Modern marketers spend a lot of time trying to reach our target audience. It’s not just what they're thinking about, or looking for, but also, the best channel to interact.
As a marketing director working with Dun & Bradstreet’s strategic partners, my target audience is always top of mind when I’m developing joint content and go-to-market motions. My content writer/teammate in crime and I have been riffing on ideas to support a digital marketing campaign to support a new guide we developed with our partner Adobe, Tackling An Omnichannel Marketing Triathlon. In it, we map out how to take a data-inspired approach to Omnichannel Marketing in today’s B2B digital world. Our biggest concern in planning the campaign is that we deliver relevant information to our audience, in the way they want to consume it, and recognize that the customers and prospects we are targeting span a whole range of ages, roles, and experiences.
This morning, the recap from Adobe Summit joined my thought process for this campaign, via the article “Millennials: Our Intentions Are Good, But We Are Misunderstood” Here, CMO Editor in Chief, Tim Moran reports on a panel session at Adobe Summit where several millennial-aged CEO’s and founders discussed how their generation has changed the mobile scene.
Brian Wong, CEO and founder of Kiip sums it up nicely, “This is not about an age group,” he explained. “It’s about ‘the connected generation,’ which is basically everyone in this room—anyone who has a mobile device of some sort. We are always on and want instant gratification.”
Let me clarify, I’m not a millennial and neither is my content partner. While we both did graduate from university within the millennial birth year range of 1981-1997 (by the way, that’s as close as you’re getting to our ages), we are both firmly part of the “connected generation“ (please get your hands off my iPhone now, thank you.) And we're both executing marketing outreach where our audience likes to do business; building digital engagement with email, video, blogs, and/or any of the engaging social media techniques and apps currently available to satisfy that need for instant gratification.
Data-inspired B2B marketers scoping Omnichannel campaigns shouldn’t feel confined or hung up on marketing within prescribed age groups. Rather we need to be focused on the professional personas (and the roles they play within the organization), and how to build awareness, trust and engagement with them about our company brand and solutions. Age is not a factor in this type of marketing play. If you’re using that as a key criteria, you’re probably missing the point, and risking leaving a large number of qualified customers and prospects out of your target audience.
So from one B2B marketer to another, I say be fearless and explore new data-informed techniques for communicating with your customers and prospects. We are living in the “Age of the Audience.” But it’s not about the literal age that should be our focus. It’s the perfect combination of content and delivery mechanism that appeals to our audience that matters. So whether it’s Snapchat, a phone call or anywhere in between, stay fresh and connected with the most relevant online and offline channels available… because your customers are there too.
In partnership with Adobe, Dun & Bradstreet has developed the B2B data-inspired training guide, Tackling An Omnichannel Marketing Triathlon. Get your copy now and learn how to expertly interconnect the right mix of channels, data and platform to identify, target, and engage with your customers – where and when they expect you to.