Predictive marketing is a booming industry. With more home-working, less data with GDPR (or other data protection) and longer buyer journeys it makes perfect sense. As we strive for greater ROI from marketing, find out why you should get predictive marketing and buy the most efficient way to target intent.
Why you need to get intent marketing
You need to get intent marketing if:
- Your b2b account base shows little response
- The average deal size is very large
- The average length of buying decision is long
- Your sales and marketing efforts are combined
- You require intelligence on intent
According to SiriusDecisions, b2b buyers are 57% through a buying decision before engaging a vendor and 67% of the buyer journey is done digitally. We also know that in some industries, customers can be as much as 80% along the sales and marketing funnel before speaking to an account manager.
In short, your potential buyers are already well on their way to choosing someone else whilst your campaigns are either being ignored, in junk mail or discounted. They may have decided on a solution before you have had the chance to make your case.
Once people have made a subconscious decision to buy from a vendor, they often use their conscious, rational thinking to justify it to themselves. Given enough information, the decision is close to finalised before engaging a sales rep.
How to buy predictive marketing
You can get predictive marketing tools with a monthly subscription with the majority being cloud-based. Your choice of predictive software requires consideration of the relative capabilities and connection to your existing systems.
Once you have identified a predictive marketing solution, the next steps are as follows:
- Plan for implementation
- Plan your CRM or advertising connection
- Establish your addressable market
Unfortunately, this isn’t a silver bullet. Just because you have a shiny new piece of software for tracking your addressable market, it doesn’t mean it benefits you right away.
If you would like to discuss intent-based marketing with us, simply email us at sales@think-beyond.co.uk.
The most efficient way to target intent
Predictive tools use ‘intent signals’ to predict where an organisation is in the buying journey. Some people are not looking, some people have it already, some people are considering it. Imagine how powerful it would be to find those who are actively considering it.
In fact, the partner we work with estimates up to 6x more efficient campaigns. Yes, that means less activity for the same result. When you combine this AI-enabled approach with an effective sales and marketing team, you have more opportunity. Additionally, the probability of making a sale can increase by up to 70% on a target account.
We previously showed that predictive marketers are 3x more likely to report revenue growing faster than the industry average. Furthermore, we showed that over 80% believe that adopting AI for marketing is critical to success.
Other tools and technologies such as online ads offer intent in various forms. Unfortunately, they are limited to what happens on their own platform. Many predictive technology vendors work with vast networks of affiliates to pick up billions of intent signals each week.
But wait, how do we make sure we reap the full benefit of targeting intent?
Getting maximum efficiency when buying intent marketing
You get maximum efficiency in the following circumstances:
- Your proposition aligns with the technology
- The sales and marketing teams are in alignment
- Your marketing team have an effective lead management process
- The sales team have an effective sales funnel process
- Your marketing processes undergo a transformation
- There is integration between the predictive software and your CRM or ad platform
- Your data is robust for targeting, managing and reporting
The way your sales and marketing teams function will change with the deployment of predictive tools. Getting board-level buy-in for the change is crucial because the sales team will need to manage their sales funnel differently. The business case is clear with up to 6x more efficient campaigns and up to 70% greater probability of a sale.
At this point, it is worth considering professional support to guide the change. Consider that your busy marketing team will have to adapt to new ways of working and managing a new system. The sales team will need enabling with the process and resources to have a different conversation. Ultimately, most of the predictive marketing vendors have a network of marketing partners to prepare marketing for the transformation.
A partner to help you get the most out of your predictive purchase
We support your targeting process as well as the transformation of marketing processes. Furthermore, we offer frameworks for sales and marketing alignment, sales funnel management and enhanced lead management techniques.
If you would like to discuss your lead generation, simply fill-in our handy contact form for a call back.
Additionally, if you would like our factsheet on predictive marketing, simply email us to request a copy.
Finally, why not check the range of strategic marketing services we offer to support you.