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B2B Marketing Strategy: 33 Experts Reveal The Single Most Important Ingredient of a Successful B2B Marketing Plan

Great marketing is essential to the growth of any B2B company. So developing a solid B2B marketing plan and executing against the plan is paramount. And even though the strategies and tactics and tools to help grow your marketing efforts continually change and evolve, the fundamentals that power a high-performance and successful B2B plan often remain the same.

To find out more about effective B2B marketing, we reached out to 33 marketing experts and asked them each the following question:

“What’s the single most important ingredient of a successful, strategic B2B marketing plan?”

We’ve compiled their expert tips and tactics into this jam-packed guide to creating a can’t-miss marketing strategy for your business.

See what our experts said below:

MEET OUR PANEL OF B2B MARKETING EXPERTS:

YANIV NAVOT

Yaniv Navot is the Director of Performance Marketing at Dynamic Yield. Yaniv is an accomplished digital marketing expert, with vast experience in SEM, Web Analytics and Conversion Optimization.

I think the best ingredient of a strategic, successful B2B marketing plan is…

Customer-centric approach.

By isolating different audience personas and creating impactful customer segments, based on common behaviors, intent, traffic sources, demographics, interests and so forth – companies can reveal the real stories behind their data, ultimately, leading them to see a big-picture understanding of the business and its more specifically, what behaviors and persona attributes are driving the end-result.

This is the first valuable step of any strategic B2B marketing plan. With the right set of customer stories, companies can act accordingly, by initiating highly relevant personalization and optimization campaigns.

SARAH TOURVILLE

Sarah Tourville is the CEO and founder of Media Frenzy Global, an award-winning technology marketing and PR agency with offices in London and Atlanta. She is also the co-host of the Tech Marketing Radio Show, the premier radio show that helps marketers make sense of the myriad technology platforms that build brand awareness and create customer engagement.

The most important ingredient of a successful B2B marketing strategy is…

Consumer insights. Starting with the intention and messaging of your campaign, the data you gather around consumers’ thoughts, behaviors, feelings and values towards a particular product or brand will be the key to your campaign success.

Trends are always changing, as are the minds of your consumers. This is where extensive and continual research becomes essential. Whether you conduct a focus group, survey or behavioral research, your campaign strategy should be based on the analysis of your findings. Contributing factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, income, cultural background and education should affect how you tailor your message. The ultimate goal is to develop lasting relationships with loyal customers and if you fail to incorporate consumer insights into your marketing plan, you’re missing an opportunity to connect with potential prospects.”

JENNIFER GARCIA

Strategic to the core, Jennifer Garcia knows how to seize opportunity from every angle. Her extensive marketing experience fuels her ability to rouse the best talents from the world’s most brilliant brand thinkers, leaders, and communicators, which is how she catalyzed major transformations for major players-from Nokia to Hilton Hotels. She’s currently CEO at Red Bamboo Marketing.

The 31 element of a strategic and successful B2B marketing plan is…

Business goals.

Once a marketer can get an executive or business owner to clearly articulate their business goals, we can develop a clear strategy. Without that alignment and communication – the strategy will fall flat. Our job in marketing strategy is to get our customer (execs, owners, sales, etc.) to focus on their BIG BET – their goal, short and long term. Sounds so simple, but without it the cake won’t taste good

RICHARD WRIGHT

Richard Wright is the CEO of Wright’s Printing & Marketing. Richard’s key to success is running the business by casting the vision and growing a competent team to make it a reality.

I think the #1 ingredient of a strategic B2B marketing is…

Due to the term business-to-business, many marketers focus on the demographics of a certain business (size, industry, revenue, etc.) when developing their campaigns. However, the decision makers are people. Effectively marketing to the people inside of the company transforms a B2B company into a one-to-one market. The single most important ingredient of any B2B campaign is to create marketing messages that meet the specific needs of the individuals and transforming that B2B marketing campaign into a one-to-one marketing campaign.

