The new digital role of marketing that enables sales in the IT buying journey | Marketing in IT

Digital disruption has revolutionized the sales and marketing landscape. In the traditional model, marketing tells a targeted group what to want. Then sales tells them why they want it and takes the order.

This model is less effective now that buyers are more active in information gathering. They know what they want and why. When today’s buyers have questions, they search for answers online instead of relying on information from a salesperson. Sales and marketing must align themselves to a new shared set of goals to reach buyers.

Did you know that 72% of buyers use digital channels to research before making a purchase?

They’re looking up product and brand information. They’re checking references. They’re asking for the opinion of their connections and your customers.

But how an IT marketer can bring more qualified leads to enhance sales in the IT buying journey?

Leverage Data Insights and Automation

The new norm of switching from popularity to profitability. How data is collected and utilized will be the key driver of success in B2B IT marketing. Used correctly and with the right solutions, data can help create a holistic customer profile or persona. This is an essential tool for B2B marketers, as they must provide leads and prospects with exactly what they need — at exactly the right time — to move them along in their buying journey.

Marketing automation can also help marketers avoid spending time on repetitive tasks, so they can instead focus on their strategic objectives. It also provides them with the capability to execute more in-the-moment marketing strategies. This allows them to take advantage of key moments in the buyer’s journey. Data can be utilized to engage in account-based marketing, lead qualification and scoring, and to select the best channels to reach B2B buyers. Ideally, data will also be used to align the marketing department with sales, facilitating the quick and easy handoff of qualified leads from one department to the next.

IT buyers don’t make impulsive purchases. There are often several touchpoints involved in the sale, and there are several decision makers who must be convinced before a sale is finalized, often taking months.

This type of journey requires more than one-off marketing campaigns — it requires a workflow. Marketing campaigns can be built out across multiple channels (social media, email, chat, phone) for the same client. Using “if/then” logic, a data-driven marketing workflow can respond instantly and automatically to shifts in the customer journey.

Lead generation through digital marketing campaigns

A structured and performance-oriented digital marketing campaign enables Sales to Do Contextual Follow-Ups on Leads. Aligning sales and marketing doesn’t just require that the two departments share data and customer intelligence. Once a lead has been deemed sales qualified, the sales department must be given contextual knowledge of that lead’s journey.

Doing so eliminates the disconnect between marketing and sales in the IT buying journey. Ideally, a lead won’t feel as if they’ve been handed over to a new department at all. With full knowledge of the leads’ context, moving on to sales should be a natural progression that feels almost conversational.

Understanding which aspects of a marketing campaign a lead has engaged in, what information they’ve already been giving, what their needs are, and what problems they are hoping to solve are all aspects of a customer profile that sales can use to enhance the experience.

In an era when competition is increasingly hitting up the information technology market, IT marketing has become indispensable. B2B IT marketing requires several roles, including developers, content producers, and now, even data scientists.

Marketing for IT companies is about building a comprehensive, integrated and effective system. But just like tech, B2B marketing involves a lot of trial and error. Try out as many different marketing techniques as you can. Measure and analyze your results. Then try some more!