There is an abundance of tools online that a B2B marketer can sink their teeth into (and if your not careful quite often get carried away with!) when it comes to online marketing measurement. It’s easy to miss the point of what you are actually trying to ACHIEVE with these tools.
The latest 2017 State of Marketing Tech report, conducted by Squiz- a Digital Transformation company, surveyed over 600 senior marketing professionals globally to reveal their digital vision, goals and challenges.
Perhaps B2B sales and marketing professionals tasked with generating leads and closing deals should spare a thought for those individuals tasked with buying solutions for their organisation.
Buying B2B solutions for one's organisation is a long hard slog. Gartner says the median B2B buying group consists of between 6 and 10 people. Each of these people need four to five pieces of information to help them. Usually, around 83% of the time they have gone and sourced this information themselves.
Then starts the painful process of achieving consensus amongst the buying group and forming a concrete action plan. Brent Adamson, a Gartner distinguished VP, puts it this way.
"The hardest part about B2B solutions isn't selling them but buying them. Today's buying journey has effectively reached a tipping point where it's become unnavigable without a significant amount of help"
Showing you understand the challenge B2B buying centres face, showing empathy for their plight and providing information and tools that aim to reduce this purchase friction is the secret to building an authentic and trusted relationship with your target audience.
How do you achieve this?
Sales and Marketing alignment is difficult for most organisations causing many internal and external challenges that affect the bottom line. Now more than ever, fundamental changes in your buyers behaviour are increasingly creating misalignment between these two functional areas. Misalignment breeds inefficiency. This misalignment causes propose to close rates falling, the quality of leads falling and the cost of acquisition increases.
As discussed in part one of this blog a solid sales and marketing strategy is the key first step to achieving growth. Just to recap, in part 1 we discussed how to develop "The 4xWs" of strategy, namely:
The 4xWs sets up a clear framework for your sales and marketing team to align and focus their efforts around your buyer.
Now we'll turn our attention to the next critical step. Tying your go to market strategy and investments to your business' financial goals. Firstly, clearly understand your businesses new revenue goals that are coming from marketing's activities and then, using an average sales value, work out the number of net new clients you need for each time period.
Your sales and marketing are like the heart and lungs of your business. They provide crucial oxygen to your business which it needs to survive and thrive. In this week's blog, we discuss how the business environment in which we all exist is changing rapidly. If your sales and marketing fail to adapt to these new conditions, your business will fail to thrive and potentially survive.
SME’s in Australia use email marketing as one of the key sales and marketing tactics to generate interest and brand awareness about their products and services. Today email marketing is a popular business tool that if used correctly can have a positive effect on a company’s bottom line to generate leads. This week we discuss the importance of responsive e-mail marketing.
Lead generation is at the forefront of the marketing and sales world. Increasing traffic, attracting potential buyers and engaging with them has been continually emphasised in the context of inbound marketing - bringing the buyer to you. Lead generation is the next step, after grabbing the attention of your market. Here are 5 lead conversion strategies that can strengthen and help maximise business growth.
Many Australian B2B firms can increase there marketing reach using a social media strategy that includes LinkedIn.
When talking to B2B companies about their marketing strategy, I ask if social media and LinkedIn in particular has a place in their communications and marketing plans. I generally get a look that is best be described as worried or hesitant and occasionally dismissive.