JONATHAN BENTZ

Jonathan Bentz is a Marketing Manager at Netrepid, a provider of colocation, infrastructure and application hosting to help growing companies accelerate from the ground to the cloud. He has over 10 years of online marketing experience managing and producing successful online lead generation and SEO campaigns for B2B companies. His expertise has been featured in BtoB Magazine, CIO Online, and SEOchat.

The most important ingredient of a strategic, successful B2B marketing plan is…

Know your decision makers-well.

You can deploy all of the latest, most effective marketing strategies to lure customers to your business, raise awareness of your brand and build a nice increase in traffic to your website. But without knowing who the decision makers are for the purchase of your products/services and targeting them, all you are doing is adding to the ‘noise’ in your marketplace. When a business can properly define its target influencers, sponsors, and decision makers within the businesses it wants to attract, the marketing process becomes so much easier because it can be laser-focused. In B2B marketing, your goal should always be to reach the right person who can say ‘yes’. However, at midmarket and enterprise businesses, there is also likely to be an influencer or executive sponsor somewhere along the way who needs to be convinced that your product/service is the right solution before you get presented to the decision maker. Identify who those individuals are and what triggers them. Then, make sure you have content catering directly to them for a more strategic and successful B2B marketing plan.

STEPHEN SUSINA

An electrical engineer by education and marketer by choice, Steve Susina uses data and analytics to help firms generate demand, establish thought leadership and strengthen the company brand. He currently serves as Marketing Director for Director Lyons Consulting Group, a full-service eCommerce digital agency.

The single most important ingredient to strategic B2B marketing is…

Setting clear and unambiguous goals.

Aligned with the overall corporate strategy… For example, if the company’s strategy is to grow by expanding sales to existing customer, a strategic, successful marketing plan should focus on understanding the pains that current customers experience, with tactics that zero in on existing customers such as retention marketing, loyalty programs, or frequent purchase programs. If the company has a goal of launching a new product, the marketing goals should be aligned with developing a target client base, developing a messaging strategy that outlines the why change message to that target base, and educating the market on how the new product solves those challenges.

RAMON KHAN

Ramon Khan is a Sales and Marketing expert with a passion for helping businesses grow. He is currently the Marketing Manager of National Air Warehouse.

The most important ingredient of a strategic, successful B2B marketing plan is…

Communicating true value.

With great research, you will find how to truly solve your prospective client’s main issues. Once you have a solution for solving your markets issues, you have something of value to offer. Being able to convey this value effectively to your market is the single most important ingredient to success.

Businesses don’t buy the tool or the service; they buy the value that your business can provide for them. Without truly understanding the value of your service, they will not move forward to doing business with your company. To create a truly valuable campaign, you must understand your market very well and do all the research involved with how your product or service can solve their issues. There are many tools that exist that can do the same thing but being able to properly match the problems to the solutions provides the most value, and that is the most important ingredient, true value.

It is pointless to pitch to just any business unless you actually have an offering that applies to all businesses. By doing the research into your markets main issues you also eliminate waste time prospecting. If you know who your market is, you can spend less time prospecting, marketing, qualifying and focus instead on the targeted demographic market you know you can serve best.

ERIC ZALUSKI

Eric Zaluski is President at ProspectTrax, Inc., a marketing automation and services company that provides end-to-end services primarily for advanced industrial manufacturers.

I think the best ingredient of a strategic, successful B2B marketing plan is…

An intense focus on the value on your product or service.

This focus steers you to your customers. The proof of this value is communicated directly through customer quotes and testimonials complete with concrete metrics. In their own words, customers convey the delight they have for your offerings. These stories are then chronicled by industry experts and media in addition to the normal communication channels the company uses to generate interest and preference from their audience.

EMILY ELLIOTT

Emily Elliott is the content and marketing manager at TheSquareFoot which is a commercial real estate technology startup that provides online real estate search and brokerage services.

I believe the top ingredient strategic, successful B2B marketing plans are…

Case studies.

