This episode of the Marketing Smarts Live Show delves into the art of creating human-like interactions in B2B digital marketing.
Join us as we explore ways to infuse authenticity and humanity into digital marketing efforts, with insights from Kristen Habacht, chief revenue officer at Typeform.
Kristen brings a wealth of experience from her leadership roles in various tech companies, including Atlassian and Trello. At Typeform, she champions creating engaging, people-friendly forms and surveys, emphasizing the importance of a personal touch in digital communications.
Kristen shares that company size doesn't limit the ability to create meaningful digital interactions. Small gestures can have a significant impact on customer experience, regardless of your organization's size.
She encourages marketers to consider what delights them as individuals—to replicate that delight for their own customers, in the process fostering likability and trust in their brand.
Kristen emphasizes the importance of automating where appropriate while saving the human touch for areas where it matters most.
She suggests scrutinizing your sales and marketing funnels for potential friction points, ensuring data and information flow smoothly without requiring unnecessary human intervention. That approach frees up human resources to focus on genuinely impactful interactions that nurture relationships and drive conversions.
Kristen concludes with actionable advice: Prioritize human involvement in areas that yield the most significant benefits and automate the rest.
By identifying where the human element is irreplaceable and ensuring those interactions are as personalized and thoughtful as possible, B2B marketers can create a digital presence that resonates deeply with their audience.
Check out the video for more details, and the full podcast (link below the video) for the entire insightful conversation.
Don't miss future episodes: Subscribe to the Marketing Smarts Live Show on YouTube. And to catch up on all previous episodes, check out the full playlist on YouTube.
Episode Details, Guest Information, and Referenced Links
Episode No. 75
- Live date: March 15, 2024
- Episode link: youtube.com/watch?v=uAfWnRbxYr8
- Original podcast episode: How B2B Marketers Can Create Human-Like Interactions in an Increasingly Digital World: Kristen Habacht on Marketing Smarts [Podcast]
Guest's social media profiles:
- Twitter: @kristenhaba
- LinkedIn: Kristen Habacht
MarketingProfs resources referenced in the show:
- The Value of a Traditional Marketing Mindset in a Digital World
- How to Create an Awesome Brand Persona: A Step-by-Step Guide
"In B2B News" article referenced in the show:
"From the #mpb2b Community" links referenced in the show:
Transcript: How B2B Marketers Can Create Human-Like Interactions in a Digital World, With Kristen Habacht
Hello to all my Marketing Smarts Live viewers today. I'm super excited to bring you yet another episode of the Marketing Smarts Live show.
This week's topic is all about How B2B Marketers Can Create Human-Like Interactions in an Increasingly Digital World.
So, if you're ready to get your learn on, buckle up and let's get ready to rock and roll.
Hey, I'm your boy George B. Thomas, speaker, trainer, catalyst, and host of this show, the Marketing Smarts Live show, and the Marketing Smarts podcast found on your favorite podcast app.
Our guest clips today are brought to you by none other than Kristen Habacht.
Kristen Habacht, chief revenue officer at Typeform, a provider of people-friendly forms and surveys. She has nearly two decades of experience growing and scaling revenue organizations, especially in the PLG and sales-assisted space.
Kristen previously served at Shogun as president and COO, scaling the PLG motion and raising its Series C. Prior to Shogun she had leadership positions at Atlassian, running the Americas and APAC enterprise sales team and later building out a new global team.
She was also the VP of sales and first revenue hire at Trello, leading it through its acquisition by Atlassian. She sits on the boards of GuideCX, Passion.io, and Refined.
Now, remember the clips of Kristen Habacht today are pulled from the full Marketing Smarts podcast episode, and if you want to listen to the full interview with Kristen Habacht and myself, make sure to tune into the Marketing Smarts podcast, link to the whole show will be in the description below after the live show ends.
Now, in this episode, again, I'm talking with Kristen Habacht about How B2B Marketers Can Create Human-Like Interactions in an Increasingly Digital World.
In this clip, I wanted to ask Kristen about the size of the company that should be focusing on how B2B Marketers Can Create Human-Like Interactions and what we should be thinking about along the way.
Kristen: One of the things that I think about is that it doesn't matter what size company you are, you can still create beautiful, thoughtful, meaningful engagement digitally, personally, whatever it is, without having to make these giant investments. I think that's something I hear a lot, which is, "But we're small," or, "We're too big," or whatever it is. I think that there are small ways to delight people every day with different interactions, whether that's through your form, whether that's through your salesperson having done one little bit of extra research, whatever piece it is.
So, I think I would say just think about customers like they're humans on the other end of the phone or the other end of the email. What would delight you? What would delight them? People tend to buy and engage with people they like and the brands they like, even if it's not always the best thing out there. So, try to be the likable kid in the class.
There you go. Maybe that's life and business all together.
Are you creating meaningful engagement with your customers?
Are you letting budget conversations get in your way?
Is your organization treating its customers like humans?
Is your organization hyper-focused on delighting its customers?
Put the answer to that in the chat pane or let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #mpb2b and, of course, tag me using @georgebthomas.
