What Did 700 Executives Say About B2B Marketing Strategy?

The right marketing strategy provides:

• Twice the job tenure
• Double the personal brand presence
• Performance that beat EPS (Earning Per Share) estimates 88% of the time

   

Are you performing at this level?

Your path to the right marketing strategy starts now.  First, confirm if you’re on track and where your gaps exist.  Invest a few minutes of your time here.

The 29% of B2B CMO’s that have the right marketing strategy enjoy income at least 27% higher than the other 71%.  What does having the right marketing strategy look like? Click here, grab a coffee, beer, or glass of wine and read SBI’s 8th Annual Research Report. At the end, you may be patting yourself on the back.  Or like most CMOs you’ll identify gaps or gulfs in your marketing strategy. Either way you win.

If you want to schedule a more detailed 90 minute review click here and we’ll walk you through the report 1-1.

B2B Marketing Strategy Definition:

Here’s how best-in-class marketing leaders defined marketing strategy:

• What is a Marketing Strategy? A Marketing Strategy is an operating plan for a company’s marketing department.

   

• What does a Marketing Strategy do? A Marketing Strategy allocates resources efficiently to drive revenue.

   

• What does it mean to use a Marketing Strategy? Using a Marketing Strategy means the marketing department contributes to the revenue growth of the company by focusing on the top priorities of the sales team, product management department, and the CEO.

   

The above definitions may seem straight forward to you, but we were surprised at how much confusion was around the term Marketing Strategy. Our research indicated that 71% of marketing leaders had the wrong marketing strategy.

Reasons CMOs had the Wrong Marketing Strategy:

• Marketing Tactics Masquerading as a Marketing Strategy – When the marketing strategy is just a compilation of tactics, the organization is reactive vs proactive. They lack the ability to consistently meet marketing’s revenue contribution objectives.

• Same Marketing Strategy as Competition – When a marketing team has the same strategy as the competition, the customer experience becomes a commodity. When this happens, there is no longer the ability to differentiate on anything other than product or price.
• Marketing Strategy Not Aligned with Buyer Needs (Inward out verse outward in) – When a marketing team does not align the strategy to the buyer’s needs friction results. Buyers do not have a great experience during the self-directed portion of the buyer’s journey.

• Marketing Strategy Not Aligned with Corporate Strategy – In this case, the marketing team is in conflict with other functions in the company. As a result, customers don’t get a consistent experience when engaging with the company and the brand suffers.

• Marketing Strategy Not Aligned with Product Strategy – When the marketing strategy is not aligned with the product strategy, the marketing team’s revenue contribution objective is missed. Product management delivers new solutions to specific problems of certain prospects. The marketing strategy needs to be built around these prospects, with these problems.

• No Marketing Strategy – When there is no marketing strategy, periodic success comes from a few standout marketing campaigns. Without a marketing strategy, the marketing leader becomes overly dependent on luck. The lack of measurement ability on ROMI results in reduced funding or termination.

Getting Started

Start by reading the How To Increase Marketing’s Contribution To 2015 Revenue Report. After reading the report you’re ready to develop or update your marketing strategy.  The report provides structure for you to properly sequence your execution plan. If you’re interested in reviewing the report in more detail schedule a 90 minute 1-1 review here.

If you have any other questions, connect with me via a LinkedIn Inmail.