Don't Be Afraid to Lean Forward in B2B Marketing

avatar
by Anna Munhin Nov 29, 2022 News
Don
Christine King and Kyle Turner
Kyle Turner and Christine King co-authored this article.

B2B marketers need to think about digital marketing in a different way. It requires more than just the basics in place. To succeed, savvy marketers must be willing to try new things. They have to break down the internal silos that limit their ability to run truly integrated campaigns.

Many companies approach B2B marketing conservatively. They fall prey to the phenomenon of "We know what works" and a desire among their internal teams to deliver guaranteed results. They unintentionally miss opportunities by leaving other parts of the marketing funnel out of the equation.

According to a survey conducted by Statista among U.S. B2B marketers, their digital marketing spending was expected to increase by over 13 percent. Many B2B brands don't fall short despite having more budget. A survey of B2B marking professionals by Statista found that only eight percent of respondents believed their messaging strategy was very effective.

This article is featured in O'Dwyer's Nov. '22 Technology PR Magazine

The PDF version is available for viewing.

Christine King, G&S Business Communications Vice President of Digital Marketing, and Kyle Turner, Director of Digital Growth, dive into the future of B2B digital marketing in the following Q&A.

Why is B2B digital marketing viewed the way it is?

B2B brands need to be bolder. They can still be innovative and cutting-edge even though they aren't as well known in mass media. There is a lot of power in looking at successful consumer campaigns and figuring out how to apply the same concept to more niche B2B audiences.

Kyle Turner wants to focus on the good points you brought up. I think that a lot of B2C brands are influenced by the culture. Even though a lot of B2B companies are influenced by how culture impacts their consumer brand counterparts, you don't get to see a lot of cultural influence there.

Sometimes B2B can be difficult to understand. It has a lot to do with holding on to the old ways of doing business. B2B marketing often lags behind B2C for cutting-edge campaigns and getting social media and digital content up and out.

Why does an omni approach matter?

Marketing and communications are interdependent. The brand's messaging should be connected at every point a customer interacts with it. Millions of dollars are at stake with each sale in B2B. We need to think differently and realize that messaging needs to be constantly fine-tuned for greater impact by looking at indicators like search data and social listening data. Depending on where someone will see your message, certain parts of it should be more emphasized. That's why it's so important. It makes your messaging more relevant and connected.

According to the research, many marketers are not confident in the content they put out there. To be effective, you need the confidence to walk into digital spaces, know the audience and be a part of the collective. Answers to some core questions are required. Are you aware of how the target audiences view themselves? Are you aware of what motivates them? Do you have a good plan for your social media presence? Is it possible to stage the messaging on your website based on where the audience will land? It's not enough to just do marketing and communications over there. Comms and marketing are part of an integrated whole. Every channel needs to be used in concert with one another.

That's right, KT. Organizational structure is part of the idea. Representation from each discipline at the table is one of the things we attempt to do. Someone from our media team, someone from our creative team, and someone from our digital team are partnering with our market communicators. A core strategy team has a lot of experience and a lot of different perspectives. Any project we come across can be created from this core. Digital marketing requires an effective team structure.

B2B brands have to compete in an ever-evolving marketing world.

Hesitancy about experimentation with new technology is common. If things don't go as planned, or if they don't work out at all, marketers may have to abandon the cutting-edge for more comfortable methods. To get a license to experiment, you need to show the power of audience intelligence, persona building, mapping your customer journey, and how such tools will deliver better results over the long haul.

Being innovative and fearless about the way you communicate is important. Your marketing team should be configured to reward confident risk-taking and unconventional thinking. We have begun using learning agendas to ensure more accountability in our programs by answering specific questions. This makes it possible for us to be bold and experiment while also making sure that we have a data-informed process to guide content iteration and campaign effectiveness.

One of the keys to success is breaking down siloes. We've worked with companies that don't talk interdepartmentally, or that don't know what department A is doing. Getting them to talk to each other is the first step when you come in to help.

What should B2B marketers invest in?

Machine learning is a good way to level up measurement strategies. Start experimenting with digital content if your organization isn't there yet. If you want to build truly integrated, omnichannel plans that are based on personas as well as understanding the customer journey, then focus on building them.

It's a good point. I would like to see brands devote real dollars and real time to building stronger data structures as there is a lot of information at our disposal. We can use platforms like SEMRush, Netbase, Brandwatch and Buzzsumo as well as places like Screaming Frog and Hubspot to help inform not just what the market communicators choose to pitch to media but also what digital content and creative makes the most sense to support. That must happen at the start of planning.

It all depends on mindset. To succeed, you must be willing to try new things.

That's it.

G&S Business Communications has a VP of digital marketing. Kyle Turner is the director of digital growth.