In this thought-piece Eliot, explores the origins of omnichannel and how B2B marketers can learn from B2C brands that already employ a successful omnichannel approach. Compelling facts and figures, along with key insights into today's B2B buyer behaviours and demands combine to demonstrate just how important omnichannel really is – culminating with the five pillars that you can apply to deliver your own successful B2B omnichannel vision.
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An Enlightened B2B Vision – The Five Pillars Of Omnichannel Nirvana
1. An Enlightened B2B Vision
Eliot Sykes
Senior Planner
The Five Pillars of Omnichannel Nirvana
2. Omnichannel
As a term, omnichannel first registered in online conversations
in early 2012 and has gained popularity ever since – notably in
the Netherlands, US and UK.
“B2B omnichannel” garners nothing from Google Trends due to
the current lack of search volume, which I would suggest will
rapidly change.
Omnichannel is a “synthetic” hybrid word (probably created by
an agency johnny like myself) to make something quite simple
and already within existence sound exciting and new but also
technical and complex. The truth is, in my opinion, all of those
descriptions are equally correct.
Wikipedia points out that, ”’Omni’ means ‘all’. Some
practitioners therefore argue that the omnichannel concept
refers to the application of the same business strategy for all
channels, while a multichannel concept refers to the application
of different strategies for many different channels.”
This is a very insular view and one often repeated – where
many fail to focus is the customer – whether a business or a
consumer, retail or corporate, omnichannel means a consistent
experience of the brand, wherever and whenever the customer
chooses to engage.
What is it?
Source: Google Trends
3. Lessons from B2C omnichannel experience
As I’ve mentioned, omnichannel is jargon from the domain of
the modern marketer combined with a veneer of technology
speak verging on the pornographic to my tech brethren. It is
true that without great technology, you would be unable to
implement omnichannel, especially at enterprise scale – what
it often lacks is human interpretation and application.
A true story
Having found the perfect outfit for our four-year-old daughter
online, my wife visited the local retailer to find they didn’t have
the size we needed in the colour we
What it isn’t
A better story
All the things that went wrong on my wife’s purchasing
journey could easily have been fixed by the brand considering
what their audience needs are throughout the journey and
being consistent with their brand experience – why try to sell
great products to mums but not go to the bother about
learning how a mum shops and what helps her buy?
You’ll also notice a lot of the issues cited cannot be solved
purely through technology – the store, its facilities and the
staff within them are either channels in their own right or
enablers of brand experience.
To deliver a great omnichannel experience,
you must have a first-class understanding of
your audience and their intrinsic needs.
wanted. So she decided to go for
the colour that was available in the
right size (as the assistant didn’t
offer to find one in another store).
Returning home later to try the
item on (because there were no
changing facilities) she found that
it didn’t fit. There was no visible
way of organising returns through
the website and upon
revisiting the store, she was told that it couldn’t be returned to
that particular store because of some unfathomable reason.
Not a great brand experience, not omnichannel. But it was
shared on Facebook. And Mumsnet. Ouch!
My daughter, in her favourite dress
4. Omnichannel for B2B
Lesson to be learnt
As the Google Trends charts demonstrated, B2C has been on the front foot with omnichannel for a few years now, which is unsurprising
as it has been driven largely by the retail sector. My wife’s retail experience is an easy way to demonstrate what omnichannel is and why
it is easier to implement an omnichannel strategy within the B2C /retail sector.
Learning from what has gone before in B2C is widely accepted as a good place to start for anyone considering implementing
omnichannel in B2B, probably because there isn’t much to go on from elsewhere. But the best place to start before looking at our B2C
cousins is, as always, with your own audience – what do they want, think, feel and do?
69%
of B2B buyers
prefer to use
direct, instant
online payment
rather than POs
and invoices
50%
of B2B buyers
expect
personalised
product or service
recommendations
Source: B2Bmarketing
49%
of B2B buyers
prefer making
work-related
purchases on B2B
websites
75%
of B2B buyers
would make
repeat purchases
because the
website was easy
to use
5. Omnichannel for B2B
Your buyers have moved on, have you?
There has been a dramatic shift from top-of-funnel activity based upon buyers searching print catalogues and talking to sales
representatives to performing digital searches and possessing 20x the volume of information to hand than just five years ago
– this is a reinvention of the B2B buyer journey. The selling process is giving way to the buying process – provision of
information is now expected, quality and specifics have become the vital currency and your edge is forged in the experience
battleground - making the how, the what and when easily and quickly accessible. You’re no longer selling, you’re helping your
customer to buy.
68%
want to view all
their activities
across all
channels
73%
want to buy in-
store and have it
shipped directly
Source: Forrester
74%
want to look-up
product
information
across any
channel
40%
expect to be
able to ‘click
and collect’
61%
want suppliers to
deliver the same
day
6. Omnichannel for B2B
Your buyers have moved on, have you?
