3 Keys to Success With B2B Agile Digital Marketing

Executing a profitable B2B agile marketing campaign is a bit like climbing a tall mountain. Everyone wants to say that they have done it, and to enjoy the view from the top. And yet, very few business owners or executives have the strength or patience to see the desire through to the end.

The analogy doesn’t end there, either. That’s because if you really wanted to go on an alpine adventure, you would discover that it is quite simple. You simply make a plan, pack your things, and then go from one step to another all the way to the top. Note that I didn’t say it’s easy, just that the actual hike isn’t complicated.

You might not be the sort of person who cares if they ever reach a physical summit. But if you’re reading this post I’m guessing you are invested in the success of your lead generation plan. Today, I’m going to give you the three keys to success along the way.

So, if you want to reach the rare air that’s found at the summit of agile marketing, then read on…

Key #1: Focus on What You Can Actually Achieve with B2B Marketing

As you probably already know, agile marketing is about running focused, specific 90-day campaigns geared toward a very narrow set of outcomes. For example, you could use a three-month period to improve your search engine positioning, clean up online reviews, or put an inbound sales funnel into place.

What those goals should look like depends a great deal on what business you’re in, the challenges you’re facing, and (especially) the outcomes you want to create. They need to be ambitious and realistic all at the same time. Most of all, though, they have to result in something that would be impactful for the future of your company.

To give you an idea of what I mean, let’s assume that what you really want is to bring more leads to your sales team. That’s a common objective among the clients we work with, and it’s the focus of my G3 system (which stands for Get Eyes, Give Knowledge, and Grow Pipeline).

The first step in that journey of B2B agile marketing is to attract more visitors to your website. That’s not necessarily a great goal, though, because it isn’t immediately actionable. You want to boil your 90-day focus down to something you can execute. 

In order to create action and momentum, you might reverse things and turn your goal into one of the following:

• Creating 50 coordinated search-optimized blog posts 
• Investing $10,000 into targeted search ads
• Spending the same amount on social media ads
• Producing a dozen high-quality videos for YouTube
• Doubling your send activity to email subscribers

As always, these are only examples. The bigger point is that you should be working hard over your 90-day period to reach a milestone that is very likely to move you toward your bigger goal.

Key #2: Give Something of Value

I have already noted that you need to set impactful goals for your 90-day sprint if you’re going to move your company forward. That means you aren’t just doing something for the sake of it; you’re trying to create a result that can be felt in your bottom line.

There is the flip side to this realization: that to feel that impact you also need to give something impactful to your target audience.

Many marketers miss this part of the B2B agile marketing process. They treat content creation, ads, and other audience-building activities as busy work. And really, that’s why so many of them fail. If you’re only thinking about what you get from your marketing, and aren’t considering what you have to give to your potential customers, then you’re never going to get ahead of the competition.

You could look at this in a philosophical way, or you could consider it practically. Philosophically speaking, giving value is the right thing to do and creates a sense of trust and reciprocity. If you feel like you have gotten great value from this article, you will be more likely to check out my company (and ultimately work with us in the future). We’ve done something good for you and that good will eventually come back to us in some way.

If you want to be more practical about things, then you could simply note that there is lots and lots of crap floating around in the internet. If you want to stand out – and if you want researchers and decision-makers to pay attention – then you have to give them something they can’t find anywhere else.

From either point of view, the implication is clear: you can’t get eyeballs to your website for very long unless you give something of value first.

Key #3: Follow Through With Your Plan

The great thing about agile marketing is that you never really have to worry about the outcomes. If you’ve made the right plan and then execute on it, the results will take care of themselves.

Of course, this all assumes that you’re going to actually follow through on the 90-day strategy you put into place. Simply writing it down isn’t going to change anything. You have to create the content, build the sales funnel, upgrade your website, or do whatever else is required to see progress.

In the real world, this often means getting help from a creative agency or other partner. That’s not because you necessarily need the best designers and programmers working on every page or social post. It’s simply a reflection of the fact that most B2B marketers don’t have the time or scope to build significant campaigns on their own.

However it happens, though, you simply must follow through on your plan before your 90-day sprint runs out. If you don’t, you’ll just end up back where you started… only being another quarter behind on reaching your goals. 

When you do execute on your plan, good things tend to happen. In most cases you will have moved ahead and given yourself a foundation to build on going forward. Even if you don’t get the desired outcomes, you’ll have information and experience that you were previously lacking. And of course, you’ll be better positioned to plan and execute on the next 90-day strategy.

String a few of those successful quarters together and you’ll see the true power of B2B agile marketing because that’s when amazing things start to happen.

Looking for Real-World Agile Marketing Results?

For some companies, and more than a few digital agencies, “B2B agile marketing” is just a cluster of buzzwords that are used for the same old web design services. At GoingClear it’s the framework for our entire company.

If you’d like to know what it’s like to have a team of business growth experts working to bring sales opportunities to your inbox, let us help. You can connect with GoingClear to schedule a call so we can learn more and share how we might think about your digital challenges. Or, follow the link below to learn a bit more about our marketing methodology.