Whilst it is a struggle to adapt to a world where our lives are connected, sometimes exclusively, by technology, there are certain ways in which we can learn to utilize this for the better. B2B Marketing strategies for example are heavily based on interaction and connection with clients and their partners. You can’t exactly sell a person’s dream marketing campaign to them when you don’t know the first thing about them.
So how have we adapted to a business model that now has to rely solely upon faces on a screen? The first thing to remember, however cliché it may sound, is that we are indeed all in this together. There is no point in pretending that 2020 never happened, so the only option is to help each other adapt and grow in this strange new digital B2B marketing world. Using a more conversational approach, for example, both fueled revenue growth (Drift recently discovered in their 2021 State of Conversational Sales report that 53% of sellers witnessed improvement in revenue growth when using a more conversational sales approach), and allowed more close buyer – distributor interaction than before.
B2B has always as a business model relied on collaboration, and 2020 only served to heighten this tactic. Freelancers are invaluable assets when one is limited to their laptop in a small room in London. Our team is made up almost exclusively of dedicated freelancers, allowing us to give our clients the ideal team catered exactly to match what they’re looking for. Partner this with the increase in the need for virtual events, and suddenly the future isn’t looking too shabby.
Recently Stone2Stone was tasked with constructing an online awards event for Check Point. This involved building from the proverbial ground up; from the virtual backgrounds to the script, to the video editing, all to make it appear as if it were live. Whilst the notion of an online awards ceremony might have seemed daunting at first (the Golden Globe awards back in February were rife with technical mishaps and an empty audience), the Stone2Stone team managed to pull together an hour event that went off flawlessly. It included acceptance speeches, presenters; including special guest Ollie Ollerton from SAS: Who Dares Wins, and was all edited seamlessly to appear as if it were broadcasted live. This is only going to carry on into the future, with virtual coffee barista experiences and online wine tasting events already planned.
Welcome the the New (digital) World
Now all of this is not to say that we are better off than we were before, however our evolution over the past year is increasingly showing that the internet is not just there so that you can do things you otherwise can’t in person, but to provide you with an alternative to doing things in person. For example, McKinsey found in a report that ‘online doctor consultations through Practo, a telehealth company in India, grew more than tenfold between April and November 2020’ and whilst those numbers are likely to decrease as life returns more to normality, they might not show as sharp a descent as one would expect. The digital B2B marketing world has improved dramatically after months of it being the only option, which now presents a much broader and easier to access platform for those that are less able to go to places in person and those that need to access services too far from their place of residence.
For too long we have shunned technology as the crutch of the younger generation, and yet in 2020 we were all sharing the same crutch (a covid safe, metaphorical one I hope). This has perhaps made the internet open up to all ages, even those with the classic Nokia candy bar phones (I still miss my first phone to this day, can you tell?). This fresh perspective that has come from a situation none of us wished to be forced into doesn’t have to be temporary. The marketing world, like many other sectors, is being made to open its arms to the life of video reality. Whether this is a somewhat reluctant act or a natural one, one thing is certain: both our personal and professional lives have been flipped upside down, and embracing technology might just be the first step in restoring equilibrium. Unless you’re doing a headstand.