Forrester’s findings regarding the shift in audience needs are further bolstered by recent research by Google and Millward Brown Digital;
debunking accepted wisdom throughout the B2B buying process by demonstrating the shifts in who makes and who influences decision-
making, as well as how they reach those decisions. All essential reading for B2B marketing departments.
Source: Google / Millward Brown Digital - B2B Path to Purchase Study
Finding:
Nearly half of all B2B researchers are
Millennials.
Implication:
Take into account this group’s digital savvy
nature and how this influences channel
selection and content.
Finding:
Decision making is influenced by non-C-Suite
individuals.
Implication:
Don’t focus solely on the C-suite audience;
ignore less senior, yet highly valuable
contacts at your peril.
7. Omnichannel for B2B
Your buyers have moved on, have you?
Finding:
On average there are 12 searches
conducted prior to landing on a brand
site.
Implication:
B2B marketers need to play a part earlier in
the journey, in a more generic territory -
before brand terms and where influencing
decision-making now commences.
Finding:
Mobile is being used throughout the
entire journey.
Implication:
Ensure your content is available for
mobile, provide a rich brand experience
and ensure it’s easy to buy in just a few
thumb taps.
Finding:
70% watch video throughout their
journey with 50% viewing over 30
minutes.
Implication:
Product features, demos, reviews and
how-tos are vital to encourage your
audience to learn, compare and
engage with your brand.
Source: Google / Millward Brown Digital - B2B Path to Purchase Study
8. Essentially, it is because your B2B purchaser is also a B2C
consumer – today’s B2B buyer has B2C expectations in the
purchase and post-purchase journey.
The days of modelling and firmographics in isolation to predict
audience needs and behaviours, purely because they are a
business customer, are long gone.
You should no longer think B2B or B2C but more like
‘Business To Individual’ (B2I) – a phrase coined by Avangate,
a leading digital commerce company, and one that captures
the essence of how to approach your audience’s needs
• They expect you to recognise them whenever they engage
with your brand
• They want to continue a previous conversation from where
they left off, on any platform
• They demand intelligent personalisation of their own
specific journey/dialogue
• They need you to know more than they do (expertise),
despite the volume of information at their fingertips, but
they want that expertise tailored to their specific needs
Omnichannel for B2B
9. Simply put…
Surface content I
want (or may
want) intuitively,
based on
intelligent
understanding
Recognise me and
where I am on my
journey
Make it easy for
me to buy – how
and where I want
Empower me to
share and interact
on any platform
Maintain a
consistent service
experience beyond
point of purchase
10. Omnichannel for B2B
More than meets the eye
We all know that brands must adapt and change to remain relevant to their audience needs and therefore remain alive. Whilst
omnichannel answers those audience demands and expectations, if you get it right it can deliver much more than just remaining
in business as the research of B2B businesses that currently employ a omnichannel strategy demonstrates.
B2B businesses that employ omnichannel strategies enjoy….
10%
growth in first time
buyers
20%
increase in speed
from lead
qualification to
closing
Source: McKinsey & Company
20%
increase in
customer leads
11. And if you still need convincing
Nominal revenues of the top three
automakers
$250
billion
$36
billion
Market capitalisation
1.2
million
Employees
Nominal revenues of the top three technology
firms
$247
billion
$1 trillion Market capitalisation
137k Employees
1990
Detroit – Motor City
2014
Los Angeles – Silicon Valley
Source: McKinsey & Company
The shift in investment towards technology is staggering and its valuation eye-popping. The 71 tech businesses acquired this year
have a total valuation of over $21 billion (Venture Beat). 65% of B2B, B2C and agency execs plan on investing more in marketing
technology during 2015 (Conductor). It reflects a global human trend towards the adoption of technology to enhance our daily lives.
But more importantly to B2B businesses, it also demonstrates the growth in demand for technologies that enhance the efficacy of
business management and marketing – and the smart investors know it.
13. 1. BRAND
Before starting anything on your
omnichannel journey, you must
have a clearly defined brand and
possess a deep understanding of
the emotional responses it elicits
from your audience.
Having this knowledge allows you
to define the experience and the
emotions this taps into that are
particular to your brand. It may
well result in something very
similar to other brands’
experience offering but it will
allow you to spot opportunities –
even if they are micro-UX
experiences, there is ground to
be gained here.
Ask yourself what your brand
stands for and what your
audience will expect at every
touch-point in every channel –
existing or yet to be developed.
14. Omnichannel is all
encompassing, so your
organisation needs to pull in one
direction in order to implement it
effectively.
This may be a cultural shift but
one that is vital to success. It is
paramount to have board buy-in,
not just for the investment
required but to facilitate an
omnichannel strategy and to
demonstrate leadership
behaviours and values. Before
you invest in the technology, you
need organisational and process
alignment.
Particularly important in B2B
brands, the sales teams will need
to feel empowered and in control
of the omnichannel terrain –
consider how can you properly
integrate them with marketing
and service departments?
