B2B and B2C buyer behaviour has taken a drastic shift within the last decade. Thanks to the internet and what Google have labelled the online decision-making Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT), businesses and consumers favour the use of online searches to make decisions about your brand – and more notably, whether or not they’ll buy from you!

Whereas 10 years ago you might have been able to make a series of unsolicited calls about your product to people who’d never even heard of you before and receive some degree of uptake. Nowadays, according to research from Think with Google, B2B buyers perform an average of 12 online searches before they’ll even begin engaging on a specific brand’s site.

The buyer revolution

This revolution in buyer behaviour continues to grow in importance and signifies a definitive shift in control, with power being very much with the buyer. Within B2B marketing in particular, this power means that businesses expect more from companies than ever before. More information, more consistency, more reliability and more involvement before even considering engaging in the buying cycle. This in no way means you should start forwarding your 300-page service guide to your entire address book in the hope that a few people might bite. Buying behaviour has shifted and businesses make purchases based on pre-existing relationships – even if this relationship only exists within the digital realm.

Shaping your experience

This is where integrated marketing comes into play. Creating a seamless experience for businesses to interact with your brand without feeling bombarded with a barrage of hit and miss content that presents no relevance to them. Integrated marketing incorporates multiple touch points across the multi-channel marketing mix. Whether this be through email, telephone, direct mail, social media or through experiential communication like events, content has more influence over B2B buying decisions than ever. According to DemandGen, 49% of buyers say they rely more on content to guide their decisions than they did a year ago – and 78% consuming three or more pieces of relevant content before talking to a salesperson.

Telemarketing within the marketing mix

As a B2B telemarketing agency continually adjusting within the marketing mix, we know that there isn’t a hard and fast rule when it comes to building brand awareness and securing your lead pipeline. What we do know is that centring comms around singular messaging is outdated and downright inefficient. Buyers have more freedom to be picky when it comes to choosing their suppliers, so building that relationship, personalising content and developing a strong lead nurture process is vital. Marketing Charts found that two-thirds (66%) of people expect all their interactions with vendors to be personalized; although, a similar share (65%) feel that the vendors they purchase from could do a better job aligning their engagement activities with the buyer’s preferences.

We use telemarketing as a complementary component within a wider B2B marketing strategy. The thing with direct communication like telemarketing is the deeper level of engagement you can achieve in comparison to more broad activity like direct mail or even email marketing. Despite changes in buying behaviour over the years, what hasn’t changed is that people buy from people. Personalisation and human interaction in marketing is essential to achieve a valued relationship with prospects and we find that picking up the phone is the quickest and most fool proof way of achieving this. However, it’s important to note again that this by no means should replace all other channels. Get your telemarketing working as a complementary driver within your wider marketing mix.

Also written by Kate