From the article: Understanding your customer's buyer journey in the new digital first world published by KingPin

In 2020, the B2B buying journey changed 

As a result of these wider shifts to the working economy, the buying journeys previously mapped out by some businesses are no longer appropriate - or in some case, even unhelpful - in the new reality.  

In Kingpin's latest report, Business to Human: How to adapt to changing buyer journeys beyond 2021, we examine the new ways of working in B2B marketing, and explains how you can work effectively in this new environment, with five key questions answered (and outlined for you in this blog). 

1. How can you understand your customers better? 

The key is to make sure you know your audience, their behaviour and their pain points. But how do we get to know our audiences better from afar? And how have their pain points been changed and continue to change? 

Our latest report presents a method to help businesses better understand and impact the new customer buyer journey during these difficult and distant times. This involves identifying the personas who sit in the buying team at each stage of the journey, thinking about the various tasks they must complete and what information they need to move through the buying process. 

2. How do you get the basics right? 

In lots of ways, the pandemic has really sent us back to basics. B2B marketing is no exception to this.  

Getting back to the fundamentals of marketing means focusing on brand and making sure that your messaging and content strategy is consistent. Even in B2B, we must remember that our customers are both individuals and humans when we send out communications. 

The content you share will need to fit in with your audience's with current working practices and take into consideration how they might be affected by remote working. 

2020 accelerated a lot of changes that were already happening, and in navigating a new world, ensuring that we have the basics nailed is all the more important. 

3.  Clean data = good data 

At Kingpin, we have always emphasised the importance of good data, and for us, it is an invaluable resource. Data regulations such as the EU's GDPR, California's CCPA and the policies that will follow on from Brexit all make the quality of our data even more significant. 

In addition to this, the new US administration in 2021 could have a significant impact on the Big Tech companies... 

The full report covers data hygiene in-depth, as well as how data privacy issues will influence the choices you make in your data and cookie policies in the coming year. 

4. How do you make sense of your data? 

It is important to remember that while data is neutral, those interpreting the data are not.  

You must ensure you take different viewpoints into consideration when analysing what your data says and remain objective. Data should not be manipulated to fulfil your marketing objectives, but how do you remain objective while utilising data to hit targets? Our experts reveal in the full report. 

5. What is the most important thing for businesses to do to in 2021? 

Physical pitches and face to face meetings are not really possible right now, which makes a lot of our traditional sales techniques redundant. With this in mind, marketing has a more important role than ever, building and optimising the digital customer experiences . Today, we have to look  closely at the needs and challenges of buying teams and the various stakeholders within them and ensure that the right messaging and content is available at the right time in the right place.  

Empathy and understanding of your customers and having the agility to adapt to their needs, should be your number one priority.