Strategy+Design

Digital technology and business innovations are driving new revenues for progressive companies. For any new technology or business process to become successful, it must first be accepted and then adopted by humans.

Successful B2B companies such as Maersk, SAP, and IBM, have adopted innovative B2B marketing strategies that allow them to generate more demand and stronger customer engagement. The good news is that the successful methods and principals they are implementing can be duplicated no matter how big or small the organization is.

There are four main elements that drive new ideas and technology:

• The Idea or Innovation itself
• Communication Channels
• Time
• Social Systems

This process relies heavily on human communications and interactions. The idea or innovation must be widely adopted in order to self-sustain and have the time (and timing) to become successful. The categories of human adoption are shown above. How quickly and efficiently a company adopts new innovations determines how they score.

Knowledge is Power

The better you can manage your information resources and communications (both internally and externally), the better you will be able to innovate and leap ahead of competition. Maersk Line is a terrific example of how a B2B company strategically adopted innovative social media technologies to create better engagement and brand awareness. Building trust and becoming recognized as a leading information authority inside your industry will improve your position in the marketplace and your success in achieving market share. 

Build a Better Business

The 2013-2014 Multi-Channel Marketing Survey is a new benchmark for B2B companies on the road to digital maturity. The survey is designed to show how a company scores and compares with others in their respective industries.

Your participation in this annual survey will give your company valuable insights and evaluate your company’s current use of digital technology and Internet communications so you can adopt innovative B2B marketing strategies. The survey results can help you measure and report across key tech markers that will rate and rank your company’s performance and set a strong foundation benchmark for comparisons in future years.

Where is your company on the Innovation Adoption Curve? Take the survey and find out!

Your Turn

The B2B Digital Maturity Series is an ongoing, open educational discussion to share insights and know-how so that B2Bs can successfully bridge the content gap with tools to assist in balancing the workload for sales, marketing, and management teams. We encourage your input and will continue to listen for more ideas to promote the importance of “˜being social with relevant content to help buyers buy’.

Do you think Digital Maturity for B2Bs is important? Do you think a Digital Maturity Survey would benefit your metropolitan area? Let us know by sharing your thoughts and suggestions below or on Twitter (@SterlingKlor).

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NOTE: The 2013-2014 Multi-Channel Marketing Survey is targeted to Metro Vancouver B2B organizations and there is no cost to participate. Companies participating will receive a confidential report of their results approximately 30 days after completion of the survey. A final compiled industry ebook report will be delivered to all participants after the first quarter of 2014 in order to provide a clear picture of how a company scores against its peers as well as industry standards for the Metro Vancouver area. All data in the ebook will be presented anonymously to ensure privacy.