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5 Reasons You Should Build a Strong In-House List

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B2B marketers continue to rely heavily on email for effective lead generation, content marketing and growing revenues. According to results from the B2B Content Marketing: 2019 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends – North America report, email is the number one content distribution channel used by 87% of marketers. This means you need a “strong” in-house list, one with complete and accurate contact information.

Do you rely on purchased lists? Haven’t been properly maintaining your in-house list? If you answered “Yes” to either of these questions, you’re wasting time and money. Plus you’re increasing the risk of missing your revenue growth goals.

Let’s discuss 5 reasons why you should invest in your B2B in-house list 

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Your B2B Marketing Content: Corporate Asset or Just Another Expense?

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Way back in 2011, Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, posed the question, “Is content an asset or an expense?”. Most B2B marketers know content is the fuel for their lead generation and nurture. However, it seems many have forgotten or failed to answer Joe’s important question. So let’s revisit this topic now.

“Why now?”, you ask. You’ve likely set your budget for 2019. But ask yourself how hard it was to get the budget for your content development including writing, design, and management. If you had trouble justifying the budget or didn’t get the budget you needed, then read on. Read more

4 Tips for Conquering the Top Decision Stage Challenges

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Part 3 in a 3-Part Series on Content Marketing for the B2B Buyer’s Journey

I discussed in Part 1: Awareness stage challenges and in Part2: 6 Tips for Conquering Consideration Stage Challenges.  In Part 3 of this 3-Part series, I’ll discuss the Decision stage of the buyer’s journey and provide tips for overcoming the top B2B content marketing challenges in the Decision stage.

Decision stage buyer activities

The buyer moves into the Decision stage once they know the best type of solution for solving their problem or opportunity for improvement. They are ready to buy, but haven’t decided exactly which vendor to use, but your company made their short list. During the Decision stage the buyer is typically researching their short list vendors online. They want to understand which vendor’s specific products, services, and capabilities are the best fit for their needs. They are looking for content that helps them:

  • compare vendors and pricing
  • sell the solution internally to upper management (return on investment, ROI calculators)
  • purchase and implement the solution

BuyerJourney

The content marketer’s goal during the Decision stage is convincing the buyer your solution is the best fit.

Content marketing in the Decision stage

For most B2B companies, the Decision stage is where others such as purchasing and upper management become active participants in the buying decision. So it’s important Read more

Challenges in the Consideration Stage: 6 Tips for Conquering

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Part 2 in a 3-Part Series on Content Marketing for the B2B Buyer’s Journey

In Part 2 of this 3-Part series, I share the top challenges B2B marketers face when developing Consideration stage content. I also provide tips for overcoming these challenges. In Part 1 I reviewed the Buyer’s Journey and provided tips for conquering challenges in the Awareness stage. The buyer moves into the next stage, Consideration, after clearly defining their problem, or opportunity for improvement, and determining it’s worth finding a solution. Now let’s take a look at the Consideration stage to understand the top challenges B2B marketers face.

BuyerJourney

Consideration stage buyer activities

The buyer in the Consideration stage first researches and evaluates the different approaches, methods, or solution strategies available for solving their problem or making improvements. The buyer wants to understand and think about which approach best fits their needs, so they are comparing solution strategies (make or buy, hire or outsource are two examples of solution approaches). They also begin comparing specific solutions, vendors, and suppliers within the approach that best fits their needs. They are looking for content that helps them understand the pros and cons of available approaches and why it would be the best fit for them.  Content should also begin comparing product/service features and functions. The goal for a content marketer during the Consideration stage is to convince the buyer your solution method is the best fit for them and that your specific solution should be on their short list.

Top 2 content marketing challenges in Consideration stage

Especially for B2B companies, the buyer usually spends more time in the Consideration stage than the awareness stage because they want to devote time to researching to ensure they make the best decision. The content marketer should provide more in-depth information and industry expertise to continue building a trusting relationship with the buyer and reinforcing your brand as a thought leader. Read more

Competitive Intelligence: 8 Ways B2B Marketers Should Use

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Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like there’s not much discussion about competitive intelligence in B2B marketing circles lately. However, competitive intelligence should be an ongoing effort, not a one-time snapshot, even in small and medium sized companies. According to the Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP), competitive intelligence is the legal and ethical collection and analysis of information regarding the capabilities, vulnerabilities, and intentions of business competitors.

A 2014 study by Global Intelligence Alliance (now M-Brain), Market Intelligence Trends 2020, reported that 42% of respondents said competitors will be the most important area of focus for market intelligence with regards to the business environment in 2020.

