What are the marketing secrets of B2B category leaders?
Over the years, there have been several studies on effective B2B marketing. Many use empirical data to observe the impact of certain activities focusing on growth.
This article provides a summary of five of the most pertinent principles for ambitious category leaders looking to lead in their niche, providing a canvas on which you can assess your activity. They’re proven to make sure you squeeze the most impact from your budget and are supported by our own experience.
Balance brand and activation. Never either/or.
B2B brands should balance budget between long-term brand-building activity and short-term sales activation with an equal split. Some studies propose 46:54, others 50:50, but favouring short-term tactical demand generation activity alone at the expense of building trust through brand activity will hamper customer preference and loyalty, impacting your level of fame in the category. You’ll notice it most when the inflow of leads you enjoy today start drying up.
Always look for new customers. All the time.
Forrester reports that the average B2B customer retention rate is 78%, showing that net new customer acquisition is vital to grow. This isn’t new news.
Customer acquisition tends to be more effective than pure loyalty strategies for growth. The Law of Double Jeopardy proves that size does matter…High market shares lead to better loyalty rates. Human behaviour means it’s natural to favour the market leaders, as they infer security around their positioning.
Communicate emotionally and rationally. At the right time.
As GenAI supports a growing sea of personalised messaging, we risk buyers being overwhelmed. Standing out and being memorable is vital. Strong creativity helps you achieve that.
How we communicate is a function of the type of campaign. Emotional messaging is more effective for long-term activity, such as brand awareness, and rational messaging is more effective in the short-term for immediate demand generation.
Be famous for your point of view. Make it resonate.
B2B campaigns that increase a firm’s share of mind are the most effective. The more famous the company, the better the business results.
Fame is hard to quantify, but brand strength models are solid barometers. For B2B brands especially, we have found that thought leadership with a unique point of view that demonstrates expertise is one of the most effective ways of being remembered.
Challenge your audience with a fresh view on a pressing issue – but make sure that point of view has long-term relevance and enough wriggle room that you can use it to talk about numerous, timely issues.
Plan your activity volumes using share of voice.
B2B brands that set their share of voice (SOV) above their share of the market (SOM) tend to grow. In short, shout louder and be heard more.
This is not advocating loose targeting – especially when targeting a niche. Every interaction counts, so it is about making sure that your activity levels correlate to overall market noise if your ambition is to grow.
These guiding principles can help you steer your marketing plans through testing times. To keep up to date with more insight like this, here are some of the research companies we recommend following:
- Management Consultancies: Such as McKinsey, Forrester and Gartner
- Research Bodies: Ehrenberg-Bass Institute and LinkedIn’s B2B Institute
Need some support or simply want to know more? Get in touch, we’d love to chat!
