Thanks to his fascination with the importance of branding, technology and people, Riaz Kanani (linkedin.com/in/riazkanani) has an enviable amount of marketing experience to share. Not only has he built global video ad networks that understand user behaviour, launched the first paid for cinematic movie online, and helped build demand generation and engagement marketing strategies for companies across the globe, but he has now also been featured on Agency Dealmasters.
Riaz Kanani’s mission is to build better ways to do B2B marketing that increases both average contract value and the speed of closing contracts. With Radiate B2B, he’s using scaled account-based marketing to build awareness and accelerate deals through the pipeline.
You’ll find this podcast fascinating if you’re interested in anything to do with:
Entrepreneurship in B2B marketing
The ideal B2B buying experience
The importance of branding in complex B2B decisions
Recruiting people who believe in your vision
Enjoy our chat with Riaz Kanani!
Riaz Kanani, the founder of Radiate B2B, has a host of experiences to share with us. He has incredible entrepreneurial skills and has built numerous global video advertising networks. These networks understand user experiences, and aid in creating engagement marketing strategies.
Kanani dives head first into details about how to build demand generation, with a focus on engagement in marketing in this podcast with us.
Target key accounts to create an ideal B2B buying experience
Riaz Kanani believes Account-Based Marketing (ABM) can directly create an ideal B2B buying experience. This is due to the fact ABM deep dives into a list of hand-picked accounts – which usually make up 5% of the current buyers market. These accounts should be chosen because they’re a good fit for the business and will become a regular client.
Kanani believes that “the key is that marketers need to nurture and hold onto these prospects, until the right time when they can pass them onto sales.” It’s so important for marketers to take their time and not just throw an advert at the target account before handing them onto sales.
So, how do you accurately target the 5% who are ready to start a conversation and buy? You need to gather data about them to craft an ideal B2B buying experience that resonates with who they are. The pitch you tailor for them will contain information that has been acquired through partnerships with websites or directly via publishers.
Ads with intent data in B2B
Riaz Kanani believes that creativity will never disappear, and it will always be important. However, as a marketer, you also don’t want to rely on creativity alone for your success. You always need more than that. Kanani says that B2B has an advantage over B2C, due to having more intimate knowledge about smaller numbers. This then provides a base to create targeted ads that will cater to them.
Storytelling and forming an emotional connection to an audience and target accounts has become the go-to strategy over functional selling. This is because people who are in a room making decisions are human, they have preferences, and these won’t always be logical. Using intent data to uncover these emotions and preferences ensures that they’ll want to continue the conversation with you to learn more.
The importance of branding
There needs to be a balance between building a brand and building demand. ABM is not about investing in brand awareness, brand activation and demand generation through marketwide campaigns. Instead, ABM is the ability to focus brand awareness on a very specific niche. This hyper focus will drive brand awareness far better than alternatives.
As accounts show interest and move into the sales funnel, Riaz Kanani says marketers have succeeded in “creating an ever-turning wheel of companies that are being targeted.” In this way, marketers are investing in the long term, but not spending as much as they would if they were investing in a market wide campaign. Instead, they’re investing in today to drive the next set of accounts through the sales funnel.
Getting the right data
Having access to the right target accounts is crucial for success in B2B marketing, and knowing the intent of these companies is just as important. Contact us to see how we can help you in both these areas.
Listen to our other Account Based Marketing Podcasts for more useful industry insights:
- Natalia Chaban – Digital Performance & Technology Director at MediaCom
- Philip Gosney – Head of Global Marketing at Maersk Drilling
- Christopher Engman – Author & Managing Partner at Megadeals Advisory
- Jem Lloyd-Williams – CEO at Mindshare UK
- Chris Hirst – Global CEO at Havas Creative
- John Harris – President & CEO at Worldwide Partners
- Ricky Abbott – President of Americas for Transmission
- Michel Juvillier – Founder of The Societies Media
- Raffaele Apostoliti – President & CEO at Expandi Group
- Judith Niederschelp – CEO at Demand Studio
- Paul Frampton – President at Control v Exposed
- Luke Bozeat – COO at MediaCom UK
- Matthew Jantjies-Green – Head of Agency Partnerships at AccountInsight
