Looking Ahead to 2018: The Year of Data-Driven Marketing for B2B
by MGB2B
Data-driven marketing refers to marketing insights, strategy, and decisions that arise from the analysis of data about or from consumers. It is one of the most transformational changes in the history of advertising. Data-driven marketing takes the answers to the questions like Who, What, When, Where, and Why and makes the answers actionable.
The Benefits of B2B Data
- Enables marketers to focus advertising efforts on businesses that are more likely to be receptive
- Identifies new leads and promotional opportunities using hyper-targeting
- Ensures that existing sales and business relationships are stable and successful through nurturing and growth
Ultimately, investing in data collection and analysis can produce valuable insights that improve your campaign performance, which often translates into increasing your bottom line, while providing more meaningful advertisements to customers.
How to Collect Meaningful Data – Pre-Campaign
Now that the many benefits of data are clear, how do you go about collecting meaningful data for your company? The first step is identifying what you know and what you don’t know. If you’re interested in understanding your customers better and building buyer personas, a Consumer Research Study could be the route to take. Or if new product development is one of your 2018 goals, perhaps a Product Development Survey would be best. Understanding knowledge gaps in your organization is the first step in defining your research parameters and getting at the information you desire.
How to Use Data to Inform Your Online Campaigns
Surveys are a great way to collect data. But they aren’t the only way. Some of the most important data is collected as your digital campaigns are running. For instance, Paid Search campaigns are only made better by tracking the performance of several ads. Over time, the data tells you which messages are resonating with which audience segments, which times of the day ads are performing, etc. You can use information from email campaigns similarly, testing to see which subject lines and messages perform best and using the data to make your campaign more effective. These are just two examples. Online testing and fine-tuning should be a big part of your marketing strategy in 2018 if you are not already doing it.
Investing in Audience Growth
When you conduct research and testing with the goal of gaining insight into your target audience, not only will you have a set of data points describing them, but you will have a deeper understanding of their thoughts, feelings, and motivations. You will have answers to the questions Who, What, When, Where, and Why. With this information, you can create targeted campaigns keyed into specific points that appeal to your audience.
For example, let’s say you learn through research that factory owners are not just concerned with OSHA compliance, but also feel an emotional connection to protecting the lives of their employees through safe work environments. You can take that piece of emotional information and apply it to your messaging, helping factory owners connect with what you’re saying on a deeper level. If you learn architects visit certain industry websites more often than others, tailor your media plan to highlight that website. If contractors tend to open emails more at night than throughout the day, customize your email campaign to launch at 9 pm instead of 10 am. Small tidbits such as these can reveal themselves through detailed research, and become game-changers in the development of your entire marketing strategy.
When considering marketing initiatives to pursue in 2018, marketing research and testing should be top priorities. Gaining a deeper understanding of audience behavior is crucial, especially as outreach becomes more digitally focused each year. And in 2018, we will continue to see this trend develop and blossom. Time to dive in head-first!
Continue ReadingKnow Your Enemies: A Checklist for Manufacturers
by MGB2B
In the early stages of developing a Marketing Plan, it is crucial for manufacturers to understand not only who their target audience is and what they desire, but who else is within the realm of consideration. Sometimes you think you know your competitors well. But you can learn a lot from doing a robust competitive analysis and a little core user research.
START WITH A RE-EVALUATION OF YOUR COMPETITIVE SET
The competition can change from year to year, so it’s very important you don’t gloss over this part. Perhaps one of your competitors switched their main focus from defense to aerospace. That affects you in one way or another, so you’ll need to do a bit of homework. Knowing each competitor’s game plan is essential.
There are many questions you can ask when evaluating your competitors, but these four are required in order to position yourself correctly:
- What’s their primary message?
- How do they position themselves?
- What do they do differently than you do?
- What do you do better than they do?
Evaluate your competitors with as much depth as you would your own brand. Make a list of your major competitors. Go over them one by one, and ask yourself the questions above. Then look at their websites, their social media sites, their ads. Leave no stone unturned. And have a very detail-oriented person on your team create a spreadsheet to house all of this information. This way you can evaluate over time. By the end, you’ll have a thorough assessment of where your brand stands and how you can stand out to prospects.
CONDUCT CORE USER RESEARCH TO GET MORE QUALITATIVE INSIGHTS
Beyond the competitive set, core user research can give you more qualitative insights into how you are regarded in comparison to your competitors. The second part of your checklist is aimed at what you want to find out from your core users. Keep in mind, these are people who like you, so they may be reluctant to tell you what they like about your competitors. That’s why it’s always wise to get a third party involved to gather this research.
You’ll want to ask:
- Who did they consider partnering with before they chose your company?
- Why did they choose to work with you over the others?
- What do they like about the other manufacturers that you didn’t offer?
- What are all the aspects they consider, and in what order, before choosing a manufacturing partner?
- Who in their company makes decisions?
These are just a few questions to get the ball rolling. You can make your research as robust as you’d like as long as you don’t take up too much of your customers’ time.
Once you have both your competitive analysis and core user research done, you’ll know your enemies (er, competitors) better than yourself. And you can start building personas and a Marketing Plan that’s more effective than ever. May the force be with you.
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