Crafting a Successful B2B Marketing Strategy

For many B2B marketers, the traditional marketing funnel that encourages prospects to identify themselves and then move on to a sales funnel is ingrained in our minds. However, in the age of the customer, Forrester Research’s phrase for a customer-driven marketing landscape, the funnel has evolved to reflect a new customer expectation that requires sales and marketing to work together.

With this in mind, B2B marketers need to assess how their current B2B marketing strategy aligns with the psychology of their buying journey. In other words, B2B marketers need to know how to craft a marketing strategy based on customer dominance.

Therefore, we have outlined a series of steps to follow when crafting a customer-centric B2B marketing strategy. Ask yourself and your team, “Have we checked the following boxes when designing our B2B marketing strategy?”

IDENTIFY TARGET PEOPLE IN YOUR B2B MARKETING STRATEGY

Going through the exercise to develop personas based on market and customer research is critical to understanding not only who your audience is, but how to engage them in the buyer’s journey. Bringing in marketing personas makes websites two to five times more effective and easier to use for target users. However, only 44% of B2B marketers use buyer personas. So make sure your B2B marketing strategy includes people-based experiences that move shoppers forward in their journey with your brand.

MAP A PERSON-BASED CUSTOMER JOURNEY TO DRIVE YOUR B2B MARKETING STRATEGY

Developing influencers and decision makers to understand your target audience is just one part of the process of establishing a customer-centric foundation for your strategy. Next is to map the touchpoints of your buying journey through all the buyer stages. To close the loop from awareness to revenue, knowing the touchpoints along the journey that are motivators and detractors is critical to influencing all parts of the customer experience. When developing your B2B marketing strategy, answer the following: “How do I strategize with the framework that aligns with your customer journey for clarity and priority setting?”

DEFINE AND MEASURE OBJECTIVES AND METRICS OF THE B2B MARKETING STRATEGY

Perhaps a no-brainer for a data-driven B2B marketer are clearly defined metrics for success. With an increased emphasis on personalization and customer experience (CX), B2B marketing goals and metrics must be established to measure the success of marketing efforts that support a customer’s progression through the buyer’s journey. Your B2B marketing strategy should outline how you will create a direct revenue contribution with a high return and fuel growth.

A recent case study example of one of our technology services and platform customers is Viewpointe, a leading provider of managed private cloud services. Viewpointe faced the challenge of continuing to attract customers over the course of a 6+ month sales cycle. After clearly defining their B2B marketing goals, they aligned their content marketing plan with their personas-based customer journey. As a result, Viewpointe stayed engaged with their customers throughout the buyer’s journey and closed more deals. One way Viewpointe measured customer engagement lift was a 52% increase in persona-aligned website content and a 164% increase in blog content engagement from organic search referrals.

YOUR B2B MARKETING STRATEGY INCORPORATES ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS WITH SALES

Going back to our earlier illustration of the customer funnel, the traditional move from marketing to sales, without a feedback loop when a lead “walks over the fence to sales”, causing a misalignment between the marketing and B2B sales teams. In fact, 25% of B2B marketers have no idea what their customer conversion rate is. In the age of the customer, your marketing strategy should outline how to break through the proverbial fence and instead encourage cross-team collaboration. Ensuring this marketing and sales alignment is crucial to creating a consistent customer experience throughout the buyer’s journey. Having the intention of sharing knowledge across teams is one way to foster broad acceptance of successful B2B marketing strategy execution.

YOUR NEXT STEP

With only 45% of B2B marketers confident that they have decent, if not high, levels of customer focus, now is the time to create your new B2B marketing strategy that will elevate you above your competition.