Using the Zero Moment of Truth in Your B2B Marketing Strategy

The idea comes from theories of consumer behavior. P&G had long described the marketing process in three distinct stages:

Google identified an intermediary stage between Stimulus and the FMOT, and they labeled it the ZMOT. This is the messy, chaotic stage enabled by the age of the internet and the smartphone. Consumers google stuff, they look at rating sites, they text their friends and family, they explore a brand’s website, they watch unboxing videos, they post on social media. In short, they do all of the things they couldn’t do before the digital age. And they do all of it before they actually touch the product on the store’s shelf.

The big brains at Google intended ZMOT to apply to B2C and maybe digital commerce, but the ZMOT holds tremendous value for the B2B sales cycle as well — maybe more value. If you’re purchasing a pair of socks or a toothbrush, how many searches and FB posts are you going to do? If the product you buy is crap, you’re out a few dollars.

But if you are purchasing big-ticket B2B software or services — business intelligence software, CRM, a marketing automation platform, or even a new advertising agency — the consequences of a bad decision can be dire. They can be career-ending. Bad software purchases have cost firms many millions of dollars.

Smart managers know this, so their ZMOT stage is often extended and goes on for longer. And almost every action the user takes during this stage leaves a digital footprint.

For B2B marketers, the ZMOT is a crystal ball. If you know how to read the footprints, you can anticipate a lot about your customer. You can understand where they are headed and meet them there.

Digging into the ZMOT data can help product marketers understand what their customers find most compelling about their product, letting them prioritize and stack rank features & benefits in their messaging. Content marketers can reverse engineer content to anticipate questions before they are asked — proactively driving organic traffic to your site. You can craft better sales enablement with insight into actual objections. (Each one of these probably warrants its own blog).

This can all indicate areas of real interest that allow marketers to craft better messaging, content and buyer journeys.

I’m a strong believer that advertising is not about misleading customers. Most consumers, especially in B2B advertising are intelligent and discerning, and long sales cycles let them see through deceptive marketing.

Overall, analyzing data from the ZMOT can be a win/win proposition for marketers and customers alike. Marketers get a better understanding of their audience’s needs and wants. This, in turn, can help us marketers create more focused journeys, more helpful content and better products for their customers.

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