins and actively communicating their credentials as a good employer and global citizen.
In fact, that same research from Dentsu cited the following top three “decision drivers” for B2B sales:
- Feeling safe signing the contract (easy to convince their colleagues and reassured by the brand’s track record)
- Known as a good employer
- Active thought leaders in the category
To successfully support their peers in Sales, marketers must focus on brand content and brand-led communications to reassure and reinforce that their organisation is the right choice for prospects.
Our Top Tips
- Social proof and more social proof: we know buyers are asking for it and we know both search engines and genAI tools are prioritising it.
- Case studies, testimonials, reviews, social media mentions, they all add up and need to be regarded as must have content.
- Leverage your experts, including the C-suite: forget your company page and focus on your CEO. Successful brands are letting their people do the talking for them, acknowledging that ultimately people by from people, and mostly from people they trust and admire.
- And finally, elevate your people publicly, shout about customer wins and awards, mention charity activity and certifications. Support the sales cycle with as much proof as you can that your organisation is not only trustworthy but filled with experts ready to help them be just as successful.
And More Brand
Long decision-making cycles require marketers to play the long game. Twelve-week campaigns won’t cut it when your customers need another 10 months to actually make their decision.
With all of the great content and thought leadership activity you are now set to do, don’t forget one of the most important paid strategies for getting that content in front of the customers that matter: retargeting.
At Sharp Ahead we view retargeting activity as foundational, one of the first campaigns we start running for our clients, and one of the last we turn down when times are tough and media budgets get reduced.
Each of the main media channels have their own ways of enabling and managing remarketing, and we strongly recommend having always on retargeting campaigns on the Google Display Network, LinkedIn, Meta and yes, we mean this, even TikTok.
Our Top Tips
- Set up smart, long term audiences that can be segmented when large enough.
- Think beyond website audiences, including prospects that have engaged with your brand on socials or manually adding named companies to LI campaigns.
- Keep it fresh: make sure you keep an eye on frequency and freshen up your creative and content regularly. Retargeting campaigns are a great way to shout about all that fabulous social proof you’ve been curating!
If you need any help with any of the above, don’t forget that Sharp Ahead offer a free 30-min consultation to B2B brands serious about sharpening up their digital marketing.
