Page 56 - SKU-000506274_TEXT.indd

Market Smart: How to Gain Customers and Increase Profits with B2B Marketing

The main areas are education and awareness, lead generation,
and brand building. This framework is a rough outline—there
aren’t always clearly defined lines between stages.

Phase 1—Education and Awareness
The early stages of most B2B marketing are typically focused
on getting pilot clients. The target market doesn’t know
the company—and in many cases doesn’t even know that
their solution exists—so it’s the role of sales and marketing
to educate the market and raise awareness. In Phase 1,
marketing investments should educate the market and
generate awareness, such as video demonstrations, white
papers, telemarketing, and speaking engagements. In some
industries, social media works well at this stage. Unless a
B2B company is venture-funded and has very aggressive
growth goals, the marketing investments should be narrowly
focused at this stage. Marketing’s primary role is to support
the company in securing enough pilot clients to create a track
record.

Phase 2—Lead Generation
Once a B2B company has a track record and a story to tell,
it can move into a more aggressive expansion period where
marketing is looked to for higher ROI. There is no hard line
indicating when a company has arrived at this stage, generally
an organization will have a sense of confidence that they
have enough proof of concept and reference clients to assert
themselves in the market. At this stage, B2B companies
should add marketing activities that focus on generating
leads and leveraging the awareness that was built during
Phase One. Examples include SEO, lead nurturing systems,
and webinars. To support these activities, more time must be
spent on content development to provide the inputs for the
marketing activities.

59

© 2012 Lisa Shepherd