Synergy is the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. B2B marketing synergy is the interaction or cooperation of Sales and Marketing.
B2B Marketing Synergy
In a B2B company, marketing and sales are the two organizations that need synergy the most. Digital marketing needs to be aligned with sales. Marketing is the assistant of sales. Effective marketing needs to be personalized to be the executive assistant of sales. Ideally, marketing goes before and then follows behind your sales team as they meet with your current and prospective clients. Marketing offers the possibility of sales meetings and then reinforces sales meetings.
Also, effective digital marketing is multi-faceted. Let’s remind ourselves of the effect that marketing seeks: brand awareness and increased sales. (It is the job of R&D and Support to create brand loyalty.)
What are the facets of digital marketing? LinkedIn posts on company pages and personal profiles are essential for IT companies. LinkedIn, in simplified terms, is Facebook for B2B businesses. Business leaders are mainly present on LinkedIn and peruse it periodically, if not daily, for information that might be vital to their business. If you provide products or services for B2B companies, you should be present and vocal on LinkedIn. Your voice should be heard not sporadically but, rather, consistently. You will build brand awareness and interest by speaking consistently on LinkedIn while growing your business’s personal network and page followership.
The word “consistently” is an obstacle for many SMB owners and/or executives. They only have time to sell. There is no time to build brand awareness and demand. That’s where marketing agencies come in. Done-for-you (DFY) marketing is what busy SMB owners and executives need. Since marketing is multi-faceted, they need a marketing agency that handles all marketing facets. Such an agency provides one-stop shopping for busy SMB owners and executives. This one-stop shopping is known as a fractional CMO. Unless your company has a marketing team (many do not), a fractional CMO needs to be more than a person. It needs to be a team. The team provides digital marketing strategy–what CMOs are known for–and the tactics required to support the strategy.
Consistent marketing drives the need for either an internal marketing team (expensive) or a marketing agency (less expensive). Either way, marketing isn’t optional. It is a necessary means of providing opportunity–leads–for your sales team.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
LinkedIn marketing is essential. It isn’t enough, however. Other facets are needed. One such facet is Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which makes your business findable to those searching via a Search Engine (Google, Bing, etc). Again, marketing agencies who handle SEO–you want an agency that can handle all the necessary facets of marketing—will have tools to show you how you’re currently being found and how you should attempt to be found. (Your web developer will need to install a Google tag on every page of your website to enable Google Analytics for your website.) So, SEO is a crucial facet of digital marketing.
Returning to SEO, one of the best ways to improve your SEO is with helpful content. Your marketing agency should be able to provide monthly blogs, which will be added to your website. Unless you have a partner who does web updates, the marketing agency should be able to add the new blogs to your site, including HTML tags that will optimize SEO for the blog.
Virtual Events
Monthly virtual events are another vital aspect of digital marketing. This will require the most additional effort since you display your experience, expertise, and authority monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly. You’re growing your company’s page followership on LinkedIn by extending up to 250 monthly invites. You’re expanding your network by extending up to 100 weekly connection requests. It is then beneficial to invite your growing network to free virtual events. Your internal team can host these events. They can be hosted by your team but with a guest with whom you partner. Attendees will register by name and email address. The event will be recorded. Your marketing agency will advertise the availability of the replay and will also repurpose the video by creating short, vertical videos for use in subsequent LinkedIn posts. This is an example of marketing synergy: two facets mutually energizing the other.
Email Marketing
As email addresses are collected, email marketing becomes a possibility. This can be done opt-in (ideal) or opt-out (less ideal) fashion. (Opt-out must always provide the opportunity to unsubscribe.) Monthly email marketing keeps your clients and potential clients abreast of new and existing offerings, along with helpful information for avoiding pitfalls, thus displaying your experience, expertise, and authority.
Engagement Models
Some agencies have SKUs (Stock Keeping Units) from which to choose. You can choose from an a-la-carte menu or select all marketing facets, typically for a price less than all a-la-carte items combined. Other agencies offer only customized packages. Marketing is a long game. It’s not one (month) and done. Therefore, some marketing agencies require 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month contracts. Others permit month-to-month engagements.
First Things First
The engagement must begin with an overall marketing assessment and the setting of an initial strategy. Tactics are important, but only after strategy. Strategy will be ongoing, but it must be the first thing done. Tactics without strategy are either fruitless or quickly unfruitful.
-Gerald Cullison
SEO Strategist and Co-owner of Daystar New Media
Daystar New Media provides sales-aligned marketing strategy and services for IT companies.
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