We'll get back to Kristen Habacht and her thoughts on How B2B Marketers Can Create Human-Like Interactions in an Increasingly Digital World, But first, I have to ask...
Are you part of the MarketingProfs community? If not, become part of the MarketingProfs community by heading over to mprofs.com/mptoday - That's mprofs.com/mptoday.
Now, it's time for one of my favorite sections...
In The B2B News - Where we talk about breaking B2B news or really important tips we find on the Google news tab related to you and your B2B business. This week, the title is...
Thought leadership: The human element your marketing needs Ny Ali Schwanke
AI may reduce the effort required to create marketing assets, but outsourcing expert perspective is a big mistake.
AI is everywhere, filling the web with content that often lacks the depth, nuance or forward-looking angle of expert insight.
While tools like ChatGPT can supplement expertise with efficiency and creativity, more than ever, buyers need perspective that comes from years of experience and deep industry knowledge.
In this sea of increasingly repetitive and recycled content, you need to offer something unique to capture attention. That's where "thought leadership" comes in.
Yes, it's a buzzword that took a beating several years ago with many self-proclaimed thought leaders, but it has never been a more important part of your marketing strategy.
To read this article, check out the link below when the live show is over.
So let's get back to Kristen Habacht and her Marketing Smarts podcast episode.
In this clip, I wanted to ask Kristen what success looks like and how you can measure it pertaining to these human-like Interactions.
Here's what she had to share.
Kristen: The revenue person in me says people are buying and engaging, that's a huge one. I think the other is it comes down to a combination of NPS, not just around a product, but how people feel about the brand. Where are people in your funnel coming from? Typeform, Trello, and Atlassian, where I had also been, the things that I universally love about these businesses is that they have an extremely high viral rate.
I'm sure anybody listening can experience this. There's a million products that you've probably enjoyed that you love the product, but the company experience is so miserable that you just don't want to engage anymore. Or you love the company experience so much that you wish the product was a little bit better. Those two things need to hand in hand.
To get a true viral motion, I feel like it means your company is doing both of those things right. The product is in a good place, it's solving a real problem. Every time you recommend something to somebody, it's a very personal moment. You're kind of putting your own self out, because what if they have a horrible experience and it's like Kristen's judgment is so weird that she thinks everybody should fly Cheapo Airlines. I didn't want to say any specific airline on that, but you know what I mean. It's like suddenly somebody thinks not only worse of the brand, but worse of you for that recommendation.
The hurdle to get a viral response is really high. I think people do that because they feel like the brand that they're about to recommend also reflects positively on them. That again means that I feel like, "Hey, other CRO / CMO, I know your time is worth a lot, I know how busy you are, because I'm busy too. I wouldn't recommend somebody who is going to waste your time filling out the same information 15 times or if they don't know how to speak to your pain point." So, I think the virality element, the NPS element, the revenue element are also pieces. Also, other similar companies saying, "We should do stuff together, we should leverage our brands together," so co-marketing.
Those are all big signals of those things for me.
What side of the camp do you or your organization fall into?
Is your recommendation tied to the brand's ability to follow through on your recommendation?
Are brands reaching out and wanting to co-mingle or co-brand with your organization?
We will get back to Kristen Habacht in a few minutes, but first, it's time for some...
Dope B2B Learnings From The Vault of MarketingProfs Articles
That's right, It's time to dig into the treasure trove of valuable information and pull out two pieces of gold to help you be a better B2B marketer.
Article one this week is: The Value of a Traditional Marketing Mindset in a Digital World by Joe Friedlein
The digital marketing industry contains two types of people: experienced marketing professionals with a traditional approach who start by tapping into the psyche of their target audiences; and a newer generation of marketers who have trained in a digital-first era and familiarized themselves on a practical level with the various channels and platforms involved.
But are there enough people who combine both skill sets?
In keeping up with ever-changing digital channels and techniques, are we forgetting the who, what, why, and when—the fundamentals—of traditional marketing?
Are digital skills wasted without a true understanding of marketing principles?
Article two this week is: How to Create an Awesome Brand Persona: A Step-by-Step Guide by Kristy Fontelera
A brand's persona is the personality and character—its identity—as perceived by its target audience.
It is a way for a brand to differentiate itself from its competitors and create an emotional connection with its customers. The brand persona should pulse throughout your company, company culture, and services.
A brand persona aims to unify everything about your company—including its values and spirit—through its appearance and interactions.
When developing a brand persona, it's essential to remember the basic tenets of branding so you can represent your business effectively.
Want to keep learning more? If so, check the links in the description below after the live show to get access to both amazing MarketingProfs articles.
OK, back to Kristen Habacht... Let's dive back into this conversation of How B2B Marketers Can Create Human-Like Interactions in an Increasingly Digital World
In this clip, I wanted to ask Kristen, what are the hurdles that we as B2B marketers should be paying attention to around creating human-like Interactions around the sales and marketing funnel or process?
Does any of this ring true for you?
