When I escape from the marketing bubble on LinkedIn and breathe in the same air as ‘normal’ businesses, B2B business growth smells and tastes different.
Marketing chatter too easily becomes detached from the reality of running and growing a smaller business.
Leaders in small businesses have a huge interest in outputs and sometimes in efficiency. It’s rare to find a leader with much interest, knowledge or motivation when it comes to marketing. (Yet they know they need more customers and want to grow.)
That’s not meant as a criticism. It’s just how it is.
And – to be honest – I sympathise. I spent many years in operations and business management. I know how many more pressing problems are yanking at your sleeve demanding attention. Marketing is a weird distraction or a drink with the Devil that you aim to avoid.
B2B business growth – sooooo much advice
And, of course, there’s marketers. If you want to understand more about B2B marketing, how’d you pick your expert?
Dipping into marketing on LinkedIn must feel like cracking open a door to a room and seeing it’s full of people shouting at each other in different tongues. Either that or scuttling through a crowded bazaar where everyone’s hustling to sell you something new and shiny that you don’t need.
No thanks!
Pity your poor ‘marketing person’
The person fitted with the noose of marketing responsibility is likely to be way down the pecking order without much autonomy or budget. Their role is to commission activities and campaigns to generate ‘leads,’ most of which the sales team don’t value.
No wonder SME marketing managers or coordinators turn over so frequently.
And here’s the crunch… NOTHING WILL MAGICALLY TRANSFORM ALL OF THIS. No magic new marketing fad or philosophy, no single meeting with a consultant, and definitely no quote from Simon Sinek. It needs a bit of work.
Time to lift the gloom. There are practical, positive steps any smaller business can take to improve their marketing and lead generation.
Practical marketing improvements any smaller B2B businesses can make
Look, I should really be telling you to go and find a competent marketing research agency and an experienced strategist who can fill your knowledge gaps and help you construct a coherent plan.
But we both know that probably ain’t gonna happen. You don’t have enough trust in the people or process to walk that path. And trust is vital for any B2B sale.
So let’s stick with the world as it is, rather than how we might wish it to be…
Any business can arrange customer interviews. With the right structure these will reveal nuggets of wisdom about why customers really chose your business. I’m willing to have a side bet that this will feel like switching the lights on.
Any business can interrogate sales staff to record the questions they always get asked and the stages a typical buyer goes through.
Any business can document what their ideal customer looks like. This can be based on what you already know about which prospects are most receptive and easier to sell to. Think too about what data you can extract for costs of production and product/account profitability.
Maybe you already have a vague notion of an ideal customer profile, but I bet you never wrote it down. Is it shared across the organisation and the sales team?
None of this activity will yield perfect results. But it will be a whole lot more useful for achieving B2B business growth than casual assumptions or unfocused activities.
When you’re clear who you’re selling to…
Documenting the characteristics of your ideal customer helps put some structure around your marketing. Sales and marketing activities can be enhanced or ditched depending on whether or not they help attract and convert ideal customers.
And finally, any business can hire an experienced B2B copywriter (ahem) to turn all of this into marketing copy that does way more than describe what you do.
There’s a whole load of reasons why ‘what you do’ isn’t the story you need to be telling. The most persuasive is that it might help you reduce your cost of sales – and maybe charge more for what you sell.
Who’s looking and why?
Something else you possibly know – but don’t use – are the factors that make buyers start looking for solutions.
What transforms a business from being one of the 95% that doesn’t give a moment’s thought to what you do, to one that craves your help right now?
What will they be desperately typing into Google looking for salvation?
Do you ever talk about any of that in your marketing or publish content specifically targeted at those decision points?
You do! Then what are you doing wasting your time reading this?
You don’t! Let’s talk – richard@rshcopywriting.co.uk 07597 192724.