cupcake fallen on the floor | 7 major B2B marketing mistakes

Avoid These 7 Major B2B Marketing Mistakes

In today’s business ecosystem, the most human company wins. H2H (Human-to-Human) business is in. Customers value a more human marketing approach.

Well, guess what. To err is human.

As I consult with small B2B companies, I almost always find businesses making one or more serious marketing mistakes that are holding their companies back from greater growth and success.

Quiz yourself: check out these top 7 marketing mistakes that small B2Bs make. See if your company passes the test.

(Presented in no particular order, so don’t get too excited if your company is only guilty of #6 and #7.)

1) Demoting Your CEO

I see a lot of CEOs who demote themselves to CMO. They’re exceptional communicators and they have a crystal clear vision — plus, they’re natural promoters. So as long as you’re without a marketing person, why not tap the CEO? Right?

The head of your company has one job: to lead your company. Anytime they’re sitting in the CMO’s seat, the driver’s seat is empty. Unless your company is a Herbie movie, that’s just courting disaster.

Your CEO cannot be the marketing person in your company. Same goes for the VP of sales and your product developers. Every person has an important role to play — take them off that role, and you take away their effectiveness for your company.

Instead, hire someone to lead your marketing — whether it’s a director of marketing, an agency, or a marketing consultant.

For many small B2B companies, a marketing director and an agency are out of reach. But a marketing consultant provides most of the same services as an agency at just a fraction of the cost — and often with better personalized attention.

2) Taking a Website-only Approach

Here’s what’s great about a website: if you build it, they will come. But only if your website is actually a ball field in Iowa and your best friend is Shoeless Joe Jackson. Otherwise, you’ve still got a lot of work to do.

A company website is a necessary but not sufficient component of your overall digital presence. Launching a site and doing nothing else is like hosting a party and never sending the invitations. You’ve got to get in front of people to let them know who you are and how you help.

That means going where your customers already are and offering content they’ll be interested in. Start conversations with them and give them a reason to go check out your website.

(BTW, that won’t happen if you’re always talking about you, your company, or your product.

3) Relying on Referrals

I used to work at a company whose CEO boasted that they never did any marketing to win new customers. At the time, it struck me as odd.

Now, it strikes me as dangerous.

Okay, yes, it’s great to have an influx of word-of-mouth (WOM) business. But it’s NOT great to have a word-of-mouth ONLY (WOMO) business.

What’s so bad about WOMO?

🚨 Referrals make you dependent on other people to do your marketing for you.
🚨 Even if you have fanatical customers, that doesn’t mean they’ll spread the word.
🚨 And even if they do spread the word, that doesn’t mean the people they talk to will become customers.

Plus, WOMO puts an unfair weight of responsibility on your customers’ shoulders to do your marketing for you. And when it comes down to it, if you aren’t interested in marketing your own business, why should anyone else be interested in it?

When you boast about never doing any marketing, what you’re really saying is this: “We’ve managed to stay in business this whole time, but we’re okay with missing out on greater growth opportunities.”

If you’ve been in business for ten years, that’s a whole decade of stymied potential. Not a #humblebrag.

Say it with me: No Mo’ WOMO

4) Promoting Yourself

This is the weird thing about marketing: if it’s effective, it’s bringing in new customers. But if you focus on selling, you’ll push them away.

Everyone wants to buy, but no one wants to be sold to.

A lot of small B2B companies treat marketing like it’s advertising. There’s a difference, and it’s enormous — especially in today’s B2B world.

💡 Advertising is about selling. Marketing is about helping.
💡 Advertising is about getting people to buy. Marketing is about getting people to know, like, and trust you.
💡 Advertising is about an immediate payoff. Marketing is a long game.
💡 Advertising is purely transactional. Marketing is relational.

Make it your goal to be a brand that is known, liked, and trusted. That happens over time, by providing helpful content. Show your customers that you get them and can solve their problems — not only by selling them something, but by being there for them.

😍 Provide content they can use.
😍 Be a thought leader that points them in the right direction.
😍 Show that you actually care about their success.
😍 Be human.

That doesn’t mean you never promote yourself, of course. Otherwise, why do any marketing, right? But you won’t build likeability or trust if all of your content is just talking about how great you and your product are.

5) Squeezing It In

One of the problems with doing your own marketing is that you have to squeeze it in between your actual work. Which means you do it when you can get around to it. Which means you rarely do it.

That’s a problem, because marketing content needs to build on itself to be successful. If you aren’t continually churning out fresh content, you’ll lose momentum…and quality leads.

Is your small business committed to your marketing? Ask yourself these questions:

🤔 Are we blogging at least biweekly?
🤔 Are we posting on social media throughout the week?
🤔 Do we have email campaigns set up to nurture existing leads?
🤔 Are we creating new lead generation content at least quarterly?
🤔 Are we promoting our content on social media?
🤔 Are our social media followers and email lists growing? (Purchased lists don’t count.)
🤔 Do we have people whose primary role is marketing?

6) Failing to Plan

Maybe it’s not so much that you’re under-committed — you just don’t have a plan for your marketing. Lack of a plan is a sure way to stall out your momentum. You already know what they say about failing to plan, so I won’t mention it here.

(It’s planning to fail.)

(D’OH! Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

If you’re squeezing in your marketing activities between other responsibilities, you won’t have time to develop a marketing strategy. But do you really NEED a marketing strategy?

Yes, you do.

Well, couldn’t you just crank out some content every now and then to keep the SEO juice going?

No, that doesn’t work.

Without a marketing strategy, you don’t know what to say, how to say it, who to say it to, or why you’re saying it. It’s all just sound and fury, signifying nothing.

And, believe it or not, that’s not a great way to attract new customers.

Get yourself a marketing strategy. Before you do anything else with your marketing, develop a solid, sensible strategy that fits your business, your goals, and your customers. If you’re relying on tactics-first marketing, you won’t get anywhere. Any kind of success will happen by mistake, and only after a lot of wasted energy.

Take the first step towards a marketing strategy that fits your business.

7) Marketing on the Cheap

When the pandemic hit, many small B2B companies cut their marketing budgets in hopes of staying afloat. They were spending as little as possible on their marketing — and often, nothing at all. And it showed.

I get the thinking behind it. You need to tighten your belt on everything that doesn’t generate revenue and focus on sales. But what feeds your sales pipeline? Marketing!

Without marketing, you don’t have sales, and if you aren’t willing to invest in your marketing, you’ll be choking off your lead generating engine.

Data backs this up. Studies show that companies that invest in their marketing during economic downturns are quickest to recover afterwards. Companies that cut spending deepest have the lowest probability — only 21% — of pulling ahead when times get better.

So how much should you spend on marketing? A good rule of thumb is to invest ten percent of your revenue in marketing costs. That includes people resources, tools, advertising, subscriptions — the whole nine yards.

Mistake-free Marketing!

Actually, no. There’s no such thing as mistake-free marketing. Even the most seasoned marketing veterans make plenty of mistakes. But you can avoid shooting yourself in the foot, and that’s a great place to start.

Looking for more best practices to get your marketing (and your business) to the next level? Subscribe to the blog!

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