New Customer Behavior Calls for New PR & Marketing Tactics

Because of changing customer behavior, traditional sales tactics have become increasingly ineffective and closing deals has become more difficult. The gap between buyer expectations and marketing/sales tactics has widened.

Hub Spot’s State of Inbound 2016 report reveals that 40% of salespeople say it’s getting harder to get a response from their prospects. In addition, 57% of salespeople feel buyers today are less dependent on salespeople during the decision-making process compared to just two to three years ago.

Traditionally, buyers spoke with salespeople early in the shopping process, in what marketers call the awareness stage. Today, buyers first research solutions online, according to HubSpot, with no help from sales persons (although online chat now enables some customer engagement during the online research process. We certainly don’t need research to confirm that marketing and sales trend.

“Technology has really shifted the power from the rep to the buyer,” says Brian Halligan, HubSpot co-founder and CEO. “Salespeople today have to transform the way they sell to match with the modern buyer.”

New Customer Behavior Revamps PR & Marketing

Technology and new customer behavior mean PR and marketing is more important than ever to create owned media content, promote that content through both traditional and social media, and maintain the brand’s image. That strategy draws visitors to company websites where PR and marketing can promote features and benefits of products and services and also provide helpful, educational content. Those so-called inbound marketing techniques have proven to be more effective than traditional outbound marketing strategies such as advertising and cold calling.

“Just like inbound marketing obliterated pushy outbound marketing, inbound sales will transform sellers from aggressive closers into helpful advocates,” the report states.

Inbound Marketing Survey Results

The State of Inbound survey finds that:

Many marketers are experimenting with promoting content through new channels, especially video-based platforms. Of the 4,500 marketers surveyed, 48% plan to add YouTube to their marketing tactics, and 39% plan to add Facebook video.

Senior executives embrace video: 56% of C-level executives plan to add YouTube as a content channel, 46% plan to include Facebook video, and 17% are considering Snapchat. The use of video on social channels is usually designed to provide product information, and to then politely steer the customer to the place where the product is available for purchase.

Salespeople who adopt social selling gain a competitive advantage. Forty-two percent of buyers surveyed said they communicate via social networks such as LinkedIn and Twitter for business purposes.

Despite small variations among regions and job titles, business purchasers trust media mentions and word of mouth far more than salespeople or vendor-produced materials.

Measurement is critical. Generating website traffic and leads, and proving ROI are top challenges facing marketers. However, many marketers lack proper tools that can help them track concrete results for their campaigns.

A Social Media Measurement Solution

Other research has also found measurement remains an ongoing challenge for both B2B and B2C marketers, including both small and large businesses. Experts recommend social media monitoring and measurement to help marketers align their activities to business results, gain credibility and protect their budgets. For instance, research from Regalix found “a need for analytics to measure and monitor social media activities more rigorously, so companies can focus on channels that are working for them, and not have to invest in a social plan that covers as many channels as there are, which more often they do now.”

Careful analysis of results achieved in social media – changes in web traffic and conversions for instance — can greatly improve effectiveness and efficiency of social media marketing campaigns.

More small and medium-sized businesses are turning to social media monitoring and measurement services. As the services have become more advanced and less expensive, they’ve become a viable option for all but the smallest businesses. While mom & pop operations can often make do with free tools like Google Alerts, businesses of even moderate size require subscription tools.

Bottom Line: The days of the door-to-door salesmen are long gone. Nowadays, customers research solutions to their product and service needs online before discussing a possible sale, especially big ticket business purchases. Often armed with extensive information from company websites, product review services, and social media, customers wield greater power as they approach a purchase decision. That revolution in customer behavior places a priority on educating customers with online content and engaging with them on social media.