One of the biggest changes to B2B marketing is the evolution of skills needed to engage today’s buyers of complex products and services. There are a lot of moving parts that need to be strategically integrated to produce results. Everything from technology to myriad content types to storytelling to nurturing to sales transitions and enablement, and more must work together with the lead generation and awareness that comprised the marketing goals of the past.
There are two frameworks for marketing that are often applied separately (or not at all) but should be integrated to deliver on marketing objectives in step with the buying process—Instinctive and Structural Marketing. In their definitions below, you’ll see natural points of integration. Using one without the other will not produce the results B2B marketers are tasked to produce.
Structural marketing is all about process.
Structural marketing is the framework marketers apply to the entirety of the buyer experience. From where your prospects are sitting today, to wherever they can get with the value your company adds determine the parameters of your structural marketing framework.
Some of the processes that must be included in structural marketing include:
- Lead definition and persona development for each target market
- Buyer experience maps – including overlays with all channels in your marketing mix
- Lead management – including sales transitions and enablement
- Lead nurturing
- Customer nurturing and lifecycle management
- Metrics and measurement definition
Instinctive marketing is based on relationship building over the long term.
Instinctive marketing applies content strategy to the structural framework to produce the desired results. I define this as “instinctual” because marketers are applying the insights learned via persona development to craft engaging and relevant content strategies designed to build momentum over the long term complex buying process. Instinct is defined as a natural or innate impulse, inclination, or tendency. This is exactly how you want your buyers to respond to your content — as if it’s the most relevant information available to them.
Some of the components that must be included in instinctual marketing include:
- Storyboard development based on personas, customers and problem-to-solution scenarios
- Content definition and linkages based on buyer experience maps
- Identification of momentum drivers for lead management
- Editorial calendars
- Content development and governance
- Conversation simulations and social guides
- Sales enablement content and collateral
With all the moving parts B2B marketers are responsible for managing, developing frameworks that help us excel is becoming critical for our success. Dividing the components into structural plus instinctive frameworks helps to align these parts and help them work together – one in support of the others.
What am I missing? What would you add?
