Marketing has evolved from just a few media channels to many and the customer is the focus as marketers move from push to pull. Demand generation refers to getting high quality leads into the top of the sales funnel. Leads may come from search, social, trade shows, in other words, a variety of marketing channels. Effective demand generation fuels growth.
In B2C, Dreamfield's Pasta uses SEO, PPC and WOM to attract customers and then uses email and social to continue involvement. The result has been growth in what might be considered a commodity product line, pasta.
B2B buyers are increasingly using search and word-of-mouth to make their purchasing decisions and involving the sales force at the end of the sales process. In this type of scenario, it becomes Marketing's responsibility to nurture the leads via multiple interactions and get the 'ripe' lead to the sales person at the right time. Sales and Marketing must work closer together than ever. How can companies overcome the traditional rivalry between the two groups?
2 comments:
WOM advertising is not only becoming more important in the B2B sector, but also in the B2C sector. I recently had to write up a research proposal and mock research paper on Social Media's effect on WOM advertising. While conducting my preliminary research, I found one article saying traditional advertising is only trusted by 30% of consumers while WOM referrals are trusted by about 80%. Though the exact figures are disputable, it is interesting to see how effective WOM can be. I believe that social media strategies that harness the power of WOM will soon become a huge focus of the interactive marketing profession.
This is so true....we all trust whom we know.
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