Nick Powills: Treat B2B Marketing Like Consumer Marketing and Watch Winning Happen

Think about a consumer product you were recently marketed. How did that brand place its messages in front of you? Direct Mail? Facebook Ads? Retargeting? PR?

Chances are, it was a combination of a bunch of things. And then, when you started to perform your homework on said brand, you found positive referrals—both online and from friends.

In many situations, consumer marketing can be improved, too. However, if you look at the general approach to how marketers place messages in front of consumers, there is a ton of good, especially in the spraying method of consistent messaging. The spraying method, as I am coining it, is when you take a singular campaign, focus in on a persona and place that piece of content on as many communications tools as possible to ensure that impression is placed in front of the buyer.

Far too often in B2B marketing, the tactics are more one dimensional and rarely connected. An ad is an ad. The website is stagnant. LinkedIn has other messages. So on and so on.

But, when B2B marketers apply the spraying method, they most likely win in delivering the message to the right audience in the right markets.

How can you implement this strategy?

1. Start with a campaign: When creating a campaign, you must craft a message that will resonate with the specific audience you are targeting. It’s not about impressions, it’s about action steps (not necessarily complete action, but a step in the right direction). What is your message, who do you want it to reach and where do you want it to reach?
2. Create your delivery plan: Chances are you are spending time and/or money on marketing whatever you are selling. Connect those silos by ensuring the same message is delivered over the multiple platforms.
3. Create a content journey: Buyers today spend more time online doing their homework before buying. Where are you placing support content? LinkedIn Pulse, your website, PR? Those are simple steps.
4. Understand that buyers may simply want more information: Create a drip campaign that responds to actions. They inquire, they get a campaign. They download your brochure, they get a campaign. They then click on that email campaign to go look at your site—and get another campaign. Content is king when content supports the campaign.

It’s not difficult to deliver a spraying method, it’s just a matter of not being lazy and doing it.

Consumer marketers have paved the way for how to spend $$$ to focus a message on the user. They understand call-to-actions and KPIs. Simply by thinking about their approach to marketing will help you make adjustments to your B2B strategy that will hopefully help you deliver your message and widget to the right audience, in the right places.