B2B marketing and sales

Best in B2B Marketing at The Corporate LiveWire Global Awards

10/22/2018 by Linsay Duncan

B2B marketing strategy and “doing” is what the entire team has been immersed in for years and years. What a brilliant feeling therefore, to be seen in the industry as people that do this well.

On the back of this wonderful accolade, we thought we’d draw on this experience and share some of those common issues that impact marketing performance. (It’s understanding these that’s helped us earn this Best in B2B marketing badge). Whilst every business has its own unique situation, there are common underlying problems which prevent them getting the traction they needed. Spot the root of these issues and you’re a step closer to being able to fix it.

Outbound over-reliance

Focusing on outbound communications, relentlessly hitting the same prospect audience, is a limited approach which will tire quickly. There’s a crucial balance to be struck across new business, brand building, nurturing and retention efforts in any marketing strategy in order to engage prospects and avoid potentially irritating them.

Risks

It’s risky to assume that by simply knowing a prospect’s email address or telephone number it means that eventually, through one of those routes you’ll reach them and break them down. (Time and time again we see email marketing counted on as the key leadgen solution. Some people will simply never respond to email, and some company email servers will never let your email reach the intended recipient – fact.)

Tips

A multi-channel lead generation strategy is the only sensible approach. One where you test channels based on where your prospects “hang out” and seek information, and assess the quality of leads that each generates. You’ve heard this one before, “test, review, improve” – simple.

Counting on a junior

For a business ready for professional marketing, investing in a full-time junior marketing resource may seem like a smart move, and still a significant investment. However, without supporting your new marketer with the right direction and support you might be setting yourself up for a fail.

Risks

Without careful, skilled leadership and senior marketing expertise in the business to guide them how will they be equipped to a) deliver the right strategy and b) execute on it successfully? Similarly, how will you know what success looks like and how to measure your junior marketer against sensible KPIs if you’ve not done this before yourself? How will you know what success looks like?

Tips

Consider how to maximise your investment in junior marketing resource by:

Mentoring your leadership team, to build the right level of marketing awareness at the top, and around your marketer.
Bringing in marketing expertise on a part-time or flexible basis to guide and coach.
Upskilling your marketer through training or courses.

Loving yourself too much

Alarming to us, but still we frequently see businesses leading with messages on the pedigree of their company, the wonderful “key features and benefits” of its products and services (yawn) and other self-centred aspects. Not sure where you sit on the scale of self-centred to customer-first? Do a quick scan on your website and collateral and count the “WEs” and the “OURs” and the “USs”. It’s a useful first indication of sounding like you love yourself.

Risks

The risk of alienating potential clients through this approach is huge. The B2B buyer expects to see their pain points reflected back in what they see and hear, and to understand why a business deserves their attention (i.e. through awards, case studies etc).

Tips

Keep the client at the heart of all marketing efforts and you give yourself the best chance of success. Show deep understanding of their issues and a genuine interest in helping. And have a tonne of proof to back it up.

A final word

You’ll find more of our marketing insights and advice in the Corporate Livewire publication here:

And from Your Allies founder, Linsay Duncan:
“Although much of our work is with London-based businesses or firms trying to crack the UK market, it’s brilliant for Your Allies to be showcased alongside such innovative companies from around the globe. A hearty thanks goes to my phenomenal team – I’m proud of what we have achieved. Happy to receive this recent award but happier still to see that what we do keeps helping our clients grow.”

Your Allies hailed as ‘SME Marketing Company of the Year 2018’ for B2B Sales and Marketing alignment know-how

09/10/2018 by Linsay Duncan

Whatever the extent of misalignment, this ultimately limits performance. It needn’t be this way though – fusing these forces is not rocket science. Over the years Your Allies (formerly Marke2ing) has worked with many SMEs and larger enterprises, transforming their fractured culture into one of collaboration and shared vision. This work has resulted in recognition from the UK Enterprise Awards 2018 as ‘SME Marketing Company of the Year 2018’.

The UK Enterprise Awards recognise the key players and smaller enterprises making their mark within the UK business scene. The awards acknowledge those who thrive amongst fierce competition on a national scale, highlighting stand-out performance and practices. We couldn’t be more thrilled to have our approach to sales and marketing alignment commended. It’s particularly close to our hearts, as we strive to bring this to each and every client. Here we share a few insights into the foundations that build unified sales and marketing.

One vision, shared objectives, joint reward

Tension typically stems from the two teams working towards different goals and a lack of cohesive vision. Working at odds, not understanding what the other team is doing and why, and poor communication are all common symptoms of this. When sales and marketing are focused on one clear vision, and with shared goals and rewards, that’s when the magic happens. Less friction, greater efficiencies, deeper learnings, improved performance and shared success.

Dig deep into company roots and culture

Before analysing the ins and outs of the sales and marketing teams themselves, first take a hard look at the leadership and organisational structure. Reporting structures dictate so much – the visibility of teams, relationships between departments, culture and how systems and processes flow.