Here are 8 ways B2B marketers should be using competitive intelligence:

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B2B Buyer Personas: 6 Easy Ways to Research & Develop

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In my previous post I shared 7 reasons B2B marketers need buyer personas. B2B buyer personas describe your ideal customers so that your social posts, emails, website, blogs, and other marketing content attract, convert, and nurture the right people.

Now that you’re convinced you need buyer personas, these tips will help you get started. According to Cintell’s Understanding B2B Buyers: The 2016 Benchmarking Study high-performing companies use a variety of methods to compile insights about their buyers, while underperforming companies reported using fewer sources of data. So use as many of the tips below as you can to research and develop your B2B buyer personas.

Here are 6 tips for researching and developing B2B buyer personas:

1. Create (steal) a persona template – The first thing you need to know is what information will describe and personify your ideal customer so that it’s meaningful to internal users in marketing and sales. Create a buyer persona template with sections for the types of information you want to collect.

Why start from scratch when you can get persona templates for free. Just do a quick Google search and you’ll find many more in addition to these – HubSpot Buyer Persona Guide, Content Marketing Institute Target Persona Template, Content4Demand Buyer Profile Playbook. The HubSpot and CMI templates are simple to use, but I like the Content4Demand templates which are downloadable from within their Playbook because they are more comprehensive, providing a richer description of the persona. As you review the templates, take what makes sense for your situation to create your own custom buyer persona template. With this in hand, the rest of your B2B buyer persona research will fill in the blanks.

2. Analyze customer and prospect data – According to the B2B Content Marketing 2017: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America 64% of marketers use a dedicated email platform while 51% use a marketing automation system. That’s a lot of contact data. Plus you’ve likely got a CRM system with even more customer and prospect data. Mine your contact data for things like contact titles, company types, gender, and vertical. Use this information to focus in on specific LinkedIn profiles (see #5 below). You can also use this data to segment and send a survey to your contacts to gather insights.

It is concerning to see that only 47% of B2B marketers use buyer personas according to the B2B Content Marketing 2017: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America even though more than half use a dedicated email platform or marketing automation system. Apparently these marketers aren’t convinced they need buyer personas.

3. Interview sales – Your frontline sales people know who they want as customers and who have made the best customers in the past. The same goes for Key Account or National Account sales people. So interview your sales team to learn who they see as your ideal customer. Be sure to pick sales people from the different geographies you sell into and with experience in the persona’s vertical. It may also be insightful to interview sales support or account managers. Depending on your product/service and company structure, these people probably know your existing customers better than anyone else.

Attending regional or national sales meetings is a great way to get in-person interviews with sales. Of course picking up the phone works too, especially if timing is an issue. Interviewing sales team members has the added bonus of helping align sales and marketing.

4. Interview your customers and prospects – There’s nothing better than hearing firsthand what your customers and prospects think, how they find information, and who they look to for advice. If you have time and access, conduct in-person or phone interviews with customers and prospects.B2B buyer personas

Trade shows can be a great place to do quick in-person interviews, as are sales ride-alongs. Or review your CRM database with guidance from sales to find suitable customers and prospects to interview over the phone. Be sure to keep the call less than 30 minutes, 15 minutes is better.

5. Use LinkedIn – Search LinkedIn to find real customers, prospects, and others similar to them using titles, companies, and verticals. Look at individual profiles to learn their education level, interests, “typical” background, certifications, associations, and years of experience. See what LinkedIn groups they belong to and who they follow.

LinkedIn job postings for the titles/roles you are researching can provide additional insight. For instance, things like education, background and experience, certifications, plus their responsibilities and goals. You may need a LinkedIn Premium account to see the information you want, but can drop back to a free Basic account afterwards.

6. Interview customer service – You may need to understand and describe those who actually use your product, a user persona, especially if your marketing efforts include customer retention goals. The user of your product or service often has direct influence on renewal/repurchase decisions. Your customer service reps know better than anyone else in your company what describes your ideal user . They know their challenges, typical titles/role in the company, where they go to get information, and how their input factors into the buying decision.

You may only need one persona to improve your marketing results and can add others later. Developing buyer personas is a bit like exercising — it can be hard to get going and there’s many ways to go about it. But like the Nike slogan – Just Do It! Using these tips can make getting started on your highest priority persona easy.

What techniques have you found effective for researching and developing B2B buyer personas?

 

7 Reasons Every B2B Marketing Strategy Needs Buyer Personas

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Are you confident your B2B marketing efforts are targeting the right audience? Most B2B buyers today self-educate long before reaching out to sales. That’s why your B2B marketing strategy needs buyer personas.

