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The Indispensable Role of Strategic Marketing in B2B Success

March 17, 2024

Unlocking Sustainable Growth

Companies are constantly on the hunt for strategies that will grant them an upper hand. One fundamental aspect is the potential power of a marketing-focused growth strategy for B2B companies. This approach isn’t merely about promotional activities—it’s about embedding marketing at the very heart of your business’s strategic foundation.

Improve Alignment Between CEOs and Marketing

In a study by McKinsey & Company, it was discovered that the partnership between CEOs and CMOs, especially in how they collaboratively defined marketing’s role and influence in shaping growth strategies, significantly impacted their companies’ performance. The array of strategies, tactics, tools, and resources at the disposal of contemporary marketers has expanded exponentially, unlocking new possibilities for what marketing can accomplish. With this rapid change, it’s more and more challenging for CEOs to keep up. This is where a strong partnership with the marketing department becomes crucial.

Companies that include marketing at the core of their growth strategy outperform their competition and are twice as likely to see revenue growth of 5% or more than those that don’t.

Marketing at the Core of Growth Strategy

When CEOs and companies neglect marketing as a growth driver, their competitive edge diminishes significantly. In this recent article published by the Harvard Business Review, they state that companies that include marketing at the core of their growth strategy outperform their competition and are twice as likely to see revenue growth of 5% or more than those that don’t (67% to 33%). Additionally, they state that high-growth companies invest, on average, three times more in marketing. To harness the full potential of marketing for sustainable growth, it’s essential to strategize its integration as a core element of your business plan.

Improve Customer Experience (CX)

Marketing isn’t just a message; it’s a critical framework guiding product development, customer service, and sales alignment. With a marketing-first perspective, B2B companies prioritize customer experience in product/service development, creating offerings that resonate in the market. This approach helps companies anticipate market trends, analyze customer data, and outperform competitors.

Marketing Leads, Culture Follows

Marketing shapes company culture and boosts performance. An integrated strategy drives internal collaboration, innovation, and customer focus. Placing marketing at the heart of the organization fosters a shared mindset across all levels. This alignment ensures a motivated, customer-centric team. Embedding marketing in corporate culture leads to both external growth and internal strength through a driven and collaborative workforce.

Marketing Data as a Beacon for Sales Strategies

Integrating marketing data into sales strategies boosts efficiency and closing rates. Marketing data offers insights into customer preferences, behaviors, and engagement, enabling tailored approaches that enhance conversion rates and shorten sales cycles. Prioritizing leads based on engagement scores optimizes resource allocation. Aligning sales messaging with marketing campaigns ensures a consistent brand experience, fostering trust and loyalty.

The Symbiotic Relationship of CRM and Marketing-First Approach for Growth

An effective CRM system, paired with a marketing focus, forms a solid foundation for company growth. This integration boosts understanding of customer needs, behaviors, and preferences, enabling personalized experiences that enhance satisfaction and loyalty. The CRM acts as a central hub for customer data, supporting targeted marketing campaigns. A marketing-centric approach ensures that customer insights from the CRM are utilized across all business functions, aligning products and services with customer expectations for market success. CRM analytics monitor marketing effectiveness, drive improvements, and inform data-driven revenue decisions. Prioritizing customers in growth strategies strengthens relationships, fosters loyalty, and fuels sustainable growth. This is how businesses can leverage a CRM to find gold in their customer data.

Harnessing Strategic Marketing for Sustainable Business Growth

By centering their growth strategies around a comprehensive marketing philosophy, B2B companies can crystallize their brand messaging, refine their product and service offerings, and ultimately secure a competitive advantage in their respective industries.

Bynder Group works closely with CEOs and CMOs to develop and execute marketing-focused growth strategies that accelerate business growth. We also fill the gap as a fractional CMO when one is not in place. We champion the integration of strategic marketing techniques as a keystone for business growth. Our expertise in crafting tailored strategies ensures that your B2B brand doesn’t just participate in the market—it leads it.

The Crucial Role of Discovery Conversations in Strategic Planning

September 17, 2023

While the term “discovery call” is widely known, it begs the question: what exactly is its purpose?

