The context of B2B (Business to Business) marketing is quite different when compared to B2C (Business to Consumer) marketing. The latter focuses on individual shoppers and consumers, while the former deals with business executives, procurement officers and other individuals who make purchasing decisions on behalf of their organisations. Marketing strategies play a central role when it comes to boosting ROI (Return on Investment) for a business. Hence, it is crucial to hire a B2B marketing consultant to improve ROI, especially in 2021, when people are becoming more and more dependent on digital resources every day.
“The modern marketer is an experimenter, a lover of data, a content creator, a justifier of ROI”. – Kimberley Walsh
What is the significance of ROI in Marketing?
In B2B marketing, ROI determines the amount of revenue generated via marketing strategies. It also helps in knowing which strategies perform well and which ones do not. ROI can be measured using the following formula:
(Revenue – Investment)/Investment*100
A good marketing ROI generally depends on the type of organisation, the quality of the products or services provided and online marketing investment. It’s essential to define a reasonable ROI goal towards which your business can work.
How can you measure the Marketing ROI?
Here are a few ways by which you can measure the Marketing ROI for your organisation:
- Using a Website Tracking Software: This helps track the frequency of traffic to your website. A good website traffic software creates customised reports, notifies when there is a significant drop and spike in traffic etc.
- Define Goals as Measurable Conversions: Conversions can be anything like people filling out contact information, calling you for inquiry or viewing your website. You must decide what works for your company and start measuring.
- Type of Content on your Website: This is the main reason why people visit your website in the first place. There are different types of traffic like paid, unpaid, direct, referral, organic and unbranded and the tracking software helps clearly distinguish between them. The more target audience traffic you attract, the more is your ROI.Â
Which are the top 5 B2B marketing strategies to improve Marketing ROI?
They are marketing consultants who help a business expand quickly, reduce marketing insecurities and provide access to high-level and unique marketing talent in a short time at a relatively cost-effective basis. For efficient B2B marketing, the consultant should be most concerned with achieving the objectives of the organisation within the stipulated timeline, should specialise in one or two areas of marketing and should mainly focus on prioritising the activities in order to boost business significantly.
Why Content Agility is important in B2B Marketing?
Below are some of the strategies for ROI based campaign management which you can be adopted with the help of a marketing consultant:
- Establish Realistic Goals for your Campaigns: Multiple factors should be considered while establishing goals as they significantly impact your organisation’s journey. Goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound (SMART). Marketing ROI depends on many factors like budget, market dynamics, type of industry etc. It is the job of the B2B marketing consultant to come up with campaign goals that will benefit your business.
- Using Predictive Analytics: This is an essential tool to measure your ROI. It uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to garner insights that help in predicting the future behavior of your target audience. The marketing consultant identifies and prioritises leads based on this to decide the ideal population that can be converted into potential customers. It also helps in directing the organisation’s financial resources towards a common objective.
- Ace your Content Game: Content is what makes your organisation stand out from the crowd. It attracts prospective clients to your website who mostly seek values and personal connection to your brand. Hence, the quality of the content on your website should be given utmost priority by keeping the engagement of your target audience in mind.
- Marketing Automation: Automation helps the marketers perform simple and daily tasks efficiently and reduces expenses considerably. Repetitive and monotonous tasks can be completed with automation and the consultant can focus on complex tasks that require his/ her creativity and effort. Thus, automation ensures timely completion of tasks with comparatively lesser errors.
- Prioritise your Metrics: Choose to track the metrics that help you in achieving your goals and ignore the ones that distract you from your plan. Such metrics that play no part whatsoever in the process of revenue generation for your business are called vanity metrics. It is best to avoid them as they do nothing to help you in achieving your objectives, but everything in diverting you from your purpose.
Key Bottlenecks in measuring ROI from B2B Marketing:
- It is hard to measure ROI for B2B marketing initiatives as compared to B2C, because B2B marketing is complex, it involves multiple parts of an organisation, and it takes place over a long period of time.Good content dissemination (Blogs, Articles etc.,) leads to great organic search engine rankings, which in turn leads to enhanced organic enquiries on the company website.
- Only 6% of B2B leaders can calculate ROI all the time.
- B2B sales cycle has grown in length from weeks and months to months and years, making it practically impossible for B2B marketers to calculate the marketing ROI in the short term.
ROI totally depends on how you formulate and execute your business strategies. From planning to decision-making, a ROI based campaign management should aim to stay one step ahead of the changing market trends. By establishing realistic campaign goals, acing on your content game, using predictive analytics, marketing automation and prioritising your metrics, you can improve your marketing ROI by many folds.