Businesses like to be able to see themselves in a product and how they would benefit from using a service. Case studies highlighting how businesses have helped other companies similar to their
target audience makes the brand both more relatable and more understandable.

PRATIBHA VUPPULURI

Pratibha Vuppuluri is the Founder & Principal at KeyInsite Inc, a data analytics company, and a Co-Founder of NariNetwork, a woman-focused digital media company. She currently serves on the Board of Screenpro (a Consumer electronics accessories company) and mindHive (Marketing mobile app company).

The #1 ingredient to developing a strategic, successful B2B marketing plan is…

Unified leadership and management.

Although for a startup, it is discouraged to have titles, having titles for the executive team and understanding each person’s responsibilities is key. KeyInsite promotes exactly that work environment. When speaking to customers, we all are referred as co-workers to the other businesses. Having a unified team will make our clients and customers to see how organized we are and build confidence that only we can assist their company’s growth.

DAVID ANDERSON

As Vice President of Marketing for SalesWarp, David Anderson brings a unique perspective to the eCommerce and retail industry from a creative, branding and marketing background that encompasses 25 years. He is a frequent publisher to the SalesWarp site, and contributes to other industry publications.

I believe the single most important ingredient to a top B2B marketing plan is…

Know who your customers are.

If you don’t have defined buyer profiles, you won’t be able to understand their pain points to be able to articulate how your solution solves their needs. If you don’t know who you are targeting, it doesn’t matter how good your marketing plan is.

MICHAEL PASSANANTE

Michael Passanante, is the Director of Marketing & Communications for BESLER Consulting. Michael has over twenty years of experience leading marketing programs for global B-to-B organizations. Michael blogs about product launches and small business marketing at reflectivemarketing.net.

The most important ingredient to a top B2B marketing plan is…

Concise market positioning statement.

This is the hinge pin that aligns all of the other elements towards one, common purpose. Confusing corporate websites. Frustrating sales experiences. Sell sheets that ramble. These are all symptoms of bad market positioning. If you don’t know what you are great at and what makes your product or service distinctly different, then you can’t articulate it concisely. You can avoid wasting resources by taking the time to define a competitive market position upfront.

JOSH CURRIER

Josh Currier is a Duct Tape Marketing certified consultant, and founder of Currier Marketing. He assists businesses with the development of strategic marketing plans and the implementation of incredibly effective, results-driven tactics.

The most important factor of a strategic, successful B2B marketing plan is…

Identification of your ideal customer or client.

This single element dictates where and how you will find and contact your prospects, as well as inform exactly how you should speak to them. Not only does this allow you to create more targeted, effective messaging, but you boost your return on investment by eliminating the expense associated with marketing to the wrong people.

ROBYN TIPPINS

Robyn leads community marketing and business operations for Mariposa. She has been managing online communities for 17 years. Check out her book on growing online communities, Community 101.

To develop a strategic, successful B2B marketing plan, you need to have…

Excellent, detailed marketing personas.

Most folks say they know their targets, but you have to solidify these ‘ideal customers’ so you can write and market to the right place. This part is vital for initial targeting, because targeted marketing campaigns tend to create more buzz and quicker ramp up than one-size-fits-all outreach strategies — this is the most typical problem I see with DIY B2C marketing campaigns. You can create additional personas as the need arises, both to guide further marketing efforts and to guide partnership opportunities, but these initial targets have to be tight, and distinct.

LAURA HAMER

Laura Hamer owns Digital Masters, a Hubspot partner digital agency based in the Netherlands. She’s the author of “Like this!” among other books in digital strategy, inbound marketing and social media.

The #1 essential ingredient of a strategic B2B marketing plan is…

Knowing your true vision.

Vision to me is the real prediction of the future: how one thinks it is going to be, what will happen and how this will affect your business tomorrow. When you define your vision, it will naturally shape the B2B strategy. For example, in the 90’s, Bill Gates predicted that everyone would have a desktop computer. He stood by his vision even when everyone had doubts. Now, his vision has revolutionized the way we use technology. If one stays true to his/her vision and knows the inherent reason why they’re pursuing the vision, then they’re bound for success. Building relationships and implementing a solid B2B plan will naturally marry well with a clear vision.

