By Ed Pierce, Fleet Management Weekly’s Brand Acceleration
September 4, 2024
Business leaders, especially those in the fleet industry, are hearing about and experiencing “disruption” more than ever. Indeed, marketers must not only adapt to the concept to remain viable but also promote it to their employers and customers.
Here are some trends marketers should discuss, excerpted from the book, “Disruptive Marketing: What Growth Hackers, Data Punks and Other Hybrid Thinkers Can Teach Us About Navigating the New Normal” by Geoffrey Colon:
Mobile Is the Dominant Platform
The most significant trend that has affected B2B industries, including fleet, is that mobile is now the dominant platform. Intelligent smartphones, tablets, watches, wearable gadgets, glasses, microchips, HoloLens, and others have already reshaped and remixed the marketing world. As we shift to a world of intelligent devices, marketing can strike up an even more personalized relationship with customers.
Firstly, a new breed of B2B buyers is tech-savvy and heavily reliant on their smartphones for work. These individuals have high expectations for digital experiences and demand quality that rivals the best consumer experiences they’ve encountered.
Moreover, a significant chunk of B2B search queries now originate from smartphones, highlighting a trend where B2B buyers turn to their mobile devices to conduct research and make informed purchasing decisions.
Digital Interactions Replace Face-to-Face Meetings
The way fleet product and service buyers interact with businesses has also evolved. Gone are the days when personal relationships were forged primarily through face-to-face meetings or phone calls. Digital interactions take precedence now, with B2B customers preferring to engage with sales representatives only when they’re on the cusp of sealing a deal.
Mobile technology isn’t just changing interactions; it’s also driving revenue. A considerable portion of revenue for leading B2B organizations is now influenced by mobile, thanks to its role in streamlining decision-making processes and bolstering team collaboration, particularly for intricate purchases.
Buyers’ expectations have risen, too. They seek seamless mobile experiences and hold brands accountable for delivering on this front. When a brand succeeds in providing a stellar mobile experience, it not only boosts the likelihood of repeat purchases but also fosters customer loyalty.
Fleet marketers must ensure that their digital content is mobile-friendly. This means adopting responsive design, ensuring quick load times, simplifying navigation, creating engaging content, and optimizing for local SEO. Location-based services have emerged to enhance efficiency and decision-making in B2B operations.
Content Is Currency
Because content isn’t static, new forms are being introduced each year. It is one area where disruption can set a new standard for engaging content.
User-generated content will be the most disruptive. Its power will surpass that of branded content. In response to this model of user-generated content production, content co-creation between brands and customers will become a popular trend.
Social networks are an ecosystem that rivals the original Internet. They have become not only one of the channels but possibly another Internet in and of itself. We’re already seeing social interest networks—places where people are connected based on a unique commonality.
Brand Cultivation
Brands must act as their own multimedia — bypassing press and publishers. By cultivating a brand community and culture with their customers, fleet product and service providers can collaborate with their targeted audiences rather than simply trying to sell to them. This higher level of connection is more likely to create loyalists and brand advocates. Customer responses and feelings toward the brand will dictate future product development or enhancement.
Most disruptive content will focus on innovation and the future state. What exists today may be good, but what will exist in the future can and should be vastly improved. Innovative products and solutions will create more value for customers.
Personalized
With technological advances, data-driven disruptive marketing is the norm for successful and efficient marketing. Data-driven disruptive marketing is relationship-oriented, and those companies that focus on building relationships around good products will be rewarded.
Technology now allows tracking metrics, analytics, and artificial intelligence to dramatically alter marketing effectiveness. Gone are the days when marketers measured marketing success by looking at “vanity” metrics such as impressions, likes, shares, or engagement rates. Leading-edge companies are adopting better analytical tools and machine learning to measure emotional and cultural relevance, predict future outcomes, and realize a better ROI.
Learn more about applying marketing tactics to your customer-centric strategies. Contact the industry’s only fleet-specific marketing team at Fleet Management Weekly’s Brand Acceleration by calling Ed Pierce at (484) 957-1246.
