Transform Your Marketing From Chaos to Coherence

After losing business because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bryan Wish leveraged his newsletter to recruit clients and build a new brand for his B2B company, Arcbound.

This special blend of creativity and focus adds energy to any B2B marketing strategy. 

Arcbound’s newsletter is effective because it’s integrated with all of the company’s marketing efforts. Having a B2B marketing strategy framework helps your whole team pull together in the same direction.

We’re going to take a deep dive and show you how to build a solid B2B marketing strategy framework for 2024.

What Is a B2B Marketing Strategy Framework?

A B2B marketing strategy framework is GPS for your marketing team.

It puts all of the moving parts in perspective. It keeps the entire team coordinated and helps everyone avoid feeling overwhelmed.

A B2B marketing strategy framework integrates the right collection of tools, strategies, and approaches to get the most out of all your B2B marketing efforts.  

It covers everything the marketing team does, from understanding your target audience to setting clear objectives, from developing your value proposition to making data-based decisions, from selecting the right channels for marketing to allocating a budget.

When you fuel your B2B marketing strategy framework with carefully tailored content, amazing things can happen. 

Views lead to conversions. Your business will secure more meetings, presentations, and ultimately sales. 

The first step has to do with targeting the right people.

Understanding Your Target Audience

Every aspect of your marketing strategy centers around reaching the right people – your target audience – and convincing them to take the action you want. 

To get this kind of result, you have to know a lot about your target audience.

Identifying Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

In a B2B marketing scenario, your ideal customer is an organization with specific needs and objectives. 

But how do you “profile” a company?

Details like company size, industry sector, location, and revenue provide valuable insights for targeted business-to-business marketing strategies. 

This kind of “firmographic data” will help you understand which companies are in a position to become ideal clients.

You should also look at who your most lucrative clients have been. What are the traits that made them good clients?

Conducting Market Research

Matt Gray of the Soulful Entrepreneur makes heavy use of surveys in his newsletter. This enables him to know what kinds of content his readers – mostly founders and CEOs – are looking for.

Regardless of how you collect data, it’s better to know than to guess what your target market wants. Market research is an essential element in your B2B marketing strategy framework.

Utilizing B2B Personas

While the ICP is an essential data set for getting your foot in the door with the right prospects, it has a limit.

Ultimately, you’re dealing with real human beings who decide whether or not to engage your business. 

This is where the Buyer Persona comes in. Depending on your product, you may need content that appeals to an HR specialist, a CEO, an engineer, or a sales professional.

The more you know about each role, the better off you’ll be when your team gives a presentation.

Setting Clear Marketing Objectives

If you’re not aiming for something specific in your marketing strategy, you won’t know if it is working. Here are a few things to consider as you plan your objectives.

Aligning Objectives With Business Goals

The objectives of a B2B marketing strategy need to match the overall goals of the business.  

It's important to guide your entire B2B marketing strategy framework with goals that are challenging enough to inspire the team, yet ultimately reachable. 

SMART goals are a way to achieve this critical balance.

SMART Goals in B2B Marketing

SMART stands for:

• Specific: What exactly do we want to achieve?

• Measurable: How will we know when we’ve succeeded?

• Attainable: Is this possible?

• Relevant: Will achieving this goal help us? 

• Timely: By what date will we achieve this?

In your B2B marketing strategy framework, you’ll write most of your SMART goals around Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs.

KPIs and Metrics for Success Measurement

If SMART goals are what you want to achieve, then KPIs are the metrics which tell you whether or not you've achieved your goal.

A missed goal implies that you're not attracting the clients you expect, in the numbers you expect.

This might mean that your potential clients don't see the value in doing business with you. It's time to work on your value proposition.

A Value Proposition for Your B2B Marketing Strategy Framework

Every potential client is silently asking, “If I'm going to invest in this, what do I get in return?” 

Here's how you create an answer to their question that will close more deals.

Importance of a Strong Value Proposition

Your sales team doesn’t just have to convince the individuals they interact with. 

They have to empower those individuals to persuade other stakeholders in their organization to do business with you. 

A strong value proposition is something they can take to a decision maker that will explain in clear and obvious terms why your solution is a good fit for their needs.

Crafting Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

If you've done your market research, it shouldn't be hard to craft a unique selling proposition. 

First, you should know the needs and pain of potential clients. 

Next, you should know what your competitors are saying and doing to get business from the same organizations. 

Finally, your content should frequently include a clear and simple explanation of what you do differently and why it is a superior solution for your prospect’s situation.

Communicating Your Brand’s Value

Your brand plays a nebulous role in a B2B marketing strategy framework. Your brand is like the personality and reputation of your company. 