2. ORGANISATION
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3. INSIGHT
For solid foundations to build your
omnichannel strategy upon, and
to feel confident in the right
technology investment, you must
identify how and why your
audience interacts with your
brand as well as your
competition.
As we now know, the B2B buying
journey has changed
unrecognisably and each sector
and brand will have their own
journeys, dependent upon size of
business and the type of product
or service.
You will need to understand key
triggers, preferences, behaviours
and value attribution. From here
you can map the whole lifecycle,
start to gain a clear view of
archetypical journeys and begin
to segment your customers into
clusters to better tailor
experiences.
You can also identify the gaps in
your understanding and build this
into your tech/data scope of work.
16. 4. TECHNOLOGY
Most research shows that
businesses suffer from legacy
systems that rely on silo
processes and platforms that
cannot speak with each other.
This makes omnichannel tasks
become impossible to achieve
without a mind-bending amount of
time and effort that ultimately
becomes self-defeating.
However: there are existing and
emerging technologies that can
integrate existing systems or
replace them entirely to create a
single platform ecosystem,
allowing one channel to inform
the next and content to be
automated – cross platform and
cross-channel.
Depending on your resources,
partnering with specialist
providers should be a serious and
pragmatic consideration, rather
than going it alone.
Remember, your competitors are
“on” this: you cant afford to take 5
years to get where they are now.
17. 5. DATA
Linked heavily to technology and
systems integration is your data
integrity and sophistication.
First you need to get the basics
right – permissions, access,
preferences – a clean data set
you can be confident of.
Then you need to work on
making it immediate, integrated
and accurate to create a single
view of:
• Customers
• Inventory
• Product
• Content
• Orders
Achieving this will translate into
relevant, actionable
communications and
personalised experiences –
delighting your audience and
CFO alike.
18. One vision
Of course, being omnichannel, the
five pillars cannot work in isolation;
they must work together as one
harmonious entity. When
combined, we can identify further
areas that support the pillars.
Copyright: big dog 2015
21. In summary
Failure to invest and implement omnichannel capabilities in your
B2B business will mean your business will struggle to compete due
to an unrelenting decline in relevance to an audience whose
behaviours and expectations have changed forever and are
continuing to evolve at a rapid pace, whilst your competition’s
advantage stretches over the horizon and out of your grasp.
On the other hand, by taking the omnichannel leap, you stand to
reap huge benefits in all key business performance indicators,
whether they are harder metrics such as leads, sales, margins,
lead-time efficiencies and repeat purchases or softer ones such as
brand preference, advocacy and engagement – you’ll be delighting
your audiences and thrilling your board – win-win!
But it’s far from easy and will require significant investment of time,
resource and budget. It is not just about buying a new piece of kit
that will help the sales team – it is a cultural shift in your brand’s
approach to doing business, one that demands buyer-centric
organisation, technology and processes.
Old, siloed systems will need overhauling and perhaps replacing,
important decisions will need to be made to invest in partnering with
technology leaders in order to integrate and produce a seamless
experience, and your teams will have to work in new ways that
reflect your new capabilities and deliver against your omnichannel
vision. But guess what, you’d need to do this anyway in order to
stay on the pace, so why not do it positively and embrace the
omnichannel opportunity?
As you travel on your journey to omnichannel implementation, it will
be easy to find yourself entangled in a web of technological clutter.
You will need to stay firm to the key tenets of your strategy and
never forget that you are doing it for your customers not for the sake
of technology.
Having an innate understanding of your audience and robustly
defined brand, it will guide you through the challenges and decisions
you will have to make along the way, whilst dictating what you need
to implement where and when.
Keep it simple, be consistent, remain
relevant and omnichannel heaven is
within your reach.
22. Further reading / references
• B2B Path to Purchase Study – Google / Millward Brown Digital 2014
• Building the B2B Omnichannel Commerce Platform Of The Future – Forrester 2014
• Do You Really Understand How Your Customers Buy? – McKinsey & Company 2015
• B2B Buyer Preferences – B2B Marketing / Accenture 2014
• Escaping The Multichannel Marketing Maze – Sitecore 2013
• Research Report, Customer Experience – Bloomsberg Businessweek 2013
• Omnichannel Beyond Retail: The Customer Experience In Healthcare, B2B, Professional Services – Forbes 2014
• How B2B Brands Can Be Omnichannel Businesses Too – Econsultancy 2013
• IBM B2B Commerce – IBM 2015
• Adobe Marketing Cloud – Adobe 2015
23. James Clifton, CEO
+44 7825 860167
James.clifton@bigdogagency.com
London. Leicester. Norwich. Birmingham
www.bigdogagency.com
Questions?
Thank you
Eliot Sykes, Senior Planner
+44 7920 210918
eliot.sykes@bigdogagency.com
Want to see if omnichannel can help your B2B brand?
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