Lead Generation

B2B Marketing Strategies: Drive Growth and Stay Sane

As a marketing leader in a B2B company, I can tell you—marketing is not for the faint of heart. With the digital landscape constantly shifting, staying ahead of the competition feels a lot like playing a game of whack-a-mole. But despite the chaos, one thing remains clear: effective marketing can fuel sustainable revenue growth.

The trick is focusing on the right areas. So, if you’re a B2B marketer looking to drive growth without completely losing your sanity, here are three key effective marketing strategies for B2B companies that you should focus on.

1. Data-Driven Decision Making (Or How to Stop Guessing and Start Knowing)

Let’s be real: “gut instinct” might work when you’re picking a movie on Netflix, but when it comes to B2B marketing? Not so much. Data is the lifeblood of marketing strategy. From lead generation to customer retention, data provides insights that help marketers make informed, targeted decisions. I’m lucky to have a data team designated to our department and their work is incredibly valuable.

Key Actions for Marketers:

  • Integrate Analytics: Use advanced analytics platforms (like Domo or Power BI) to track KPIs like attribution, your lead funnel, and marketing ROI. Trust me, your gut will thank you.
  • Customer Segmentation: Data allows you to segment your audience based on behavior, needs, and demographics. Tailored messaging beats one-size-fits-all every time (even if it takes a bit more work).
  • A/B Testing: Don’t just guess—test! Experiment with different content, CTAs, and formats to see what sticks. If you’re not testing, are you even marketing?

Using data to make decisions means fewer hunches and more “Aha!” moments. Plus, it helps you prove to everyone (including your boss) that you actually know what you’re doing.

2. Effective Lead Nurturing (Because Cold Leads Are, Well, Cold)

Generating leads is one thing; nurturing them into paying customers is an entirely different beast. This is where programs like Marketo or HubSpot play a critical role. If you pass a lead before it’s “qualified” you’re going to hear about it. If you have the capability to do Account-Based Marketing (ABM), go for it. If you’re not familiar with it ABM is a highly targeted approach that focuses on high-value accounts, so you’re not throwing spaghetti at the wall hoping something sticks.

Key Actions for Marketers:

  • Sales and Marketing Alignment: When I took on my current role, I started an internal campaign to “Fix the Leaky Bucket” because leads were dead-ending in so many places—the front desk, in random unattended email accounts, in the wrong departments. Everyone has a leaky bucket, so fix it. From there, work closely with sales teams to ensure a seamless handoff from marketing to sales. A great marketing campaign is only as good as the follow-up. The “just do it” mentality works, but in collaboration, not in isolation. Will your sales team ever be 100% happy with the results—nope! That is something I can guarantee! But your job is to get the best quality leads you can find to them as fast as possible.
  • Automate Lead Nurturing: Set up drip campaigns that educate and engage leads, keeping your brand top of mind. You know, without having to send 57 follow-up emails yourself. Automation: The marketing dream.

By focusing on nurturing, you’re not just generating more leads; you’re turning high-quality prospects into revenue-generating clients who are ready to take your business to the next level.

3. Content That Converts (Because Just Being Seen Isn’t Enough)

Creating content is great, but content that drives conversions? Now that’s the holy grail. As B2B marketers, we need to move beyond generic content and focus on crafting high-quality, value-driven material that speaks directly to our audience’s pain points and needs. If your content isn’t helping to move prospects through the funnel, you might just be preaching to the choir, or worse—nobody. Let’s look at how to increase B2B revenue through content.

Key Actions for Marketers:

  • Develop Buyer Personas: Understand exactly who your audience is and what they care about. Tailor your content to solve their specific problems and guide them through their decision-making process.
  • Create Evergreen Content: Focus on content that remains relevant over time and can continue to generate leads and conversions for months or even years. Think long-term value, not just the latest trend.
  • Use a Variety of Formats: Don’t just rely on blogs—use videos, short e-books/guides, and webinars to appeal to different types of learners and decision-makers.

When you focus on content that speaks directly to your target audience and drives action, you’re not just creating content for content’s sake—you’re building a pipeline of revenue-generating material. And let’s face it, that’s the kind of content worth creating.

Wrap Up

Driving revenue growth in B2B isn’t about making random bets and hoping for the best. It’s about strategic focus on the things that actually move the needle: data-driven decisions, effective lead nurturing, and creating long-lasting content.

By making these areas your top priorities, you’ll be setting yourself and your team up for success. And the best part? You might just keep your sanity intact while doing it. So go ahead—embrace the strategy, optimize the process, and get ready to see measurable results.

THINK: Which of these strategies—data-driven decisions, lead nurturing, or content that converts—do you think could have the biggest impact on your business, and how will you start implementing it?

THOUGHT: Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion. –W. Edwards Deming

Marketing to the end of the row.

I grew up next to a large apple orchard. I never bothered to count all of the trees, suffice it to say there were a lot and—like all living things—they needed water.

To accomplish this my dad would hook the plow up to the tractor and systematically carve straight and deep furrows down each row next to the trees. 

Then came my favorite part. 

