With over half of the year over, here is a digest from a survey conducted by Hubspot, published earlier this year which highlights where Business to Business Marketing needs to focus in the short term. There are some useful insights here which will prompt some healthy discussion.
Return on Investment is the key challenge.
Measuring marketing ROI has always been the bête noire of marketers, and interest in this metric is gathering momentum as business owners are now far savvier about “the cause and effect” of their marketing investment. This key challenge has marginally overtaken perennial evergreens such as lead generation and website management as the main challenge marketers must provide.
Key Tip
Ensure you have a measurement that can easily be made – an uplift in revenue is, without doubt, the easiest. Remember, it is easier to measure a tangible investment in something like a “Facebook Ad” rather than gauge the impact a blog or case study may have on your revenue.
For Marketing Managers, the key CAMPAIGN objectives are improved Brand Awareness.
This is surprising and reflects the phoenix that is slowly rising from the ashes of the pandemic. Reinforcing your branding, consolidating loyalty, increasing engagement and enhancing customer service have become the rallying noises emerging from the B2B arena. In 2019 the drive was very much featured on lead generation, which has been deemed to be of slightly lesser importance as a business investment area.
Key Tip
Promoting brand awareness can come at a cost, so always be mindful of budgets and ROIs. If you are in a customer service-orientated industry, take extra steps to ensure that all staff involved in the customer delivery experience are trained and can deliver your brand proposition.
Optimising your website’s loading speed was voted the most important digital marketing strategy.
Again, a leftfield result! and a combination of factors contributes to this. One is the launch of “Google Core Vitals” in May 2020, which made page loading speed one of the key ranking signals. This, coupled with “the 54-second rule for B2B websites”, the average time people spend on a website before moving on, has catapulted this metric into the limelight, hence the critical need for fast loading sights. There is also a reduction in the need for localisation as a lot more professional services can now reach out further to national as well as international areas. This is, however, still of significance to medical practitioners such as dentists as well as hairdressers, where being found locally is essential to their service offering.
Key Tip
Ensure your website is optimised and loads quickly, look at images and videos and ensure that these files are resized and compressed – simple factors such as creating “browser caches” are also highly recommended.
If you are in a business where your demographic is locally based, seek help from experts who can offer you local SEO, such as Business Medics.
Case Studies are considered to be the No. 1 Content Marketing Format!
In a really congested line-up, Case Studies were over 10% more popular than rivals, such as video interviews and e-books for B2-B SMEs! This, from a cost perspective, is in the immediate control of the business owner, although if time-challenged, always worth engaging with available copywriting services. The key factor is that businesses like to learn from other businesses, and any success story can be packaged as an important selling tool or thought leadership exercise with other businesses in your sector.
It seems that the popularity of audio is on the wane, with last year’s shiny thing “Clubhouse” having had their moment in the sun, and podcasts no longer have the nuanced novelty in the business world they provide to the entertainment industries.
Key Tip
As well as spending time on writing and creating case studies, also consider video case- studies as this format is still king and has taken over from audio in a big way. Whether you choose a video interview, a video testimonial, or a corporate video to extol the virtues of your business, this format rules the current roost in the world of B2-B SMEs.
Linkedin is by far and away the most popular social media platform for B2-B Marketers.
This couples nicely with the previous comment about content. Linkedin is over 20% more popular than its nearest rival – TikTok, for B2B marketing. Especially as it offers opportunities to broadcast both visual and written content. Again ensure that all content created, such as videos, blogs, testimonials, case studies, infomercials or ads, are regularly shared on social media platforms etc.
Remember, though, there is a demographic overlay, and some businesses will no doubt benefit from using platforms such as Facebook or Instagram, especially if a younger or more mature societal group is the aspired target group.
Key Tip
Create a social media marketing planning document like the one attached and select the best platforms to regularly post to. Allow yourself a minimum of half a day a week; when you work on your business, this should encompass all marketing and not just social media activities!
Our final quote encompassing all of the elements of this survey and enshrines the spirit of modern marketing is attributable to a certain William Shakespeare…”Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure, Like doth, quit like, and Measure still for measure.”
