Of course, Sam doesn’t exist. There is no such thing as an ideal marketing automation customer because everyone’s buyer journey is different. That’s the backbone of why marketing automation exists.

50% of people who have heard of you or visited your website aren’t interested in you. That’s the truth of it. They don’t want you to sell to them, they don’t want you to market to them and they don’t care what your company can offer to benefit them.

Sam is exactly the same. Or perhaps he’s never even heard of you before. But you want to sell to his company and he’s the key decision maker you are targeting. Sam, and all your other targets, in short, are ignoring you for three simple reasons.

1. Sam and your target audience are doing their own homework. They research products that they want and need and make up their minds without talking to a sales professional.

2. Sam has learnt to ignore advertisements and spam emails. His brain is trained to ignore those sales messages after receiving so many for so long.

3. With such a saturated market, you need a personalised message that gets Sam’s attention. Tricky.

You can combat these reasons, though, and make yourself known to Sam. Firstly, you need to provide content that Sam can use in his research of your product. Blog posts, reviews, case studies, whitepapers and reports will all help Sam realise you are the business he needs.

Next, you need to find out how Sam does his research. Does he look online? Does he read a certain newspaper that you can promote a PR piece in? Promote your content where Sam looks and you will soon catch his attention. Once you have your content in the right place, reel Sam in with a personalised message. The relevant content at the right time will convince Sam that your company is worth checking out.

Once you’ve done all that, you’ve got Sam’s attention and he’s moving around your website. but with so much content now on your website, it’s likely Sam will change his mind about the topic that originally interested him. This is where marketing automation comes in. Rather than having to create a whole new piece of content promotion, you can automate each message Sam receives based on what he interacts with on your website.

Then sit back and watch as Sam interacts more and more with your website. Once he’s ready, he’ll take the plunge and call you.

For more on B2B marketing information – take a look at our research on ‘The State of B2B marketing Automation in 2020’.