Maybe you’ve just been hired by one of the most important B2B companies in the world. Or maybe you've been at the company for years as their Marketing Director.
Any time is a good time to get started on a new Marketing strategy or to refresh your old strategy, no matter how reliable it has been. If you're not progressing and innovating, your competition certainly is.
Your first challenge will be: How do you implement a digital strategy in a B2B ecosystem and, of course, how do you succeed?
First things first, do not try to change everything immediately. It simply won't happen. You need to make a plan for your Marketing Strategy and it should look like this:
Do an assessment of your current Marketing assets
You know the market, you know your product and audience, you know your sales force, and you know the competition. Your ears are open, you're ready to begin...
To start designing a good Marketing strategy for the digital world we live in, you need to establish your main media pillars. Moreover, you need to prioritize them:
- Website: The core of your business is probably your website. A responsive website, full of SEO-friendly content, and with straightforward e-commerce features is a MUST in today's Marketing world. The perfect platform for hosting and managing your digital content is HubSpot.
- Blog: The best way to get people to seek out your business is to write valuable articles about the information that they're searching for. Literally, searching for, online. You need to know how to write great content that is also well-positioned for SEO.
- Resources: Do you have other content besides blog posts, like ebooks, videos, or infographics? Put those on your website - people want to see them! Visual content is often more attractive to consumers these days than written content.
- Social Media: This is the second face of your business, the one that consumers will interact with more frequently, given how everyone is always on social media nowadays. You must have a Social Media Strategy defined, you can't simply post and hope something happens.
- Email: You might want to think about implementing a monthly or quarterly newsletter. Email Marketing can work wonders for lead nurturing or in the B2B sales process for up-selling or cross-selling.
- Apps: Many digital companies use apps to help them round out their strategy for Marketing. This might include integrations with your website or CRM, chatbots, or an actual app created by your business. Apps are very in right now and the possibilities are endless.
Content is at the core of your Marketing Strategy
OK, you have your media in place, now let´s position the company. The most important thing you need to work on is the content. Before creating any content, define your target “personas”, called Buyer Personas. The only way to deliver your message is by knowing your target. Content creation means understanding the audience. Follow the trends as you create new trends; the best ideas happen from the unexpected. Do not forget when creating content that it should be discoverable on the Internet and easy to consume.
Inbound Marketing is usually the most appropriate strategy, based on content and context. What is Inbound Marketing? Find out!
As mentioned above, a blog is usually the right place to deliver your content; it will help you with organic positioning and you will save a lot of money on Paid Search and Paid Social (Google AdWords, Facebook ads, etc.) It will also help you to position your company as a thought-leader, since building a reputation should always be one of your top priorities. Some of your more complex or highly-valuable content might be gated, in order to get the data of potential leads. Call-to-Actions (CTAs) usually in the form of buttons or banners can lead readers to important pages, and you'll see which content converts visitors into leads.
Blog posts are a must, but if you have a look at your website analytics, you will probably find mobile makes up most of your traffic So, infographics, multimedia, and interactive content should be an important piece of your content strategy. Short catchy videos breathe fresh air into your old-fashioned strategy! Shorter vs. longer videos might mean different things, learn how to choose the right format and length.
Get social in your Marketing Strategy
What is a Marketing strategy these days without a social flavor? To be social is not only about using Facebook and sharing content…. You must allow comments, visitor recommendations, likes and more; this will help you hear from your customers or prospects. From time to time, online surveys (always super short) or contests can also help your Social Media Strategy. Make it viral. Today’s social media is a worldwide showcase, a virtual playground for your messages…and a place where you can interact with your community.
There are no rules when it comes to social media, we simply recommend that you're highly focused. There´s no point in opening all social media channels and then not using them. LinkedIn always sounds interesting for B2B environments and Account Based Marketing, but it’s not your only option. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram can work very well for B2B today. Remember, follow trends and create new ones! By the way, keep an eye on messaging and chatbots.
For your Marketing Strategy to succeed you must measure
There are many more factors we can talk about when we discuss Marketing strategies, but no matter what you end up doing, you cannot forget to measure. Otherwise, how will you know if your efforts are paying off? Establish KPIs for everything - content, sales, social media KPIs; set goals; and always be working towards the overall vision of your company.
Review everything from the beginning; you will find missing pieces, redundancies, and, hopefully, a new point of view. You should also establish a time frame for measuring and reporting; for example, a monthly or quarterly report, with optimization and implementation in the following time period. This way you can set benchmarks, see if you're on track, and pivot your strategy for any opportunities or road blocks.
To start working on your Marketing Strategy for next year, discover our free e-book. If you want to discover how mbudo can help you achieve all your Marketing goals, discover our services and expertise by reading this page. We are proud to be a HubSpot Diamond Partner and we are eager to join you on your Inbound Marketing journey.
David Romero
David has more than 20 years of experience directing Marketing teams in national and multinational companies. He has over 10 years of experience implementing Inbound Marketing strategies with a commercial focus for B2B companies. His motto is: always be learning.