You may be surprised to learn that most companies involved in B2B marketing make mistakes on a daily basis. That should not only give you a break, but also a little excitement. If your business can avoid the B2B marketing mistakes everyone makes, you're on the road to stronger leads.
As a growing internet agency based in Europe and the United States, we want our clients to succeed. That's why we always share important information like this with our customers, and today with you too!
Everybody makes mistakes. That is often how we learn and progress in our lives, gaining wisdom through our failures. In business, however, it is not an efficient model of profitability to constantly learn in this way. By learning from others, your company can avoid the loss of time and resources that plagues many of your competitors.
A quick note, this list of mistakes is not sexy. Think of them more as the "dirty work" of marketing that most people are only too happy to avoid. Therein lies the biggest flaw. The dirty work lays the foundation from which you will continue to grow. So this should be embraced, not avoided.
1. Common B2B Marketing Mistakes
Don't assign content to the sales funnel
Creating content for the sake of content is wasteful. While a business needs to create content for newsletters, emails, social media, blogs, and website needs, that content needs to be part of a content strategy. This strategy should be linked to the sales funnel to push potential customers along their journey.
Go beyond just creating a content calendar and focus on keywords. Assign content to the sales funnel, find the areas that are not being maintained and create a strategy that takes customers to the next stage.
Not following search best practices
They're called "best practices" for a reason, and yet many people ignore them or don't keep abreast of changes. For organic search, it is imperative that you follow Google's website and content guidelines. The same goes for using paid search, such as PPC Ads.
Unable to align marketing with sales
Marketing and sales must work together to achieve business goals. However, there are many cases where these departments are misaligned. Technology is the first place where the two need to connect and share data about prospects and customers.
Plans and goals should also be shared so that everyone understands which campaigns and programs are being used and how leads are being used and nurtured.
Non-Social Use of Social Media
It's not called "social media" for nothing and not "media". We already had media in many formats. Some companies just don't recognize the distinction and focus on using various social media platforms as another media opportunity to push products to people. Not only does this cause trust issues, but it also prevents a company from focusing properly on branding.
Social media is a place to develop a voice for your brand, learn more about an audience and most importantly: interact with the audience. A good rule of thumb is 4 interactive or social posts for each ad. This is especially true on Facebook and Instagram.
Not fully exploiting analytics
Analytics are powerful, but only if you make good use of the data. There should be set goals for each marketing objective and these should be tracked through analytics on your website and other platforms used, such as social media or email. It is important to track and assign the things that are being done and then demonstrate & measure the effectiveness of marketing efforts. Wondering what opportunities you might be missing out on?
Do not (consistently) use tests
There are a ridiculous amount of options from testing Google Ads on your website to email conversion. But for some reason, many companies hardly ever test, if at all. The market is just too big and competitive not to test everything you do.
You can test specific word usage, the order of words and the number of words used in an email header, which can be crucial in terms of opening rates. That is of course just an example.
Many don't bother testing because they don't consider the potential benefits versus time spent. What if you spend two hours testing and it results in a 4% increase in conversions or opening rates for your email? That definitely strikes me as a great value.
What doesn't make sense is running a $20,000 campaign and NOT spending extra hours of testing to make sure you maximise ROI.
Wasteful Tech Spending
Technology is shiny and fun. A good seller will tell you exactly how it can solve all your problems. However, that salesperson does not mention that your company must then integrate that software, create processes and procedures, and then also train people in its use.
Tech is obviously very valuable and useful in digital marketing, but it needs to be carefully considered.
Before you spend money on new toys, take the time to consider how the technology will be used, its benefits, integration points and also the time/energy required for procedures and training. In some cases, it is simply not worth the investment.
Skip regular data checks
Our tech-heavy information age has turned many businesses into data hoarders, which is not a good thing. Far too many companies keep adding information to databases and don't take the time to remove outdated and obsolete information and records.
Phone numbers change, people change positions or leave companies. By taking the time to conduct regular data audits, you don't waste time looking for dead leads.
Don't forget the GDPR & AVG, which have far-reaching consequences for data processing and storage.
The bottom line
The bottom line is that avoiding “the dirty work” when it comes to marketing is definitely a mistake that costs opportunities; something extremely valuable in marketing and sales. This list of B2B marketing mistakes everyone makes includes the most egregious mistakes we regularly encounter that keep a company from reaching their full potential.
Do you want to make sure your new website is fully optimised and ready to drive leads to your business? Check out our 8-step website launch checklist for 2022.