Marketers know the ground is shifting under their feet — but, for some, reality still needs to sink in when it comes to how to make technology purchases that reflect this changing universe.
So, what’s changed, exactly? According to experts, the web has made marketers’ jobs much more difficult. Now they have to deal with consumers who have already done research online and know about pricing, features and other product information. Marketing and selling to an increasingly savvy and discerning audience requires new tactics, such as more personalization and customer segmentation, better and more informative content (through the use of inbound marketing), comprehensive omnichannel capabilities, more social media monitoring tools, location-based tools, and, of course, better analytics on campaign effectiveness.
Organizations that don’t have marketing software tools at the ready are likely to produce tone-deaf, ineffective campaigns that fall flat. Without these tools, it’s difficult to influence the decision-making of buyers, 67% of whom have already researched what to buy online by the time that they’re ready to purchase.
And now that there is a buying team, reaching decision-makers is also more complex. Previously, the buying team was made up of just the CIO and another technologist. Today, these teams include business users who can weigh in on their requirements and the usability of the technology.
One answer to these developments, and a key to developing a new marketing software tools strategy, has been the advent of account-based marketing (ABM), or tools to identify members of the buying team and to establish triggers that indicate a company is…
COMMENTS