Have you ever wondered what could be the spinach to your marketing campaign?
While there is no ‘spinach’ that can magically make your campaign successful, there are things if done correctly, could lead to a successful marketing campaign.
After all, creating a brand moment that stands out through a successful marketing campaign is the single biggest achievement that any B2B marketer can reach for. It does not come out of the blue though; it requires planning, creativity, using the right channels and tools among others.
We recently had a meet up dubbed ‘B2B Marketing Campaigns of 2018: Successes & Lessons Learnt’ and marketing experts, Oren Ezra, VP Marketing Seebo, Karen Krivaa VP Marketing Giga Spaces, Idit Lowenstein Director of Marketing Breezometer, Vicki Michaeli Global Marketing Manager Waterfall Security Solution, David Miles Managing Partner Guided Leads, Rebecca Herson CMO Lean Marketer and Resa Gooding CMO Cacao Media shared a few important yet often overlooked elements of successful marketing campaigns.
1. Marketing Automation
54% of B2B brands have dedicated marketing automation platforms according to Brafton. This has played a major role in the success of many marketers and marketing campaigns.
So what is marketing automation? HubSpot defines it as,” the software that exists with the goal of automating marketing actions.”
It replaces the separate systems meant for email, lead scoring, tracking web visitors, nurturing campaigns, campaign management and reporting among others with one solution. When used correctly, and with the right skills, marketing automation is a powerful tool to use in your marketing campaigns.
The common types of marketing automation are; Customer Relationship Management, WorkFlow, and Lead Management. There’s plenty of Marketing Automation tools to choose from in the market. They help marketers concentrate on what is important by increasing efficiency of the repetitive tasks thus increasing revenue.
2. Account Based Marketing (ABM)
ABM is a strategic marketing approach that aims to market to targeted companies by building valued relationships with them. It relies heavily on personalization to make it a success since the content is placed in front of the prospect rather than have the prospect look for it as is done is the inbound approach.
Oren Ezra tackled this well when he explained why a company may want to take up the Account-Based Marketing approach. Some of the reasons being;
Although there is a misconception that Account Based Marketing is replacing Inbound Marketing, this is not the case. They can work seamlessly together since they share a few key principles an example being, both of them use valuable content that converts to target specific audiences.
Using both strategies together is not only cost effective but also opens up your business to new markets. Since Inbound concentrates on a larger audience, you can use it to generate new leads and from this, you can then zero in on a few of the leads and use Account Based Marketing to nurture them.
3. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Personalization is a powerful tool in marketing and AI is at the forefront helping marketing campaigns achieve that. This is made possible using user data. With the insights gotten from the data analytics, marketers can then make intelligent decisions by anticipating customer needs and boost their marketing campaigns.
Artificial Intelligence continues to grow across all industries so it doesn’t come as a surprise that lead marketers are experimenting and testing how AI strategies can improve marketing campaigns.
4. Paid Ads
Paid advertising is a great way to supplement organic traffic already coming in. However, if done incorrectly it not only becomes ineffective but also expensive. Paid ads expose your company to a large audience. Having a large audience is not enough though especially if it is not the right audience.
For paid ads to work, you have to define a few things like;
This topic has been covered excellently in this blog; 5 Things You Must Do Before Jumping Into Paid Internet Advertising.
5. Marketing Podcasts
Podcasts have risen in popularity in the last 5-10 years. As people get busier with life, podcasts have given brands and companies power to share their message on demand and on the go.
Podcasts help build brand authority and since people can hear you, you are able to tap into their emotion and better influence their decision. A study done by the Interactive Advertising Bureau found out that, 45% of listeners said they visited a sponsor's website after hearing their ad, 42% considered a sponsor's product, 28% used a promo discount from a direct response ad, and 17% said they recommended the product they heard about to someone else. This goes to prove that listeners take concrete actions when they hear ads on podcasts they like.
That is impressive, right?
Remember for podcasts to work you have to provide value, listen to your audience’s needs and be consistent.
If you are looking for a great marketing podcast, our is a great place to begin, Cacao Media PodBean.
6. Content Marketing Funnel
A content marketing funnel usually has 3 stages;
And you can have one more which is the retention stage.
Each stage has to have its goals and the content matching the goals for instance in the awareness stage, the goal is brand awareness and the type of content that could be used is high-value well-written blog posts. The consideration stage has its goals as acquiring customers and the type of content that could be used is case studies, whitepapers since people are looking to confirm you are an expert in your area. The final stage is all about the sale. The prospective clients need only a slight nudge to make the purchase. This can be done using reviews and testimonials.
Content marketing can help reach people at any part of the funnel. You just have to be aware of it and use it right.
7. Re-branding
If nothing else is working, then it would be best to consider re-branding. Re-branding offers a great opportunity to strengthen a brand’s image. Although it may come with a myriad of benefits there’s also a high chance of failure.
Giga spaces recently successfully re-branded and got the following outcome;
In order to successfully re-brand, there are steps that you should follow. The first being self-inspection. Define your brand and its mission. Then look at your logo and tagline figure out whether it is communicating this effectively. The second is research. Get feedback from your clients on how they currently perceive your business this can be done using surveys.
For the rest of the steps check out this blog; The Art of Re-branding: 7 Steps to a Successful Makeover
8. Research
The world keeps evolving and marketing campaigns should be able to change with it. The CTA’s that worked before may not work now. For instance, Vicki Michaeli mentioned the learn more CTA is no longer working. So research and test to find out which Call To Action (CTA) works for you.
The way people search for things has also evolved and Google favors longer tail keywords. Therefore you should research what long tail keywords to use that can drive sufficient traffic.
9. Humor
Humor helps to show a brand’s personality. Something that people can relate to. If used correctly, it can definitely improve your marketing campaign results. You should, however, understand your audience and what they find funny.
While using humor steer away from controversial topics and keep it light.
And that is it. The 9 best kept secrets of successful B2B marketing campaigns that are not really secret but are often overlooked. The key point to remember is as Resa Gooding said, don’t be married to a strategy, be willing to change and switch up a few things if your current strategy isn’t working and be patient.
Do you have any more secrets that work well for you? Please leave them in the comments below.