Do You Recognise These Marketing Problems at Your B2B Company?
“Who Are Our Potential Customers and What, When, Where and Why Do They Find Out About Us?”
“Who Are Our Potential Customers and What, When, Where and Why Do They Find Out About Us?”
People source B2B products and services and make the decisions to buy them. Although, B2B marketers sometimes fall into the trap of creating characterless content targeted at accounts, companies and logos. Understanding consumer behaviour isn't just a B2C marketing fundamental. People often use the same marketing channels and research methods to find products and services to solve their day-to-day problems in both their personal and professional lives.
“Why Does Our Marketing Department Rarely Engage With Customers and Not Prioritise Success Stories?”
“Why Does Our Marketing Department Rarely Engage With Customers and Not Prioritise Success Stories?”
B2B marketers must continuously understand how and why customers get value from their products and services. There's a reason that multiple definitions of marketing include “customer” with some of the most credible definitions not changing for decades. Unfortunately, the distance between B2B marketers and their customers seems to be growing and there's a misconception that the sales and support teams foster and maintain these relationships.
“Our CRM System Is a Mess; How Can We Make Informed Strategic Decisions and Get Valuable Insights?”
“Our CRM System Is a Mess; How Can We Make Informed Strategic Decisions and Get Valuable Insights?”
One of the biggest frustrations in B2B marketing is working with a disorganised CRM system that's not configured to collect and measure meaningful data. Due to over-automation, some CRM systems are not providing accurate and easy-to-access information about customer buying journeys and where revenue comes from. This misleading data leads to ineffective marketing channels being attributed to won opportunities.
“What's the Origin of Our Revenue and Why Is It Difficult To Find and Report on the First Customer Touchpoint?”
“What's the Origin of Our Revenue and Why Is It Difficult To Find and Report on the First Customer Touchpoint?”
When targeting net new business, the first customer touchpoint is a crucial indicator of marketing channel success. If this is not thoroughly understood, fruitless marketing activities are reinforced and continued. A heavily automated CRM system that just measures — the also valuable — last customer touchpoint becomes a rigid barrier to progression and achieving a company culture of open accountability and continuous improvement.
“We Seem To Have Underperforming Channels That Are Expensive, Yet We Continue To Invest in Them?”
“We Seem To Have Underperforming Channels That Are Expensive, Yet We Continue To Invest in Them?”
In B2B marketing, a comfort zone can develop with marketing channels and tactics. If you're justifying investments and projects on based on “this is the way it's always been done” or “our competitors are doing this, so we might miss out”, you have a problem. The previously mentioned CRM system issues are another contributory factor. Would B2B marketers spend money so recklessly in their personal lives or if they owned the company? Probably not.
“Why Is Our Marketing Team Mostly Measuring Success From a Brand Awareness Perspective?”
“Why Is Our Marketing Team Mostly Measuring Success From a Brand Awareness Perspective?”
The justification for some marketing activities is “increasing brand awareness.” Yes, this is important, but what about the content, positioning and messaging for the other stages of the buyer's journey? The best B2B marketers evaluate their performance on how they are contributing to revenue objectives. Deceptive data and vanity metrics lead to inaccurate insights and repetitive cycles of uninformed decisions and performance evaluation.