In essence, a discovery call is an opportunity for two parties to have an exploratory conversation in order to uncover insights and challenges the customer may be facing. This provides the other party with valuable information about the customer’s needs and business objectives before proposing any solutions.

Ultimately, this helps ensure that both sides are on the same page when it comes to understanding desired outcomes

Here at Bynder Group, we prefer the term “discovery conversation” over “discovery call,” as this helps emphasize that it’s a two-way dialogue.

Revealing Insights Before Proposing Solutions

Think of your discovery conversation as the diagnostic step that precedes the prescription of the solution. Rather than jumping directly into marketing tactics and software solutions, a good agency will focus on understanding the client’s challenges from all angles and formulating a well-rounded strategy accordingly. This exercise sets the stage for understanding and addressing the core challenges at hand and ensures greater ROI on your investment. A thorough discovery conversation is crucial for several reasons:

Comprehending Client Goals and Requirements:

The discovery conversation presents a valuable opportunity for the marketing agency to gain deep insights into the client’s business, goals, and challenges. This comprehensive understanding is crucial for crafting tailored marketing strategies that precisely align with the client’s unique needs and objectives.

Identification of Challenges:

Through the discovery process, the agency can identify potential challenges the client may be facing in marketing their products or services. By understanding these challenges, the agency can devise solutions to tackle them effectively, ensuring a more successful marketing campaign.

Scope Definition:

The discovery conversation plays a crucial role in defining the project’s scope, encompassing factors such as budget, timeline, and deliverables. This level of clarity serves as a safeguard against scope creep and ensures that both parties share a common understanding of expectations.

Assessment of the Agency’s Expertise:

During the discussion, the client can gauge the competency and expertise of the agency. They can assess if the agency has the required knowledge and experience in the client’s industry, which is essential for success

Budget Alignment:

Discussing the budget during the discovery process ensures that both parties are on the same page regarding financial expectations. It also allows the agency to propose a pricing structure that aligns with the client’s budget constraints.

Mutual Responsibilities:

Defining roles and responsibilities in the discovery call ensures that everyone knows what is expected of them. This clarity reduces confusion and fosters a sense of ownership and accountability.

Customized Solutions:

Armed with information from the discovery conversation, the agency can develop customized marketing solutions. This tailored approach increases the likelihood of achieving the desired outcomes and ensures that resources are allocated effectively.

Building Trust:

Finally, a well-executed discovery conversation builds trust between the client and the agency. It demonstrates the agency’s commitment to understanding the client’s unique needs and sets the stage for a collaborative, long-term partnership.

Questions You Can Expect During Discovery

1. What are your primary business goals and objectives for the next year or quarter? Understanding the prospect’s immediate and long-term goals guides the agency in tailoring strategies.
2. Who are your ideal customers or target audience segments? Knowing the target audience allows the agency to create more effective marketing campaigns.
3. What are the main challenges or pain points your company is currently facing in marketing or sales? Identifying pain points helps the agency propose solutions that directly address these issues.
4. What is your current marketing strategy, and which channels are you using? Learning about the prospect’s existing strategies provides insights into what’s working and what needs improvement.
5. What do you consider your competitive strengths and weaknesses in the market? Understanding the competitive landscape helps the agency position the client effectively.
6. Do you have specific KPIs or metrics you use to measure marketing success? Knowing the prospect’s key performance indicators helps the agency set realistic goals.
7. What is your budget and resource allocation for marketing initiatives? Understanding budget constraints ensures that the agency’s proposals are financially feasible.
8. Have you worked with marketing agencies or vendors in the past, and if so, what was your experience like? Learning about past experiences helps the agency tailor its approach and address any concerns.
9. What level of involvement do you expect from the agency in the execution of marketing campaigns? Clarifying the client’s expectations regarding agency involvement ensures a smooth working relationship.

The discovery conversation is a pivotal step in the relationship between a marketing agency and a potential client. This dialogue serves not only as a platform for gathering information and defining scope but also as a conduit for building trust, assessing fit, and establishing a strong foundation for a potentially long-term partnership.

The numerous questions posed during this conversation enable the agency to craft custom marketing strategies that align with the client’s unique needs and objectives, improving the chances of a successful marketing campaign. A well-executed discovery conversation is a clear indication of an agency’s commitment to understanding and addressing the client’s unique business challenges and goals.

