Business
May 27, 2024
For many B2B marketers, keeping up with the rapid changes can be a real challenge. Falling behind on key trends and best practices can lead to lost market share, missed opportunities, and reduced profits.
In this article, we’ll see some costly B2B marketing mistakes I’ve observed in various companies throughout 2023 and 2024, and share some actionable best practices you can implement immediately.
While these insights are based on my evaluations of B2B SaaS companies and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), they’re valuable for business owners and marketers aiming to optimize their marketing strategies, eliminate waste, and significantly boost profitability in 2024 & beyond.
So, let’s get started.
Using the same lead capture form for both “Contact Us” and sales inquiries is a common mistake. When marketing automation, lead nurturing, effective sales calls, and retargeting visitors with ads are handled manually, it becomes more costly and prone to human error. Instead, employing a page or form-specific segmentation strategy can streamline these processes and enhance efficiency.
Neglecting to ask leads about their profession or general company title on lead capture forms is a missed opportunity. This information equips your sales team with insights into key pain points and aspirational goals, enabling them to speak the language of your potential customers right from the start.
Offers keep the potential customers in the loop. Failing to provide offers that attract visitors to become leads is a significant oversight. Consider offering a free 15-minute consultation, a trial period, discount offers, useful templates, or other valuable resources your customers might find appealing. These incentives should be no-brainers, adding value and assisting potential leads along their buyer’s journey.
Relying on in-line messages instead of dedicated landing pages and thank-you pages is a common mistake. Landing pages are designed to focus visitors on a single action: becoming your lead. By eliminating all interactive elements except the ‘submit’ button, they prevent distractions that can lower conversion rates.
Similarly, thank you pages are crucial after a visitor converts to a lead. They can immediately showcase product demo videos and testimonials, keeping the sales conversation alive while your team prepares to follow up. Additionally, landing and thank you pages help segment traffic for advertising purposes, based on whether a visitor has become a lead. In-line thank-you messages are a poor substitute, missing out on significant strategic marketing value.
On the pages, where you need to be assertive to prompt action and encourage visitors, exit-intent pop-ups can capture lead information from hundreds of visitors who might otherwise leave without completing a form.
Not incorporating traceable and trackable links in your sales brochures and spec sheets is a significant oversight. These links provide valuable insights into how effective your sales collateral is by tracking the traffic it drives back to your website and how many leads it generates. You can’t effectively improve what you don’t measure.
Putting equal effort into all social media platforms, instead of focusing on the one or two that matter most, is a mistake. LinkedIn is a significant opportunity for B2B businesses, providing a platform for generating new leads, while Twitter can offer social proof and engagement.
To determine your top two platforms, check your referral sources in Google Analytics to see which ones are driving traffic that converts into leads.
Not naming product image files in a search engine-friendly manner is a common oversight. It’s simple but crucial: use all-lower-case, no spaces, dashes instead of underscores, and avoid special characters (e.g., all-lower-case-no-spaces-use-dashes-avoid-special-characters.jpeg).
Proper naming not only helps with your website’s SEO but also improves the ranking of your product images on Google search.
Also Read: Image SEO 101: How To Do It
Not surveying customers after a sale is a missed opportunity to fine-tune your persona research and gather new product reviews, testimonials, or case study material.
A simple automated email sent a month after the sale can offer follow-up support, provide customized tips, suggest useful YouTube videos, or include a customer satisfaction survey. Tailor this outreach to your current business priorities to maximize its impact.
Not interlinking blog content with other articles or lead generation offers is a significant oversight. I’ve often seen high-quality content posted without call-to-actions or links to related content on the company’s website, leaving it underutilized.
Effective interlinking promotes content, enhances user experience, and serves a strategic purpose in driving engagement and conversions.
For example, did you notice what I have done on #8?
Further, I will be interlinking to one more blog on my website which is relevant to this point. See below!
Also Read: Internal Linking For SEO: A Complete Guide
Not using YouTube as an automated lead generation tool or a customer self-serve troubleshooting solution is a missed opportunity. You can create video content funnels that drive leads by aligning playlists with your buyer’s journey and eventually running ads to generate a steady stream of new leads.
Additionally, producing ‘how-to’ style troubleshooting videos and addressing common FAQs can alleviate pressure on your customer support team. Organize playlists based on products and include short videos answering frequently asked questions to enhance customer experience and support.
Running paid ads to a homepage or general web page instead of a targeted landing page with a specific offer is a massive waste of advertising budget. This approach typically performs poorly and fails to drive measurable results.
Ads should direct traffic exclusively to landing pages or interactive call-to-actions like “Call Now.” Only consider directing low-cost-per-click ads to content at the top of your funnel if it attracts the right kind of traffic.
Producing content without first determining who it’s meant for is a common mistake. Content should be created to guide your buyer personas through the awareness, consideration, decision, and delight stages of their buyer’s journey.
Before you start creating content, understand whose pain points you are addressing and use language that resonates with them when describing your solution.
Not utilizing structured data mark-ups on essential web pages like products, events, and the about page is a significant oversight. Structured data helps your content appear at the top of Google search results before standard website listings. To achieve this, your website needs a Moz domain authority above 30.
Read More: An Overview of Structured Data Markup
Writing case studies without focusing on the specific perspectives of your buyer personas can lead to overly general content. It’s crucial to understand your audience before you begin. A business owner, process engineer, manager, or end-user each has different motivations and pain points.
A useful tip is to align your case study with the business title of the customer you’re quoting, as this likely represents the sales persona you should target.
Failing to retarget web traffic is a missed opportunity. The most cost-effective use of an ad budget is to retarget individuals who have already shown interest in your company, rather than prospecting for new business with those unfamiliar with your product. Retargeting is the low-hanging fruit. If your ad budget is limited, prioritize retargeting to maximize your returns.
Not using hero images or sales videos on landing pages is a missed opportunity. While sales videos are generally more effective than hero images, leaving the space blank does nothing to help convert traffic into leads. Incorporating engaging visuals or videos can significantly enhance conversion rates.
Not tracking content marketing efforts is a critical mistake. Without measuring the performance of your content, it’s impossible to understand what’s working and what isn’t. This data is essential for refining your strategy, improving engagement, and driving better results.
Also Read: 6 Content Marketing KPIs You Should Track
Optimization is an ongoing journey that spans all your marketing channels. By continually refining your strategies and staying attuned to the latest trends, you can enhance your B2B brand’s effectiveness and drive substantial growth. Remember, the key to success lies in consistent evaluation, adaptation, and improvement across every aspect of your marketing efforts.
Track everything that you can within your reach. This not only will help your team, rather decision-making becomes easy with data in your hand.
