Every year around this time we sit down and try to figure out our marketing strategies for the upcoming year. We reflect on what worked and what didn't work this year and how we're going to fix it. Since B2B marketing usually requires a longer sales process and the need to build customer loyalty with market-savvy, rational and knowledgeable customers, our job as marketers is tough and continuously changing. B2B marketers also rely heavily on other parts of the business - sales, operations, finance, etc - to drive successful marketing campaigns.
Here are some roadblocks that typically crop up during our marketing efforts and how you can deal with it.
- Lack of Support from Operation/Administrative Staff
Marketing is underestimated in many B2B companies - especially small to mid-size companies. Those in operations and even administration often confuse marketing as sales and sometimes simply think of marketing as communications and a "waste their time". However, we often need the support of operations and their expertise for producing content.
I've often found that marketing acceptance in a company needs to be a top-down strategy. Top management need to filter the value of marketing down through the organizational structure. Managers need to instill company values and the brand throughout the entire company so they are willing to contribute to the brand's external presence.
If this type of support is still lacking in your company, you may need to work harder to pick of the operational "slack". Draft content yourself and schedule a meeting for the expert to review it. Make them understand that their collaboration is vital to the company and will expose not only the company's expertise, but their expert knowledge as well. Try something less time consuming like interviewing your experts and putting it on the company blog.
- Unsuccessful Email Campaigns; No Lead Conversion
Surprisingly, email marketing campaigns are not successful in general when it comes to lead conversion in B2B marketing. If you're creating campaigns to generate leads and it's not working, it's time to re-evaluate your campaign goals. Remember that in B2B, our target audience is generally decision-makers with a lot on their plate. They probably receive hundreds of "commercial" emails a week, so why should they be reading yours?
Consider using your email campaign for branding rather than lead generation. Focus on newsletters, eblasts or sharing a white paper - something that doesn't necessarily call for immediate action, but puts your brand on the target's mind.
If you're still looking to email for leads, approach the target as a colleague not another "cold call". Do your homework and generate good email lists and know what the client potentially needs. Tell them you'd like to meet and that you'll follow up with a phone call to confirm (and then make sure your sales team is following up).
- Minimal Marketing Budget
Sometimes when budgets need to be slashed, marketing budgets get the cut. Those in charge of the budget usually consider marketing expenses things like gadgets and public relations - a "waste of money".
The first solution is to try to compromise. Show the finance department what has worked in the past and returns on investment and why you need your proposed budget. If your budget is still slashed, you need to prioritize based on your strategy. Divide your marketing goals into branding vs. lead generation and see where you need to invest actual financial assets and where you will need to invest more time. If your budget is really cut to the bone, use as many of the free digital and social marketing tools as you can, but keep records of your marketing efforts so you can demonstrate the next year why you need to invest more.
- Low Lead Conversion Rates
As a marketer, there is nothing more demoralizing than putting time, money and effort into a marketing campaign and not seeing results. It's worse when your sales team isn't happy either because the marketing is not getting leads.
Start by analyzing your marketing channels: email campaigns, website and social media, advertising, public relations. Cross reference by seeing where all your previous business has come from and where your unsolicited requests are coming from. Research has demonstrated that the best channel for B2B lead conversion is client/business referrals followed by the company website. Therefore you need to be analyzing the use of marketing channels more closely.
- Unresponsive Sales Team
The relationship between marketing and sales is not always amicable in many B2B companies. In a sector where marketing and sales should be working together in an infinite cycle of feedback and research, it fails to work that way in many companies. Sometimes the marketers are blindly shooting off marketing campaigns while the sales team is blindly cold calling and doing their own thing. The result is a haphazard strategy that results in multiple "targets" reached and general confusion.
Try to get aligned with your sales team by having regular meetings either all together or individually. Since they are always in direct contact with the client, it's useful to have their feedback from the client and what marketing is or isn't working. In the background, you can check out their sales reports and follow their social media activity to see where they are active and analyze the feedback on your own.