Despite the desire many of us still feel to burn sage every day to ward off the bad energy from 2020, many of our clients were able to hunker down and still make their numbers in an unprecedented year of insanity. As we venture into the first quarter of 2021, we thought it would be worth sharing a brief round up of what worked best in B2B marketing in 2020 from our agency’s perspective.

Let’s do it.

#1: Embrace the Quarterly Marketing Plan

Forget trying to figure out a detailed marketing plan for 6 to 12 months. Instead, take it one quarter at a time. Define your objectives. Focus your messaging. Align your tactics and your website. Monitor and measure results. And, keep a running wish list of what else you’d like to be doing. Towards the end of each quarter, evaluate your outcomes and your wish list and then rinse and repeat for the next quarter.

Today’s times require flexibility and adaptability. Sure, you can have annual objectives. Just prioritize them into quarterly-sized pieces. Then revisit them each quarter because they may change.

#2: Make Customer Case Studies Timely & Relevant

Here’s something to consider: your pre-pandemic customer case studies may no longer be relevant (or as relevant). It’s sad but true. But here’s the thing, you don’t necessarily have to start over from scratch. We recommend assessing your case studies and determining if you have certain customers that particularly benefitted during the last year from having your solution(s) in place.

If so, conduct a follow-up interview with them and ask strategic questions that help you get some quality timely, relevant insights. Then, update the case study and put it to work for you on your website, social media, collateral, videos, webinars, etc. Our clients found prospects to be hungry for timely, relevant case studies.

#3: Lose the Attitude About Webinars

In the early lockdown days, people in the B2B world were sitting on webinars for hours each day trying to figure out how to deal with the world turning on its axis. Webinar burnout was intense. But then, when things calmed down over the summer and fall, webinars started to become truly effective for lead generation.

Hands down, the best type of webinar involved timely, relevant case studies, where a client co-presented with one of their customers in telling the story of how having their solution in place gave them an edge when things went to hell in a hand basket. Also, promoting webinars to outside audiences via vertical sponsorships instead of home-grown prospect lists proved to be more fruitful in terms of driving webinar registrants (this is likely because most companies suck at managing their prospect databases).

#4: Reach New Audiences with Sponsorships

Trade shows and conferences as we know them went kaput in 2020 and, of course, this was a big blow in the B2B realm because so many companies rely on these for brand awareness and lead generation. From our perspective, very few organizations have found a way to make virtual conferences worth the investment (plus, the prices are just ridiculous). Savvy (and often smaller) trade/industry organizations have crafted sponsorships that enable you to reach their memberships and audiences in very targeted ways, including sponsored blog and social posts, involvement in their online communities, articles or ads in their e-newsletters/emails and webinars. Several of our clients have had great lead generation success co-presenting timely, relevant case study-focused webinars with their customers to a niche industry organization. The best case scenario is to co-present with a customer that is already involved with the organization, so you can ride on their coattails.

#5: Get Your Name Out There with Article Placements

Many of our clients are small to mid-size technology, security, cybersecurity and construction companies. They’re competing against big-name national players. While lead generation is crucial for them, so is growing their brand awareness and credibility in the marketplace. One of the most effective ways to do this is with article placements. This involves continuous media outreach to targeted industry publications and websites and pitching thought leadership topics for articles.

To be successful, though, it really does require professionals who know what they’re doing and have connections. The results are worth it when you have a steady stream of editorial articles, quoted mentions, bylined contributed pieces and customer stories that you can spotlight on your website and leverage for social media and SEO. This is an angle we worked hard in 2020 and found great success with for our clients.

Ready to get serious about getting strategic? For the month of January, the pros at Pom will create a result-producing Q1 Marketing Plan for just $750.
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One of the recurring themes we are hearing from existing and prospective clients today is the desire to branch out into new vertical markets. This is being driven by a range of factors. Maybe they feel their current verticals are tapped or sluggish. Or, they see opportunities in new markets due to today’s business challenges. Or, they’re just motivated to grow and know that they need to branch out in order to do so. Whatever the reason(s) may be, if you’re a B2B-focused company, breaking into new verticals is a good marketing strategy to fuel growth.