You’ve seen the numbers — 57% of the purchase decision happens before sales gets involved according to CEB and 67% of the buyer’s journey is now done digitally according to SiriusDecisions.  Therefore, it’s more important than ever that your social posts, emails, website, blogs, and other marketing content attracts, converts, and nurtures the right people – your ideal customer or buyer persona.

Here are 7 reasons your B2B marketing strategy needs buyer personas:

  1. B2B buying is complicated – Most B2B buying decisions aren’t made by one person. Sure, there may be a single signature on the contract or PO. However, usually a buying team has purchasing, technical and functional experts. In addition, senior management weights in on final B2B purchase decisions. In fact, CEB’s research shows that an average of 5.4 people are involved in B2B buying decisions. Personas help marketing reach and influence each person on the buying team.
  2. Helps you prioritize – Every marketing team has limited resources. The persona development process helps you and your marketing team (and sales) really home in on your ideal prospects. In addition to the role of your ideal customer (see above), developing personas forces everyone to think about and prioritize verticals, geography, etc. that will drive growth for your organization.
  3. Improves sales and marketing alignment – Since marketing works closely with sales to develop personas, this naturally drives alignment between marketing and sales teams. Marketing will learn from sales, and marketing and sales will be aligned on reaching the priority prospects. The personas you develop can become part of sales on-boarding. This helps new sales reps ramp up more quickly and align them with marketing.
  4. Improves lead quality –Creating your marketing campaigns and content with your persona in mind will naturally attract people more likely to convert to leads. And those leads will be easier to segment for more targeted, personalized and engaging campaigns resulting in more effective nurturing. Marketing will be handing off higher quality leads to sales – sales will love you!
  5. Better focus channels – Do your research right and you’ll know where your personas go to educate themselves and research new solutions. This means you can save time and money by devoting resources and promoting your content to the channels where your personas are, not where you think they might be.
  6. Improves content topic ideation – Without personas your team will be wasting time trying to guess what topics will be of interest. Even worse, you may be developing marketing content that never gets seen. Well-developed personas clearly spell out pain points and challenges, interests, common problems, goals, etc. This makes it much easier to develop topics that resonate with and engage your ideal prospect.

During the persona development process you will invariably uncover internal resources for developing future topics and content.

7. Quicker and better content – Having a persona to share when making content development requests or assignments helps ensure it’s written with the right audience in mind. This is true no matter who the writer is, a new marketing team member, guest blogger, outside writer, or internal subject matter expert. You’ll save time and improve your content.

According to Cintell’s Understanding B2B Buyers: The 2016 Benchmarking Study, companies that exceeded their lead and revenue goals were 2.2 times more likely to have and document buyer personas than companies that miss their goals. So what’s holding you back? Isn’t it time your B2B marketing strategy includes formalized buyer personas for marketing success? Learn more by reading 6 Easy Ways to Research and Develop Buyer Personas.

 

B2B Lead Generation is Just Like Motorsport Racing – No Really!

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The Top 4 Elements for a Podium Finish

Over Labor Day weekend I had the opportunity to drive my race car on my favorite track, Virginia International Raceway. The weather was perfect in spite of Hurricane Hermine barreling along just 20 miles south of us. Plus the car performed well making it a most enjoyable weekend. By now you’re probably wondering what any of this has to do with B2B marketing. A lot actually! In this post I’ll discuss the top four elements to ensure your B2B lead generation strategy results in a podium finish.

Prepped for high performance B2B lead generation

Before I head to the track there’s a lot of preparation required to ensure a fun and safe weekend of high performance driving. I inspect the car for any safety or mechanical issues, purchase gas, and gather spare parts. Sometimes I change the oil, brake pads, or tires. Then there’s the hotel reservations, event registration, planning when to get the trailer from storage and load the car, and purchasing track insurance. Yes, I have a very long checklist to make sure I don’t forget anything.

Successful B2B lead generation requires a lot of preparation also. Before the launch of any campaigns you need to be “race prepped”. By that I mean you need target buyer personas, a mapped out buyer’s journey, and appropriate content for each journey stage. You need your marketing engine (website, online and offline channels, marketing automation, and analytics) tuned up and ready. Your content calendar may have some holes in it, but you should have some “spare” content on hand. Additionally, you need a plan for producing new content going forward since content is the “fuel” for lead generation.

Think about what else might be needed and what might change. Not having a set of spare tires or brake pads at the track can ruin a weekend. In fact it can waste the investment made to be there. What can you prepare ahead of time to respond more quickly? Close alignment with sales can provide early insight into customers and sales enablement needs. Having relationships with outside resources for market research, content development, design, etc. can help you implement backup plans or new tactics, make you more nimble, and reduce risk.