DIMITRIS ATHANASIADIS

Dimitris Athanasiadis works in marketing for Megaventory, Inc.

The key to successful B2B marketing is…

Understanding your customers’ needs.

It’s true that knowing that and how to find it is different if you are just starting your B2B compared to if you’ve been around for years. However, before you launch a full-blown marketing campaign you should spend a minimal amount of resources to maintaining a presence for your brand and actually pour your marketing resources to profiling your customers and how their needs are met. That means knowing who they are and where they go to make their buying decision.

Once you start having an adequate understanding of these – and only then – can you start shifting budget to whatever you’ve found to work. That can be social media, SEO, expos, email marketing, cold calling or whatever. You need to make sure though of the channel you’re using (hence the message
will be well-defined) and of the conversion rates you’re going for (the levels you’re starting at and whether you’re improving them).

SAMUEL SCOTT

Samuel Scott is Director of Marketing & Communications at log analytics startup Logz.io.

The most important ingredient of a strategic, successful B2B marketing plan is…

Marketing is essentially creating a message, putting that message into a piece of marketing collateral or content, and then transmitting that content via a channel to a receiver. The rest is just details. With a bad message — or, even worse, no message — at the beginning, the rest of the process is doomed to failure.

To create an overall positioning statement, fill in these blanks in these paragraphs:

[For target customer] who [statement of the need or opportunity], the [product name] is a [product category] that [statement of key benefit — that is, compelling reason to buy]. Unlike [primary competitive alternative], our product [statement of primary differentiation]. Each target audience will get its own paragraph. The three most-important parts:

1.) Identifying the right target audience
2.) Deciding what is your top benefit
3.) Determining what makes you different. This overall positioning statement will then inform all of the marketing content and collateral that you create.

MATT KCKEE

Matt McKee is a Boston-based commercial photographer who creates photos that start conversations for clients that range from BioTech to entertainment.

With B2B marketing, the most important ingredient of a successful marketing plan is…

Consistency.

A consistent message to a considered audience with a consistent look and feel, a well-considered ask, on a consistent schedule. Which means that you need a plan and you need to take some time to think it through. Anyone who puts out only one email blast, one press release, one sales call, or one video promo and expects to succeed is going to be disappointed. Also, anyone who puts out a bunch of materials, but they don’t look consistent with each other, will confuse their audience. And, if there is a flurry of activity one week and then again 6 months later… Well, then the audience has forgotten who you are.

BROOKE ELLIOTT

Brooke Elliott is the Director of Marketing for RedViking. In a B2B and B2G sales and marketing career spanning more than 15 years, Brooke has helped industrial and government customers expand their digital and event marketing through persona development, campaign creation, website design, content marketing and brand creation/expansion.

The #1 ingredient of a top B2B marketing plan is…

Deep understanding of your customer.

With the support of our sales team, we conduct interviews with recently earned customers as well as those who did not choose us for their projects. We then use those interviews for the “5 Rings of Buying Insight” approach to creating buyer personas. By learning as much as we can about those who chose us and those who turned us down, we can understand how and where they look for information, their buying influences, and the concerns they overcame (or didn’t) about us.

STEVE MINTZ

Steve Mintz is founder of CLM Prescriptives LLC, a strategic marketing consultancy helping small businesses to diagnose the ailments impacting their marketing strategy and prescribe the solutions to drive growth in revenue and retention. A marketing executive with over 20 years expertise, Steve leverages customer data to derive actionable insights to optimize marketing response and increase revenue, retention and satisfaction.

The most important ingredient of a strategic, successful B2B marketing plan is…

A well-thought out objective.

What is it that you wish to accomplish at the end of the day? What defines success? A good objective gives us something to aspire to, a finish line. After all, if you don’t know where you are going how will you know if you get there? If we attain our objective, we can celebrate. But if we fall short, we will know it and can plan out how we adjust/respond.

