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 ReadingB2B Monday Myth: When Sales Are Down, a Quick Fix Is the Answer
by MGB2B
The Myth: A Quick-Fix Marketing Campaign Is Necessary When Sales Numbers Are Down.
The Truth: A Slow-Burn B2B Marketing Strategy Will Foster ROI in the Long-Term.
Imagine: it’s Q2, and you look at the numbers. And the numbers aren’t looking good. If you end the year like this, it is bad news. Panicked, you call your marketing department, and give them this message: Do whatever you can, right now, to get my sales numbers up.
And Marketing executes a last-ditch, quick approach to try to get your company back on track. It may even yield good results. In the short term.
But the truth is, if you implemented long-term marketing strategy in Q1, you should expect a slow burn instead of an immediate increase in ROI. Especially with marketing plans that rely heavily on content marketing. If you put your time into a quick execution to boost immediate numbers, you’re wasting it. Instead, you should spend that time working toward larger, long-term successes.
There are several elements that take time to develop – many that require testing – in order to be done well. So you have to ask: what are the steps for implementing a successful long-term B2B marketing strategy?
Step 1: Know Your Goals and Objectives
The purpose of your campaign is to increase ROI over the long haul, not just in the immediate future. Converting leads right now will increase your sales in the short term, but long-term thinking will set the wheels in motion for greater successes year after year. Outside of sales, what are you looking for? Know exactly what you want to achieve from your campaign. You cannot expect to implement this strategy in a day and have leads knocking the door down. Brainstorm how you can sustain this campaign in the over one year, two years, three. And remember, a lot of your strategy will hinge on building relationships over time. Continuous engagement with your brand puts you on a steadier path to conversion.
If you are a bigger company, it might benefit you to take a step back and look at the bigger picture for your marketing strategy. Reworking your brand may be the key to sustaining leads for longer.
Step 2: Do Your Research
Your strategy will be useless if you haven’t taken the time to do proper research on your target audience and how your message will be best conveyed. Utilize market research initiatives to find out more abut who you plan to target, what they want, where they are in terms of the sales funnel, what messages resonate with them, and their preferred media and marketing channels. By doing the research, you will be putting the right message in front of the right people at the right time.
Step 3: Implement, Evaluate, and Fine-Tune
Your slow-burn campaign will be a long-term commitment, meaning the creation of a pipeline with organized divisions of labor and clear deadlines is vital to staying on track. When implementing a long-term strategy, you want to make sure it is as effective as possible. That’s why it’s important not to underestimate the value of keyword evaluation, website analytics, and A/B testing. Note that sales are far from the only KPI (key performance indicator). It’s important to align your KPIs with the goals you set in Step 1. If you’re measuring the wrong thing, it may become an obstacle rather than a boon. You may also need to accept that not all measures of success can be supported by hard data.
Taking the time to create a strategy, research your target audience, and detailed evaluation may seem like a lot of work. But it’s worth it in the long run. While you may not see an immediate increase in sales, these steps will ultimately foster long-term success that all company stakeholders will benefit from in the end.
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