5 Questions to Ask Before Changing Your B2B Marketing Strategy
Once you’ve tried a marketing approach, you will likely want to make adjustments if you are not seeing the desired results. Before you start changing all of your marketing efforts, answer these five questions to know where to focus on altering your strategy.
1.What goals have we achieved so far?
With this question, take a hard look at both your qualitative and quantitative results from your marketing efforts. Have you achieved what you set out to accomplish? If so, document the results you have achieved. If not, take note of any goals that you missed. When evaluating this, it is important to use concrete data and examples where possible to prove that the accomplishment was a direct result of marketing efforts.
2.What marketing tactics have proven most effective?
Once you know what goals you have achieved, take note of any similarities. Is one particular approach more effective than others? If so, how can you replicate those results or put more resources into expanding in that area? As part of this exercise, you will likely also see your least effective marketing tactics, which are important to note for any future changes to your marketing tactics.
3.Where are we spending the most time without that same level of results?
It is important that you answer the first two questions before moving on to this one. Here you will review the marketing tactics that are working and compare those with the time spent on each area of marketing. It is common at this stage to discover that you are spending a large amount of time in an area that is not achieving results. Once you know this, you have to decide if it is worth continuing in that area. You may revise your approach or instead choose to focus your efforts in another area that has proven more effective.
4.Are we achieving an ROI on our marketing efforts? Which are the most expensive with the least amount of return?
This is very similar to the last question and intimately connected in terms of the money spent on individuals or teams to execute a marketing tactic. If you have a measurable way to track your marketing efforts, you will be able to easily understand how much value is a direct result of each area. If you are spending more money in an area that isn’t providing results, then it may be time to reallocate that funding to other more rewarding areas.
5.Have sellers or other client-facing teams heard from potential or existing customers who are engaging with existing marketing efforts?
This question is the least quantifiable of all questions on this list. The goal here is to better understand what your customers find valuable. For example, if you haven’t seen a direct sale from blog posts, but your sales team often hears customers discuss a recent blog post, then you know those are contributing to overall sales and marketing efforts. Other areas may include webinars, emails, whitepapers, case studies, or free resources.
Changing Your Marketing Strategy
Refining your B2B marketing strategy takes time and constant evaluation. With these questions, you will have a foundational understanding of how your current approach is performing, and you can use these insights to adjust as needed. The best approach varies for each business because every brand and how it interacts with clients is different. Understanding your audience is a key to developing the best approach, and you will need to combine it with your budget and time limitations. If you aren’t sure how to get started on revising your marketing strategy, take advantage of our free consultations.