Also, a good, concise objective will help you to readily communicate what your plan is all about in a matter of seconds to your peers, your boss and her peers or her boss, your team, and anyone else whose support you need to enlist to make it happen. It becomes much easier for your organization to prioritize, acquire resources and rally around an objective.

KATIE BISSON

Katie Bisson is the Marketing and Public Relations Manager for Technology Seed, a managed IT service provider in New Hampshire. She has a background in Public Relations with a passion for digital marketing and strategy. When not in the office you can find her at local networking events promoting Technology Seed.

The most important ingredient of a strategic, successful B2B marketing plan is…

A diversified marketing plan.

If you are preparing to re-brand a company you want to ensure social networks, website, digital campaigns, and print advertising, it should all work together as one cohesive brand. By ensuring you have a diversified strategy it allows your reach a variety of prospects and allow customer interaction through a variety of mediums.

MOLLY REYNOLDS

Molly Reynolds was the Chief Marketing Officer for three successful B2B start-ups and is now the President of Public Relations at Trepoint, named as one of INC 5000’s Fastest Growing Companies for two years in a row. She is a marketing columnist for INC and The Huffington Post.

The most important ingredient of a strategic, successful B2B marketing plan is…

Creating opportunities to get in the same room as people.
Whether that be networking events, speaking engagements, or lunch meetings, at the end of the day, everyone wants to work with someone who makes their job easier and more enjoyable. Establishing and maintaining strong relationships builds a pipeline of potential clients as well as referrals.

ELIZABETH EDWARDS

As president and founder of Volume Public Relations, Elizabeth Edwards leads the nation’s premier communications agency delivering marketing, PR and corporate communication programs rooted in the principles of cognitive science.

The key ingredient of a successful B2B marketing plan is…

Science.

All successful marketing campaigns, especially B2B marketing campaigns, rely solely on the understanding of the human brain and how to market to it, no matter the industry. Empowering marketing by combining traditional practices with science, specifically the scientific theories that govern human behavior facilitates comprehensive psychological understanding of the target audience on a much deeper level than ever before.

Rooting marketing in the proven methods from neuroscience and the social sciences gives improved outcomes, increases competitive advantage, and will produce results that easily prove marketing ROI.

*Scientific insights can be applied everywhere throughout the development and execution of a marketing plan: message creation, copywriting, campaign timing, choosing the best color for an advertisement, developing media & analyst relations, reviewing results, etc.

Aside from injecting neuroscience and social science into your current marketing scope, there are many other additional techniques that have proven to be very useful. For example, non-conscious research will unearth the silent motivators and deterrents of your target audience. This method not only captures what research participants may not want to reveal, but also discovers insights that the participants don’t even know about themselves.

DAN SMITH

Dan Smith is the SEO Specialist at Leighton. Responsible for all things search marketing, Dan has a huge focus on content and truly believes that the right content delivered in the right way can help to ensure an unrivaled customer experience.

The key to a successful B2B marketing strategy is…

Truly understand your audience.
Know what they want to digest and on which channels they expect to do so. The rest is about listening and delivering, with a spoonful of A/B testing thrown in for good measure!

AMANDA FARMER

Amanda Farmer is the strategic director and writer for Dreamtown Creative, an Austin-based marketing agency specializing in the development of marketing strategies and written/visual content for tech companies and startups.

The most important ingredient of a strategic, successful B2B marketing plan is…

A measured understanding on what company needs to accomplish.

We live in a “#marketing” society, where we marketers can spend our whole day reading blog posts and ebooks about how to be a better marketer, how to create better content, how to optimize our websites for search engines and readers, etc. This open sharing of information is useful and (hopefully) is raising our profession’s competency as a whole, but the unfortunate side effect is that we can begin to approach every project with the exact same solutions (content marketing, SEO, etc.). In fact, it’s not unusual for marketers to actually start their strategy at the tactical level, beginning with questions like “What topics should go on our editorial calendar?”

