The Symphony Changed Keys

Most B-to-B marketers today are conductors of their multichannel orchestras. But conducting requires more than a baton, as it’s become far more complex with many new “instruments” at our disposal. Most of the money in our marketing budget used to be spent in the mail or on the phone, but in the past five years, online investments and marketing activities have skyrocketed.

Consider the range of activities that we, as B-to-B marketers, may be involved in.

Offline
• direct mail;
• telesales;
• account-based relationship sales;
• public relations;
• sponsorships;
• dealer networks;
• retail stores; and
• DRTV.

Online
• organic search/search engine optimization, landing pages;
• paid search/pay per click;
• e-mail;
• webinars;
• podcasts;
• video;
• blogging;
• “net gnat” second brands; and
• content management.

Every business is different, and your business may be involved in any number of these activities or even some others not mentioned.

In conducting this orchestra, ask the following questions:
• How do we evaluate and balance these activities and investments?
• How do we keep the focus on the comparative return on investment (ROI) between activities and remain able to adapt to changing market conditions along with being able to rebalance our spending?

Given the myriad of activities, these questions can be daunting. In order to answer them, you must understand exactly what you want to accomplish.

1. For each planned marketing activity, be clear on your objectives. What are the key result areas you’re looking for? Acquisition? Conversion? Retention? Buying site penetration? Cost reduction? A combination of these things?

2. Be clear about your performance measurements in each area, and distill your evaluation to performance measurements that allow comparison between areas.

In one program, you may be looking for sales growth. In another, the goal may be customer acquisition or reactivation. Be clear of your goals, and be able to move your assessment of these goals to a common performance measure, such as ROI, for each program.