Understanding Buying Group Marketing with Nirosha Methananda

The Virtual CMO Podcast

Season 8, Episode 2

In episode 117, host Eric Dickmann talks with Nirosha Methananda - VP of Marketing of Influ2, a person-based advertising solution for B2B marketers. We discuss BGM, buying group marketing, and the importance of understanding how buying decisions are influenced within B2B organizations.

Influ2 delivers ads directly to decision-makers at target accounts giving B2B marketing and sales teams tangible ad engagement metrics to drive activity. Their advertising solutions empower B2B companies to target and track individual ad engagement.

You can connect with Nirosha on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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What is Buying Group Marketing?

Buying Group Marketing or BGM seeks to interact with different buying groups and prospect accounts within your chosen niche. BGM has been highly considered the future of account-based marketing; this is why marketers continually strive to monitor their target market carefully and adapt marketing strategies or opportunities that can satisfy their client’s immediate demands.

Highlights from Our Conversation with Nirosha:

“Being really firm around- Okay, who are we going after? What's our ideal customer profile? Which accounts are we going after, understanding who your personas are within like the buying group is, who your key stakeholders are, who those personas are, what motivates and drives them.”

• [00:04:17] What problem are you trying to solve for your customers?- According to Nirosha, it's making display and social media advertising tangible and actually measurable in terms of ROI.
• [00:05:05] What mistakes do you see repeatedly that many people are making within those strategies?- She doesn't think anyone is doing anything wrong. Nirosha emphasizes that all of us are trying to move towards greater granularity and targeting. However, there is an opportunity to evolve in line with the customer's expectations. She points out that there are different buying groups, and it is essential to look at who those people are and understand what their patterns of behavior are. In buying group marketing, looking from the customer's needs perspective, pain points, and what the team needs is essential.
• [00:09:47] How does account-based marketing fit in between these other technologies or other ideas within the marketplace?- It is looking at those specific people within that organization to be able to target and serve them appropriate ad content and allow content through a landing page or whatever it is. It is also crucial to understand if they view and engage with your content in some tangible way and aggregate that action and engagement activity back into the system. Keep in mind that there's a difference between being able to put together the context of a sale or a promotion versus creating a conversation through a piece of thought leadership or whatever it is.
• [00:13:54] - Identifying your ideal customer- The size of the business does not determine who your audience is. When having a specific niche, engaging in buying group marketing and being more specific with your targeting is essential. Nirosha mentioned that she had a client who wanted to work with some of the largest retailers, but obviously, those retail organizations were huge. So you want to get to the demand and planning at those organizations, and that's why they need to be quite specific about whom they're reaching.
• [00:16:47] How did Influ2 change your client's approach- They were using the traditional channels that you would think they would be using from that perspective. With Influ2, we go through six different channels- Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Yahoo Display, Google Display, and Amazon.
• [00:20:11] Where do you see the future being in terms of how solutions can work and privacy rules restricting the free reign for many marketers?-Nirosha Methananda thinks there needs to be a lot of education around social media marketing because there are times that it has been abused and is a free reign for most of the marketplace. It is about being more mindful and more conscious. She also believes that consumers have a lot to take in as well. Sure, you have my data, but what do I get in return for that data? Is it relevant?
• [00:25:16] What would you say is a good first step in understanding buying group marketing? How could they start going down that path?- She thinks that strategy is such a necessary foundation. Many marketers just want to get going but always remember to measure twice and cut once. Accumulate information and have that one-to-one kind of experience. You need to have- one, your strategy, and two, you need to have the data. That is where you would start, and that's where marketers should view it from a core perspective.

Buying Group Marketing and Other Resources Mentioned

• Influ2- Company Website

Live Stream on YouTube