Really, a marketing plan should spring not from a list of tactics or best practices but from the company’s greater goals. So the best B2B marketing plan is a thorough and measured understanding of what the company as a whole is trying to accomplish over the coming months and what the challenges it will be getting there. When a marketer starts with that information, it becomes natural to formulate plans that are focused on producing meaningful results, whatever the tactics may be.

LINDA POPHAL

Linda Pophal, MA, SPHR, is owner/CEO ofStrategic Communications, LLC, and a marketing and communication strategist with expertise in strategic planning, B2B content marketing, PR/media relations, social media and SEO.

The key to a successful B2B marketing strategy is…

To actually put the plan into action.

Consequently, I have adjusted my planning process over time to start out with the consideration of *how* the plan will be implemented which includes, when applicable and when working with larger organizations, how the plan will be aligned with the overall organization’s strategies, the performance evaluation process and individual workplans and, importantly, a plan for reporting on progress on a regular basis (generally monthly). At the end of the planning process, I review this initial draft with the planning team for a reality check making any needed revisions. At this time, I also work with the team to identify owners of the strategies and tactics — *individuals*, not teams or departments. Another barrier to implementation is not being crystal clear about *who* will be responsible for achieving goals/objectives for each strategy and who will also be reporting regularly on progress making needed changes as appropriate.

SHAREEF DEFRAWI

Shareef Defrawi is the president and founder of Houston-based Bonafide, a digital marketing agency that helps growth-minded B2B companies use the web, technology and content to find new customers online.

The most important ingredient of a strategic B2B marketing plan is…

Comprehensive buyer personas.

Detailed profiles of your ideal customer – to guide your overall strategy. An in-depth understanding of the challenges your prospects are facing, the problems they’re trying to solve and where they go for information will help you develop the right messaging to position you as a thought leader, earn their trust and gain their business.

WALTER WISE

Walter Wise is a Sales and Marketing Strategist and Executive Coach at BPI Strategy Group, and the Author of the highly acclaimed book “Getting Back to Basics, Effective Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business in Today’s Brutal Economy.”

The most important ingredient of a strategic, successful B2B marketing plan is…

I believe the very first step is to lay out your goals and objectives. Next, outline your current position, your competitive position and what is standing in your way of succeeding. Then discuss who buys what you sell- the problem you solve, your solution to the problem and the results your prospects receive. And finally define your target market and ideal client. You need to know their problems and issues. What will force them to solve those problems, why you are the only logical person to go to to solve them and then show how they will benefit from using your solution. Then discuss the financial side, budget, assets in place and those that are required. All of these lead to the implementation strategy and defining the message.

Perhaps an overlooked section of the plan is the section on metrics. How will you monitor and measure success and ROI? Without this, you might never know how you are doing and whether you are succeeded or failing. In the end, this could be the most important section.

DR. BRYNN WINEGARD

Dr. Brynn Winegard is a former corporate marketer (Pfizer, Nestle, Johnson & Johnson), currently a professor, consultant, and author. Brynn’s secret passion is using research and science to formulate a great strategy that is executed with ease.

The key to a successful B2B marketing strategy is…

Knowing what you do well as an organization and sticking to it!

It sounds so simple, but you wouldn’t believe the number of organizations that get customer data indicating what some group wants or needs and in a mad scramble to make money, beat the competition to it, and bend over backwards attempting to please the customer. As a result, the company completely loses sight of what they are actually good at (core competency) and can offer with any ease, economy, authenticity, or scale. Unsurprisingly, this leads to challenges of every kind strategically and operationally and no stakeholder is happy, especially the B2B vendor and their re-sellers/customers.

The temptation to look for answers everywhere but ‘in your own backyard’ is all too pervasive–knowing what you’re good at, what you can offer, as well as what you *shouldn’t or can’t* offer as an organization. Most of the battle toward determining how you can offer the market value is what we as marketers are trying to do, theoretically–determine, develop, distribute, and render value to the marketplace. The challenge lies in the streams of data, research, information, inputs, resources, sources, and opinion etc. coming from angles telling us what we ‘should’ or ‘could’ be. Resist the urge or the false conception that there is a ‘pot of gold’ in some new ‘miracle’ piece of information, perspective, or research.