Kristen: I feel like I could talk on this forever because there are so many pieces. If you think about the funnel, every time you make a transition point, think of the funnel as you are taking a bucket and handing it to the next person, and the bucket has to get into the house. Every time you move the bucket, a little bit of water comes spilling out, unless you're being thoughtful about it. These are the friction points in the process.
Think about, you've just watched a webinar with us and now there's a contact us or next steps form. What's that interaction? Does the form ask stuff that I already knew because you registered for the webinar? How does that feel? Does that feel inauthentic? I fill out that form, I say what I want to talk to a rep about. This then gets lead-scored and sent over to a rep, but I haven't passed through that piece of information, or the rep doesn't look at it, or whatever it is. Now, all of a sudden, what do you do? You get a cold email from a rep that probably says, "I saw you attended our webinar and wanted more information. What can I do?" I already told you what I wanted on the previous form. Oh, by the way, the webinar was on a topic. Maybe reference what the topic was. That's probably the thing that I want to talk to you about.
All these moments, especially when there's data transfer or information transfer that suddenly feels to somebody like I already did this. It's like a million little papercuts where all of a sudden you feel like I don't feel like, I don't think this brand is thinking about me or listening to me, almost like they're trying to filter me out. How many times have you heard somebody say, "I felt like I had to work so hard to talk to your team to respond to me." People feel that way because they feel like you put all these hurdles along the way in that, to your point.
I don't know if I rambled on that. The point is there are these little moments, and I think people spend a lot of time to think about, how does the water get from the well to the house, and they don't think about how the water gets from the person here that has to hand the bucket to the person here. Every time you lose those little moments, it eats away at your credibility, eats away at your brand experience.
Are you paying attention to the moment?
Are you paying attention to the data?
Do the data and the moments actually drive the future conversations of your potential customers?
We're going to get some words of wisdom from Kristen Habacht here in a few minutes but right now, it's time to turn the spotlight on you, the MarketingProfs community. Yep, time for...
From The #MPB2B Community
We searched far and wide in the #MPB2B universe to find amazing information and conversation to bring to the masses.
So, first, make sure you are using the hashtag, and second, make sure you have fun and add value to the community.
Then, we'll spotlight you or your crew on the show. This week, it's...
MarketingProfs
There LinkedIn post goes a little something like this…
If you want more engagement with your promotions, video is the way to go. Videos have a 47% higher engagement rate than static ads, according to a 2023 study by Magna.
And higher engagement results in more qualified leads.
And that's not just on social media. Videos on your website are highly engaging, too.
Of course, creating videos can be time-consuming and expensive.
But new AI tools are here to help.
With the right tools, you can reduce your video production hassle and expense and create more videos—better and faster than ever.
#mpb2b #b2b #marketing #ai #videoproduction #videoediting #artificialintelligence
I'll put a link in the description below to AI for Digital Marketers.
But you need to check out the description and click that link to check out the post and read or learn more!
Marketing Smarts viewer, I have to ask... are you going to be next to get the spotlight?
Remember, community, use the hashtag #mpb2b on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter and get the light shined on your awesomeness in the next episode or a future episode of the Marketing Smarts Live show!
Pro-tip, it won't hurt if you tag me in your post as well I'm @georgebthomas on LinkedIn and Twitter.
OK, let's kick it back to Kristen Habacht and some words of wisdom around this topic of How B2B Marketers Can Create Human-Like Interactions in an Increasingly Digital World.
Here is what Kristen Habacht wanted to leave us with...
Kristen: I think I've seen a stat somewhere that said 40%, something like that, it was a high number of consumer experiences are negative when they go in to engage with a brand. I think it's a really interesting point to say there's a ton of opportunity here that's sitting out.
I would say as much as possible to automate the pieces that you can, the part where the human element is not as important. Like I was talking about the data research element, stuff like that. Don't spend as much time on the places where you can leverage technology, and then put your human touch into the places that give you the biggest bang for your buck.
Then look at the places where you feel like that last half mile is being dropped. Again, for example, the form. Obviously, I'll push on that. But it's not just that. The automation from a Marketo or a HubSpot or whatever as well so that these pieces just flow as much as possible without a human having to be part of that, so that you free up the human resource to get on the phone and talk to the customer, or to actually personalize out the email as much as possible.
To really look and say what's working. If I know how to do a case study, if that's my template, then I do the same case study. I think it goes to that maximum of personalization, which is the format is still this, this, and this, but it's like a Mad Libs, you pull these pieces in. Content can still feel fresh and new, but you're not at scratch every single time that you do it.
I don't know if they're tips, tricks, or templates, but I always look to say, "What's the part that a human can't replace?" That's why when sales teams, for example, take an MQL and they put it in the sales team drip, which is a marketing drip that they've made themselves, it's like, I could have done that with marketing. You're the human, I want you doing the human part of this interaction. So, it's all about thinking about the place where a human's perspective is the best. Everything else you should automate, you should try to leverage the tools for that as much as possible.
Are you automating the parts where the human elements are not important?
Do you have the humans in the places that give you the biggest bang for the buck?
How can you create a healthy balance of both?
Have you enjoyed today's journey? Let us know; use the hashtag #mpb2b on whatever platform you are joining us on.