Uncover B2B Growth Opportunities and Increase ROI

August 20, 2023

For businesses to thrive, growth and return on investment (ROI) must go hand in hand. Unfortunately, many businesses struggle to find the right opportunities to grow while achieving the desired ROI. As a business owner or executive, you know how tough it is to increase ROI without compromising growth or vice versa. But the good news is that you can crack the code by implementing some proven strategies outlined here. We’ll show you how to uncover growth opportunities with increased ROI.

Define Your Growth Goals

Before you can uncover growth opportunities, you must first define your growth goals. This involves identifying what growth means to you, your team, and your business. Clearly define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals that align with your business objectives. This approach will help you pinpoint areas where your business can grow while measuring the ROI.

To put the concept of SMART goals into context, let’s consider an example. Suppose your business objective is to increase your customer base. A SMART goal aligned with this objective could be: “Increase the number of enterprise-level clients by 20% over the next 6 months through targeted digital marketing campaigns and conversion-optimized sales funnels. Track progress every month using analytics software and adjust strategies as needed based on findings.” This goal is specific (increase enterprise-level clients), measurable (by 20%), achievable (through targeted marketing and optimization), relevant (aligns to grow the customer base), and time-bound (over the next 6 months).

Collect and Analyze Your Data

Data analysis is a critical step in uncovering growth opportunities in business. By analyzing your data, you can identify trends, opportunities, and gaps in your business that you can use to improve your ROI. Data analysis involves gathering, sorting, and analyzing data from various sources such as customer feedback, sales reports, social media, and website analytics, among others.

If your business is currently not tracking B2B data, you can start by implementing a variety of data collection methods. One of the simplest ways is to ask for information directly from your customers or clients through online surveys or feedback forms. You could also consider using social media platforms and professional networking sites, like LinkedIn, to gather information about your target market.

If you’re not currently using a real Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system — or wrestling with spreadsheets as a poor substitute for one — we recommend investing in a commercial-grade tool. Most of our clients use HubSpot, and there are plenty of other options available. CRM systems can track and record every interaction with your clients, giving you valuable insights into their behavior and preferences.

Improve Your Marketing Strategy

Your marketing strategy is the backbone of your growth and ROI. Without an effective marketing strategy, it’s tough to attract new customers, build brand awareness, and generate leads. An effective marketing strategy should include various marketing tactics designed to help you achieve your growth goals while maximizing your ROI. Some marketing strategies include a high-performing website, content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, pay-per-click, and SEO.

A robust B2B marketing strategy is multi-faceted, with a focus on understanding and meeting the needs of business clients. At its core, it involves a clear value proposition that highlights the unique solutions your products or services provide. It should include targeted marketing efforts such as account-based marketing (ABM), where marketing resources are focused on a specific set of target accounts within a market and employ personalized campaigns designed to resonate with each account. Moreover, it should leverage channels such as LinkedIn for networking and thought leadership, email for direct, personalized communication, and SEO to improve online visibility. Lastly, a good B2B marketing strategy should have a strong emphasis on building relationships, as sales in the B2B sector often rely on establishing trust and demonstrating expertise.

Focus on Customer Experience

Focusing on customer experience (CX) can be a game-changer for businesses seeking growth and higher ROI. In a competitive B2B landscape, providing exceptional customer experience can set you apart from your competitor. Along with personalization and AI, according to this article from Forbes, customer experience is an important trend to watch and leverage.

Start by understanding your customers’ needs, preferences, and pain points. Use this information to personalize your interactions, deliver tailor-made solutions, and exceed customer expectations at every touchpoint. Customer experience isn’t confined to just client servicing; it extends to every stage of the customer journey, from the first interaction to after-sales support. Remember, a satisfied customer can turn into a repeat customer, refer others, and become a loyal advocate for your brand. This not only contributes to business growth but also helps boost ROI, as acquiring a new customer can be up to five times more expensive than retaining an existing one.

Optimize Your Sales Funnel

Your sales funnel is a tool that helps you convert prospects into customers and increase your ROI. However, your sales funnel can only be effective if optimized for maximum efficiency. To optimize your sales funnel, you need to understand your customer journey from awareness to purchase and tailor your sales funnel to meet their needs. This could involve reevaluating your lead generation process, improving your email marketing campaigns, and streamlining your sales process.

