It’s often been said (and acknowledged) that B2B marketing is still far behind it’s B2C counterpart. B2C marketing themes usually tend to be more a lot more upbeat, direct, fun and quite personal. B2B marketing models are catching up to these concepts but most B2B tech brands still face lags when it comes to optimizing and tightening their overall approach.
This could in part be attributed to how often B2B marketers might seek out what their key competitors are doing to influence their own marketing concepts and cycles. This can, over time, lead to a state where B2B marketing starts sounding repetitive. In order to nip the problem in its bud, here are four things that modern day B2B marketers should think about.
There’s Too Much Thought-Leadership Out There
There is no dearth of thought leadership in today’s B2B marketing realm. Established and upcoming B2B marketers share a plethora of insights, tips and learnings from their journey across platforms like LinkedIn often enough. Upcoming B2B tech brands or those in a growth phase who often feel that establishing their own brand’s thought leadership might help take things ahead faster might miss out on the fact that their thought leadership plans might drown in the existing crowd of thought leadership content.
What can help though is:
-Using relevant syndication platforms that can effectively broadcast your leadership’s insights without drowning in the crowd
-Finding newer outlets other than platforms like LinkedIn (while including LinkedIn in the mix) as part of the action plan
Lack of Creativity and Humor in B2B
B2C marketing thrives on being fun and dynamic, B2B marketing more often than not ends up being standardized. Very few B2B tech or SaaS marketers have been able to tap into this lag to effectively communicate their product’s core strengths using unique messaging and creativity.
This is where most B2B marketers can hop onto the bandwagon to drive more constructive campaigns that stand out in their target audience’s mind because of its uniqueness.
What can help here:
-Shortening the copy of the email message / marketing message, adding humor to it
–Using Gifs, short videos, funny animations to entice interest and boost engagement
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Reliance on Laser-focus Approach Without Assessing Intent
Seasoned B2B marketers know well that the first step of their marketing plan and journey is about decoding who their Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is.
But the next step can determine how optimized a B2B marketing plan is. Typically, building out an ICP and then going after those target prospects is a standard that is followed. However, without assessing the intent to buy of those target prospects, marketing efforts can go to waste.
What can help here:
-When building out a target account and prospect list; divide the list into tiers
-Use intent data to understand which prospects are actually in-market to invest in your type of product or service
-Craft different marketing campaigns for those prospects in-market and another campaign for those who haven’t shown intent to buy
-The campaign for the latter should typically induce interest in your product or service whereas the campaign for the former should be built to nurture those in-market products towards your brand versus that of your key competitor
Dearth of Product-Value Fit in Messaging
Think about the martech segment as an example. With over 11000 (and counting) marketing tech tools for users to choose from; B2B marketing teams have to be a lot more strategic with how they portray their brand amidst this.
B2B marketers have to always keep at the centre of their mind that with the range of martech out there, it’s likelier that what they feel their biggest USP is, is part of another suite of offerings already.
Focusing on the product-value fit therefore becomes more critical, using differentiated messaging, customized offers and so on, to add more pull in the market.
What can help:
-It’s not about showcasing case studies; but showing how your product can enable your target buyer’s goals
-Understanding that today’s buyer is spoilt for choice and needs to see real value in a pitch or marketing conversation
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