Every couple of weeks we’d get to drop in the headgate which would create a dam in the creek and divert the mountain stream around our property in a series of smaller channels or ditches. When the water got to the orchard it would spill through openings in the embankment and spread down the hundreds of smaller furrows that dad had plowed. However, there were always the furrows that I had tromped down while playing in the orchard which prevented the water from getting to the end of the row. I didn’t know this was a problem until my dad taught me a core principle—to succeed in my job I needed to eliminate obstructions in order for the water to flow down a clear path to the trees. It was simple. No water, no trees. No trees, no apples.

As a kid learning how to irrigate an orchard required a shovel to dig out the dirt I’d kicked into the furrow. As a marketer learning how to attract customers requires the right message and the right channels for that message to reach the right audience.

THINK: Do you need to clean out any marketing furrows? Can you simplify the path to communicate with your prospect? Are there any rocks or weeds you need to clear away?

THOUGHT: “We have neglected the truth that a good farmer is a craftsman of the highest order, a kind of artist.” – Wendell Berry

Yet.

Your clients are waiting for you. They just don’t know it. They haven’t heard the reasons why. They haven’t been told the stories of your product or service. Their friends haven’t referred them to you. They don’t know that they need what you have to solve a problem they don’t realize they have.

What will you do to open their eyes to the real possibility that there is something better than the status quo? Something that will take them further than the “tried and true” of current vendors, solutions, and DIY home remedies.

What will it take to break their minds and turn their heads so they see you—finally. And understand the power of a different choice.

Switching costs are real and this requires change and change is hard. But the market we’re talking about doesn’t even know about the costs of change you want to impose on them because they don’t know who you are.  And they don’t think they have a problem because there’s no pain. And people buy mostly on pain, not the future promise of gain. Once they understand they have a problem and see the effects of the problem on their mission or their goals or their strategy or something even closer to them—their wallet—then their senses begin to kick in. They start to see the problem and eventually it will become so vivid that they can’t unsee it. 

One day my daughter introduced me to an interesting experiment. She said the next time you’re driving look at the other cars and you’re guaranteed to see a green Kia Soul. Then, every day from that time forward you will see a green Kia Soul. Try it. It’s true. The Green Kia Soul phenomenon is at the core of moving people toward your solution. They just haven’t been told to look for it. Yet.

A Friendly Wager

Someone has been trying to get a sales call with me for a while and, due to time constraints, I haven’t had time to reply. (I also get a truckload of emails from people trying to make a living and so I’m very selective…like most people.)

But today was different. This person sent me a thoughtful email. It was obviously not spam because he’d read at least one post on this blog, and he did some basic research on where I went to school. His message was as follows:

Hi Matt – After reading the “Cool Marketing Idea (Weekly Winner)” story on your blog I felt inspired to get creative in my reach out. I’m sure you’ve seen your fair share of classic “cold” emails, but I was hoping to mix it up and have a little fun with it. I saw that you went to Utah for both undergrad and grad school and I wanted to make a friendly wager with you on the Utah vs. Stanford game this weekend.
 
If the Cardinals win, will you entertain an informal chat to learn a little about what we do, and how we help similar retailers increase repeat purchases and customer lifetime value? And if the Utes pull off a win, we well send you some Utah shirts for the whole family.
 
I hope this is something you’re willing to entertain. Please let me know if we have a wager.
 
Looking forward to the game!
Attention grabbing? [CHECK]
Thought provoking? [CHECK]
Personalized? [CHECK]
By putting in a little more effort into his email, he got me to respond. Nice job!
So, I took him up on the wager. After all, Stanford is 2-2, Utah is 4-0 and ranked in the top 20.
I’ll let you know who wins the bet. Go Utes!
_________
10/8 UPDATE: Last night the Utes lost 23-20. I guess I’ll be sitting through a sales call now.

Scoreboarding Your Lead Generation Efforts

Generating leads is just one role of the modern marketer. They also need to show what they’ve been able to generate to show their continual value to the organization. One way I’m going to do this personally is through a regularly published scoreboard (probably weekly) to all of my sales people and my executives.

Pinterest is a great resource to find inspiration for many things, but did you know you can find some great scoreboards that other designers have created? Here is my board with a bunch that I like on Pinterest.

What is the definition of a qualified lead?

Qualified leads mean different things to different organizations. If you do a lot of live events is someone qualified if they register, if they attend, or if they raise their hand for more information after the event? Or something else?

What about people who attend a webcast? Do you qualify them simply by their attendance or a combination of attendance, request for more information, company size, geography, title, and industry?

What about inbound phone calls? Do you account for the type of request or just immediately qualify everyone and pass them along?

Let’s make one thing clear, you do not want to deliver unqualified leads your sales team because you want to make sure they are following up on all of your hard lead generation work. If you deliver undesirables to them, they’re going to lose trust in the lead flow and then, when a good lead comes in, it will be ignored.

I recently found a great article on this topic, “What is a Marketing-Qualified Lead?” It’s worth bookmarking to review from time to time to make sure your lead gen is organized properly.

Some of the highlights:

  • Define the profile of the lead you want (name, title, organization, etc.)
  • Organize your channels (inbound, events, etc.)
  • Identify the actions the person needs to take to be qualified
  • Make sure your sales team agrees with the definition of a Sales Qualified Lead and a Sales Qualified Opportunity
  • Keep the lead qualification process simple