This is the fourth and final post in my series What I talk about when I talk about B2B marketing. This post is focused on the third of the three key takeaways: B2B marketing requires patience.
There’s a joke that B2B marketers are lazy marketers.
B2B marketers are all too aware that any big picture results are not immediate. Unlike many B2C marketers who have the privilege of seeing immediate conversions on campaigns, results in B2B can take what seems like an eternity. This “eternity” can make it appear that B2B marketers are “lazy” as we are waiting for results.
It’s not true! I swear!
Sure, some B2B marketers can bring in high quantities of leads (if you are able to do this, tell me your secrets), but it’s not like you’ll see CAC, MOB, MIB, conversion rates, or lead cycle length change immediately, so everyone just cool it, and wait it out. If done well, the results will come in waves.
So what’s a marketer to do?
Be clear in sharing that you understand what the business needs, sharing how marketing will get there, and what the path is to get there. This process needs to be very visible and repeated.
Marketing isn’t growing their programming step by step because they don’t understand the big picture. Marketing needs to do this because building out a GREAT well-oiled machine takes time.
Don’t just share your goals and objective once. Continuously reinforce WHY you’re doing the things you’re doing and HOW it contributes to the big picture.
How can non-marketers support your marketers?
For non-marketers, this is where taking a little time to understand how marketing works, even at a high level, will help. Be supportive and be patient.
Knowing that your buyer journey isn’t linear or quick is already helpful. Help build out the buyer journey with knowledge or other support can help shorten the sales cycle – beneficial to everyone.
Just be patient and supportive – honestly, there’s not much more to say here. B2B marketing is a long game. The better everyone understands that, the better and faster marketers can accomplish their goals.
The marketing team loses sight of the big picture or becomes unfocused because of reactionary needs is a marketing team that will have a lot of trouble achieving long term success.
So be patient. Be supportive. Let the marketing strategy keep focus.
Header Photo by Aron Visuals on Unsplash