Business-to-business marketers continue to shift considerable resources toward CRM—both online and offline. In addition, B2B marketers like to say “All Bs are Cs” and then apply B2C best practices based on this insight. But is it true?

1. ARE ALL Bs REALLY Cs?
THE 9 COMMANDMENTS OF B2B
IN THE DIGITAL/MOBILE AGE
HAL2L.COM • SEATTLE • MUNICH • PRAGUE • SHANGHAI

2. Business-to-business marketers continue to shift
considerable resources toward CRM—both online
and offline. In addition, B2B marketers like to say
“All Bs are Cs” and then apply B2C best practices
based on this insight. But is it true?
The devil remains in the details. Mobile tech gives
you unprecedented capacity to target and serve
prospects in highly specific geo-fenced location—
at highly specific moments. And while you may be
able to serve your message to a B2B prospect
during their kids’ little league game, should you?
Are you missing an opportunity if you don’t? Or
are you annoying and disengaging the prospect if
you do?
GET DIRECT WITH B2B
Like all marketing in the digital/mobile age, it’s not a
question of whether you can, it’s a question of whether
you should. The answer is different for every target
segment, product and service.
SO WHAT CAN YOU DO? Simple. Start by increasing
your chances for success (and reducing your
opportunities for error) with Hacker Agency, and our 9
B-to-B commandments. We developed these 9
commandments over decades of head-to-head testing
and optimization across B2B segments, verticals and
sizes. They’re not only a battle-tested foundation for
B2B efforts from Leads to Loyalty, they can also help
guide you through the grey area between Bs that
sometimes act like Cs.
DIGITAL + MOBILE MEDIA HAVE BROKEN
DOWN MANY TACTICAL BARRIERS
BETWEEN B2B + B2C, BUT THE DELTAS
THAT REMAIN CAN GREATLY IMPACT
YOUR RESULTS.

3. THE 9 COMMANDMENTS OF B2B
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KNOW YOUR TARGET
Too often, marketers fail to define key emotional drivers for their segments when compiling their target
universe. Do the concerns of a CEO differ from a CIO? What are their pain points—and barriers +
levers? Only start building your value prop and messaging after you know what makes them tick.
AVOID THE KITCHEN SINK
The kiss of death often starts with an innocent statement: “As long as we’re already talking to them, why
don’t we . . .” Just say no! If your campaign’s goal is to generate leads, that should be its sole objective.
Adding additional objectives—increased company knowledge for example—forces response rates down.
SELL SALVATION, NOT PRODUCTS
It’s customer-centricity. People don’t want your products; they want what your products do for them.
They want the benefit. Truth be told, they only care about themselves. Appeal to their self-interest—not
yours—to be successful.
MAKE AN EMOTIONAL CONNECTION
You have seconds to grab your target and avoid the recycle bin or a delete tap, so make an emotional
connection, not a rational one. Testing shows that emotional positions beat rational ones—hands down.
IT’S THE OFFER, STUPID
A good offer is a great way to drive higher initial response—and generate higher consideration of the rest
of your communication. Bottom line? Your offer is the fastest way to answer “what’s in it for me?”
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4. THE 9 COMMANDMENTS OF B2B
DON’T GIVE THEM A CHOICE
When you make an offer, don’t give them a choice. When confronted with a choice, prospects may be
afraid of making the wrong one—and will protect themselves by making none.
WORK BACKWARDS FROM THE SALE
You won’t change customer behavior. So don’t try. You can’t change telesales or field sales behavior
either, so understand what they do and how they do it. Then, work backwards to support the selling
systems that are already in place and maximize sell-through.
AVOID THUNDERSTORM MARKETING
B2B marketers like to key off of product launches or arbitrary campaign plans and ignore field capacity
issues. If, for example, your field organization can handle 100 leads per week, give them 100. If you give
them 2,000, they can still only work 100, and the rest will go down the drain.
DON’T HIT THE PANIC BUTTON
Panic marketing almost never works. If the customer needs six months to make a decision, your
marketing can’t affect sales this quarter. The proper way to use marketing is to generate qualified leads
on an ongoing basis. Then, if the quarter needs help, the sales force can use incentives to convert some
of the qualified prospects into buyers.
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5. ONE LAST THING: YOUR X FACTOR
THE “X FACTOR” IS YOUR APPROVAL PROCESS
Research shows that the more complicated the approval process, the lower the response rate. And
unlike market conditions, target mindset, competitive offerings or complexity of segmentation, your
internal marketing approval process is something you have absolute control over. To improve your
program performance, get as many people out of the approval loop as possible. Next, change your
approval rules to limit input to those areas where stakeholders can apply professional judgment—and
leave personal opinion at home.
X
If all else fails, remember this: B2B in the digital/mobile age forces marketers to make ever-more
complex decisions—with ever-increasing stakes. So while you evaluate all the things you can do,
remain guided by what you should do.
At Hacker Agency, decades of successful B2B CRM experience across all markets, target sizes and
industry verticals has led us to data, acquisition, retention and optimization techniques which
consistently deliver greater ROI for our clients’ marketing efforts—from Leads to Loyalty.

6. YOUR NEXT STEP
At HackerAgency, we are obsessed with results. We’re a global direct
marketing agency with expertise across all media channels and a focus on
the metrics that matter. Our success generating ROI for our clients makes us
the leader in the world of CRM. From Leads to Loyalty, no agency on earth
develops and deploys data-driven strategies and creative that engages and
compels customers to take action the way HackerAgency does. We don’t
just move the needle—we bury it.
If you’d like assistance in planning and executing your marketing,
contact Kristin Flor at 206.805.1500 or kflor@HAL2L.com.