How to Build Your B2B Marketing Empire From the Ground Up

FROM THE GROUND UP
HOW TO BUILD YOUR
B2B Marketing Empire

How to Build Your B2B Marketing Empire From the Ground Up
BUILD TO LASTB2B Marketing That Stands the Test of Time
#MPB2B
Just imagine what might
have happened if the
architects for the Statue of
Liberty had settled on wood
instead of copper and iron
for the Green Goddess. Or
if the builders of the Eiffel
Tower had been distracted
and missed a few of the over 18,000 iron pieces
holding the structure together.
Moreover, each of these structures was designed
and built on a solid foundation that has enabled
them to stand the tests of time. Similarly, today’s
B2B marketers, taking a page out of history,
should focus on designing and building marketing
programs that are based on sturdy B2B marketing
foundations.
To help you build to last, we’ve partnered with
TopRank Marketing to feature structurally sound
advice from some of the top marketing architects
speaking at the MarketingProfs B2B Marketing
Forum in Boston, October 18-21.
As we celebrate and reflect on our 10th
anniversary at the MarketingProfs B2B Marketing
Forum, let’s look to the future with hope and
excitement. Let’s learn from what has worked, and
abandon what hasn’t. Let’s challenge one another
to achieve epic results. Let’s build to last.
Ann Handley
Chief Content Officer
MarketingProfs

“Good content isn’t about good storytelling.
It’s about telling a true story well.”
- Ann Handley
#MPB2B

Join other like-minded marketers for three days of learning and
planning at the 10th annual MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum.
October 18 - 21st, 2016
LEARN HOW TO
BUILD B2B MARKETING THAT LASTS
LEARN MORE
#MPB2B

BUILD YOUR
B2B Marketing Strategy
Like pillars that hold up the Parthenon, your
B2B marketing strategy needs structure.
Unfortunately, even fewer B2B marketers say they
have a documented strategy this year than last
year. When research has shown that marketers
with a documented strategy are more effective,
why is that the case?
Today’s world of B2B marketing requires
sophistication, advanced targeting, long-term
relationship building and a new breed of creativity.
However, planning for and implementing those
sophisticated tactics is not always an easy
undertaking. This section will provide helpful
insights on how to effectively create a B2B
marketing strategy.
#MPB2B

Balance Impact & Value of Marketing
MICHAEL BRENNERCEO, Marketing Insider Group
A successful B2B Marketing Strategy answers 3 important questions:
WHY does your marketing matter to the business and
your customers?
WHAT impact will your marketing have?
HOW will that impact be measured?
These 3 questions should tie back to the overall goals of the business.
The biggest challenge many B2B marketers face is focusing on
the customer. So it’s a balance between defining the impact on the
business and the value your marketing creates for your customers.
Effective marketing programs focus on helping customers first. Great
B2B marketing strategy supports the fact that “when you help your
customers, you help the business”.
#MPB2B

ANDY CRESTODINACo-Founder, Orbit Media Studios, Inc.
Have you defined success? Can you measure it? If you haven’t set up
Google Analytics, the sad answer is no. So here’s your foundation:
- Decide what success looks like in your Google Analytics (more social
visits? More subscribers? Higher lead generation conversion rates?).
- Set up Google Analytics to track that goal specifically.
- Check those reports regularly, or have them emailed to you on a
schedule.
This is your foundation: proper setup, accurate data and a
commitment to taking action on the data. These are the building
blocks of B2B growth. But if your marketing is based on opinion, you’re
building on a foundation of sand.
How to Define B2B Marketing Success
#MPB2B

DOUG KESSLERCo-Founder, Velocity
The Ground Survey – A solid sense of the market context for your
company, audience, products and competition.
The Concrete – A rich, detailed, nuanced, multi-dimensional
understanding of your target audience including their hopes, dreams,
prides, prejudices, senses, sensibilities and secret fantasies.
The Rebar – A clear, compelling sense of who you are and the unique
things you bring to the table. The source of your authority. Your
content sweet spot. The reasons WHY you do what you do.
The Damp-Proof Course – A clear sense of the content that’s
competing for your audience’s time. Not just from competitors but
from substitutes and adjacent categories. Mind the gaps. (And fill
them).
How to Build Your B2B Empire From the Ground Up
DIY Guide to B2B Marketing Foundations
#MPB2B

