by Digitopia | Updated Apr 13, 2023
As a B2B company, you know that digital marketing is essential to building your business and acquiring new customers. Unfortunately, many companies struggle to get the traction they need to maintain momentum and generate consistent sales over the long term. In most of these cases, brands take a "wait and see" approach to different marketing methods and ultimately end up with nothing to show for their efforts.
Thankfully, there's a better way - a comprehensive and holistic marketing strategy that combines tactics and allows your company to adapt to a changing marketplace. Let's look at why the "specialized campaign" method doesn't work and what you can do instead.
Why Specialized Campaign Digital Marketing Doesn't Work
There are many compelling reasons why picking and choosing different marketing channels doesn't work for so many B2B companies, so let's break them down and focus on two major problems.
The first problem… is that companies who fail at inbound marketing will find one inbound marketing channel that works and exhaust it. It could be digital advertising, email marketing, blogging, etc. Because it seems to move the needle, the company focuses its attention on that channel and neglects others. Unfortunately, the momentum eventually fizzles out, leading the business to switch to another channel to try and maintain that momentum.
This approach means the company is always chasing leads and following trends while losing sight of the bigger picture. So, instead of looking at how different channels can feed into and build off of each other, the brand is too busy looking at individual returns.
The second problem… today’s increasingly savvy buyers. In decades past, the only way for a buyer to learn more about a business was to talk with a salesperson, meaning they were already inside the funnel. These days, buyers can research a company and interact with various marketing messages long before they ever make a call or send an email. On average, it takes up to 27 touchpoints to close a B2B deal, and many of these touchpoints happen without a salesperson.
So, taking a specialized, one-note campaign approach to digital marketing doesn't work because it limits how much information a potential client can discover on their own. Without an abundance of content marketing across various channels, it's easy for a brand to get lost in the crowd.
Taking a Holistic Approach: Digital Marketing + RevOps
Fortunately, there's a better way to get customers and move the needle - a holistic digital marketing strategy. In this case, you're not switching from one channel to the next, hoping for something to stick. Instead, you have a bird's eye view of your entire marketing strategy and can see how each component feeds into another.
Similarly, you should also incorporate revenue operations (RevOps) into your strategy. RevOps is the integration of all departments (sales, marketing, and operations) to understand how they can work together to achieve company-wide goals. Overall, by looking at the entire sales funnel process from start to finish, it's easier to figure out where to make tweaks and changes that will deliver substantial results.
So what exactly is a holistic approach to digital marketing? There are a few steps, including:
- Develop Individual Marketing Channels - Figure out which channels your buyers are looking at (i.e., social media, email, video, inbound content, SEO) and create action plans to develop content for each platform.
- Consider the Entire Buyer's Journey - Which components will a client look at before calling your sales team? Which elements can the sales team send to a prospective client to move them along the sales funnel? Is the messaging between your marketing and sales departments consistent, or are there discrepancies?
- Identify Business Goals - It's important to make sure your marketing strategy goals align with your business goals. For example, if you want to have 20 leads a month, your goal as a marketer could be to increase leads by 10% each month. Other goals could include increasing brand awareness, generating high-quality leads, growing or maintaining thought leadership in your industry, or increasing customer value. Take some time to identify what your goals are and how your marketing team can work to achieve them over time.
- Determine the Best Tools - Selecting the right tools and software (like HubSpot!) can make all the difference in having a holistic digital marketing strategy. Having tools for marketing automation, analytics, lead generation and nurturing, and more can help you do your work more informed and more efficiently.
- Fill in the Gaps - Once you've mapped out the buyer's journey (including all 27 potential touchpoints), you'll likely identify multiple areas where you're lacking in marketing content. Fill in these gaps with great content so you can move buyers along every step of the way without offering redundant materials.
- Test and Learn - Test your strategy and identify what works. Optimize and adjust what doesn’t work. A marketing strategy should be built to evolve over time and everyone on your marketing team should be empowered to contribute to its evolution.
Why it Pays to Find the Right Inbound Marketing Partner
Another primary reason why companies take the "a la carte" approach to digital marketing is that they don't have the time, budget, or expertise to create a holistic action plan. So, executives and managers only pay attention to the metrics of individual channels, failing to realize that they have to look at all channels as a whole, not individually.
One of the best ways to alleviate this problem is to work with a high-quality inbound marketing firm that can take care of the details on the back end and present a comprehensive view of the entire marketing strategy. This way, those in charge can see how these efforts are yielding desirable results, all without getting bogged down in the cost/benefit analysis of each component.
When comparing different inbound marketing agencies, pay attention to qualities like:
- Personalized Approach - The gaps in your marketing strategy are unique, as are the challenges you face when generating new leads. So, a marketing firm shouldn't try to take a "one-size-fits-all" approach to your business. Instead, it should assess your current campaigns and create a customized action plan based on that assessment.
- Proven Track Record - It's best to work with firms that have experience within your industry. Otherwise, you'll only get generic marketing tactics that may or may not work for your specific client base. Look at past references to verify if the firm is a good fit for your needs.
- Transparency and Support - Some firms are like black boxes - you put your marketing request in on one side and see the results (good or bad) come out on the other. However, high-quality marketing agencies will give you a window into their process so you can see how they're achieving success. Plus, if you need help understanding something or using a specific tool, the firm should be able to offer comprehensive support.
Let Digitopia Help You Supercharge Your Digital Marketing
Building a comprehensive, holistic digital marketing strategy takes time, patience, and experience. Fortunately, Digitopia has the tools and methodologies to help your business thrive. If you're interested in seeing what it takes to get your brand to the next stage, contact us today, and we can show you how the Digital Utopia Methodology works.
