Crafting Effective and Holistic B2B Customer Journeys
May 23, 2018By Emma Phipps
As marketing technology becomes a bigger force in the overall mix, creating a good customer journey is becoming a higher priority. Tomer Cohen, VP of product at LinkedIn, notes that business marketers often overlook full-funnel activities in favor of easy attribution models, which don't always share the whole story around a buyer's journey. In advance of his session at the 2018 Masters of B2B Marketing Conference, we spoke to Tomer about how marketers can pull back and look at the big picture in order to build relationships with their customers based on real human interaction and tailored messaging.
Q: Can you share a brief overview of what attendees can expect from your session at the conference?
Attendees will learn how human history and progress has informed how LinkedIn is developing products that create value for our members, including those that best serve B2B Marketers.
Q: What are some of the issues you see with today's attribution model?
[There is] too much of a focus on the easy attribution models (first and last touch) and cheap leads, but these models don't tell the true story and think about the whole buyer's journey, particularly in B2B. There needs to be a broader mindset around full-funnel activities, including brand-building and proof points to develop trust and engagement, as well as touching complete buyer groups consisting of a variety of stakeholders across different areas of the organization. For example, I personally don't make a lot of buying decisions for my company, but I often get consulted across a range of purchases my organization is considering.
Q: How has technology shaped the way humans connect, and what does that mean for business marketers in the future?
Technology provides incredible power, but, used incorrectly, it can lead to negative consequences. Our world is so interconnected right now that I can operate a global operation from my home in California. However, the ease in connecting with people can also lead to noise and abuse. A customer can be easily overwhelmed and annoyed. More than ever, marketers need to tailor their message and focus on building meaningful human to human interactions leading to relationships that technology aides in fostering but doesn't replace.
To learn more about how human history is linked to the future of B2B marketing, join Tomer at the 2018 Masters of B2B Marketing Conference, June 6–8 in Chicago, Ill.
Emma Phipps is a copywriter at the ANA.