Following are three pro tips for venturing into a new niche:

Tip #1: Focus on Verticals Where You Can Leverage Direct or Outlier Customer Successes

The fastest path for entering a new market is to have some customer successes under your belt that you can use to help springboard yourself into the space. There’s nothing like proof that you know a market and have success in it. Sometimes though, that’s just not the case and you need to lean on your outlier case studies — or customer successes that are similar to the vertical you are looking to reach. Whatever the case may be, identify and develop 1-2 success stories you can use to tout your experience.

Tip #2: Become a Part of Their World

Once you’ve identified a vertical market and have your customer successes teed up, find ways to become a part of their world. There are endless trade associations, organizations, communities, influencers, etc., out there dedicated to every market under the sun. They provide infinite opportunities — many very affordable — for memberships, partnerships, sponsorships, advertising, marketing, etc. that you can use to get in front of their audiences. And these are not just the big trade associations. Many are small to mid-size organizations you’ve never heard of that have loyal communities that are interested and eager to discover new products and services. Full disclosure, though — it’s not especially easy to scout these organizations and opportunities unless you’re a marketing pro, which is why clients pay us to do it.

Tip #3: Chum the Waters

When entering a new vertical, you need to be prepared to try different things and see how they work. Don’t put your eggs in one basket. You’ve got to chum the waters by identifying a handful or so of opportunities that offer a mix of lead generation and brand awareness activities. It’s not realistic or reasonable to think you will get a ton of leads from one sponsored webinar with a group of people who have never heard of or seen you anywhere before. So run a banner ad on their website and e-newsletter, do a webinar, write a guest blog post, etc. In short, try different tactics that get you in front of an audience in different ways, run them over a period of time (one to three months), and then monitor and measure what works. And one other thing, don’t be self-serving with your content — focus on how you solve real-life problems in their world.

Let Pom Help You Get Serious about Getting Strategic

For the month of November 2020, $750 will get your company a short-term marketing plan handcrafted and delivered by the B2B marketing pros at Pom.

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“If you want to make a marketing program run on schedule, put a Mom in charge of it.”

Pom’s Marketing Mom, Leslie, and her family

When it comes to being consistent with our own short-term marketing program at Pom, we know ourselves well. Our agency’s own marketing initiatives tend to fall by the wayside unless we formalize a schedule and put our Marketing Mom (aka Leslie) in charge. No one wants to let Leslie down by not coming through with their dedicated tasks — including myself, and I happen to own Pomerantz!

Here’s how Leslie, Pom’s Marketing Mom, keeps our agency’s own short-term marketing program on schedule:

She’s the Scheduler in Chief of our Short-Term Program

Leslie develops and manages the master schedule for all of the activities involved in our short-term marketing program. She knows what is supposed to happen, when and by whom. If something is going to change on the schedule, you better ask Leslie.

Like all Moms, She Gives Lots of Reminders

Each week at Pom starts with a Monday Team Meeting, when we review the highlights of our account activities taking place in the upcoming week. Then, Leslie goes over what needs to happen with our own marketing. This is Reminder #1.

At some point in the middle of the week, she does a friendly yet no-nonsense check in with everyone on our team to see how things are going. It’s usually mixed in with other project communications, but it definitely counts as Reminder #2.

Last but not least, on Friday, Leslie sends Reminder #3 to everyone on our team in the form of an update on the schedule indicating what’s still pending and what needs to happen the next week. If you haven’t done what you’re supposed to do yet, it weighs on you all weekend until you do it (this I know from personal experience).

She Gives Positive Reinforcement

Every couple of weeks, we have a team meeting to review the fruits and results of our short-term marketing program. Like all good moms, Leslie makes a point of giving everyone positive feedback on their efforts and ideas. Our agency’s short-term marketing program continues to push forward because it has a dedicated Marketing Mom driving the bus.

Our Marketing Mom Says Start with a Short-Term Plan

For the month of October 2020, $750 gets your company a short-term marketing plan handcrafted and delivered by the B2B marketing pros at Pom. If you need a Marketing Mom to manage the implementation, we can make that happen as well.

Sign up for yours now >