The B2B Marketing Mistakes Everyone Makes

You might be surprised to know that most businesses involved in B2B marketing are making mistakes on a daily basis. That should not only give you pause but also a bit of excitement. If your business can avoid the B2B Marketing Mistakes everyone makes, then you will be in a better position for greater earnings. As a top digital agency, we want our clients to succeed which is why we always share important information like this with them.

Everyone makes mistakes. That is often how we learn and progress in our life, gaining wisdom from our failures. However, in business, it is not an efficient model of profitability to constantly learn in this manner. By learning from others, your business can avoid the loss of time and resources that plagues many of your competitors.

A quick note, this list of mistakes is not sexy. Consider them more of the “dirty work” of marketing that people avoid. Of course, therein lies the mistake. The dirty work establishes the foundation from which the empire will rise and should be embraced, not avoided.

Common B2B Marketing Mistakes

• Failing to map content to the sales funnel – Creating content for content’s sake is wasteful. While a business needs to craft content for newsletters, emails, social media, blogs, and website needs, that content needs to be part of a content strategy. This strategy should be connected to the sales funnel to nudge potential customers along their journey. Go further than just creating a content calendar and focusing on keywords. Map content to the sales funnel, find the areas that are not being tended too and create a strategy that moves customers down to the next phase.
• Not following best practices for search – They are called “best practices” for a reason, and yet plenty of people either ignore them or don’t stay up to date on changes. For Organic search, it is an absolute must that you follow Google’s best practice guidelines for website and content. The same goes for using paid search.
• Failing to align marketing with sales – Marketing and sales should be working together to achieve company goals. However, there are many instances when these departments aren’t aligned properly. Technology is the first place where the two should align, sharing data about prospects and customers. Plans and goals should also be shared so that each understands what campaigns and programs are being used along with how leads will be used and nurtured.
• Using social media non-socially – It is called “social media” and not “media” for a reason. We already had media in a host of formats. Some businesses simply do not recognize the distinction and focus on using various social media platforms as another media opportunity to push product at people. Not only does this create trust issues, but it also prevents a business from focusing properly on branding. Social media is a place to develop a brand voice, learn about an audience, and most importantly – interact with the audience. A good rule of thumb is 4 interactive or social posts for every 1 advertisement. This is especially true on Facebook and Instagram.
• Not using analytics properly – Analytics are powerful, but only when used properly. There should be established goals for any marketing objective, and these should be tracked via analytics on your website and any other platforms used, such as social media or email. It is important to track and attribute the things being done to then demonstrate the effectiveness of marketing efforts.
• Not using testing consistently – There are a ridiculous amount of options for testing from Adwords to your website to emails. Yet for some reason, many businesses either hardly ever test or don’t test at all. The marketplace is simply too large and competitive to not AB test everything you are doing. You can test specific word usage, the order of words, and the number of words used in an email headline, which can be critical in relation to open rates. That is just one example. Many don’t bother testing because they aren’t considering the potential benefits versus time spent. What if you spend two hours testing and it results in a 4% increase in conversions or open rates? That certainly seems like a terrific value. What doesn’t make sense is running a $20,000 campaign and NOT spending an extra few hours testing to ensure you are maximizing ROI.
• Wasteful tech spending – Technology is shiny and fun. A good salesperson will tell you exactly how it can solve all of your problems. However, that salesperson doesn’t mention that now your company will need to integrate that software, create processes and procedures, plus train people on how to use it. Tech is obviously very valuable and useful in digital marketing, but it should be carefully considered. Prior to spending money on new toys, take the time to map out how the tech will be used, the benefits, integration points, and also the time and energy needed for procedures and training. In some cases, the juice won’t be worth the squeeze.
• Skipping regular data audits – Our tech-heavy information age has made many businesses into data-hoarders which is not a good thing. Far too many businesses just keep adding information to databases and do not take the time to remove outdated and obsolete information and records. Phone numbers change, people switch positions or leave companies. By taking the time to perform regular data audits, you won’t be wasting time chasing after dead leads.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that not doing the dirty work when it comes to marketing is definitely a mistake that costs opportunity; something which is extremely valuable in marketing and sales. This list of B2B marketing mistakes everyone makes covers the most egregious mistakes we regularly see that hold a company back from reaching their fullest potential.

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