For B2B businesses, 2020 saw all plans go out the window. Many were put on the defensive, but the new year is an opportunity to be proactive. Customers may not be investing in solutions at the rate they were, but you can establish an effective marketing strategy and position your business to benefit from the recovery.
Here’s how:
1. Review 2020
In the year where most things went wrong, what went right? What opportunities and challenges are you facing? Where can you improve, and where did your performance surpass your expectations? Just like a New Year’s resolution, moving forward starts with evaluating the recent past. Marketing successes of 2020 show where you’re strongly aligned with customers, so use that momentum.
2. Identify Where You’d Like to Grow
Out of your existing opportunities, which ones offer the highest potential benefit, an acceptable level of risk, and a timeline that works with your business strategy? Marketing can leverage demand for any of your products or services, open the door to new offerings, deepen existing customer relationships, or accelerate lead generation – but a winning marketing strategy focuses on just a few vital areas.
3. Set SMART Goals to Get There
A SMART goal is:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-based
Structuring goals to be SMART means it will be easy to check their fit with the overall strategy and relatively simple to communicate them to teams. Plus, you’ll be able to evaluate whether your marketing efforts are really moving you toward those goals and optimize your spending accordingly.
4. Create Tactics to Achieve Those Goals
Tactics are day-to-day operations teams will perform to realize the goals you defined. Each goal requires different tactics, often in combination. For example, if a chief goal is to raise organic search traffic, it’s likely that planning, publishing, and optimizing more content will be among your tactics.
5. Determine How You Will Track Your Progress
Tracking progress is done at the tactical level with an eye on the big picture. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are the tools you use to highlight what tactical behaviors are necessary and ensure your teams reach – and continuously improve – excellent performance in those areas.
Industrial marketing strategy gets you on track for 2021 success. To learn more, contact AIMG.