Let’s illustrate the optimization of a B2B sales funnel with an example.

Imagine your company manufactures and sells commercial lighting fixtures and you’ve identified that many potential clients abandon the funnel at the consideration stage, after the initial discovery but before requesting a demo. To reduce this drop-off, you could enhance your communication strategies specifically targeting this stage.

For instance, you could create a series of automated emails providing further information, including case studies demonstrating the successful use of your products. In addition, you could offer a personalized webinar to answer potential concerns and demonstrate your product’s value. Moreover, you could optimize your website to feature more customer testimonials and success stories, positioning them prominently on key landing pages.

Remember to track changes in customer behavior using your CRM and analytics tools. Over time, these data-driven adjustments should help to move more prospects from the consideration stage to the decision-making stage, optimizing your sales funnel for better conversion rates and higher ROI.

Assess Market Demand and Competitive Edge

Finally, assessing market demand and competitive edge is another effective way to uncover growth opportunities while increasing ROI. By assessing market demand, you can identify untapped markets, and potential new products or services that can boost your ROI. Assessing your competitive edge can help you identify areas where you can better compete with your rivals while differentiating yourself from the competition.

To illustrate the process of assessing market demand and competitive edge, consider a hypothetical B2B company that provides cybersecurity solutions.

First, the company would conduct market research to identify the demand for its services. This could involve examining industry trends, reviewing reports and studies pertinent to cybersecurity, and surveying potential customers about their cybersecurity needs and concerns.

For instance, the company might find a burgeoning demand for cybersecurity solutions that specifically address remote work vulnerabilities, a segment of the market not adequately catered to by their existing product suite. This insight could lead to developing of a new product tailored to this specific demand, thereby opening up new growth opportunities.

To assess its competitive edge, the company would need to conduct a comprehensive review of its competitors. They could evaluate what services or features their rivals offer, how they price their products, their market share, and their brand reputation. It’s also beneficial to identify any gaps in their offerings or weaknesses in their approach.

Suppose our cybersecurity firm discovers most of its competitors focus heavily on large corporations, leaving small and medium businesses relatively underserved. Recognizing this, they might decide to differentiate themselves by developing affordable, scaled-down cybersecurity solutions tailored for smaller businesses. This unique positioning could provide a competitive edge, helping to captivate a largely untapped market segment and drive growth.

Uncover Growth Opportunities and Increase ROI

By implementing the strategies outlined in this post, you can increase ROI and uncover growth opportunities in your business. Remember, it’s essential to define your goals, analyze your data, optimize your sales funnel, improve your marketing strategy, and assess market demand and competitive edge to achieve your growth objectives. By prioritizing these critical areas in your business, you’ll achieve your growth objectives and increase your ROI.

Find a Marketing Goldmine with a CRM and Your Customer Data

January 23, 2023

By leveraging the power of customer data, businesses can significantly increase their efficiency and competitiveness. Companies have the potential to unlock previously unrealized revenue streams through the transformation of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform into an intelligent growth engine,

Having a CRM system in place has become an essential part of doing business today. But a CRM is more than just a collection of contacts like an old-school Rolodex. It’s a way for you to access, understand and monetize a valuable resource already at your fingertips: customer data. Maximizing ROI during an economic downturn is important for all businesses. Here is how you can get the most out of your customer data and turn that business intelligence into profit.

Customer Data is a Goldmine

Raw data is worthless without the context to make it meaningful. But with a few strategic steps, you can transform large amounts of information into valuable insights and improved outcomes for your business.

Consider this: having an up-to-date list of all those who have interacted with your brand over the past year or so could prove advantageous – but wouldn’t it be better if you knew which customers were just browsing, ready to buy…or even primed to close AND met various criteria essential for successful sales?

Knowing how to analyze and leverage your data can make sure the right people receive pertinent messages without excessive work or intrusive tactics.

New Solutions for New Times

In the last two decades, digital marketing has been upended by a variety of forces. Legal regulations and savvy buyers have pushed marketers to change and improve their tactics—or risk being left behind.