The Spirit Level – A small set of metrics you’ll track to tell you if you’re
doing enough of the right things. These should be agreed upon with
your colleagues in sales and your executive stakeholders.
The Building Blocks – A program of content that your audience will
value and that you can produce consistently, to a high standard.
Now your house will rest on something solid.
“Your B2B marketing “rebar” is a clear, compelling
sense of who you are and the unique things you
bring to the table.”
#MPB2B
DIY Guide to B2B Marketing Foundations

CHRIS MOODYDirector, Content & Social Marketing,
GE Digital
In five simple steps, you can have a solid foundation for your B2B
marketing strategy.
1. Defining your mission (what’s your one thing).
Everyone knows the one thing (one word even) for Apple (innovation)
and Volvo (safety). What’s yours?
2. Identifying a singular goal (what’s most important?).
For most, this will be qualified leads or a revenue target. Sure, you’ll
have secondary goals, but find the most important one first.
3. Documenting your plan to accomplish that goal.
Only 1 in 3 marketers have a documented content strategy
(MarketingProfs/CMI). If it isn’t on paper (or digital), it isn’t happening.
5 Steps for Building a Solid B2B Strategy
#MPB2B

4. Deciding on the most relevant metrics for you.
This isn’t one size fits all. Find what *you* need to track.
5. Establishing a baseline and start measuring against it to see
what works.
What changes? What’s working? What isn’t? Why?
From there, you can start marketing and gain insights from everything
you do.
“If your marketing strategy isn’t on paper (or digital),
it isn’t happening.”
#MPB2B
5 Steps for Building a Solid B2B Strategy

BUILD YOUR
Marketing Career
Like a superhighway connecting a metropolis to
the open road, your professional development
needs a path to greatness. But your career needs
more than just an open road. Building a career
that lasts requires an appreciation for ongoing
learning and development; a license to drive the
many vehicles of the open road.
The professional world has never changed so
drastically as in the past few years, and it requires
new skills of us to keep up. You must network like
mad, develop digital skills to last, and break down
silos to create open lanes for your development.
#MPB2B

Rely on Your Creative Intuition
JAY ACUNZOHost & Creator, Unthinkable
A willingness to break from “best practices” and go craft your own is
an essential part of building a B2B marketing strategy.
It’s never been harder to acquire, retain, and deepen attention, so we
can’t merely copy a listicle or follow the trend -- yet B2B marketers too
often do so. Instead, we need to rely more on our creative intuition.
This allows us to synthesize all those thousands of best practices and
data points out there and then contextualize it for the uniqueness of
our situations. “Best practices” imply absolutes, but in reality, they’re
just starting blocks. No two situations are identical.
Only when you start combining external information with your internal
thoughts, beliefs, and interests can you can create something that
stands out in this, the noisiest era in history.
#MPB2B

Constantly Yearn to Learn More
SCOTT MONTYCEO & Founder,
Scott Monty Strategies
Without a doubt, one of the most important qualities for anyone in the
marketing field is curiosity. It’s the aspect of the personality that will
keep you wanting to learn more - about your customers, about your
business, about your industry, and ultimately about marketing itself.
It’s the quality that makes you keep asking “Why?” and never letting
up. It means your appetite for more information and insights will drive
you to ask deeper and smarter questions than the next person. And
ultimately, you’ll find that your questions indicate that you’re more
concerned with those with whom you come in contact, rather than with
yourself. If you constantly yearn to learn more, you’ll never be bored in
this profession.
Dorothy Parker once wrote, “Curiosity is the cure for boredom. There is
no cure for curiosity.”
#MPB2B

Know What You Want to Achieve
LEE ODDENCEO, TopRank Marketing
A successful career in B2B marketing requires a clear understanding
of what you want to achieve, an honest assessment of your skills and
a map of the gap you need to close in terms of experience, talent and
ability.
B2B marketing involves a longer sales cycle and more content, so
being able to use both data and empathy to form a strategy and a
tactical plan that is measurable when implemented is essential. Test
hypotheses about what will work and what won’t. Learn from failures
and successes, and make a commitment to continuously learn from
peers, experts, publications and experiments.
#MPB2B

BUILD YOUR
Marketing Squad
Just like the Goonies, Hogwarts, or the crew from
the Sandlot, you need a tight marketing squad
that’s efficient, smart, and balanced.
But before you take out your Harry Potter wand
and start casting spells, let’s cover some basics
of building your marketing squad.
The modern professional workplace requires
more of us than any previous generation. The
channels, information and communication are all
paramount to success.
Finding the right team of people to surround
yourself with takes effort, but can become an
essential part of your B2B marketing foundation.
#MPB2B