When you are intentional about your brand, it becomes easier to create new content, and your content is more likely to have a strong appeal. 

While you can tailor a sales presentation for the immediate situation, your brand is the result of years of exposure through various marketing channels. 

Channels and Tactics for B2B Marketing Strategy

Let's take a look at some of the most important marketing channel strategies.

Selecting the Right Marketing Channels

If you want to sell cold drinks, you have to go where people are hot and thirsty. 

If you're selling golf balls, you want to show up wherever the golf players are.

Before you dump a bunch of resources into the latest, most popular social media platform, consider the demographics of your buyer personas and make sure that you're showing up where they are. 

This could include trade shows, specialized publications, websites, specific social media channels, and more. 

Content Marketing Strategies

The best content has to do three things. 

1. It has to engage the interest of the buyer personas you're trying to reach. If they don't watch, listen, or read your content, then it's not going to do any good. 

2. Your content should establish your business as a leader and authority in your industry. However, it's not enough just to entertain and inspire your readers

3. It should provide clear instructions on how to reach out and do business with you.

Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

You'll have to decide if account based marketing is right for your business. 

Account based marketing involves creating a marketing campaign targeting one single individual company that's going to be a highly valuable account. 

If you've done your research properly and have accurate ICPs, you can probably pick out the companies that are a great match for your business. Then, go after them directly with your marketing. 

This approach takes a lot of resources; but if done right, it has a much higher success rate.

According to Momentum ITSMA, 75% of marketers report a higher ROI from ABM than any other approach.

Utilizing Email Marketing and Automation

Given its documented ability to double or quadruple your ROI, email marketing is a go-to channel for many experienced marketers.

The immense effort involved in email marketing has deterred some marketers from using this lucrative channel; but by following best practices, automation can handle most of the heavy lifting for your team.

Social Media Strategies for B2B

Social media is another must-have for your marketing strategy.

Since most social media strategies take time to succeed, it’s best to limit your resources to one or two social media channels at the start. 

Once you’re established, your followers will look for you on other channels, and you can quickly expand.

Most of your posts should be helpful and actionable. You should occasionally add something that's fun or entertaining, but make sure it fits with your brand.

Most importantly, be authentic. If you’re using AI to churn out generic content, your audience will catch on. 

Soon, they’ll scroll right past you or stop following you altogether.

Budgeting and Resource Allocation for B2B Marketing

When it comes to your marketing budget, think 80/20. Look at where your resources are going to have the most impact.

Determining Your Marketing Budget

Consider the entire sales funnel and focus on adding resources where you need the biggest lift. Would it help to increase your ad spend, or do you need to create more social media content?

Your answer to these and similar questions is just a hypothesis. You need data before you’ll know if you’ve got the right answer.

Allocating Resources Efficiently

Don't put too much money or effort into one area until you’ve seen how it performs.

It's usually more efficient to add a little bit of funding to marketing channels that are already in use. Ramping up a new channel too quickly, before you have enough data, can lead to waste. 

Start slowly, test everything, and allocate more resources where you see success beginning to happen.

ROI and Performance Analysis

Track your performance to see which channels and which type of content are producing the best results. Be ready to reallocate your resources or change your tactics depending on the outcomes you're getting.

Implementation and Execution of Your B2B Marketing Strategy 

You’ve researched your market, determined your SMART goals, selected your channels, and allocated your budget. Now let's look at some ways to implement and execute a B2B marketing strategy.

Developing an Action Plan

At this point, the marketing plan should practically write itself. You've chosen the message, the market, the strategy, and the channels.  

Best Practices for B2B Marketing Execution

Consider the overall customer journey. 

There's a point when they first become aware of your business or your solution, and there's a point when they are deciding whether or not to learn more about you.

Finally, there’s a point where they're deciding whether or not to set up a call, presentation, meeting, or whatever else you offer before closing. 

At each of these phases, a potential client needs different kinds of content and information. Consider each point of the journey as you execute your B2B marketing plan.

Managing and Leading Marketing Teams

It takes a lot of talent to implement a B2B marketing strategy. 

You will have at least three kinds of experts on your team: experts in content, digital marketing, and visual design. 

While each team member will have different responsibilities and bring a different perspective to the table, it's important to make sure that everyone is aware of your overall goals, benchmarks, and metrics.

Marketing Strategy Measurement and Analysis

Data is everything. It’s how you know what's working and what isn't. Let’s break it down.

