Need to turbocharge your Marketing/Sales?
Take ten minutes to find out how...
Step 1 - Create a five-year business plan.
Turbocharging the marketing and sales functions of any medium-sized B2B business always starts with one thing - having an up-to-date business plan that maps out where you're going and what you need to do to get there. Most importantly we need to very clearly articulate the business objectives, and map out how marketing and sales can help achieve them.
If you don't have a business plan we'll help put it together with you. If you have one hidden away in a bottom drawer, we'll help you to update it. This way everyone knows where the company is headed and everyone has the same view of the business and the brand. Absolutely crucial to success.
Step 2 - Formulate a 12-month marketing and sales plan.
Once your company's business plan and objectives are in place and approved, the next thing we need to do is to put together a 12-month Marketing and Sales Plan.
The Marketing Plan needs to cover everything that the company will do to deliver the business plan in year one and should cover all the modern day 7Ps - product, price, promotion, place, people, positioning and processes.
The Sales Plan outlines the resource needed over the next 12 months, and the targets that need to be met by each member of the sales team.
Step 3 - Purchase and implement HubSpot Starter Customer Platform.
If you haven't already done it, the very best thing you can do to take your flourishing B2B business to the next level is to implement the HubSpot ecosystem across all aspects of your enterprise.
Everything you need to turbocharge your B2B business and brand is included. Starting with a world-class customer relationship management hub that enables you to put every single stakeholder (and all their details) right at the centre of your business universe. Which is exactly where they belong.
Then there are six hubs that plug directly into your new CRM ecosystem - Marketing, Sales, Content, Servicing, Operations and Commerce. Once done, everything is streamlined, centralised, coordinated and shared, and everything just works like clockwork.
Step 4 - Conduct a thorough audit of existing sales/marketing assets.
These include:
- CI Manual
- Website and SEO
- Newsletters
- Emails
- Digital Corporate Profile
- Stakeholder Database
- Sponsorships, Events and Seminars
- Other digital channels - Google ads and Youtube
- Branding
- Salesforce system, training, targets and incentives
Step 4 - Start building your stakeholder database in HubSpot. And never stop...
The starting point in moving your current business processes to HubSpot is the creation of a database of all your stakeholders, and populating it with as much information about them as possible. First name, last name, email address, mobile number, company, job title, city, country, birthday, contact owner, stakeholder group and lead status to start with. And then we build it from there. This database will become one of your company's most valuable assets, and HubSpot enables you to optimise it in pursuit of growth and financial success.
The next highly important skill is building and maintaining databases. You should already have one with all your existing customers in it. Get it out of the cupboard, clean it up and dust it off. Make sure it is POPI compliant. Next you need to start building a database of potential customers. You need to use every resource at your disposal to increase these numbers, but remember that quality always trumps quantity. Don't stand on protocol here. If you meet a new prospective client, influencer or competitor ask for contact details and be prepared to share straight back. Keep asking all qualified persons for their business cards. They can only say no.
Step 5 - Start creating a culture of content generation excellence.
You don't need to be brilliant at content generation. Your whole company does. Because brilliant content starts conversations and conversations start relationships. And all other good business things stem from here. Also, who knows your industry, your competitors and your customers better than you and your people? And these days everyone can write. Creating a culture of excellence in generating interesting, informative, relevant and engaging content is the most important thing you can do if you want to grow your business and your brand. And it's a great place to start.
Step 6 - Upgrade your website.
One of the most important things you need to do to get your qualified B2B leads flowing is to seriously upgrade your website. All of the content you are now putting out into the B2B universe is encouraging prospective clients to visit your website.
And any visits to your website by potential customers who do not leave their contact details is a fail. A website is not simply a digital brochure - it's your most important marketing and sales asset and it really needs your full attention. You need to fill it up with brilliant content and provide valuable offers that entice your visitors to sample some of your digital wares.
That are then sent straight to their email inbox, which you and your company now have access to. And this is where the conversations begin, and where sales tend to follow.
Step 7 - Start blogging. And keep blogging.
The next thing to do is to start sharing your outstanding content in your own backyard - on your website. Set up a blog page right now. And start posting your latest content right there. Get in the habit of posting a new B2B blog every day. Try to keep them under 250 words because everyone's in a rush these days. And each employee gets a turn. Starting with you.
And appoint an internal editor - choose the busiest person in the building. Your blog listing page becomes your content warehouse and as your content grows not only do you start conversations with the right people, but your website shoots up the SEO rankings as well. So when potential customers search for your sort of widgets you come up first.
Step 8 - Start a monthly newsletter.
Email remains the single most effective B2B communication channel in the galaxy, and it's pretty much free. Business owners are in and out of their inboxes all day every day, and they open and glance at everything that comes their way. You get your nano-second of attention and an industry newsletter full of juicy content is a good way to capture it. As soon as you have your first four blogs you have enough to create and publish your first newsletter. So, what else is stopping you?
Step 10 - Make the most of LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is tailor-made for B2B companies, because it's all about, and only about, the world of business. So you need to make the most of it. Optimise your LinkedIn profile and transform it from a CV into a shop window for your business. Then get conversations started with three important groups - your ideal clients, your sector influencers, and finally with your peers and competitors. You need to be in it to win it, and to leverage all the power of this industrial strength social media platform.
Email remains the single most effective B2B communication channel in the galaxy, and it's pretty much free. Business owners are in and out of their inboxes all day every day, and they open and glance at everything that comes their way. You get your nano-second of attention and an industry newsletter full of juicy content is a good way to capture it. As soon as you have your first four blogs you have enough to create and publish your first newsletter. So, what else is stopping you?
Step 12 - Learn to be an SEO genius.
Search Engine Optimisation is even more relevant today than it was in the early days of search engines. It can still be done organically, and there is distinct recognition for the hard yards put in to get there. SEO is not an overnight fix.
But there are hacks that make it easier and that make good rankings more attainable. Just like generating content and building databases SEO has become an essential modern day business skill.
Step 13 - Become the go-to authority in your sector.
It is highly likely that if you get to this point in your B2B marketing efforts you'll be further down the track than most of your competitors. The more often you post interesting and knowledgeable articles that are relevant to your sector the easier it becomes to assume the authority mantle. And once this happens your audiences start actively searching for your content. Needless to say, it's a great place to be. When qualified leads start coming to you for your thoughts and opinions that's when your prospective database really starts to build.
And that's all you have to do. To start with.
For help with any B2B marketing either outside or within the above parameters, hit the button below and we'll get back to you ASAP.
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A little bit about me...
Tim Byrne is the Managing Director of theB2Bcompany and has been helping mid-sized B2B companies to turbocharge their marketing and sales since 2020.
Prior to that he was the Head of Brand Communication at Discovery from 2011 to 2019, CEO of Grey South Africa and Managing Director of the Jupiter Drawing Room in Johannesburg.
Tim has over 50 000 hours of marketing and advertising expertise, all earned in Johannesburg and Cape Town - two of the global centres of excellence. Tim will talk to the owners and management of any mid-sized B2B company who are serious about growing their businesses and their brands.