Hey ,
Today we are going to chat about the critical distinction between the marketing skillset required for marketing to SMBs and marketing to Enterprises.
Before we dive into it, quick reminder. If you are hiring or looking for a job, post your job offer here. We helped Tyk recently to hire a great marketer via it.
Now let's dive deeply in the topic.
Skills for SMB and Enterprise marketing
Fundamental skills needed for B2B marketing to SMBs.
- Social media direct ads
- PPC
- SEO
- CRO
- Viral loops & referral marketing
- Marketing & email automation
- Google & data analytics
- Storytelling
- Content marketing
- Maximizing audiences
Fundamental skills needed for B2B marketing to Enterprises.
- ABM
- Demand generation & capturing
- Sales & buyer enablement
- Lead scoring and nurturing
- Account qualification
- Leveraging intent data
- Dark social
- Thought leadership
- Revenue reporting through lagging and leading indicators
If you'll try to market to Enterprises with a skillset you used to market to SMBs, your company is going to struggle.
Here is why:
1. The buying process is not linear.
You won’t be able to create a landing page, optimize it for the keyword, set up Google Ads and remarketing, and passively wait for the inquiries.
Customers perform the research, have inhouse discussions, and collect their peers’ opinions. You can’t control this process, but you can influence it by:
- Creating consistent awareness with thought leadership on the platform your market uses for research
- Running PR and content marketing programs (or doing demand generation, as we call it nowadays)
- Tracking the intent and buying signals
2. Multiple people influence the decision-making process.
The higher your product ACV, the more people will be involved in the decision-making process. HBR reports that the number of people that influence opportunity has increased to 7 people.
To win the deal, the company should build a relationship with the entire buying committee, not the decision-makers only.
3. The majority of companies in any given B2B market aren’t sales-ready.
Direct ads and/outreach are doomed simply because the companies aren’t looking for the solution.
The only way to create opportunities (aside from occasional referrals and RFPs) is by creating demand (see p.1).
TLDR;
The core difference between the skillset is that the sales cycle with enterprises is always longer.
More people are involved in the buying process, which is way more complicated than "clicking on ad -> going to the landing page -> paying for the product".
Don’t try to sell 5-figure products as a pair of shoes or $5 subscriptions.
Upcoming community events
Below is the list of the scheduled events. Click on the events you are interested in to save your spot. You're very welcome to join the conversations, ask your questions live, or share your experience.
We are going to cover:
• How to turn your virtual event into a community meet-up your market is waiting for
• How to fill the event with the target audience and make sure they’ll come
• How run the event to have a great engagement
• How to follow up after the event without spamming everybody
Sign up here >>
Each session is currently:
- Limited to 6 people
- First come first serve
- You can be a reviewer or get copy reviewed (asked on sign-up)
- Always at Friday 8am CET time (can be adapted in future based on needs of community)
Save your spot here:
https://www.halent.io/copy-review
- ABM essentials: Progressive Outbound Marketing, Thu, May 5, 2022 by Dan Renyi and Ricardo Ghekiere
Best Shares From Trenches Community
- They say “most outbound ABM is not real marketing, just sales on marketing channels” by Dan Renyi
- Modern day B2B marketing by Christopher Peters
- ABM stack for different ABM maturity stages by Andrei Zinkevich
- Job hunt is the same as sales by Stefan Conic
- LinkedIn post views and algorithm by Nabeel Keblawi
- 12 steps to build relationships with Tier 1 buyers in 72% of target accounts by Vladimir Blagojevic
NOTE: If you found this content interesting and useful, chances are you have 1 or 2 colleagues (well, maybe 03) who'd also enjoy it. Help them by sharing this and earn some exclusive perks.
See you in Trenches 😉
Andrei Zinkevich,
Founder @Trenches
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