As the world opens up again, organizations are exercising even more caution in the evolving economic environment. Whether a recession comes or not, B2B marketers will continue to face challenges reaching and engaging audiences – likely with more emphasis placed on stringent control over budgets for brand awareness and demand generation.
While it’s tempting to focus on short-term gains with low-cost tactics, it’s best to invest in activities that deliver better ROI. For example, more traffic doesn’t mean more marketing qualified leads (MQLs); more MQLs don’t mean more conversions, and more conversions don’t equal cost-effective or highest-value conversions.
By getting creative and strategic, and making smarter choices about when to build and when to partner, brands can do more with less – even in tough times.
Here are nine ways to get creative and create value that breaks through the clutter.
1. Full-funnel marketing
Stand-alone lead generation tactics aren’t as effective as full-funnel marketing. In the omnichannel world of buying collectives, buying cycles are long and complex. The full-funnel approach helps brands drive optimal outcomes with cohesive, connected activities at each stage of the buying journey, which enables a “compound interest” effect on outcomes. Not only does the customer have a smoother journey, each activity builds on the next to deliver a snowball effect, and it’s easier to connect each activity to the revenue outcomes.
2. Leverage the power of community
B2B buyers often become active members of specialist communities that help them make better decisions, including purchasing decisions, because they trust and learn from their peers in a brand-neutral environment.
Of course, building a community of engaged users at scale is a formidable challenge. Luckily, creating value for community members is not. Find ways to collaborate with and contribute to established communities, especially those that are credible sources of information in your specific niche. For example, Spiceworks, a trusted and established community of IT decision makers, allows B2B SaaS IT vendors several opportunities to get involved and create value for other members, while being present when conversations about products happen.
3. Think big, act intimate
Large in-person events are gaining traction again (especially in a hybrid format). These events remain an impactful way to authentically connect with buyers one-to-one and one-to-many settings with a variety of sponsorship packages.
You can also create quality time with prospects for B2B demand generation by supplementing your events program with these tactics:
- Try exclusive, intimate round-table discussions where you can lavish attention on a few of your most high-potential prospects – better yet, invite an industry analyst to attend as well for engaging thought leadership.
- Invite executives from prospect companies to write a guest blog on your website’s resources section.
- Share the human side of your brand by talking about the community work you may do, or how employees benefit from your work-life balance policies. Buyers are humans, and when you make your brand and offerings as real and accessible as possible, you appeal to more than just the buyer in your prospect.
4. Leverage credible industry research for insights
Savvy tech marketers use fact-based, vendor-agnostic research to better understand their customers. It’s a great way to build demand generation tactics around stated preferences rather than assumptions, saving marketers a lot of time, effort, and of course budgets in the bargain. Consider using unbiased, third-party research and content from credible research agencies, to find the insights that will stretch your marketing dollars on the right activities.
5. Make the most of existing customers
Marketing on a budget should always leverage the exponential power of word-of-mouth, referrals, and customer feedback to help improve the buying experience. Get customers involved by tagging them on interesting social media posts, inviting them to events as speakers, and as guest bloggers on your site. Their participation in your conversation creates a subtle but concrete credibility around your brand. Expand the circle of influence by going beyond customers – consider including members of your partner network such as resellers, vendors, and agencies.
6. Put a “niche” twist on your content marketing
No one debates the power of content marketing to engage prospects, but it can be very resource intensive, especially the content creation and distribution aspects. Even organic search (always a useful way to be found by prospects) is challenging if you go after the big keywords that your much bigger competitor has already optimized for. Instead, use your insights about prospects to identify long-tail keywords that may have lower search volumes but help you connect to real prospects. This requires you to think like a buyer – the niche segments they belong to, what problems they seek to solve, and the triggers they respond to.
Another great way to leverage content is to identify editorial and advertorial opportunities with publications your customers already know, read and trust. This way, you can focus on packing in great value in terms of the narrative and insights, but leave the actual content creation and distribution logistics to the publication. This may actually be a more effective approach to content when you cannot invest in building and executing a comprehensive content plan.
7. Build thought leadership
You are an expert in your field. You have something to say that can help your customers. So say it! Create a thriving social media network on the platforms your customers prefer. Use tools like Google Alerts to track and monitor discussions, and jump in when you have the chance to add something of value to the discussion with your perspective and insights. Contribute guest blogs and get some earned media on publications that your customers read. Send out a regular email newsletter that helps your prospects and customers learn something new each week. These activities may seem like slow-burn, but they go a long way in creating not just brand awareness, but preference.
8. Invest in the best possible intent data
Intent data is definitely a savior when it comes to smarter demand generation. Double down on high-quality intent data, but always from a trusted source, or else it may end up costing more in fines and loss of reputation. With high-quality authentic intent data, not only do you focus on the right audience segments, you generate better MQLs that help sales focus on only the most high-potential prospects.
9. Try something new
There are plenty of opportunities that lie in uncharted waters. Trying them may lead to breakthroughs that help you do more with less. For example, widening your reach to engage with gatekeepers and influencers that impact the buying collective but may not have been adequately addressed in the past; adding value to your audiences via influencer marketing on complementary channels such as gaming and lifestyle communities; or via mobile and in-app marketing.
When things are tough, it’s vital to have the right partners on your team to drive the maximum “bang for your buck.” Demand generation is a huge and crowded space, but working with multiple vendors to execute your plan is a further drain on your resources. Find a vendor who can offer the best of intent data, research, community, content, and outreach, all in one place; and has the capabilities to help you scale as your needs evolve.