Companies are no longer paving the road for potential customers when it comes to the buyer’s journey. They are building and driving it all on their own.
Before reaching out to you, a prospect will do more research — on a more independent path — than they would have at any other time in history. In fact, recent research shows that
85% of buyers make a decision before ever contacting a salesperson.
Their journey is still, in essence, one of awareness, consideration and decision. Today, though, most of that process can take place without your direct involvement. More information is available for a customer to explore than ever before. Your online presence and content efforts must be optimized for digitally-savvy prospects who may stumble upon your company in any number of places – from social media to news stories to your own website.
Of course, this doesn’t mean there is no place for direct and personalized marketing. Because on the flip side, there is also more information about your customer available than ever before. If you can alter your marketing trajectory to match emerging buyer habits, you can ensure greater success in the long run and build richer, longer-term relationships.
Going to Need ID, Please
The key today is identifying where your prospects are in their journey and communicating with them in kind. It’s about leveraging everything that’s out there to make sure you are the best solution to their problem.
SAP Virtual Agency’s
ContactAI service is now offering buying interest identification tools that can give you insight into your customers’ journey.
In a perfect world, you could sit down with every contact in your sales database and talk with them about where they are in the purchasing process. You could figure out what they want and need
right now and tailor your messaging and communications to those desires. Obviously, we don’t live in a perfect world, but customers still want to feel like you’re talking to and serving them. If you’re mass-calling or mass-emailing countless prospects with the same message at the same time, they won’t view your contribution as a valuable one.
With ContactAI, you can dig into data at a company and individual level to identify prospect interests and clarify where they stand in the buyer’s journey. The tool will then score and prioritize leads to help you engage when the time is right — with content that appeals directly to the customer.
Paired with ContactAI’s other innovations — including email validation that ensures delivery and reduces hard bounces as well as contact enrichment that keeps your prospect list up to date with accurate data — buyer ID tools will help you drive marketing outreach that truly makes a difference and impacts the bottom line.
Get back on the road today! Learn more about SAP Virtual Agency or study our guide to ContactAI in the Knowledge Center. Two additional blogs are available that highlight ContactAI’s email validation and contact enrichment features as well.
