How important is engagement in B2B marketing?
To say that engagement plays a crucial role in creating successful B2B marketing content is an understatement, as it’s how we connect with customers, and a key element in the process of building trust and the desire to continue interaction with a brand.
Engagement is also a fundamental building block of content marketing, offering many innate benefits well worth the effort it often takes B2B marketers to properly achieve.
To get that process started, let’s take a look at five striking insights on successful B2B marketing engagement, from some of the top marketers in the industry today.
1 — Brian Solis
“Meaningful customer engagement starts with discovery,” Brian Solis, global innovation evangelist at Salesforce, observed in our groundbreaking 2020 State of B2B Colombia Phone Numbers List Influencer Marketing Research Report.
The time is right to look at engagement in new ways, and even to reinvent it, Brian has explained.
“B2B marketers now have an opportunity to re-imagine engagement to ignite a new type of connection with customers. Beyond designing for and measuring the potential for engagement, design for humans and their intentions, needs, and desired outcomes. Engagement becomes a function of intent and purpose,” Brian added.
Brian has a lot to say about engagement and how it combines with influence and thought leadership to extend beyond traditional B2B marketing, and you can learn more in the following interviews and articles we’ve authored that feature Brian:
Inside Influence 9: Brian Solis from Salesforce on How B2B Influence Adds Value to Customers
Brian Solis on Lifescale – How to Live a More Creative, Productive and Happy Life Plus Improve Your Marketing
Dropping Digital Distractions With Brian Solis
“Meaningful customer engagement starts with discovery.” — Brian Solis @briansolisCLICK TO TWEET
2 — Jon Miller
Jon Miller
Engagement is also a key consideration in sales and marketing alignment, and Jon Miller, chief marketing officer at Demandbase, has placed it in his “find, engage, and close” process of achieving B2B marketing and sales alignment.
“You need to engage with buyers in a trusted, relevant way on their own terms. It’s about knowing where they are in their journey and using intelligence and insights to know when and how to engage at each point,” Jon noted.
An important step in utilizing the new realities of B2B marketing and sales alignment is engagement, Jon has noted, where the identified accounts are engaged, aligning your interactions with the buyer’s journey.
Get more insight into Jon’s B2B marketing automation process in our recent article, “Find, Engage and Close: Demandbase’s Jon Miller on Recasting the B2B Marketing Automation Journey.”
“You need to engage with buyers in a trusted, relevant way on their own terms.” — Jon Miller @jonmillerCLICK TO TWEET
3 — Amisha Gandhi
Amisha Gandhi
Amisha Gandhi, senior vice president of marketing at Tipalti, sees the right kind of engagement as key to producing the best brand outcomes — and the kind of engagement that is often driven by utilizing the power of B2B influencer marketing.
“Working with the right influencers, you build credibility with the audience you are trying to reach,” Amisha has noted.
“Influencers can help you deliver content that solves problems, educates and inspires your intended audience. The biggest benefit is the engagement, how you can work with your influencers to create meaningful engagement that leads to the right outcomes for your brand,” Amisha shared with our CEO Lee Odden in an insightful look at, “How the Most Successful B2B Marketers Approach Influencer Marketing in 2021.”
Engaging online experiences are more important than ever in 2021, and B2B marketers need to provide them in compelling ways, Amisha has noted.
“People are looking at creating more engaging online experiences and virtual experiences now,” Amisha told Lee in an insightful and far-reaching interview in, “Inside Influence 6: Amisha Gandhi from SAP on the Power of Mutual Value in B2B Influencer Marketing.”
“Influencers can help you deliver content that solves problems, educates and inspires your intended audience. The biggest benefit is the engagement.” — Amisha Gandhi @AmishaGandhiCLICK TO TWEET
4 — Ardath Albee
Ardath Albee
“Engagement and experiences are critical for company growth,” Ardath Albee, interim vice president of marketing at Modus, observed when looking ahead towards the top trends B2B marketers can expect in 2021, in “Top B2B Marketers Share their Content Marketing Predictions for 2021.”
“Interactive content will become a mainstay in demand gen and sales enablement programs in 2021 and beyond,” Ardath explained.
“From virtual product tours to 3D virtual experiences, to value assessments and Digital Sales Rooms – marketers who want to facilitate the end-to-end buying experience with outcomes that prove contribution to revenue will increase focus on interactive content. They’ll up their