Best-in-Class B2B Marketers Excel in Understanding the Customer Journey

In a report published by Demand Metric and Hive9, data shows that best-in-class B2B marketers have a better understanding of the customer journey in comparison to other marketers in the industry.

On a scale of 1 through 10 (10 being the highest score), best-in-class B2B marketers gave themselves an average of 7.9 in terms of their understanding and measurement of the customer experience. All other marketers averaged out to 5.7, highlighting a weaker grasp on these concepts.

“Having a thorough, complete understanding of the customer experience is essential to engineering an optimal customer journey,” wrote the authors of the report. “Without such an understanding, attempts to optimize the customer journey are made using instinct, or by trial-and-error, and the risk of guessing wrong has negative revenue consequences.”

Best-in-class B2B marketers also averaged 7.5 in terms of understanding the customer buyer journey, which surpassed the average rating of 5.2 for their counterparts. Additionally, the best-in-class group totaled 7.9 for creating buyer personas. All other marketers ranked 5.7 in this category.

High-Performing Marketers and the Customer Experience

Top-performing marketers have been known to excel in the area of customer experience. The “2016 State of Marketing” report from Salesforce revealed that high-performing marketing teams are 7.7 times more likely to lead customer experience initiatives, compared to all other marketers. Additionally, they are 8.8 times more likely to adopt a customer journey strategy.

“If we truly put customers at the center of our thinking — considering how we can make any touchpoint delightful — it changes the way we approach applying all the tools available to us as marketers,” said Scott McCorcle, CEO of Salesforce Marketing Cloud.