Strategic and integrated tactics win the B2B lead generation race

The courses I drive are road courses, typically 2 to 3 miles long with many turns and elevation changes. So unlike NASCAR’s oval tracks, I can’t see the whole course at once and it’s not just left turns. Before going to a new track I’ll watch video and study a track map to learn “the line”, the best way to take each turn for the fastest lap times. Although each turn has a “best way” through it, it’s better to take an integrated approach to get the fastest overall lap times. An integrated approach may sacrifice speed through one turn to optimize a more important turn that follows. For example, turning in later and slower for a turn so that upon exit the car is set up perfectly to enter the next more important turn.

B2B marketers have more channel choices than ever for lead generation. However, it takes a strategic and integrated approach to beat the competition. For example, exhibiting at a trade show will certainly generate some leads. However, integrating your trade show presence with social media, email campaigns, a web landing page, and direct mail will generate higher quality leads faster.

Consider which marketing tactics integrated together will deliver the fastest results for the overall strategy and resources available. According to the B2B Content Marketing 2016: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America report from the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs 75% of B2B marketers rated in-person events as the most effective tactic while infographics and on-line presentations came in last at only 58%.

The report also shows that B2B marketers use on average 13 different tactics and 6 different social media platforms. Respondents chose LinkedIn(66%), Twitter(55%), and YouTube(51%) as the most effective platforms. If your target prospects don’t use Facebook for investigating solutions to their business problems, then why devote resources to it? An integrated marketing plan might “sacrifice” Facebook while putting more resources into LinkedIn, YouTube, email campaigns and webinars. Running fewer email campaigns may actually reduce unsubscribes and increase click through rates and engagement with prospects.

A data dashboard for midrace adjustments and a strong finish

Speedometer up and close

With preparation and an integrated strategy in place, you’ll need to gather data to assess and make course adjustments as you go along. During a race the team measures tire pressures, engine and transmission temperatures, fuel levels and lap times. This helps drivers and crew make adjustments that improve performance. Teams also relay competitor information to help determine when to make pit stops and what times will win the race. Without this kind of data, the team is driving blind. Making more pit stops than necessary or not changing tires soon enough can lose the race.

Measuring lead generation efforts helps B2B marketers know whether they are meeting their goals, what’s working and not working. This measurement data should provide an indication of where to allocate resources and help justify more budget. With the tools and technology available to marketers today, such as marketing automation and Google Analytics, there’s really no excuse for not being able to gather and measure lead generation efforts.

The bigger challenge now is learning what to measure and how to analyze, adjust and optimize to keep improving your lead generation capabilities. The B2B Content Marketing Report indicated the top 3 most important metrics for B2B marketers were sales lead quality (87%), sales (84%), and higher conversion rates (82%). Creating a lead generation dashboard with meaningful metrics will ensure you’re not driving blind and take you to a strong finish.

B2B lead generation is an enduro, not a sprint

Race car crossing the finish line on a circuit

You can’t win the race if you don’t finish. Race cars have more robust parts and extra cooling to withstand extreme conditions for longer periods. Your street car with the same horsepower might make a few laps around the track. However, it would likely lose brakes, wear out tires, or break a part before finishing the race.

B2B lead generation, contrary to the sales team’s quarterly or even monthly sprints, is more like an enduro race that lasts several quarters or even a fiscal year or more. Sure there may be twists and turns that require you to adjust your tactics. However, consistently engaging your prospects throughout their buyers’ journey is what wins the race. Stopping and starting tactics midstream or doing one-off campaigns, be they online or offline, won’t make much, if any, impact. Make sure you’ve got the resources and team in place to make it through several quarters at least. That way you’ll have enough data to learn what works and make educated decisions about your future B2B lead generation strategy and tactics.

 

Is Your B2B Marketing Agile or ADD?

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There’s no doubt that technology and the explosion of digital channels over the last ten years has had a dramatic impact on marketing. This includes fundamental things like how marketing departments function and their role in B2B companies. From marketing automation systems to new social sites (or new ways to market on existing ones) and new marketing technologies or apps, the increasing pace of change is astounding. Add to this our increasing tendency toward distraction. Now you’ve got what I call an “ADD” marketing department — one where attention deficit disorder is manifesting itself on a daily basis resulting in:

  • Frustration for marketing team members
  • Inability to drive company growth
  • A lack of respect for marketing within the organization

Below I’ll describe in more detail what I mean by ADD marketing. Then I’ll discuss briefly why agile B2B marketing could be just the remedy to make your B2B marketing team proud to be part of a winning and respected marketing department.

What is ADD Marketing?

