In today’s crowded ecosystem, effective, impactful B2B marketing is more difficult to achieve than ever before. There is so much noise — and so much competition — that it takes sustained effort to cut through and resonate with potential customers.
But what should that ‘effort’ look like for modern organisations? After all, B2B customers today progress more than 70% of the way through the decision-making process before ever engaging a sales representative. So if a business isn’t present during that initial 70% off the journey, then it isn’t part of the race.
In a competitive B2B landscape, businesses need to hit the sweet spot of mental and physical availability. They need to be top-of-mind with buyers, and they also need to make purchases as frictionless as possible.
Gaining recognition, generating leads and increasing sales don’t happen by accident. It happens when B2B businesses are easy to recall and easy to find because the necessary touch points are activated to allow them to connect as effectively as possible. Let’s take a closer look.
What is mental and physical availability?
Mental and physical availability refers to the space your brand occupies in your customers' lives. Mental availability refers to the mental space that a person has available to dedicate to thinking about your brand. In other words, if your brand comes to mind when someone is thinking of buying a product, your marketing has successfully found room in their mental availability.
Physical availability, on the other hand, has to do with the literal, pragmatic availability of your business. Are you near where the customer lives? Is your product at their local store? Can they purchase from you online? Time is also a factor in physical availability. Do they have the time and energy to purchase from your business?
People don't buy from your brand out of loyalty, but convenience and habit. By occupying more space in consumers' lives, brands increase the chances of them reaching for a product out of convenience.
Why you need to consider mental and physical availability
Let’s consider one of the most loved brands in the B2C space. Coca Cola. 72% of Coke drinkers also buy Pepsi. They may have a preference for one or the other, but when it comes down to it, they just grab what's conveniently available.
It’s harsh, but it’s true. Customers don’t care. And it’s no different in the B2B space. 70% of global B2B customers are disengaged — meaning they have little to no emotional or psychological connection to the business. B2B customers are looking for a solution to their problem to be presented when they need it, and where they are, and when you understand that, you unlock the potential for significant business significant growth.
Marketing your brand's personality isn't as important as achieving market penetration. You don't need to convince potential customers that you're the best or the most relatable. You just need to come to someone's mind, and when you do, you need to be available.
How B2B brands can capitalise
The answer to B2B business growth — be easy to mind, easy to find. In order to do so, businesses need to leverage new vehicles to engage and get their message across in a way that can cut through the noise.
Below are a few key ways you can take this knowledge and run with it. In doing so, you'll find that you're able to more consistently land new customers and start becoming a part of their habitual purchases.
1. Continuously reach all buyers of the category
First, you should be reaching all buyers of the category. This goes against conventional wisdom, which suggests you want to use marketing to reach a niche subset of the market, but there is a method behind the madness.
Cast a wider net. Make your brand available to the most amount of clients at any given time. Be available online, on social media, use omnichannel marketing to find your way into a client's mental space, and continually work to maintain your position.
The key word here is "continuously". It can be easy to run a strong campaign and feel like you've done it. But the truth is that marketing with this frame of mind is not about securing customers through performance marketing and sitting back, but instead constantly pushing your brand forward and maintaining brand awareness.
2. Ensure the product or service is easy to buy
Easy to find — in more than ways the one.
The first is practical. It should be easy to buy from a business. Whether product or service based, it should be convenient, fast, and streamlined to buy in. No complicated trial periods, no phone calls or demos - a client should be able to buy from your business in a few clicks at any time. That's not to say you can't have phone calls, demos, and trial periods available, but they should be extra, not core to the purchasing experience.
The second is figurative. Your brand should be easy to buy into. People should be able to quickly understand what you're about, what you value, and whether or not you have what they're looking for. If they can't decide on your brand quickly, they'll move on.
3. Get noticed
The digital era means that there are more ways to get noticed than ever before. This means that there is more competition for mental availability than ever before. The key to being noticed is understanding your market.
Where is their attention, and how can you put yourself in front of their attention. Comprehensive data is a disruptive asset that gives brands a competitive advantage. By understanding who your target audience is, where they are and what they respond to, you can optimize your marketing strategy to ensure you reach them at the right time and in the right place.
4. Refresh and build memory structures
Memory structures refer to the mental maps about brands and products that businesses already have in mind. For instance, when people think of marketing tools, their minds may go to Hubspot, Mailchimp, or Monday.com.
As a B2B business, you want to respect these existing memory structures and find fresh ways to build your brand into them.
Develop marketing strategies that will make your business come front of mind, find connections between your business and others, and work to occupy the same mental space as these bigger, more popular fish.
5. Create and use distinctive brand assets
Your business should be using distinctive brand assets to get noticed and stay in mind.
While you want to draw a connection between your brand and other popular brands within your sector, you don't want to blend into the background.
Notice that the three examples of marketing tools mentioned above all occupy a similar space, but serve very different purposes and have very different marketing approaches. Your brand should make sense within the memory structures that your clients already have and be distinguishable within them.
6. Be consistent
Your branding should be consistent as well. This will ensure that you won't leave a business's mental availability after entering it. Major overhauls of your branding are a risky move. Instead, stick to keeping things fresh and consistent.
7. Stay competitive
Lastly, you need to stay competitive. You’ve heard it before but consider the following. The easiest way to remain competitive is to be easy to buy. Physically, and figuratively. Be present when buyers are ready to buy. Remove any friction points. Think of the reasons a client may have to not go with your brand. Remove ego. Now find ways to proactively counteract them.
According to research by Google, personal drivers outweigh all other considerations for B2B buyers by a factor of 2:1. Consider the pain points of your buyers, and ensure your marketing speaks directly to these.
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