CRMs play a vital role in any business, acting as an all-in-one repository of customer data. They range from simple spreadsheets to intelligent AI systems that develop over time – but their true power lies in taking customers on personalized buying journeys and increasing revenue potential.

These days, powerful CRM systems are now available for every type of business and every price level. We believe the HubSpot CRM is an excellent fit for most small and mid-sized businesses. The value of HubSpot truly lies in its superior tool set, customer support, and training resources. Key benefits of this software platform include the ability to integrate with other tools, it’s easy to learn and use, and the value of the investment makes it attractive and affordable to most businesses. Calculate the ROI you could experience with Hubspot products here.

Use Your CRM for Experience-Driven Marketing

Unlock the path for your business’s growth through experience-driven marketing. Taking advantage of this CRM strategy can open up new pathways to success. Research from Forrester shows that companies that prioritize customer experiences grow 40% faster than companies that don’t. Plus, it shows that those focused on building meaningful connections with their customers increase customer lifetime value by over 60%.

With CRM-rooted marketing, you can deliver the ultimate customer experience: personalized communication across all channels. Personalization remains an effective strategy for gaining attention in today’s fiercely competitive world—tailor messages to customers and your chances of standing out from the crowd to increase significantly!

Three Paths for CRM Success

There are three paths to better results with your CRM. Segmentation ensures that your prospects see or hear your message that is best suited to their specific needs. Contextualization explains in clear terms why your marketing message is relevant and appropriate to your prospects’ buying stage. Personalization makes your prospect feel a connection with your brand.

Segment

Using the data in your CRM, you can isolate specific groups of customers by wants, needs, and readiness to buy.

Lists are an incredibly useful tool to segment and precisely target your database down to the exact specifics that you need. Companies, contacts, and activities can all be effectively grouped together based on any data point stored in your system. Plus, these lists will maintain their accuracy by automatically updating as soon as changes occur.

Contextualize

Every buyer for every product must pass through the three key buying stages:

- Awareness
- Consideration
- Decision

Although this journey is flexible for different circumstances, one fundamental remains consistent. It is that consumers need specific buying stage content before they can make a decision.

Knowing where customers are in their journey is the key to providing them with customized messaging that’s on point and tailored just for them. Label prospects appropriately in your CRM and make sure they get relevant messages—it’ll strengthen those valuable relationships.

Personalize

Personalization isn’t just a buzzword—it’s an essential art of communicating effectively with your audience. To get it right, you need to know the language they use, choose topics that interest them, and send messages at precisely the opportune moment. Prospects will feel a connection with your brand because the message is aimed at their needs at the right time.

Your CRM is Your Growth Engine

By segmenting, contextualizing, and personalizing customer data in your CRM system, you can take customers on personalized buying journeys that will significantly increase revenue potential.

The key to successful CRM strategies lies in utilizing clean and easily accessible data so that you can provide tailored messaging that strengthens relationships with prospects at precisely the right moment. When used correctly, a CRM system can be an invaluable goldmine for effective marketing strategies.

Pipeline Generation

August 28, 2022

Pipeline generation is the lifeblood of most companies. A high-performing pipeline aligns sales and marketing efforts and clarifies available opportunities to maximize potential. When done well, the pipeline flows full with prospects that are a good match. Good match prospects have a higher close rate because the service matches the client’s needs. Likewise, good-match customers and clients see better results with their service providers because values and cultures are aligned.

Bynder Group director Rob Bynder recently completed the Pipeline Generation Bootcamp, an immersive 6-week program provided by HubSpot Academy designed to teach HubSpot partners and customers the first parts of the inbound sales process. The experience was highly informative and a perfect blend of education, inspiration, and motivation.

Instructors for this cohort included Trygve Olsen, Keith Gutierrez, and Debbie Akintonde, all HubSpot Certified Trainers. Also on hand to share knowledge and enliven the group was Dan Tyre, Sales Director at HubSpot, who pioneered the concept of alignment between sales and marketing known as “Smarketing.”

Align Marketing and Sales

Businesses that bridge the gap between marketing and sales see better results using this more strategic approach to client acquisition and growth.

While some of the tasks associated with pipeline generation are outbound practices, the spirit of the inbound methodology is the foundation of inbound sales. The goal is to be helpful and respectful rather than pushy, aggressive, or “salesy.” Providing value to customers through helpfulness encourages trust and enhances rapport.