Key Metrics To Track

There are literally dozens of metrics you could track. Here are just a few examples:

• ad spend

• cost per click

• click-through rate

• open rates for email

• cost per action

• cost per acquisition

• Conversion rates

• Time from first contact to close

Based on your overall marketing strategy framework, decide which metrics are relevant. Ultimately, you’re trying to find a formula where you spend x dollars to get y sales in z amount of time. 

Utilizing Analytics and Reporting Tools

You can use a wide range of analytics, from the well-known Google analytics to the 3D analytics provided by beehiiv or similar platforms.

Ultimately, what you're looking for in a reporting tool is the ability to convert your data into intuitive visual formats. 

This isn't just a matter of aesthetics. Many of the folks on your marketing team are likely to be creatives who respond better to visual data than numbers in a spreadsheet. 

By making the data clear and understandable to your team, they'll be better at acting upon it.

Adapting Strategies Based on Performance

With good analytics and reporting tools, you can quickly see which aspects of your marketing strategy are working. Double down on these and pull resources out of anything that isn’t effective.

Scaling and Optimization

As you drill down into your data, you’ll find ways to improve your marketing strategy.

Identifying Opportunities for Growth

Remember, as you look at KPIs and evaluate your results, you're doing more than learning how well past strategies have worked. You're looking for new strategies that will work in the future.

Ongoing analysis can reveal places where a small increase in investment will lead to more sales and growth. 

A/B Testing and Continuous Improvement

AB testing should be a staple of every B2B marketing strategy framework. 

As you discover strategies, channels, content, and other factors that are effective, you can add resources that you take from places that are less effective. Over time, this makes your marketing strategy more efficient.

Building and Maintaining Relationships for Long-term Success

As you build connections and begin having conversations with new client prospects, it's important to keep in touch with the key individuals within an organization. 

At the same time, continue to build your brand awareness and visibility among those who have not yet had a personal contact with someone in your business.

While personal contact will be at the core of your relationship-building efforts, it's critical to have a newsletter so that you stay on the radar with past and future clients.

Future Trends in B2B Marketing

According to a 2023 Hubspot report, video and influencer marketing were two big growth areas in 2023. Marketers tended to scale back their use of augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR). Podcasts and audio content also took a hit in 2023. 

Emerging Technologies and Tools

You probably already know that Artificial intelligence (AI) is the new, fast-growing toolkit. 

Many content creators are embracing AI as a time saver, and it already offers powerful new opportunities in automation and data analysis. 

This is a rapidly changing field, and you should be constantly looking for new AI tools that can streamline your workflow or improve your marketing.

Shifts in Buyer Behavior and Expectations

A growing number of businesses and their customers are committed to social justice and other issues. They won’t want their brand associated with vendors that go against their company’s values. 

If you want to do business with these companies, you have to sincerely share their values. 

While some businesses make public claims of supporting a cause, occasionally their policies don't align. For instance, expressing support for Pride Month on social media but neglecting workplace harassment of LGBTQ employees.

Aligning your business values and practices ensures authenticity, resonating positively with both current and potential buyers.

The ethics of your business are becoming an important piece of your marketing strategy.

Preparing for the Future of B2B Marketing

Artificial intelligence, authenticity, and social justice are all issues you will have to navigate, and addressing these issues must happen in addition to the basic requirement that you provide something your clients want to pay for. 

And of course, you need to make all of this clear in your marketing. 

These new challenges are your opportunity. By embracing new developments that many businesses will try to avoid, you'll differentiate and improve your position in your industry.

The Anchor to Your B2B Marketing Strategy Framework

There’s one last thing we touched upon, but didn’t fully address.

Email marketing with a newsletter is an important element of any B2B marketing strategy framework. 

Emerging technologies, new platforms, and new policies all prove that the marketing landscape is in flux.

However, a newsletter gives you the security of an audience that opted in because they have a genuine interest in your business and your messaging. 

This won't be taken away by a new algorithm or a Chat GPT upgrade.

Given this environment of constant change, it's important to have an email platform that evolves with the times. This is what beehiiv has become.

beehiiv is constantly releasing new features, and these aren't designed on the whims of an engineer or a CEO. 

We build new features by constantly asking our own users what they would like to see. We create the features that working creators and business owners demand for their own income-generating newsletters.

This has resulted in some cutting-edge results, such as:

• A robust, no code, user friendly editor

• Multiple channels for building your list and promoting yourself and your business

• Several monetization opportunities, from our Ad Network to boosts and recommendations, leading to multiple streams of income from your newsletter

Using our 3D analytics will give you insights about your prospects and clients so that you can better plan all of the other facets of your marketing strategy.

In fact, if you want a stable resource to anchor your entire B2B marketing strategy framework, your next step is to start a beehiiv newsletter.