Just last week, we talked about all the time, effort, and patience required to implement an effective marketing plan. Yes, it's still true. In many ways, though, B2B companies have it easier than ever — from planning through execution of a program and beyond.
The tools and tactics available today offer an unprecedented opportunity to power your business growth — let's look at some.
1) The platforms. There are more channels than ever available to reach potential buyers, exposing you to a much wider audience. Of course, that doesn't mean you need to bombard each and every one. Once you understand how to best use LinkedIn, for example, or what kinds of display ads get the most responses, you can tailor your program to your strengths.
2) Marketing automation. Just like manufacturing automation, marketing automation cuts down on the labor of repetitive tasks, letting you focus on the high-level picture. Initially focused only on email, marketing automation now covers all channels — website, social media, etc. — to give deep insight into success rates of lead generation efforts, and help move leads through customized funnels to become sales.
3) Data, data everywhere. Both a blessing and a curse — there is more data on buyer behavior than ever, but what do you do with all of it? Marketing automation tools and marketing partners can help make sense of it all.
4) SEO, simplified. The days when SEO success depended on "unlocking the code" of keyword density, meta tags, and other obscure methods are behind us. How you rank now primarily depends on one thing — how good your website and marketing content is. Is it unique? Is it authoritative? Is it useful? If so, you'll rank well — and industrial companies are in a great position to lend their expertise to quality content.
5) New connections. Rather than paying to attend one or two conferences each year to network, prospect, and learn about "what's hot," you can make those connections online – and often gain more of an education than thousands of dollars in conference spending could have gotten.
6) Partnerships. In order to stand out from the crowd, today's digital marketing firms need to offer something different. The good news for businesses is that there are plenty of places doing this well – focusing on areas like media, pharma, and manufacturing & industry.