As B2B marketers dive into next year’s marketing budget, it’s also time to consider fresh ideas to include in your marketing plan.
For marketers everywhere, the pressure is on. Your sales team wants more marketing qualified leads next year—and your job is to deliver them. In addition, according to a recent Gartner B2B buying journey report, the average buying group for a complex solution includes 6-10 individuals.
In this increasingly competitive market with a growing number of stakeholders, finding new and better ways to connect with your target audience at every stage of the buyer’s journey is essential.
Stand-out marketing strategies for the year ahead
1. PR-SEO alignment. While public relations and search engine optimization (SEO) are long games, the payoff is immense—and the sooner you get them on the right track, the healthier your lead generation program will be. Whether searching on Google or reading the headlines in their industry trades, your brand must appear alongside the most important keywords to your audience. Have your buyers seeing your brand everywhere. Read this case study to see how it works.
2. Zero-click content (bonus points if it’s short-form). Your buyers are busy people and might see filling out a form—yes, even one that’s only their email address—as just one more task in an already packed day. Give your audience actionable, educational content in a bite-size form consistently on LinkedIn or Twitter. And if you’re speaking their language, they’ll remember you when the time is right. Don’t forget it’s their buyer’s journey, not yours.
3. Influencer outreach. Influencers are all the rage in consumer marketing, but I predict this will be the year innovative B2B companies start finding creative ways to make use of this type of marketing as well. See a TikTok doctor or another professional who’s absolutely killing it—reach out to them to see how you could work together. Although don’t forget, contracts are a must.
4. Personalized online experiences. Your company is already collecting data on your prospects in your CRM, so why aren’t you using it to create more personalized experiences for them? Stop sending people at the bottom of the funnel to the same web pages you would send to a prospect whom you know nothing about. Rather, send them to a personalized landing page that acknowledges their company and unique challenges. While it may require more setup time and attention to your marketing tech stack, the payoff is that your audience is more likely to remember your product or service, and hopefully, your company will close more deals.
5. Direct mail. Yes, I said it’s time to bring back direct mail. However, I’m not talking about generic postcards, but a little human touch that recognizes B2B marketing is still one person sharing ideas with another. Thoughtful, personalized gifts from the likes of Sendoso and Alyce can help your brand stand out when all your competitors are sending are more emails and unread PPT decks.
Marketing plan refresh
Think your marketing plan could do with some fresh ideas? Our healthcare marketing agency is here for you.
