Selling high-ticket business products and services typically involves complex buyer journeys and process-driven
purchase decisions with many stakeholders involved. In these environments, marketing involves much more than
branding and promotions. An effective marketing strategy requires key foundational elements, including:
Clear positioning and compelling messaging to ensure your audience understands what problems you solve,
why those problems matter, and what makes you the right choice to solve them.
Measurable goals, aligned to the goals of the business, which helps you avoid wasting money on trendy or
“spray-and-pray” tactics, and instead focus on desired business outcomes.
A customer lifecycle view, focused on long-term relationship building instead of short-term transactional selling.
When marketing is designed to educate, inform, and add value across every funnel stage and throughout the full
customer lifecycle, you create advocates who do your best marketing for you.
4-Phase Marketing Lifecycle
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Audience Segmentation
Buyer Journey Mapping
ABM/Digital/Experiential Tactics
Targeted, Dynamic Content
Integrated Campaigns
Email/LDR Nurture
Thought Leadership
Public/Investor/Analyst Relations
Industry Awards/Events
Web/SEO/SEM
Advertising
Product Launch
Goals
Plans
Metrics
Value-based Selling
Closed-loop Lead Flow
Competitive Positioning
Industry/Product Training
ROI Models, Case Studies
Win-Loss & Funnel Analysis
Customer Testimonials
Customer Advisory Board
Onboarding & Education
Net Promoter Score, Surveys
Social/Community Building
Partner Co-marketing
ADVOCACY:
Marketing doesn’t end with a sale. Turning customers into advocates is the most powerful tool in the marketing arsenal. From successful onboarding to ongoing
education, upsell and community-building, establishing regular, two-way engagement with the base is
critical for retention and brand-building.
CONVERSION:
Aligning the marketing program with the sales methodology is critical to optimize conversion rates. This includes creating clear definitions of lead types, stages and goals, as well as a closed-loop lead flow process. Effective product marketing ensures the sales team is armed with the knowledge and tools they need to represent the value of the solution to the prospect.
AWARENESS:
Brand-building in B2B Tech is not about logos and taglines.
In emerging markets, it requires a lot of education,
and in mature markets, differentiation. Building a
reputation as a Thought Leader is what allows small
startups to sell to – and compete with – industry giants.
What makes a Thought Leader?
Credibility, relevance and a unique point of view (POV).
CONSIDERATION:
Engagement is the first goal of demand generation campaigns. B2B solutions involve long sales cycles
with many stakeholders, and the buyer journey has many steps. Buyers typically want to self-educate before engaging a vendor directly, so a well-thought
out content strategy is critical, and an omni-channel approach helps you meet buyers when, where and
how they like to engage.
Marketing Program Metrics
Understanding the buyer journey allows us to build marketing programs that address prospect
needs at every stage of the funnel, driving them to the next stage. Thus, marketing metrics are
typically organized by funnel stage.
With the right tools, we can measure effectiveness of marketing tactics at each stage,
as well as conversion rates between stages. Low conversion rates indicate a “leaky funnel.”
This means there are opportunities to increase marketing and sales efficiency by
understanding why leads are not progressing and focusing efforts on nurturing/servicing
existing leads, not just acquiring more leads.
Even after the sale, metrics such as customer lifetime value (LTV), churn rates, and customer
profitability are important so marketing programs can be tuned to attract and retain
the most profitable customers, not just any customers.
AIR COVER
Media Coverage, Social Followers
Web Traffic, Search Rankings
FUNNEL
Contacts, Responders
Conversion to Opportunity Rate
Pipeline Contribution
REVENUE
Conversion to Closed-Won Rate
Marketing Influence on Closed-Won
LOYALTY
Renewal/Churn Rates
Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)
ADVOCACY
Testimonials
Net Promoter Score
EFFICIENCY
Campaign ROI & Payback
Cost Per Lead
Customer Acquisition Cost
Return on Marketing Investment