Hello, 2023! January marks a new year and new resets for many parts of the world. As fiscal years have closed or are coming to an end for many companies, CEOs and heads of marketing are back in the saddle looking at revenue goals and trying to determine what will make them feasible.
While according to the common rule of thumb we’re not technically in recession, recession-proofing within most industries follows a general format and we have begun to see it play out. A wave of layoffs arrives first, followed by an increased focus on retaining remaining employees. Then comes a hiring freeze, heralding a time when companies usually need to balance in-house bandwidth with the support of trusted outside partners. This position is one that many companies are finding themselves at the outset of 2023, and the primary external resources companies are calling upon support areas including marketing, content strategies, messaging work and the like.
I’ve already been in several workshops with sales and marketing teams to look at what’s going on with their customers and what they’re indicating is important to them in 2023. Those relevant trends and themes will determine which resources buyers will prioritize for purchase this year. B2B buyers are making their priority lists as well. So, how are you leveraging insights into what your customers want to help influence awareness of and demand for your products and services ahead of a deeper recession?
In the B2B space, closing a sale takes several months. With prolonged timelines there is always a chance that competitors can slide in at any time, so keeping ahead of your sales cycle and staying in touch with target or lead buyers remain significant to closing deals. Against the financial uncertainties in 2023, it is essential to set marketing goals that support sales by doing these key things:
- Empower your brand to build demand generation while keeping lead gen humming.
- Grow your own value-led media engine to position your company as a generous thought leader while increasing your SEO.
- Identify ways to connect with customers at every stage of their journey.
During economically challenging times, companies must be smart with the resources they have on hand. B2B marketers have a wealth of readily available information in buyer behaviors and should use it to leverage more calculated marketing decisions. Here are a few things to keep in mind about building strategy around buyer behavior in 2023:
Buyers are more drawn to indirect sources for their purchasing decisions.
This impacts the nature of a buyers’ journey because customers bypass traditional steps when they find more value in hearing from their professional networks than from direct marketing. Marketers need to keep unbiased third parties briefed on their products and programs, as well as cultivate partnerships that validate their brands. This is increasingly important as trust in direct selling and paid marketing continues to decline. Maintain and foster your relationships with industry analysts, reporters and influencers to keep that PR engine running smoothly. Look into establishing partner programs if you haven’t already or revisit your existing relationships and see if any of them could use a refresh.
More than ever, referrals will be a strong source for revenue in 2023.
Establishing your brand’s story upon a consistent drumbeat of positive customer experiences is essential. Too often, companies are slow to start gathering these stories or are inconsistent in using them in marketing and lean heavily on showcasing products—stop! Customer testimonials and case studies are gold, so let those success stories shine bright. Remember, buyers are under pressure to make smart purchasing decisions and so they often trust peers more than vendors. Make the choice to pick you easy with a string of wonderful examples to use in their decision making or recommendation to go with your company.
Generously offering thought-provoking insights and content that your buyers will value is vital.
This should be a focal point in your demand generation playbook. First, look around and determine if you have subject matter experts on staff. If you do, push to reserve some of their time for participating in ongoing webinars, video content, speaking engagements and more. If your company doesn’t have SMEs, it may be time to consider contracting with one or two as part of your annual strategy.
Original content is king.
The measuring stick of any demand gen engine’s success is the ability to entice your audience to consume your content and ensure they enjoy learning from it so that they’re poised to want more. You want to build anticipation for the next blog or newsletter you release. It’s impossible to succeed in this effort if the content isn’t from an actual industry voice or subject matter expert, though. It’s worth noting that AI-generated content can be damaging to your online presence. Google machine learning is getting stronger at deprioritizing websites that publish low-effort content and low-quality links. The LinkedIn algorithm even favors posts from personal pages over company profiles. Mapping these realities into your content strategy is important!
Smart, snappy content from SMEs and senior executives matters!
In 2023, we’ll see more B2B organizations harnessing the expertise of internal SMEs or hiring them for specific projects. The key is creating a cooperative structure that makes it easy for organizations to work with these experts to produce stellar content consistently. The companies winning leads and demand with a content strategy are those that are organized and focused on editorial-type content that is superior in style and structure to what competitors are producing.
Strong marketers can pick up on issues and concerns that the sales team may not realize.
Marketers should be in direct contact with buyers to secure testimonials and genuinely listen to their pain points and needs. Too often marketers are basing strategy off black-and-white data or are expected to make decisions derived from the reports of customer-facing colleagues. Allowing representatives from your marketing team access to your buyers can help them to leverage data informed by direct interaction to establish more targeted, effective marketing strategies.
With a slimmed-down marketing team, many companies focused on hitting revenue goals need help determining strategic next steps and implementation—recession or not. Red Fan has a selection of workshops to get at these answers faster for a stellar 2023. If you want a custom workshop to address a pressing issue, let us know! Some of the workshops we have been running for companies address:
- Brand Positioning for Demand Gen: Does your brand positioning resonate and are you expanding on it with thought leadership and SMEs?
- Marketing and Sales Alignment: How is your marketing strategy mapping to your sales goals in 2023? Is it clear? Can it be communicated to the entire company and measured?
- Demand Gen Infrastructure Lab: Do you have a strong demand generation effort in place? What would it take to set one up?
Be the Expert Your Customers Want to Engage With: Are you wondering how to establish a strong campaign that includes thought leadership and subject matter experts? - Employee Communications Audit and Advancement: Is your internal communications lacking or causing morale issues that could jeopardize company goals by creating an exit when the market bounces back?
