Planning B2B marketing campaigns can be complex.
The B2B buyer sales cycle has increased in length over the past three years[1]. During this long-drawn process, there are loads to keep track of, from ROI to objectives to trends. Don’t forget that there are more stakeholders involved too!
We’ve ran quite a number of marketing campaign but sometimes even we get overwhelmed. So we’ve identified five checkpoints along the B2B buyer’s journey to help you plan, execute and measure your campaigns. This checklist is based on key marketing campaign topics that we’ve discussed in previous posts.
Ready?
1) Campaign Objectives: Are Your Campaign Objectives SMART?
By SMART, we mean whether they meet all of the criteria below:
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Specific
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Measurable
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Achievable
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Relevant
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Timely
A clearly defined and informed set of objectives is the backbone of an effective marketing campaign. So, nebulous objectives like “We want to be thought leaders” would not be enough.
>> Create SMART objectives here.
2) Buyer Personas: Do You Know Who Your Ideal Customer Is?
Buyers should be at the heart of your marketing campaigns. Do you truly know your buyers though, or are they just a nebulous “everyone”?
If you do not know your buyers well, then you need to create a buyer persona. Here’s how:
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Ask questions about your buyer, particularly about their needs and challenges
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Get your answers and compile them
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Use them to build your buyer persona and his/ her story
>> Build detailed buyer personas here.
3) Kick Ass Team: Do You Have the Right Mix of Talent to Pull Off an Effective Marketing Campaign?
Behind every successful marketing campaign is a well-assembled team. We find that an all-star marketing team should be competent in these five areas:
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Strategy
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Digital Engagement
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SEO
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Content
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Creative
An effective marketing campaign is science, art, and business combined. To get it going, you’ll need different people doing different things.
>> Find out why these five areas of expertise matter here.
4) Content Distribution: Are You Making Any of These Three Common Content Distribution Mistakes?
There’s no point spending so much effort and resources creating great content if your potential buyers are unable to find and read it.
Unfortunately, we’ve noticed that many B2B marketers are ineffective at content distribution. These are the common mistakes:
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Poor social media visibility and activity
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Promotional tactics that are not aligned with your buyer’s journey
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Not measuring your content's effectiveness and performance with the correct metrics
>> Find out more about content distribution mistakes here.
5) Decision Stage Content: Is Your Content Marketing Aligned with Sales?
The decision stage is a great opportunity for marketing and sales to collaborate on providing potential customers with the content needed to make that important final decision. Marketing can help sales by providing
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Providing product information such as data sheets, demos, and trials.
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Thought leadership collateral, such as expert opinions and best practices.
Ultimately, better sales and marketing alignment will lead to improved customer acquisitions and ROI for both.
>> Marketing and sales can be aligned better here.
Here’s to More Effective Marketing Campaigns!
B2B marketing campaigns are long and can be complicated. We hope that in this post, and previous ones, we’ve managed to explain what’s important at various stages of the process.
If you’d like more guidance, we’ve got you covered! Just click on the link below to get our 4-step B2B Marketing Campaign Plan. In it, we distill the B2B marketing campaign planning and executing process into four key steps. There are templates in the eBook to help you make your campaign planning easier.
Happy marketing, everyone!
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Credits & Sources
Header image from Pexels
Image of dart and dartboard from Tim from KeyShot
Image of happy people from Search Engine Land
Image of men in colourful socks from Pexels
Cartoon of tree from ManageCamp Inc.
Image of laptops from Helloquence @ Stocksnap.io
[1] How B2B marketers are Managing the Evolving B2B Buyer’s Journey (src: Eloqua)
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