By Vimal Pillai, VP – Strategy & Marketing, Clover Infotech
One of the constant thoughts in a B2B marketer’s mind is to successfully channelise marketing efforts into sales. However, sales cycles are longer as it is impacted by rapid technology changes, pricing, and competition. That’s exactly where the 4C model comes in.
What is the 4C model?
In a B2B marketing funnel, ‘content creation’ sits at the very top. This includes the creation of brochures, one-pagers, product documents, presentations, videos, etc.
This is followed by ‘campaign’. The content is curated, customised, and targeted to the relevant prospects, suspects, and existing customers. The campaigns could be emailers, social media campaigns, public relations campaigns, or outreach through digital touchpoints such as mobile apps. A smart campaign may intertwine the above channels to create a comprehensive impact. This stage is characterised by a strong ‘call-to-action’.
The next step is ‘conversation’ wherein the customer responds to a call-to-action and enters an advanced level of discussion with the company.
The last stage is ‘conversion’. Here, the company and the prospect/ customer agree to work together. This is where the actual sales cycle gets completed and the delivery of the product/ service and revenue generation begins.
To sum up, the 4C (content creation, campaign, conversation, and conversion) is a good model to methodically ensure that marketing efforts are converted into sales and revenue.
How does the 4C help?
If a B2B company focuses on direct sales only, it may not maximise the opportunity presented by the Serviceable Available Market (SAM). If the Total Addressable Market (TAM) for its offerings is large and it extends beyond a particular city or region, ignoring B2B marketing and the 4C model can impede its growth and the possibility of attaining market leadership.
The 4C model enables the company to ensure that the top of the funnel is enriched with content and campaigns which will lead to multiple conversations and enhance the probability of a sale.
Every sale creates a new success story that can be fed into the top of the funnel (content creation) and the same process can be repeated. The ‘4C’ model is a self-fuelling model which gets refined with each iteration and enables a company to garner a significant share of its SAM and TAM.
How can the ‘4C’ model be enriched with Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
The 4C model can be accelerated with the use of Generative AI tools. For instance, at the content creation level, the company may want to use ChatGPT, and Midjourney to create content faster and ‘go to market’ with new campaigns swiftly.
At the campaign stage, AI-empowered smart marketing automation tools such as Clevertap, and Webengage, may help to segment customers, execute customised campaigns, curate customer journeys, and enhance reach, visibility, recall, and results from each campaign. The marketing teams can also A/B test its messages across customer segments and enhance call-to-action. The subsequent conversations can be also automated, albeit in a supervised fashion, through AI-powered chatbots.
4C and Generative AI – A Potent Force?
If B2B marketers can successfully execute the 4C framework with the smart use of generative AI, they can run multiple omnichannel campaigns and augment sales and revenue generation. It can be the key distinguisher between the leading companies and their challengers in the digital age.