Attention Deficit Disorder, ADD, is a serious neurological condition for many individuals. It causes them to be inattentive, impulsive, or have great difficulty staying focused. I think this condition describes many B2B marketing departments today. Symptoms of an ADD marketing department include:

  1. Prone to distraction – Whether it’s the latest “shiny new thing” (remember QR codes and doesn’t Pokémon Go fit here?) or reacting to constant requests from internal stakeholders, especially sales. The team is always “busy” and often trying new things. However, the team doesn’t accomplish their bigger goals, say generating qualified leads.
  2. Inattentive and poor listeners working largely in isolation – The marketing team finds it hard to collaborate with other departments, and vice versa. They rarely seek direct insights from prospects and customers. Other departments have “no idea what marketing does”.
  3. Difficulty staying focused long enough to measure the results of all their activity – As soon as one thing is completed, or often only started, it’s on to the next activity. No one takes time to  learn what works or doesn’t work. Many haven’t been able to get marketing automation implemented because of 1 and 2 above. This only compounds the situation and makes measurement of digital marketing at scale nearly impossible.

If you recognize any of the above in your B2B marketing department, read on.

Agile marketing defined

Agile marketing can be the antidote to ADD marketing. It uses a process adapted from agile software development that I’m convinced isn’t a passing fad. Andrea Fryrear defines agile marketing as

“a tactical marketing approach in which teams identify and focus their collective efforts on high value projects, complete those projects cooperatively, measure their impact, and then continuously and incrementally improve the results over time”.

She suggests you need an overall marketing strategy, but advocates using agile techniques to implement tactics more successfully, efficiently and with less stress.

Agile uses a process called Scrum and techniques such as Sprints, Burn Down Charts, and Epics to help teams focus on what’s important, get higher productivity from limited resources, and iterate quickly using measurable results.

According to Jim Ewel (check out his excellent blog), agile marketing places value on:

  • Responding to change over following a plan
  • Rapid iterations over Big-Bang campaigns
  • Testing and data over opinions and conventions
  • Numerous small experiments over a few large bets
  • Individuals and interactions over target markets
  • Collaboration over silos and hierarchy

Agile B2B marketing is a process, but it’s really about getting people communicating

At the end of the day agile B2B marketing provides structure to:

  • ensure marketing is flexible
  • responsive to change, customer focused
  • delivering growth to the organization

Marketing teams can use agile methods for campaigns, content development, social media, and more. Maybe you’re starting to see that agile marketing is as Jim states, “as much or more about culture and values than process”. My guess is that many organizations struggle with the culture and values part because agile requires transparency, collaboration, trust, and respect among and across departments. However, this doesn’t exist in many B2B organizations especially as it relates to the marketing department (brings to mind a Dilbert cartoon). Cross functional teams must become comfortable with failing fast which is hard for most.

Agile marketing works

A 2014 survey by CMG Partners found that 63% of marketing leaders place a high priority on agility, but only 40% rate themselves as agile. Barre Hardy, senior director of CMG Partners commented in Forbes, “With Agile, CMOs gain the flexibility and productivity they need to increase speed-to-market and ultimately create more relevant end-products.”

This survey also found that marketing departments who consider themselves agile are three times more likely to significantly grow market share. (see the Forbes article Applying Agile Methodology To Marketing Can Pay Dividends: Survey here).

Measurement, transparency, results equals respect for marketing

Perhaps the biggest benefit of agile B2B marketing is increasing respect for the marketing team across the organization. As teams measure and iterate to learn what does and doesn’t work, everyone gains visibility to marketing’s value for business growth. And with respect comes the budget required to drive growth along with more satisfied marketing employees who get to learn and try new things.

That sounds like a lot less stress and way more fun doesn’t it?

Resources to Learn More about Agile B2B Marketing

Agile Marketing – Save Your Sanity, SlideShare from Mathew Sweezy, Salesforce Pardot

Agile Marketing: Managing Marketing in a World of Constant Change, SlideShare from Scott Brinker, ion interactive

Agile Marketing: Managing Marketing in High Gear, SlideShare from Scott Brinker, ion interactive

Charlotte AMA: Market 2016 Technology & Agile Marketing, SlideShare from Russ Lange, CMG Partners and Roland Smart, Oracle

Jim Ewel and John Cass’s Agile Marketing Resources List

How to Stop Working So Hard: Agile Marketers Work Smarter, by Andrea Fryrear June 16, 2016, Content Marketing Institute

Amazon – just search “agile marketing” to see numerous books on the topic. One of the most recently published is The Agile Marketer: Turning Customer Experience Into Your Competitive Advantage, by Roland Smart