A seat at the table

Here’s an example of the impact hierarchy and reporting structure can impact B2B sales and marketing alignment. How often do you hear of a CMO or Marketing Director responsible for Sales? Not in our time. Flip that, and marketing departments reporting into a Sales Director is far more common. The mere fact Marketing has no comparable senior counterpart to sit equally alongside Sales, Product Finance and IT is highly likely to hinder both their accountability and their visibility. To the rest of the business it says, “Marketing can be shoehorned into another department, it doesn’t warrant the same space at the table.” This trickles down through a business.

Our advice here is simple. For marketing to drive business performance, and for marketing to have the best chance of success, CEOs and MDs must provide a space at the table – where marketing can have a voice and be seen as a strategic partner.

Foster collaboration

With all the best intentions to make marketing and sales more joined-up, efforts will fall to the wayside unless backed up by the right processes. As well as processes and systems that help manage and track sales and marketing efforts, the way in which your teams can collaborate will underpin success.

Teams that don’t talk, teams that physically aren’t near one another, are at risk of working in siloes. Bedding down processes that encourage regular face-to-face time and frequent two-way communication is essential. Marketing cannot do their job without having a deep understanding of sales, and the ins of out of how they engage with prospects and clients.

Nor can marketing truly understand channel performance without sitting down with Sales to find out about the quality of the leads they’re delivering. We often sense immense discomfort when asking our client’s marketers to ask for open feedback on their leads: which were good, which were average, and which really didn’t hit the mark. Leaving egos aside, marketers will really grow by gaining insight into what’s working and what’s not. Their sales counterparts will respect them too for being open to such frank discussions.

The power of B2B Sales and Marketing Alignment

Here we’ve merely touched on some of the positive impacts you can expect when marketing and sales are allies. A harmonious culture where communication channels are open and planning, spend and activity are aligned will reap endless rewards.

Need an extra hand fine-tuning your Sales and Marketing teams?” Our award-winning part-time marketing directors know how to transform B2B marketing and sales teams from misaligned and underperforming to an engine of growth. Find out how we can develop your sales and marketing function – get in touch.

B2B lead generation: what’s working right now?

08/29/2018 by Linsay Duncan

We share the latest research, benchmarks and advice that will help you reassess your lead generation channels and identify those approaches proven to deliver results.

Word of mouth may be King but who’s the Queen?

It’s no surprise that word of mouth and referrals reign supreme when it comes to B2B lead generation. It has always been a powerful way to generate leads, particularly when done strategically however it is limited by scale.

B2B Lead Generation - Conversion Rate Table — Source: Average Conversion Rate from Lead to Opportunity – Marketo Data Tells Us: What Is the Top Conversion Rate by Channel?

When broader outreach is needed, inbound content marketing comes into its own. The channel, used by 91% of B2B marketers, provides a strong ROI and delivers warmer inquiries compared to cold outreach campaigns. However, it doesn’t come without its own challenges.

What content marketing isn’t

Organisations that are unsuccessful with content marketing are likely to be doing one or more of the following:

1. Publishing content that’s not tuned in to potential buyers, doesn’t recognise their challenges and lacks proof.
2. Sharing self-serving or self-focused stories (the “Read all about us!” approach, you’ve read this stuff before and probably switched off).
3. Poorly timed distribution that misses prime engagement times.
4. Using dull formats which don’t engage with their audience.
5. Lack of content and keyword strategy.

These mistakes mean the opportunity to engage with prospects, and nurture them, are missed.

In contrast, those that that see success through content marketing have a clear and documented strategy (only around 37% of organisations), invest in their content marketing efforts (40% of marketing budget vs 14% of those who are the least successful) and work within an organisation that has a strongly aligned sales and marketing team.

B2B Lead Generation - Leads vs Alignment Chart — Source: State of Inbound Global Report 2018

What does successful content marketing look like?

B2B Lead Generation - Content Marketing Graph — Source: 2018 B2B Lead Gen Outlook

Blog articles, whitepapers and research reports remain among the most fruitful forms of content marketing.

Key is to ensure they are well-researched, long-form pieces of content and provide real value to your prospects.

What’s more, video is becoming harder and harder to ignore, even in the B2B space.

However, successful content marketing doesn’t happen in isolation. For the best results, it will be integrated with your SEO, social media and email marketing strategies.

Account based marketing for your hottest prospects

Account Based Marketing (ABM) is a more focused approach than content marketing but still not as personal as referral marketing.

ABM works because it focuses heavily on building quality relationships (something we’re naturally advocates of). With 84% of marketers reporting that ABM has significant benefits to retaining and expanding existing client relationships, it’s one to seriously consider for your marketing mix.

These are just some of the proven approaches that will help you build impactful B2B lead generation marketing. Get the balance right and you’ll shape a strategy that works short-term, longer term, and which supports wider outreach and focused efforts for those truly hot prospects.

Do your B2B lead generation strategies need a shake up?” Feel like your marketing mix isn’t filling your lead funnel as you’d like it to? We help businesses review their channel mix and find one that works. To find out more, drop us a line.