5 Ways Innovative Indian Marketers Are Kicking Up B2B CX

Indian marketers are out to prove that B2B campaigns can be just as innovative and engaging as their consumer counterparts.

By offering greater personalisation through tailored content, Indian marketers are out to prove that B2B campaigns can be just as innovative and engaging as their consumer counterparts.

Here are five examples of B2B marketing approaches that have been hugely successful in this vastly diverse subcontinent.

1. Experience is the buzzword: Brands may promise a lot, but consumers expect delivery on those promises. “It is all about delivering a holistic, integrated, and individualised experience,” said Rajesh Kumar, vice president of experiential marketing at SAP Asia Pacific and Japan. “The focus should be about personalising the experience for each customer.”

Kumar pointed to SAP’s use of the Innovation Express as an example of leveraging experiential marketing to bring technology to SMEs’ doorsteps. As a road show, it delivered technology directly to end users, giving them valuable hands-on experiences.

2. Mobile-enabled content: With customers’ increasing reliance on their smartphones, mobile has become critical for the success of marketing initiatives. B2B brands need to have a mobile website with responsive design to communicate with the always-on customer. “B2B marketing content must be mobile-friendly and delivered in bite-sized snack format that makes it easy for customers to access,” Kumar said.

3. Valuable storytelling: B2B marketers need to tell engaging stories. Marketers in this space are dealing with complex products, so the ability to articulate their offerings in a simple, lucid manner will only add to a product’s value. Jyotsna Makkar, CMO of Microsoft India, underlined the importance of brand experience: “In a world drowning in content, the need to break through the clutter with valuable storytelling has never been greater.”

4. Personalisation: In the digital world, vast amounts of data can be optimised to give individual customers a personalised experience. On-site and email marketing, for example, can then be tailored to individual tastes. “The new muscle we have to grow is the ability to harness intelligence from data to craft, own, and constantly enhance the customer’s experience,” Makkar said. “We need to anticipate and cater to individual customers’ needs, as opposed to the homogeneity we catered to in the past.”

5. From multichannel to omnichannel: Interactions across channels need to be seamless; Kumar believes a 360-degree brand experience is essential. According to research conducted by the Aberdeen Group, a customer’s lifetime value increases by 3.4% if a company has omnichannel programs, while those without such programs actually lose customer lifetime value by 0.7% year-over-year.