A Short Guide to Smart B2B Marketing Launches

The good news about B2B marketing is its ultimate practical nature. To misquote Chaucer, “Value will out.” In the majority of cases, business-to-business purchasing is driven by practical considerations including but not limited to:

-Clear and understandable value your offering brings to the buyer

-Timing, as B2B purchases are typically made only when needed (sometimes later!)

-Reputation, because business purchasing decision-makers are often risk averse

-The right price, because the bottom line matters and competition, both direct and indirect, can be fierce; but remember, the lowest price on the market may connote “cheap” so play your cards right

-Problem-solving and pain reduction, because business is nearly always tough and your offering should make it easier

The other good news about B2B marketing launches is that, if you do your homework, you can pretty nicely identify and target your prospective buyers.

-Decide if you have one or multiple vertical markets to reach (schools, hospitals and hotels or just one of these)?

-Determine who is likely to make and to influence the buying decision.

-Research the way these people, as a group or singly, like to get their information (websites, trade shows, social media, video, print or online media, word-of-mouth, search engines, inbound marketing)?

-Remember that delivering your message via multiple methods and media will generally give you stronger results than the Monomaniac Approach of one form of outreach forever.

Once you’ve done some homework and you have your B2B product or offering ready to go, leverage your knowledge and tell your story.

-If your offering is “news” (and a new product or service of value typically is news), treat it as such, with media outreach, video how-tos, social media, trade show exhibition, eblasts, advertising, and lots more.

-Follow up with ongoing “drip” marketing, telling stories, creating case studies, continuing to advertise, and offering advice of value.

-Remember that when you are sick and tired of deluging the market with the same old messages, your prospects may just be beginning to notice them.

-Do you have a high-value offering and key prospects? Consider conversion marketing, in which you reach out to these same people multiple times, in a range of different ways.

-Can you become the expert in the solution you are offering? We may be getting tired of hearing the term “thought leadership,” but it still matters. Offering counsel, expertise and value through presentations at trade shows or conferences, writing white papers, blogging, and publishing articles makes your expertise, and if properly done, your offering top-of-mind.

-Learn as you go. You may later realize that the benefit you ranked as third in importance when you launched turns out to be #1. Revise and leverage. You may find out that schools really want the product you thought was ideal for hospitals. You may discover that your best customers buy one or two right away, and that the biggest prospects take two years to get you a purchase order. Smart B2B marketers are ready and able to adapt to realities and changes in plans.

-Repeat. Keep improving your offering, your messaging, your targeting, and your sales. Once you have the hang of this, you’ll want to keep at it.

Become a marketing machine

There's an irony we see regularly - companies that are resistant to taking on marketing ("it's an expense") but who are excited by the idea of "becoming a marketing machine."

Just as an individual is unlikely to get in shape without the day-to-day discipline of a fitness and diet routine, a company must take regular steps if it wants to achieve the considerable long-term benefits the right marketing can impart.

We can continue this comparison. Most of us don't transform from couch potato to marathon runner in a day, or perhaps ever. Both companies and individuals need to set goals they can - and want to - achieve.

Launch marketing is a great place to start: A smart company does not launch a product without marketing. Launch marketing is a great place to start because 1) it's exciting, 2) it's news and 3) it often makes the difference between launch success and failure.

Marketing can be done on the budget you elect: Okay, again, there are limits. Three jumping jacks do not constitute a fitness routine, nor do three posts on your otherwise anemic Facebook page. But you can start with manageable steps. Putting your website in order (get some outside opinions, on the likelihood you aren't seeing your own site through the prospect's eyes!), media relations (especially for product launches) and content/social media marketing (contributing to blogs, joining important conversations online) are excellent first steps.

Think SEO: Be seen, be found, be a player. Lead with digital.

Get help. It's worth it. Professionals, like the team at vSA, know how to get the biggest impact for your marketing investment. We believe strongly in the value of being a marketing machine, in the ways and at the level you elect.

"My boss says we're being bought up by a European company and nobody is supposed to know."

Social media can be an excellent marketing tool for your company. It's also a venue in which your employees are spending a lot of time, and every so often, someone makes a comment such as, "We deliver cold pizzas every Saturday night because it's just too flippin' busy" or "Rumor has it my boss is leaving the company - but he doesn't know it yet." Also every so often, an employee lets the competition know, in no uncertain terms, that they "stink" - or worse.

If you haven't established a clear, written social media policy for your company, you can call your employees to task when and if you catch these indiscretions, but the responsibility for any damage done lies also with your firm.

Just as your company has, ideally, established standards for brand use, for dealing with the press, for giving (or not giving) employment references, for use of company computer systems and more, you must also establish standards for employees' use of social media as it impacts your company.

Certainly, standards include the basics: don't talk online about confidential company matters, don't reveal new products, don't discuss litigation, don't harass or badmouth management or coworkers, don't flame the competition – but there are many other considerations as well.

As a firm that has long been involved in supporting clients in developing and managing their messaging, vSA knows that the power of social media can be used for good or harm - even inadvertently. ("Facebook, are you a good witch or a bad witch?") We work with clients to help assure everyone at their companies with access to a keyboard knows what's okay and what's not in terms of promulgating company-related information that could pop up on Google for years to come. We'll share more on this topic in upcoming blog posts, and are available to consult with clients regarding both their focused use of social media and risk management techniques.

Communication that resonates - how it happens.

Imagine for a moment that the communication in question isn't marketing. Imagine you're at a social event, talking with a stranger you'd like to know. What will keep this stranger talking with you? Will allow him to become intensely interested in what you have to say?

Talk about a topic in which the other person is very interested. ("Oh! You collect spiders?")

Not only BE truthful and sincere - project it. Interestingly, even when you ARE being genuine, people don't always believe it, probably because they have been exposed to so much that is false.

Hear and respond to the other person. Answer his or her questions directly, rather than swerving back to what you wanted to say anyway. Eventually, you can get to your message, but don't force the matter prematurely.

Inspire curiosity. Be interesting enough that the person wants to learn more, and to continue talking with you, and to resume the conversation another time as well.

Now - let's get back to the discipline of marketing. The principles are the same, but the barriers are higher. When you have something for sale (or, shall we say, "skin in the game") you face the challenge of appearing biased. Gosh, wonder why! So it's all the more important to project that you are telling the truth. The type of communication we've described above is a slower, more authentic way to build relationships than old-school hit-me-over-the-head-with-it marketing. But IT WORKS. Banks and financial service companies need solid relationships with customers and clients. So do companies whose products require a major commitment of time or money, or a switch to a new technology platform. So does your company, I'll bet.

Think about the many types of communication you employ - from speaking engagements to webinars, editorial coverage to white papers, social media to sales meetings. Each of these can be studied and, as necessary, retooled to more clearly and effectively speak in an authentic voice.

In a time when trust is rare and business is still recovering from a nasty year or two, is it worth your time to make sure your communications resonate? At vSA, we're voting yes-absolutely-yes, and the nature of our clients' communications increasingly reflects our focus on building trust as we build their brands and sales.