The program covered all elements of implementing effective connect calls, including:

How to identify good fit leads
How to speak and what to say
How to use voicemail and how to coordinate email
How and why to leverage video
How to address objections

The training included workbooks, presentations, access to numerous additional resources, and real-life role-playing, where we could practice the techniques on each other in break-out rooms. Practice and role-playing are highly encouraged and provide a valuable process for working out the kinks. Also covered was the use of conversational pauses and listening techniques like “chin-strokes” and open-ended questions to encourage more and better communication.

What’s the Upshot?

Bynder Group provides expert guidance on web strategy, design, marketing, and HubSpot CRM for our B2B clients. With the knowledge gained from training programs like the Pipeline Generation Bootcamp, we further provide our clients with additional insight into the skills, techniques, and best practices of high-quality pipeline generation. When used with HubSpot’s powerful marketing, sales, and operations tools, our clients see better results and higher ROI from their efforts.

How to Grow Your Manufacturing Business

November 20, 2021

Manufacturing is a crucial component of the global economy. According to the Global Manufacturing Industry Report 2020, as recently as 2018, the industry represented nearly 16% of the global GDP. Today, manufacturing is more critical than ever but faces a host of new challenges. Skilled labor is hard to find and keep. Consumers are becoming harder to reach. Technology is changing, competition is getting more fierce, and growing a manufacturing business during a global crisis is incredibly difficult. Here are tips to grow your manufacturing business with tools, technology, and methodology.

Manufacturing is Under Pressure

*Deloitte. (2021). Creating Pathways for Tomorrow’s Workforce Today

Efficiency is at a Premium

For industries in a crunch, efficiency is key. You’re required to do more with less in a way that serves your bottom line. Digitizing legacy sales and marketing processes has helped many manufacturers pick up the pace, but what if that’s not enough? No matter how great your products are, outpacing the competition won’t happen with the old way of doing things.

Choose the Best CRM to Avoid Silos and Reduce Friction

Choosing the right CRM for your business is challenging and can be complicated. Businesses often end up with cobbled-together systems that create silos between your departments and friction in your processes. Technology platforms that are not a good fit can stunt your growth, producing inefficiencies and unnecessary complexities to your processes.

Having worked with many software systems since we started in 2002, we have found that HubSpot provides an optimized technology platform for manufacturers that meets the needs of businesses as they grow — without adding unnecessary costs or complexity. According to top software ranking site G2, Hubspot is one of the highest-rated and highest performing products in the industry. Similarly, Captera ranks HubSpot with 4 1/2 stars. The all-in-one platform creates seamless integration across marketing, sales, customer service, and operations. This gives you visibility and insights into the entire customer journey, creating improved customer experiences and less work for your team by creating efficiencies in every step of the sales, marketing, and service processes.

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Operate with a Lean Marketing Strategy

Many manufacturing companies limp along with an ineffective website and digital marketing strategy that is not helping their businesses. A good website—designed with business goals in mind—will help you get more out of your existing customers and distributors and find new ones. Leveraging inbound marketing strategy, will attract customers, build trust, and nurture relationships. Most importantly, leverage reporting that provides the clarity you need to help you adjust and optimize our efforts.

When developing your marketing strategy, focus on:

Search: Leveraging education and helpful content that attracts prospective customers to your website over your competitors
Automation: Nurturing your leads to the point of conversion by building trust all along the sales cycle.
Segmentation and tracking: Store all of your data in one place to best understand the full lifecycle and every touch-point of your prospective customers.

Scale With Confidence

Manufacturers are under pressure and need business solutions that address their unique needs. Finding and implementing the right tools is mandatory for companies to achieve and sustain growth.

Key takeaways:

Avoid the inefficiency and waste that comes with cobbled-together solutions.
Consolidate and integrate your technology and get all of your departments and their efforts on the same track.
Whether it’s in-house, outsourced, or a hybrid of both, your marketing strategy needs to be lean and focused, with a strong methodology.
Track your ROI with data-driven processes and unified technology.

Bridging the gap between your departments, reducing friction in your processes, and using data to track all of your efforts will improve your ROI and lift your bottom line.