Determining the core competencies of an organization might mean getting external help (e.g. consultants, researchers) to do internal assessments, inventorying, and research (fish don’t see water!), but it can pay dividends in great marketing strategies that are functional, operational, make sense to every stakeholder involved (authentic, possible, scalable, reasonably economical), and ultimately return both dollars and a cohesive/coherent organizational identity.

MICHAEL MORGENSTERN

As VP of Online Marketing at The Expert Institute, Michael Morgenstern oversees all initiatives pertaining to client outreach, email and content marketing strategy, tech enhancements and preserving the core values of TEI’s brand.

For a successful B2B marketing plan, you must have a…

Comprehensive content strategy.

Creating great content is pivotal in today’s online marketing environment. Content provides traction for all aspects of online marketing, whether it’s email, organic search, or social media. Producing valuable, educational material specific to your industry provides you with ample opportunity to tactfully communicate with your target market. Our content initiatives involve creating blog posts, case studies, white papers, infographics, and webinars. We work with well-regarded industry thought leaders and writers to develop content that will educate our subscribers. All of this is done with one objective in mind, to help our audience make smarter, more informed decisions in their day to day job.

PATRICK MERFERT

Patrick is passionate about disruptive technology and is currently the Director of Marketing at 9Lenses. Prior to 9Lenses, Patrick spent time as a venture capitalist and as a management consultant.

The most important ingredient of a strategic, successful B2B marketing plan is…

Buy-in.

Without gaining buy-in internally from your marketing team and the broader organization, even the best B2B marketing plan will fall short of its goals. Having your leadership simply agree to the plan is one thing, but getting them to fully understand and support it is another. To clear this hurdle, you should gain the support of key stakeholders well before then the plan is rolled out and may even consider hosting educational workshops to empower your non-marketing colleagues to make the plan a success.

BRIAN CARTER

Brian Carter is a 15-year digital marketing veteran and popular social media speaker (with clients like NBC, Microsoft, Dramamine and PrideStaff) who delivers practical takeaways, entertainment *and* motivation. His Brian Carter Group is a boutique agency with world-class expertise using digital/social marketing and advertising to boost profits for growth-minded businesses.

The most important ingredient of a strategic, successful B2B marketing plan is…

There are many areas you can go off the rails in B2B marketing execution, and many unknowns about content-audience match until you’ve been marketing to your target audience successfully for several quarters. So, in the planning stages, especially if the plan is for a quarter or more, building
in split-testing is critical. We recommend testing multiple ad platforms (Google vs FB vs Twitter), multiple content pieces, and multiple messages. The era of the one big idea per year or per quarter is ending. Be the Geico of your niche and create multiple ideas to test within your plan. An even
more efficient strategy is to add some idea testing in before committing to the content piece titles; test showing your titles as Facebook ads to your target audience with a coming soon landing page and see which ones get the highest clickthrough rate.

DEAN LOGAN

Dean Logan, founder and CEO of FOUNDATION, is a marketing professional with over 25 years of industry experience. With a mix of B2B and consumer expertise from different agencies, he has a solid marketing background with a strong focus in positioning, branding and database-driven direct-response marketing.

For a successful B2B marketing plan, you must have a…

Clear, concise and consistent messaging platform

All too often companies, especially B2B companies, try to communicate three, five or even seven things at the same time. The thinking goes well if we leave out X we’ll be missing the opportunity to reach that particular customer. That’s money on the table we’re missing.

In truth shoe-horning multiple messages into a single execution (email, DM, website, etc.) only dilutes everything and makes it very difficult for the customer to know precisely what it is being said to them. And, worse, what they’re being asked to do about it. Having the discipline to say just one thing clearly and succinctly across all marketing channels is sadly something most B2B companies are simply not very good at.

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