3 Ways B2B Marketers Can Streamline Their Methods

Career AdviceWorking Life

To maintain the agility and flexibility developed during the pandemic, take these steps.

The term that has come up often in recent conversations with B2B marketers is growth. The best marketers, when faced with constraints, find ways to not only survive, but to grow. This can be in terms of their long-term digital transformation strategy, their ability to be agile and adaptable, or their capacity for more effectively connecting with customers.

As we move into the new year, many marketers are feeling refreshed and motivated, with a strong team behind them. However, we are all also feeling the strain of the past year, and suffer from tunnel vision due to the amount of focus required to keep everything running in the present. After a long and difficult year, it is important to take a moment to assess what can be learned from 2020 and applied to the "new normal" in 2021.

1. Keep the team agile

In 2020, the agility of many B2B marketing teams was put to the test as customers shifted their behaviors, cancelled events, and moved online. At the same time, some teammates may have been laid off, while new communications and processes for COVID-19 needed to be created. That type of quick work while also embracing change created a new kind of muscle memory that can become a great asset if applied well in 2021.

In a recent survey of 25 companies, McKinsey found that agile teams were significantly more likely to outperform their counterparts across key measures like customer satisfaction and operational performance. Companies that have agility built into their structure will be able to retain their flexibility and continue operating effectively in 2021.

By holding onto a few best practices, B2B marketers can also embrace their newfound flexibility:

Make plans for the near and distant future, and don't rely as much on plans for the middle distance. With so much change happening, it doesn't make sense to create normal quarterly or annual plans based on years gone by. Now is the time to use near-term insights and act more like an engineering team, with short sprints. If customers are responding well to emails, focus on that for a month and then see how they are doing.

Creating a new website or planning an event can take months, but each project should be broken down into manageable segments.

Give employees cross-functional responsibility to help with company growth. Perhaps people can come together around themes such as a big spring product announcement, rather than staying in just one area like “email” and “social media.” This would encourage cross-pollination of ideas and ensure people are more familiar with other elements of the marketing team.

According to Deloitte, having a shared view of the customer is essential for moving quickly and confidently. However, it can be tough to gather all of the necessary data. Utilize technology to make this process easier- Deloitte suggests using social CRM tools and rapid prototyping so that you can gain customer insights quickly and offer products that are relevant to their needs.

2. Make your technology work for you

In difficult times, reducing expenditure on technology can free up significant resources. Gartner predicts that 60 percent of marketing leaders will reduce tech budgets in 2021. Some of this is due to lower than expected revenue in 2020 and projected difficult times in the near future. However, there is a significant value to streamlining your martech stack — it will be much simpler to use. Oftentimes, many features and functions in a tech stack are either unused or there are major overlaps that cause problems with workflow, slow down data, and create silos across channels.

Before cutting, think about what capabilities you want and audit your current vendor partners. Look for technologies that offer more comprehensive capabilities that can help reduce point solutions, but also make sure to favor those partners that offer flexibility, extra customization, and open modern designs that deliver extensibility. It is advisable that you find partners who can integrate well together, share workflows, and create combined customer insights and compatible reporting.

3. Improve customer relations with a human touch

KPMG has released a report highlighting the importance of values-based customer service in maintaining trust online. If customer service is a priority for your company, you can augment your site with features like automated chats. Use AI to prompt a chat box or call-center number for visitors who seem lost or confused.

Make sure to keep blog posts updated about any programs you have going on, and remind customers via email how their business contributes to the good you are doing.

Your customers will remember which brands were there for them during tough times, and they will loyalty to those brands in the future. The silver lining of 2020 is that many marketers got better at delivering quality service and communication through digital-only channels such as telehealth calls and virtual shopping assistants. Instead of abandoning digital marketing in favor of in-person marketing when the time comes, it is best to maintain a human touch across online platforms as well, in order to achieve the best results in 2021 and beyond.