We hear it all the time: marketers work tirelessly to run multiple, simultaneous campaigns, but struggle to show clear ROI.  In fact, according to Forrester, 46% of brands report measuring marketing ROI is a challenge.

Don’t run yourself ragged. We’ve teamed up with our partners at HubSpot to share a flexible framework to build and measure customer-centric marketing campaigns that maximize ROI. The following framework removes the guessing game with a proven process that’s sure to help you hit your marketing targets seamlessly.

Turn your best campaign ideas into a winning strategy by taking these 4 essential steps to implement your next marketing campaign.

1. Mission: Reconnaissance – Segment and Target the Right Audience

First, determine your target audience to develop a personalized customer journey and content,

To develop your persona(s), look for actionable data from across your organization to predict the audience’s motivations, questions, and concerns. Take a look at sales and return data, reviews, customer service call logs, and other places customers input data.

Website and marketing analytics can show patterns of frequency, seasonality, demographics, and much more. If all else fails, or your data is less than reliable, go straight to the source with a customer survey.

The goal is to learn as much as possible about your audience to develop distinct and hyper-relevant personas, which will inform how best to market them with your new campaign.

2. On Your (Bench)mark, Get Set…

Set yourself up for success with SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. The SMART criteria help you establish benchmarks for what you’re trying to accomplish, how, and why.

For example: “our goal is to increase revenue by 10% over Q1.” This is a SMART goal because it specifically states a measurable increase that is attainable, relevant, and timely for a marketing team to achieve over the first quarter.

Establishing SMART goals not only provides you with focus and direction to prove ROI, but it also focuses your optimization efforts. Continuously return to your goals and identify small changes to make incremental improvements. These agile optimizations will add up to improve campaign performance, while giving you critical data on what resonates with your audience.

3. Building a Multichannel Strategy

With your goals established, it’s time to map out the customer journey and determine the action you‘re promoting for customers to take.

First, establish your value proposition for the campaign: what are you offering customers? Build a campaign landing page that answers that question and provides a clear call-to-action prompting customers to complete the next step.

Make sure you’re optimizing your landing page for SEO—your best landing page is only as good as the traffic it drives, and an optimized page will generate traffic long after you’ve stopped actively promoting it. Analyze search intent and incorporate associated keywords throughout your copy. Ensure you’re answering all logical questions, delivering complete and comprehensive content, and creating trust and credibility.

Consider other channels to promote your campaign, including your brand’s blog and social media platforms, or paid search. Maximize your content and campaign assets by integrating your campaign across channels. This results in a seamless experience for customers and allows you to utilize data and findings from each channel to inform the others.

On any channel where you’re linking your landing page, be sure to track your URLs. This will help you determine where your traffic is coming from and how visitors are finding you.

4. You’ve Successfully Built Your Campaign…Now What?

The campaign doesn’t end when leads convert on your landing page. Campaign planning also extends to creating a follow-up plan and reporting on your successes.

Your leads took the next step and have converted into customers – success! You now have access to even more actionable data related to their individual wants and needs. By leveraging customer data, you can create a personalized remarketing email campaign and nurture them through your funnel.

After the campaign has ended, don’t forget to return to your SMART goals. With clear metrics established, reporting on your success is simple. Use your findings to optimize future campaigns and stay ahead of the curve.

Hubspot Makes Marketing Success Simple

HubSpot marketing automation software helps you attract the right audience, convert more visitors into customers, and run complete inbound marketing campaigns at scale — all on one powerful, easy-to-use platform.

With powerful marketing automation tools like HubSpot, running a marketing campaign no longer means crossing your fingers and hoping things work.

Go Forth and Conquer Your Next Marketing Campaign

With these 4 essential steps, you have the framework to maximize your marketing spend on every campaign. For more marketing must-haves, check out the 3 Digital Strategy Mistakes to Fix for 2021 and 4 Ways to Use Digital Marketing to Increase Customer Lifetime Value.

COVID-19 impacted nearly every aspect of everyday life. The B2B landscape was not immune to those changes – buyer expectations, preferences, and behaviors rapidly shifted, bucking “business as usual” for good.

The pandemic ushered in digital adoption in a massive way. The shift may have started as a crisis response, but it has transformed into the next normal, with implications for how buyers and sellers will continue to do business in 2021 and beyond. Buyers and buying cycles have changed, and there’s no going back.

We’re sharing how both B2B buyers and traditional buying cycles changed as a result of the pandemic, and how you can adapt your business to thrive in the new normal.

COVID-19 Increases B2B Online Buying

The lines between B2B and B2C continue to blur, and buyers expect the buying journey to mimic the consumer experience, offering the same online buying options. McKinsey found that 70-80% of B2B decision makers prefer digital self-service and remote sales rep interactions, due to safety precautions, ease of scheduling, travel cost savings, and a faster buyer experience.

More and more, B2B buyers were adopting self-service options in recent years, but they’ve often been limited to reordering products or making smaller purchases. Failing to expand beyond these options is a missed opportunity – 70% of buyers are now willing to independently purchase new items online in excess of $50,000, and 27% of buyers are comfortable purchasing in excess of half a million dollars.

We don’t expect buyers’ preference for convenient self-service tools to go away. In fact, 90% of B2B buyers reported that they expect the remote and digital buying model to stay for the long haul, and three out of four believe the new standard is as or more effective than the old model.

To meet this demand, a strong e-commerce presence and digital strategy is critical.

Continue reading COVID-19 Changed B2B Buying Forever →