Highlights | WP×Huawei Cloud, Interpretation of MA Localization Trend in B2B Industry
At the 2022 "Huawei Cloud Enterprise Festival," Jimmy Hu, General Manager of Webpower's Digital Marketing Division, was invited to share insights. He provided an in-depth analysis of the localization trends in marketing automation (MA) for B2B enterprises.
It is reported that Jimmy has served as a guest lecturer at Alipay University, an entrepreneurial mentor at Tencent Open Innovation Space, and an advisory expert for the Internet Application Working Committee of the China General Chamber of Commerce. He has been deeply involved in the digital marketing field for cross-border brands entering China, with over 10 years of experience in online marketing and localization marketing services.
This live sharing session approached the topic from two directions. On one hand, it discussed how foreign enterprises entering China can enhance sales communication opportunities through the integration of Mini Program content centers with the WeChat and Enterprise WeChat ecosystem, sharing experiences in promoting the incubation of leads into MQLs and SQLs;
On the other hand, it clarified the role of MA in the global business expansion of Chinese enterprises, and focused on how to identify high-quality leads. He shared experiences on the automation of lead incubation and transitioning high-scoring leads to sales for follow-up.
Below are the key points distilled from this sharing session:
1. Why B2B Enterprises Should Implement Localized Marketing Automation (MA)
In the trend of globalized marketing automation, more and more multinational enterprises are realizing the differences in digital marketing scenarios across regions. On one hand, the commercial environment and even regulations in local markets differ significantly from those abroad, making sales scenarios not fully compatible; on the other hand, the diversity of social scenarios makes it difficult for foreign MA systems to fully integrate locally, causing the original marketing matrix to encounter localization issues. To accelerate integration into the local market, localized MA configurations have become the preferred choice for empowering marketing efforts for major enterprises.
The marketing automation (MA) system Dmartech (hereinafter referred to as DMT), independently developed by Webpower, can integrate with the global CRM systems of multinational companies, consolidating regional data and user behavior information. This helps enterprises maintain a comprehensive and regional control of their marketing rhythm.
Taking a large industrial manufacturing enterprise in Japan served by Webpower as an example, as a large multinational group, it has been committed to building a localized SCRM marketing matrix since entering the Chinese market. It has collaborated with Webpower to integrate multi-channel marketing touchpoints and streamline data. Based on the user operation logic within the WeChat ecosystem, they have established a powerful data center through DMT, improving the construction of the local business ecosystem while strengthening information exchange and marketing resource sharing with headquarters. This has ultimately resulted in a threefold increase in sales communication opportunities in the Chinese market and a 78% improvement in conversion efficiency!
You can see, Localized MA building is a growth fortress that can boost sales for B2B companies, especially multinationals.
2. The Relationship Between Marketing Automation (MA) and Achieving Sales
So, what are the correct goals and expectations that B2B enterprises should have when using MA?
During the sharing session, Jimmy stated directly that the value of MA does not lie in immediate sales but in creating the conditions that lead to sales, minimizing lead loss during the conversion process, and maximizing conversion rates. Therefore, the primary function of MA remains to serve the enterprise’s marketing department, focusing on lead screening and incubation at the front end of sales.
Similarly, taking a large industrial manufacturing enterprise in Japan as an example, Webpower, in its service process, leveraged local social advantages to expand multi-touchpoint marketing, while connecting Enterprise WeChat and Mini Programs through the DMT system to start the lead incubation journey from the traffic entry point. By collecting behavioral data to form dynamic user profiles and using DMT's functionality for personalized operations and content marketing tailored to each individual, they ultimately significantly reduced lead loss rates.
At the same time, DMT also connects to the sales side of Enterprise WeChat, establishing automated journeys within DMT that set up lead reminders and task notifications triggered by user behaviors. Not only on the PC end, but also integrating the needs of mobile office work, DMT enables customer operations on the mobile end of Enterprise WeChat, helping sales to follow up leads promptly and increase conversion rates.
Hence, As a B2B enterprise decision maker, the perception of marketing automation MA should not be limited to "sales", but focus on its value in user lifecycle operation and lead incubation.-MA's ultimate goal is sales conversion, but not a direct sales tool.