MITCH JOEL
President, Mirum
Marketers want everything (more sales, more awareness, more recall,
more word of mouth, more contracts, more leads and more)… and they
want it fast.
The initial run at digital marketing back in the early nineties was
strategic, in one sense: “we can do it fast.” To this day, most B2B
marketers embrace digital marketing because they believe it will be
faster, cheaper and more cheerful. Take a handful of keywords, link it
to some landing pages, buy some PPC, Facebook, LinkedIn, and watch
the sales and leads ring up. Face it, you still believe email marketing as
a faster (and cheaper) solution to direct marketing.
It’s all wrong.
TL;DR: Pace Yourself. Take it Slow.
#MPB2B

If you want to build a strong team of B2B Marketers, find people who
understand and appreciate the long and winding road.
Find team members who can make fast decisions, but that take the
optimal time to nurture the right results.
Remember this: evergreen works for your content and your team
members. It’s not all about how fast you can post the latest news with
the most cutting-edge insight. Think about building both a catalog of
content with a team that “gets” the value that will be derived slowly
and over time.
“Find team members who can make fast decisions,
but take the time to nurture the right results.”
#MPB2B
TL;DR: Pace Yourself. Take it Slow.

Take a cue from KISS (the band) for inspiration in building a strong
B2B marketing team. For example, KISS is made up of four band
members each with a unique skill set syncing together beautifully to
deliver a musical experience in the form of a song. Your marketing
team should be structured the same way. Four unique team members
(Social, Content, SEO, Demand Gen) sitting together, synced up
beautifully to deliver a marketing experience in the form of a
campaign.
But that’s not all. KISS manager Doc McGhee follows the band on tour
to guide their vision as the world’s hottest band. And they have one of
the most devout fan clubs, in the form of the KISS Army, to share and
advocate for them. Is your PR team helping to guide the mission of
your content team? Does your community feel like they are part of an
army? Put on a copy of KISS Alive and break down the silos.
Build Your B2B Marketing Rock Band
JASON MILLERSenior Manager, Global Content Marketing
LinkedIn
#MPB2B

Cultivate a Hearts & Charts DNA
#MPB2B
The essential foundational element for building a strong team of B2B
marketers is to cultivate a “Hearts & Charts” DNA: hire people who are
naturally passionate - people excited to apply their skills, knowledge,
unique gifts and aspirations to creative risk taking. But instill the
importance of always asking, “What’s our goal?”
Always measuring experiments so as to apply lessons-learned towards
real goals. This killer combo of “inspiration + information” creates a
virtuous cycle that keeps marketing fresh, yet also focused on having a
meaningful business impact.
JEN SLASKIExecutive Director of Marketing Communications
Spiceworks

ANN HANDLEYChief Content Officer, MarketingProfs
Your B2B Marketing Job Posting
#MPB2B
Wanted: Strong team of B2B marketers who possess the following
skills, traits, and idiosyncrasies:
Jargon-free communicators. You don’t just speak or write well. You
convey ideas that lead, inspire, and instruct others—even if you are
managing up. (Especially then.)
Great math skills. Not just any math, either. Can you solve for X here?
X = (0.0002 kg)(300,000,000 oz.)2
Yes? Wait WHY ARE YOU IN MARKETING? No? Read on.
You understand how for one particular math equation—with
multiplicand and multiplier content x marketing—the product is
exponentially more powerful than either factor alone.

You pour foundations. You can’t build a marketing program without
one.
You break new ground. You need the crazy idea people, too.
Pathological empathy. You don’t just walk in their customers’ shoes;
you put on their underwear, socks, pants, and shirts and move around
in those, too, trying to understand what it’s really like in their world.
Humility. There’s no “team” in “arrogant jackhole.”
Humor. Work should be fun and occasionally hilarious.
Willingness to buy the drinks every Friday. HR said we couldn’t include
this. Maybe they won’t notice we slipped it in.
Apply within.
#MPB2B
Your B2B Marketing Job Posting

Register today for the MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum and
obtain the foundation for a successful B2B marketing strategy.
October 18 - 21st, 2016 - Boston, MA
SET YOUR
B2B MARKETING PLANS IN MOTION
REGISTER NOW
#MPB2B

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How to Build Your B2B Marketing Empire From the Ground Up

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