There was a time in the not-too-distant past when the goal of B2B campaigns was simply and almost universally to get prospects to raise their hand. The marketing team would be developing some compelling offer of a webinar, white paper or E-book, decide who to target, determine what the call-to-action (CTA) would be as a conversion point (sound familiar?), and then build an inbound/outbound campaign to that CTA.
However, while the goals and priorities for most B2B brands have evolved over the past three to four years, campaign structures and mindsets have not.
For example:
- Our research shows more than 2/3 of marketers are now narrowing the focus of their campaigns with ABM programs;
- 58% are prioritizing lead quality over quantity in 2019;
- More than half (53%) have some form of revenue-based quotas; and
- 68% say they are more focused on conversions rather than acquiring hand raisers.
In addition to being more targeted in their campaigns, other go-to-market strategies are also rewriting the traditional rules of B2B campaign creation. For example, many service and SaaS-based software companies are putting more investments towards customer marketing, with retention, cross-sell and upsell goals becoming a bigger revenue priority.
Yet, despite all of these changing and diversifying of revenue goals for B2B organizations, most campaigns are still amazingly similar. Regardless of whether brands are building programs for existing customers, a select group of prospects or are looking to acquire prospective buyers with a budget — the process still looks the same of featuring an offer and pushing them to a CTA that usually includes a landing page and a form.
Considering the limited time and thin patience most buyers have today (either as consumers or business executives), there is a long list of holes in this traditional model. We will examine a number of these topics in our upcoming Campaign Optimization Series, but here are a few areas where I would argue marketing teams and brands need to hit the reset button:
Gates and Forms: We have written a lot about the debate on whether to gate content offers, but as a starting point I would argue that all B2B brands should review their current content engagement experiences and challenge whether they really require a form in front of every asset.
Eliminating Dead Ends: A majority of campaigns I see still focus on singular CTAs — asking an audience to register for an individual webinar or download a single asset — without any thought to the questions a buyer might have or what the next steps in a logical buyer progression should be. For example, if an influencer is engaged with a campaign and is looking for other resources/assets that could help them build a business case to convince their boss or other decision makers, it’s important for campaigns to point beyond a single CTA.
Ultimately, most marketing teams are being asked to support different go-to-market strategies and are being measured against different goals. Therefore, it’s a perfect time to reset campaign structures and redesign the experience with the buyer in mind. Focus more on making it easy for buyers to engage with your brand, and less on frisking them for information before they can access your next webinar or read your next E-book.
