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B2B Marketing Experiments During Covid-19
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B2B Marketing Experiments During Covid-19

B2B digital marketing initiatives have surged since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, yet we continue to observe marketing’s reluctance to experiment beyond traditional email and content marketing efforts.

This default toward “do what’s worked in the past and do it large scale” is a blind spot for organizations that need to grow in crowded or hyper-competitive market segments. 

Recently we’ve seen traditional B2B marketers skipping big-budget marketing initiatives in favor of low-cost options that salespeople embrace and deliver accelerated revenue growth and engagement with their target market.

For example, we helped one of our clients execute a multi-faceted initiative targeted at about 100 companies in a small, but lucrative and fast-growing market segment in the healthcare industry.

B2B Marketing Experiments During Covid-19

The marketing initiative components included:

○ A blog post on the company website that highlighted perspective on healthcare competitiveness
Sponsored LinkedIn content (blog post) targeted at specific contact titles
○ A personalized video from each salesperson embedded in a clean and straightforward email
○ Email from the marketing automation system with the salesperson’s email as the “from address.”
○ Salesperson phone and email outreach the following day

Within three weeks, the salespeople engaged in meaningful conversations with 15 of the target firms, which resulted in six above-average deals proposed and two wins. From the sales team perspective the initiative was a success!

The initiative itself isn’t what made the difference. Success came from the approach and team they put together to make it happen.

B2B Marketing Experiments During Covid-19
Here’s a summary of the marketing team approach:  

Engaged several marketing-oriented sales leaders and salespeople and asked for two hours.
Collaboratively developed insight for the blog post that would be of unique and high-value to the readers in the industry segment.
Tested four different creative and messaging options the sales team felt would resonate with their          contacts – the creative choices they preferred were the simplest ones with the least creative flair. 
○ Conducted a structured kick-off call and gained the commitment from the sales team to do their part of the execution (personal videos and personal outreach the day after)
Held weekly accountability calls with the sales team for six weeks to discuss progress and the results.

This experiment tested two variables – marketing to a small population with targeted, multi-touch elements, and involving salespeople at a level that is impossible with large scale initiatives. 

 

The volume of leads was barely a blip in the monthly lead volume generated by the company. However, the experiment proved more than just good ROI  

The marketing team discovered how effective sales team involvement before marketing campaigns could be, and that lower-budget, non-traditional initiatives have a place in the marketing initiatives portfolio.

 

Speak with your marketing team and explore if they are conducting marketing experiments. If they are, probe for their learnings and insight. If they aren’t, nudge them to try a few. Remember, the objective isn’t solely to measure ROI!

              For more B2B Marketing Experiments, Tools & Tips During Covid-19, Click Here to Subscribe to Two-Bullet-Tuesday

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