Engage Prospects With Interactive Experiences

Everyone talks about streamlining the sales cycle, but building engagement is really about improving the quality of the buying cycle.

Prospect engagement is dependent upon the delivery of consistently valuable marketing interactions across the buying cycle. B2B marketers not only need to attract prospective customers to their content but to motivate them to take action as a result. The establishment of a relevant online dialogue is essential to sustaining prospect engagement during a complex purchase.

Once-and-done communications won't achieve long-term results. But interactive strategies have been proven to build relationships. Imagine the difference between:

Experience A: Prospect receives a monthly newsletter from your company - sometimes it's relevant, mostly not. She usually deletes it after a quick scan. At least she hasn't unsubscribed...right?

Not so fast. Consider the alternative of creating a memorable, interactive experience.

Experience B: Prospect is referred to your blog by a link they received via a Google Alert:

• He clicks the link, reads the post and visits your website to read a related article you referenced, finding the ideas valuable.
• He notices you have a content series on the topic and subscribes.
• When he receives the third email in the series of five, the article gives him an idea he can implement right away and offers a link to register for a webinar your company is producing.
• The prospect attends the webinar and submits a question that didn't get answered during the event.
• You send him a personal email answering the question and include a link to a white paper that addresses the topic.
• The prospect downloads the white paper, replies with a thank you and Tweets about your white paper to share it with his network.
• And on you both go, moving forward to the next steps in his buying process—together.
  

Marketing Interactions helps you improve the experiences your prospects have during their buying process, showing them that your company understands and cares about their specific needs. The resulting active relationships bring more revenue, more customer loyalty and greater returns on marketing investments.

The Buyer Synopsis Workshop

This process is the foundational element for transforming your marketing programs. Creating personas and matching them to problem-to-solution scenarios provides a platform for building relationships based on needs and interests across buying stages. We'll help you get to know your prospects and customers so that you can create more interactive experiences they value. We'll show you how to develop and use high-value marketing content that engages prospects throughout their buying process. And then we'll help you keep your customers coming back for more.

Within every customer and prospect conversation exists the opportunity for differentiation. How you sell, not what you sell, makes the difference. Engaging prospects is an art, augmented with the intelligence gathered by marketing automation technology, listening to and knowing your markets.

When you take the time to create strategic online experiences that educate your prospects, demonstrate your expertise and evidence the success of customers just like them, you’ll find more prospects become buyers, taking less time to reach a purchase decision.

Take a look at your marketing messaging. Does it:

• Share a story your prospects want to engage with?
• Connect to other content to extend the storyline?
• Stimulate online dialogue that builds reliance on your company’s expertise?
• Focus on each stage of the buying cycle to move the prospect forward, in tandem with the relationship?
• Produce consistent, quantifiable business results?

If you want to build consistently higher engagement to shorten buying cycles, let's talk.

To find out more about how to build higher prospect engagement, download your copy of the eBook: Tune Up Your Customer Focus

Read the article: Use Personas to Engage Your Target Markets - includes an excerpt from my book eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale