Target customer insights can be your secret weapon
Jul 24, 2024
auto_awesome
Peep Laja, a marketing expert from Wynter, Victoria Sakal of Wonder, and Ryan Sorley from Klue discuss the transformative power of customer insights in B2B marketing. They emphasize the importance of decisive leadership and focused research on specific customer segments. The trio warns against broad research approaches and highlights the critical difference between mere data and actionable insights. Investing in these insights can enhance customer engagement, improve sales efficiency, and drive significant business growth.
Investing in target customer insights through qualitative research improves sales efficiency and company growth by enhancing understanding of specific segments.
Establishing clear ownership for managing insights is essential to avoid decision-making paralysis and ensure actionable outcomes align with business objectives.
Deep dives
The Value of Target Customer Insights
Many B2B companies neglect to regularly gather target customer insights, with less than 10% conducting research on a quarterly basis. Companies that do invest in such research tend to experience higher willingness to pay, more efficient sales funnels, and greater overall growth. Effective decision-making relies heavily on quality information, and shipping new products or campaigns without prior research can lead to costly mistakes, referred to as 'stupid tax.' By prioritizing the speed of insights over traditional lengthy research processes, organizations can make better-informed decisions and significantly reduce risks associated with poor targeting.
The Role of Desk Research
Desk research is critical for complementing primary data collection efforts by providing publicly available information that helps businesses navigate competitive landscapes. This type of research allows organizations to build a solid foundation of context that can enhance the effectiveness of more targeted inquiries. The integration of AI tools in desk research can further streamline the insights-gathering process, allowing businesses to explore innovative strategies with the foundational knowledge obtained. Companies should consider the balance between time spent on desk research and its potential to illuminate previously unconsidered areas in their markets.
Qualitative vs. Quantitative Insights
Target customer insights come from a blend of qualitative and quantitative research, where qualitative data often reveals the underlying reasons behind customer behaviors. The discussion emphasizes the importance of context in quantitative metrics, as sheer numbers can lack relevance without accompanying qualitative feedback. For instance, using a mix of standardized survey questions and open-ended inquiries can provide a more robust understanding of customer sentiment, allowing for more actionable insights. It's highlighted that collecting insights should not overwhelm teams; rather, focusing on addressing specific hypotheses can lead to more manageable and meaningful research initiatives.
Actioning Insights for Impact
Having collected target customer insights, it's crucial to develop a systematic approach for actioning these findings within organizations. Assigning a clear owner to oversee the implementation of insights ensures accountability and prevents decision-making paralysis often caused by committee structures. Additionally, insights must link back to specific business objectives, ensuring they influence decisions relevant to the company’s goals. Consistently revisiting the decision-making framework after collecting insights fosters a culture where research leads to actionable outcomes, rather than merely adding to the companies' data backlog.
Hey B2B marketers, struggling to execute on the data you collect?
Peep Laja (Wynter), Victoria Sakal (Wonder), and Ryan Sorley (Klue) join the show to talk about how to transform customer insights into strategic actions.
What’s working in B2B marketing:
OWNERSHIP & QUICK DECISION-MAKING
Ditch the committee approach. Crown a leader who can make quick decisions and see your initiatives gain speed and precision.
What’s not working in B2B marketing:
BROAD RESEARCH
Casting a wide net? Stop immediately. Focus on specific customer segments for feedback, making your research purposeful and actionable.
The key takeaways
Invest in target customer insights: Understanding specific customer segments and gathering qualitative data can significantly impact customer willingness to pay, the efficiency of your sales funnel, and overall company growth. It’s crucial for B2B marketers to dedicate time and resources to obtaining these insights through targeted research methods like surveys and interviews.
Focus on actionable insights: Knowing the difference between data and insights is key. Data is passive, collected through tools like surveys or desk research, while insights require context and interpretation to reveal the "so what" and "now what." Marketers should aim to extract actionable insights that can directly influence decision-making and business strategy.
Ensure clear ownership: Peep Laja emphasizes the need for a clear owner or lead for managing insights and making decisions. Decisive leadership is vital. B2B marketers should assign accountable leads to ensure that insights are transformed into actionable strategies efficiently, rather than relying on committees.
Adopt continuous and agile research: Embrace an always-on approach to research for continuous data and strategic flexibility. "Little r" research involves ongoing, smaller-scale studies to help maintain organizational alignment and adaptability.
Customize findings for different roles: Research isn't always a team sport—different stakeholders have varying needs and perspectives. Present findings in ways that effectively influence different stakeholders. B2B marketers should contextualize and customize insights for different audiences to drive impactful business decisions.