How to Harness the Power of Personalization in B2B Marketing

It’s getting harder and harder to win the attention of business-to-business buyers. I’m sure you’ve noticed this too–especially today when it seems every other email or social post is generated by AI. We can view it as a challenge or as an opportunity. I recommend the latter.

Surveys say that 77 percent of B2B buyers will not purchase without personalized content. At the same time, only 4 in 10 B2B marketers believe they are using personalization effectively. That’s a massive discrepancy, especially given the fact that a B2B buyer’s journey is not linear and extremely long. And that’s why B2B marketing requires a unique touch.

Here’s what you can do to reach more customers and make your campaigns more efficient through the power of personalization:

1. Understand your buyer personas.

You cannot overestimate the importance of accurate and detailed customer profiling. Knowing your audience’s needs and expectations is essential for effective marketing. Take the time to figure out who your ideal customers are and what pains they are trying to solve.

To get a better idea of what businesses you want to attract, start by analysing your existing customers. Based on this data, you can create your buyer personas. It’s okay to have more than one persona as long as you make a clear distinction between them, recognizing that each has different concerns and priorities.

2. Personalize your email campaigns.

Email marketing can be an effective way to reach your ideal buyers. However, too many B2B marketers do not segment their email lists and there’s a huge opportunity in this simple change. All of the people on your list belong to the B2B sector, but if you think beyond this characteristic, what else do they represent?

Think about the different industries you serve, different job roles, and different stages of the buying journey your buyers are at. Use automation tools to segment your email list and tailor your content accordingly. For example, if you were to sell cybersecurity solutions, you could have separate campaigns for IT managers and company CEOs and talk about problems and solutions that would be the most relevant for each of those personas.

3. Implement account-based marketing.

One of the most personalized strategies is account-based marketing. Contrary to traditional marketing, ABM is all about targeting a very specific, high-value set of customers. This approach is especially effective for industries that typically have very long buying cycles. Make a list of specific companies you’d like to reach and go all in with super-specific content that addresses their unique challenges.

The beauty of ABM is in its focus and attention to detail, which is exactly what most B2B buyers expect. Instead of “spraying and praying,” as the saying goes, you can concentrate all your resources on trying to reach a very particular person or people who are going to play a critical role in the decision-making process once the company is ready to buy.

4. Recognize challenges and considerations.

As great as it sounds, personalized marketing has quite a few lines, and you need to be especially careful not to cross them. Otherwise, your campaigns could have the opposite effect from what you’ve expected. These challenges include:

• Privacy concerns and ethical implications: Be mindful of diving too deep when trying to help your potential customers. Some of them might not like it when you gather data, so never attempt personalizing without people’s consent.
• Data accuracy: Make sure you maintain up-to-date information to make sure your personalization remains relevant. Things like making sure the recipient still works in the targeted company must become a part of your data hygiene routine.
• The balance between personalization and scalability: You can’t maintain personalization and exponential growth. There’s a careful balance there, and it often does not go in line with scalability.