B2B marketers strive to achieve personalization in content and communications. Most marketing leaders think the future depends on it. Yet, attempts at personalization have mostly left B2B buyers indifferent—at best.
We could blame it on chaotic, unorganized data management or silos in our Martech stack, but perhaps the problem is really in how we define personalization in the first place.
First off, personalization tells people what they already know, specific to themselves. You know your first name, your title, your role, what company you work for, and what industry you serve. Let’s face it, that’s the first-party information B2B companies collect about you on form completions.
You know what you’ve purchased. Although increasingly it seems that the company you purchased from doesn’t know or has somehow lost that data point given the messaging hitting my inbox lately.
If you’ve filled out a form, you’re now in a database that likely tells them when you visit their website, what pages you’ve engaged with, which emails you’ve clicked on and what related content you’ve viewed. They may also have data on how long you spent doing so.
But as far as personalization goes, marketers may use that data to put you in a specific email sequence. Or you trigger their lead scoring mechanism and get the dreaded, relentless follow-up from an SDR.
It’s amazing that so many companies still treat a content download as a lead. This is one of the worst representations of “personalization” in B2B.
And it’s about to get worse.
Forrester’s 2024 B2B Marketing Predictions forecast that “thinly customized generative AI content will degrade the purchase experience for 70% of B2B buyers.” That’s not a little blip.
Swap Out Personalization for Personal B2B Marketing
Consider that if personalization is redundant and transactional, the antidote may be to focus on what’s “personal” to your audience. Focusing on creating a meaningful connection between the reader via the information shared in the content means being personally relevant.
Being “personal” doesn’t rely on trying to insert the first-party data you collect from an individual into the content, copy, or message. It means using that insight to create content that connects the dots in ways your audience finds relevant.
To avoid alienating B2B buyers—whether using GenAI or not—achieving relevance requires that you understand them and what’s important to them.
In Forrester’s predictions, Laura Ramos says, “To create resonant content, companies should invest in updating buyer personas and their understanding of buyer journeys.” She has a point.
What are B2B Buyer Personas Good For?
First, here’s the definition I use for a B2B buyer persona:
“A B2B buyer persona is a composite sketch of a target market segment, based on validated commonalities, that actively informs content marketing strategy to drive productive buyer engagement.”
Unless you are engaged in a 1:1 ABM program, the important phrase in the above definition is “validated commonalities.”
In most instances, marketing programs are (or should be) designed to engage a specific segment of your target market. This target segment is what a well-built persona addresses.
A well-built B2B buyer persona is good for:
- Identifying commonalities. Attributes your persona has in common, including objectives and responsibilities, problems to solve, obstacles in the way, questions they need answered, and more.
- Matching context. What situations are they facing and why haven’t they already solved the problem? What challenges might they be facing gaining internal consensus? Context also includes matching preferences and using voice and tone that resonates with this persona.
- Discovering Insights. What words and phrases resonate with this persona? What emotions come into play when they consider the success, or failure of the initiative? What concerns do they have about solving the problem and in choosing how to solve it? What your customers wished they had known before purchasing and how they viewed the risk of change.
- Establishing relevance. What meaningful information can you share that aligns with their needs and context to help them learn what they need to know to move forward? Why do they care about solving the problem or pursuing the objective?
- Building Momentum. How will you tell the problem-to-solution story incrementally to link ideas in a way that builds intent and momentum along with engagement?
Armed with this information and insights from your persona, you’re prepared to create programs and content that build brand awareness, stimulate interest and engagement, and strengthen buyer confidence, intent, and decisions.
As a word of caution, well-built buyer personas are based on customer insights learned by speaking to them. Data can help but has a few limitations it’s wise to acknowledge. Data tells you what someone did. Data does not tell you why they did it, if they got what they wanted, how they feel about the experience, or the level of relevance they ascribe to it.
Personal Relevance is Stronger than Transactional Personalization
Relevance based on context beats basic attempts at personalization.
Why? Because a focus on relevance shows your audience you understand them, which creates an emotional connection. This emotional connection is more likely to inspire memories – and memories build mindshare.
Relevance presents information the person is likely to find useful, valuable, and meaningful based on their context. Relevance transcends brand awareness to create problem-to-solution awareness.
Even marketers aren’t swayed by personalization. The State of Marketing to Marketers 2024 survey found that only 13% of marketers opened an email due to personalization. Compelling subject lines, on the other hand, result in email opens by 62% of marketers.
Pursuing personal relevance results in more compelling content and messaging. B2B buyers in 2024 agree, with 88% saying they trust a brand more when they receive valuable content from that vendor.
And isn’t the point to be known for the problem you solve by the people with the problem?
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