In the past several years, many business owners have discovered a horrifying fact: that their traditional B2B marketing tactics that had worked successfully for years, no longer had any impact on sales. What went wrong, and more importantly, what can be done now to changes this trend?
Well, as we all know, the first step in successful marketing is to have a pretty rock solid marketing plan. And despite its overuse, there is that old adage, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” So you’d better have a marketing plan before you do anything else!
After you develop that marketing plan, here’s another thing you should do right away: define your business goals. Do you want to be an innovator, or are you simply trying to play catch-up with sales numbers? Hopefully it’s the former, because it gives you the latitude to try new and exciting things.
Next, take a good look at what has worked and what didn’t. Analyze whatever marketing tactics you used that worked, and double your efforts along those lines. Hey, if they’ve worked before, they may work again. Conversely, if you see what wasn’t working – don’t do it again! So many people are afraid to drop things they’re familiar with – whether they’re good or not. Get over it! Throwing money on things you know are not working is just plain bad business. Move on!
If you’re still using an outbound marketing model, start converting your marketing strategy to an inbound one. This is just one marketing channel, but it’s an important one. Use your website and social media to get people to come to you by offering valuable information and content. It beats the heck out of chasing prospective customers with the same tired tactics that everyone else is trying to use.
And speaking of content, make sure you have a solid content strategy in place as well. Make your content an “audience first” one. Try to balance your content strategy based on the needs of your prospective customers – at every stage of the buying cycle. And here’s the most important thing to remember: deliver you content to the marketing channels where your customers are spending most of their time!
Finally, make sure your inbound marketing is a 24-7 proposition. You can never have too much quality content for prospective buyers to look at. You’ll get more leads, quality leads and less expensive leads when you need them! By having new, quality content that is personalized to your buyers, you’ll engage your audience and build trust with prospective customers. And you’ll be spending less to gain a quality lead as well. Wow! More, less expensive leads? You bet! So go get them!
Well, as we all know, the first step in successful marketing is to have a pretty rock solid marketing plan. And despite its overuse, there is that old adage, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” So you’d better have a marketing plan before you do anything else!
After you develop that marketing plan, here’s another thing you should do right away: define your business goals. Do you want to be an innovator, or are you simply trying to play catch-up with sales numbers? Hopefully it’s the former, because it gives you the latitude to try new and exciting things.
Next, take a good look at what has worked and what didn’t. Analyze whatever marketing tactics you used that worked, and double your efforts along those lines. Hey, if they’ve worked before, they may work again. Conversely, if you see what wasn’t working – don’t do it again! So many people are afraid to drop things they’re familiar with – whether they’re good or not. Get over it! Throwing money on things you know are not working is just plain bad business. Move on!
If you’re still using an outbound marketing model, start converting your marketing strategy to an inbound one. This is just one marketing channel, but it’s an important one. Use your website and social media to get people to come to you by offering valuable information and content. It beats the heck out of chasing prospective customers with the same tired tactics that everyone else is trying to use.
And speaking of content, make sure you have a solid content strategy in place as well. Make your content an “audience first” one. Try to balance your content strategy based on the needs of your prospective customers – at every stage of the buying cycle. And here’s the most important thing to remember: deliver you content to the marketing channels where your customers are spending most of their time!
Finally, make sure your inbound marketing is a 24-7 proposition. You can never have too much quality content for prospective buyers to look at. You’ll get more leads, quality leads and less expensive leads when you need them! By having new, quality content that is personalized to your buyers, you’ll engage your audience and build trust with prospective customers. And you’ll be spending less to gain a quality lead as well. Wow! More, less expensive leads? You bet! So go get them!
