The 19 in 20 are not ready to buy, but they are worth reaching. Here’s what B2B marketing can do before demand appears.
As we discussed in the previous article, 19 in 20 potential customers are not ready to buy at this moment. They may be the right companies, but they’re not looking for a sales call today.
And this is where a lot of B2B marketing goes wrong. It takes sales-stage messages and pushes them at people who are nowhere near a sales-stage decision. Content for future buyers does a different job: it positions us as being relevant and helpful before the buying window opens.
That usually means starting with the things our market already cares about. Not our products, but the changes that affect the buyer’s world. The message can be sent through an email newsletter, a trade press article, a video …the format matters less than the usefulness. The trick is to remember that the 19 in 20 are not asking why they should be buying from this supplier today.
We should create our visibility through repeated, low-pressure presence. A useful email newsletter is ideal for this. It gives future buyers a small, regular reminder that we exist, without demanding too much from them. The trade press can do the same job. So can LinkedIn, if we use it to share observations rather than our brochures. Speaking at industry events or offering training sessions can also build the kind of familiarity that pays off later.
The best way to reach the 19 in 20 often feels more like ‘market participation’ than promotion. Become a known quantity before there is a tender or even a spreadsheet of possible suppliers.
Simple memory-building has a integral part to play too. Distinctive visual identity. Repetition of a small number of useful ideas. These things can feel basic, but they help future buyers position us, and remember that we are one of the names worth considering.