3. DMT Marketing Automation Empowers Marketing Departments to Collaborate with Sales
Through the above case study, it's clear that an excellent marketing automation (MA) system not only serves the marketing department but also connects well with the sales department, promoting bidirectional collaboration between marketing and sales. This is achieved through the corresponding functionalities.
1►Omnichannel Data Integration: Capture Your Users!
One major challenge enterprises face in marketing decision-making today is the lack of practical foundation and multidimensional data insights. As a marketing automation (MA) system developed by a local Chinese team, DMT's strength lies primarily in its powerful "Data Center."
It can not only achieve integration, tracking, and consolidation of local multi-channel data to create high-quality data insight reports and provide feedback on marketing performance but also promote inter-regional data exchange and marketing resource sharing.
For example, a large tech cloud service company, as a local tech enterprise, has been vigorously expanding its overseas market in recent years. In our MA overseas marketing service for them, based on insights into the marketing scenarios of foreign markets, we utilize EDM touchpoints that are well-regarded overseas to conduct personalized content marketing. We progressively guide customer interactions, capture behavior traces and valid information, and transfer this data to the DMT Data Center for unified analysis and insights.
For instance, during an online event, an existing user clicks on the personalized email we sent for this tech company. Through key node tracking, user actions such as opening the email, clicking buttons, and navigating links generate customer behavior information. This information is aggregated into the DMT Data Center we established for the company through tracking points. With the aid of powerful intelligent algorithms, we can assess the user's satisfaction with the email content and their intent to cooperate, facilitating the subsequent marketing journey.
It is worth mentioning that our collection of user data fully complies with GDPR and the Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL). In addition to passively obtaining user information, we also use other quality content marketing initiatives such as event invitations, message reminders, and holiday greetings to design reasonable navigation paths, guiding users to actively fill out information forms. Using mobile numbers or email addresses as primary identification keys, we can recognize users across all channels, allowing us to view a 360° detailed behavior trajectory of their interactions. This ultimately helped the company achieve a 65% increase in market operation efficiency!
2►Tagging System & User Profiles: Understand Your Users!
User data, integrated and matched through the DMT Data Center, will ultimately form dynamic user profiles and trigger DMT's built-in "16-grid Tagging System." The DMT system will standardize evaluations and scoring of all leads based on 16 custom combination dimensions, using a funnel approach to categorize and filter leads.
For instance, with a B2B enterprise served by Webpower, considering the company's positioning, in the initial phase of a user acquisition campaign, we first sent out event invitations via email and other channels to attract users to the Mini Program page created for the brand. In the mid-phase, progress reminders, interactions, and reward measures were used to encourage organic viral growth. New users filled out forms through fixed links, providing identity information, which was entered into our DMT Data Center for tagging and profiling.
3►Create & Manage Automated Marketing Journeys: Engage Your Users!
The marketing flow described above might seem intricate and labor-intensive, but DMT supports the creation of automated marketing journeys. It can use the tagging system to automatically trigger subsequent marketing steps and offers personalized marketing tailored to each individual.
Similarly, taking a tech cloud company previously served by Webpower as an example, during the EDM process, it supports drag-and-drop creation of content materials templates, significantly reducing the time required to produce emails.
Additionally, after sending the emails, user actions such as clicks and navigations within the email will trigger the scoring system as well. For instance, if a user navigates to download a whitepaper through the email, they gain +10 points, clicking a button earns +5 points, and so on. High-score users will be synced to the sales task list to receive “VIP services,” while low-score users will enter the next round of nurturing in an incubation pool. Mid-score users will trigger a focused nurturing journey until they become high-score users transferred to the call center for follow-up, and eventually the valid leads will be transferred to sales for further follow-up and conversion.
Under Webpower's DMT full-chain refined operations, this tech company experienced significant improvements in email reach rate, new user retention rate, and sales conversion rate by the end of 2021. Among these, the email deliverability rate reached as high as 98%, and the CTR exceeded that of similar competitor companies by more than 50%!
Towards the end of the sharing session, Jimmy noted that, with the continuous deepening of economic globalization, the commercial value of the Chinese market is increasingly recognized internationally. Moreover, the fact that Western MA companies, which originated the concept of marketing automation, are gradually exiting China further underscores the immense potential and value of local MA solutions.
As a digital marketing service provider with 20 years of experience, Webpower will continue to deepen its expertise in the marketing automation field, offering localized digital marketing support to more large B2B enterprises.
