Targeting B2B Buyers with Occasion-based Marketing

Mention occasion-based marketing and most marketers think about B2C holiday marketing –the special offers and promotions for Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Christmas and other real or fabricated holidays.

Most businesses and marketers want to improve their marketing response and conversion rates – i.e. the number of responses to a marketing campaign and subsequent conversions to a sale.  Occasion-based marketing is a proven tactic to boost response rates – people are more receptive to buy something related to a relevant occasion.

Occasion-based marketing is more than just doing promotions around holidays.  Think about the definition of occasion in broader terms:

• A particular time when something happens.
• A chance or opportunity to do something.
• A cause or reason for something.
• The need for something.
• The need to do something.
• An important or special event.

Using these broader definitions, think about what occasions would make your prospective B2B buyers more receptive to buy and/or respond to your marketing campaigns:

• News – look at current news topics and who is paying attention.  Is there any relevance for your offer and the audience that you can leverage?  For example, if a group of businesses are paying attention to carbon tax legislation, do you have relevant products or services to position and offer to take advantage of this news and attention?
• Events – there are all sorts of events happening all the time – which of these events may make buyers more receptive to buy or consider your product/service/solution?
• Holidays – although this is most visible in B2C, consider where your product/service/solution may fit in the value chain.  For example manufacturers have to supply distributors who supply retailers in anticipation of a future holiday promotion.
• Associative – we drink orange juice with breakfast, wine with dinner at restaurants and sports drinks when we exercise or play sports.  Why?  Because marketing has made us associate these products with these occasions.  Are there opportunities to associate your product/service/solution with an occasion?
• Business Cycle – businesses have cyclical occasions that present occasion-based B2B opportunities.  For example, when they do budgeting is a good occasion to get your product/service/solution in their budget plans for the following year.
• Customer Occasions – such as management changes, mergers, acquisitions, new product introductions, business expansion, etc. are opportunistic marketing and sales events.

This is not an exhaustive list of all occasion-based marketing opportunities.  The key to successful occasion-based marketing is to find targeted and relevant occasions when prospective buyers are more receptive to buy your product/service/solution and respond to your marketing campaign or promotion.

Cyclical versus ad-hoc or unplanned occasions – it’s straightforward to schedule marketing campaigns and promotions for cyclical occasions.  Do you have the means to respond quickly and appropriately to relevant ad-hoc or unplanned occasions?

Consider occasion-based marketing as an overlay to your previously established market and customer segments – it adds timing and positioning dimensions for executing campaigns and promotions when buyers are more motivated and receptive to buy.  Try a test to compare response rates between a regular schedule-based approach versus occasion-based for the same marketing campaign or promotion.

Have you had success or otherwise with occasion-based marketing in B2B situations?  Your comments are always welcome.
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