Create the Perfect Marketing Mix by Integrating Human-to-Human (H2H) Approach with Your Inbound Marketing Strategy

There are over 5,000 software solutions for marketers today. However, having all the technology at your fingertips is not enough.

Regardless of whether you are a B2C or B2B organization, you can see a paradigm shift from the traditional marketing approach to a more human-oriented one. The challenge is to find the right marketing strategy, that aligns with the latest technology, to form Human-to-Human (H2H) interactions.

People buy products and services from other people and it is always a human that convinces another human to make a purchase decision. Inbound marketing is an approach that can be effective in both B2B and H2H marketing.

Let’s take a look at how inbound marketing helps you to focus on the H2H approach:

Inbound marketing is the closest you can get to establishing human-to-human relationships during business transactions. It is:

• Focused on pain points: If you can provide users with a solution to their pain point, they are more likely to buy a product from you.
• About people-first optimization: People don’t prefer buying from robots, even if you rank number one of Google SERPs. If you cannot answer user queries your ranking will drop.
• Social media friendly: The H2H approach doesn’t consider social media as a mere publishing tool but takes your social media strategy and customer interactions into consideration to increase the number of leads
• Based on personas: Fictional representations of your target audience can be used for understanding customer needs and optimizing your sales process into a more human-centric one.
• Beyond sales statistics: Metrics like website traffic, social reach, and page conversions help you create better connections with customers and deliver a memorable experience.
• About educating the audience: Humans don’t like to be sold to. Inbound marketing solves this problem by educating them and solving their problems on the current pain points. Guiding your customers can establish long-term relationships with them and increase conversions.

H2H relationships should be a focal point in both sales and marketing.

Here are a few benefits of H2H marketing:

• Improves trust and safety
• Helps in nurturing long-term relationships
• Encourages word-of-mouth marketing
• Gives you the ability to tell stories in a multimedia format
• Makes it easy to receive customer feedback and incorporate their suggestions into your strategy

Dry and feature-focused marketing has been a prominent strategy in the B2B industry for many years. However, the constantly changing marketing landscape demands the brands to be more imaginative and personalized in their approach.

Uptight and antiquated strategies will no longer work. Here are a few reasons that establish H2H as the future of marketing:

• Beyond forms and downloads: Don’t be stuck at measuring your success through the number of forms filled. Less than 1% leads are converted into clients. The overall engagement is a better way to measure your success.
• Focus on quality: Email blasts and cold calls are not as important as meaningful conversations with prospects. H2H brings forth new ways to interact with your target buyer. Focus on quality and leave personalized messages for your prospects.
• Communities are opportunities: Focus your attention on creating communities of like-minded people. The larger your community, better the possibility of human interaction leading to more opportunities for sales and marketing.
• Storytelling is a new way: H2H marketing focuses on creating narratives, stories that will captivate the audience and make them care for your brand. Add a feeling of pride towards your brand and craft a story that resonates the same feeling among people.
• Omnichannel presence: Potential buyers are scattered across different channels and it is no longer about emails alone. If you want to succeed, then create a personalized combination of emails and targeted advertising across all channels.

To Wrap Up

Modern-day consumers want to be recognized as individuals, not as a part of a crowd. Marketers need to become trusted advisors and support sales representatives with creative assets like e-books, webinars, white papers, and blog posts.

Remember this, people buy products from people. They are not robots. Solve their problems and they will return the next time they need a solution. At the end of the day, having a human touch in a B2B or B2C marketing environment is a must.

Maximize conversions with a well-devised H2H driven marketing strategy!