Back in the unconnected world of yesteryear, buyers would roll up at computer exhibitions and if your stand looked interesting enough, they might have been tempted to start a conversation and share with you a business problem or aspiration that they were looking to address.
Nowadays, the buyer is typically at least 50% of the way through their procurement cycle before a supplier is even aware of the opportunity!
Think about the process. The likelihood is the buyer will have:
• started with Google searches (is your own website Search Engine Optimised (SEO)?)
• subscribed to an e-newsletter (do you have one?)
• been invited to a webinar (do you run these?)
• put a long list of potential suppliers together (will you feature?)
• visited numerous blogging sites (do you have one?)
• read white papers and e-books (do you publish them?)
• followed companies on Twitter, (are you active here?)
• visited LinkedIn profiles (will they get a positive experience of your company?)
Having identified a list of potentials and perhaps looked at videos on YouTube, or run an online demo, they might view community sites to find recommendations on your products, or Google with relevant phrases to look for complaints/issues or other bad customer experiences.
At this point the buyer will have identified potential suppliers.
The key question is – Will your company make the short list?
So unless you have a robust digital marketing strategy, opportunities will get to the tender stage without you even being aware of them. However, this can be rectified by developing interesting and original content (and carefully curating and repurposing content) that adds value to the reader at each stage of the buying process with the aim of positioning you as a thought leader and keeping your proposition front of mind.
Furthermore, by managing all this through a digital marketing platform, it enables you to optimise your online presence, track and measure your prospects level of engagement and develop a prioritised, steady stream of qualified leads for your sales team to follow up and close.
You can turn this situation to your advantage quickly and for minimal investment.
Contact Us To Find Out How.
Alternatively, you can invest heavily in poorly targeted outbound marketing methods, trawling the market in an attempt to engage with them before it’s too late.
Still not convinced? Then ask your customers the question. Or you can just hope they find you before they find your competitors….
Find out more about our full service marketing capability.
JAN
