B2B brands are witnessing a paradigm shift in the buying landscape. Taking a page out of the B2C playbook, they have recognized the power of a “Business to Human” approach, and the reason is that it drives real results. Buying habits are the same regardless of if people are buying for themselves or for their organization. To thrive in this changing landscape, B2B brands are embracing B2C marketing strategies, such as tapping into an emotional element for sales and rethinking how you go to market to ensure a unified voice.

Today’s buyers are always on their devices, often just a touch away from accessing the information they desire, and they are bringing that same expectation into their business interactions and dealings. Consequently, businesses must now adapt a blended approach of both digital and in-person sales techniques. They must craft networked experiences – creating modern and adaptive campaigns orchestrated across the brand’s ecosystem.

In essence, successful B2B brands today that embrace networked experiences share these three strategies:

Focusing on a strong brand identity.

Failing to promote an overall company brand is a missed opportunity. Top B2B brands have discovered that both Marketing and Sales are successful with branding at their core. To truly influence both people and the market, brands must construct an identity and promote it in a way that reaches their end buyer. Many B2B purchases are long-term investments. Organizations should view expenditures on brand marketing and brand identity in the same way as accounting, software, or tools for their organization.

A recent survey conducted by BCG and Google found that: "Companies that are more mature in terms of brand marketing generate a higher ROMI on those efforts; moreover, strong brand marketing capabilities actually reinforce performance marketing, leading to better engagement overall." Because this landscape has continued to grow more and more challenging in recent years, a focus on brand will result in long-term success and ultimately increased customer lifetime value.

Ensuring that customer loyalty is intrinsic throughout the organization.

In addition to focusing on brand marketing and identity, B2B companies must implement a customer-first approach. The personalized buying experience extends beyond knowing a name. Organizations are now expected to have intuitive buying journeys unique to profiles or preferences to aid, excite and convert buyers, as well as to keep them loyal. A recent McKinsey study sited that: "Customers tend to require all five of these experiences in combination, or they will look for another supplier:

• Performance guarantees offered during the sale: 78%

• Real-time/always-on customer service: 72%

• Product availability shown online: 74%

• Consistent experience across channels: 72%

• Ability to purchase from any channel: 72%

An actionable follow up to ensure customer loyalty throughout the organization would be to align internally on relevant business/segment KPIs and holding teams accountable to anticipating and meeting customer’s needs in the moment.

Adapting to a hybrid selling approach.

Beyond a personalized buying experience and meeting customers where they are, companies need to understand that buyer's needs change throughout various stages of the sales cycle. This means that mixing a hybrid approach will yield the best possible outcome. A recent McKinsey survey of B2B customers highlighted: "What customers most desire is great digital interactions and the human touch." This means that digital and human interactions must be optimized while internal cross-functional teams (from Marketing to Technology) are all working in tandem to close sales deals. Marketing and Sales must talk. Forbes indicates: "Companies with aligned sales and marketing teams experience 38% higher sales-win rates and 36% higher customer retention rates." This might look like digital start-to-finish companies seeing higher growth by incorporating human interaction at the start of the buying journey. Contrarily, ABM marketers/account managers might loosen their grip post-sale as personalized attention is not as critical at that point.

The buying landscape has presented a multitude of new challenges, but also new fortitude for organizations willing to embrace this constantly mutating landscape. One thing is certain, complexity will only increase over time with changing consumer behavior, fragmented attention, and additional channels popping up en masse. Having a clearcut focus on brand marketing and identity, placing the customer at the heart of growth, and adopting a hybrid selling approach will ensure your organization outperforms the rest.

Steps to modernizing your B2B strategy

Below are five factors to consider when renovating your B2B strategy to make it successful.

1. Distinguish your brand. Illuminate your advantages by crystalizing your true values and trashing anything generic. Align internally on evaluation criteria to judge how your brand shows up in the world – i.e., fitting with overall strategy, ability to relay messaging, etc.

2. Adopt essentialism. Brands must have a constant center point and be an expert in what they do or offer. Find what you do best and transform yourself from an expert to an educator. Share your expertise in a helpful, relevant, and enjoyable way with your audience.

3. Keep your customer at the core. Embodying this approach versus telling your audience something they should be judging is key. Being helpful, honest, overpromising, and overdelivering. Do things for your customer without an expectation for a thank you or an increase in business. This will inevitably grow your customer lifetime value without having to tell your customer they are your priority.

4. Mix up your marketing approach. Flexibility is vital to the success of sales teams, from the channel used to the call to action you want customers to take, and all the touchpoints throughout the buyer journey. This is an overlooked opportunity to showcase how to orbit around your customer in the ways and at the times that they wish to be engaged with. Merging digital and in-person marketing can also empower your customers to interact using the medium they prefer.

5. Stick your neck out. Brands should dare to go for it and be brave. Whether it is through a partnership that stands for something, or unashamedly going against the grain when it matters, brands can command attention by refusing to be a copy-and-paste replica of their competition.