How to create a B2B marketing plan

If you’re running a new business or have never invested in marketing it before, it can be difficult to know where to start in terms of a plan. It can also be overwhelming as there are so many options for promotion and different routes to market. Here’s a comprehensive seven-step guide as to how to create a B2B marketing plan.

1. Create smart objectives

Creating SMART objectives is the essential foundation of your B2B marketing plan. What do you want to achieve? What are the goals? Your planning needs to be clear and concise and you need to create a tight list of objectives to keep your activity on point. Smart. Measurable. Achievable. Relevant. Time-bound. By establishing SMART objectives from the get-go, you can ensure your activity will be on the right track.

2. Assess the competition

Knowing your competitors and familiarising yourself with them can provide a deeper understanding of your own business and what you have to offer. It enables you to compare your offering with theirs. This isn’t about assimilating with or mimicking the competition, but rather finding your own unique place in what will likely be a crowded market. 

Business is inherently competitive, which makes it important to stay up to date with your competitors and make sure you know what is happening in your sector. Set up Google Alerts for your competitors. Assess how their marketing content is received. Are you able to find customer testimonials, engagement figures, or comments? These can help with how you plan and execute your own activity and find a distinctive place in the market.

3. Define key messaging 

Define and establish your company’s USP (unique selling point), and make sure it is at the heart of your communications. What problem do you solve for your customers? How can that be communicated through your marketing? Creating a value proposition is invaluable both to stay on track, and to your potential customers. So they know exactly who you are and what they would gain from using your product service.

Define your target audience. Think about who they are and what media they like to consume. Imagine ‘personas’ for who they are – what is their job role and where do they work? What motivates them? Address your potential customers directly, in a clear and consistent tone of voice that will resonate with them.

4. The right marketing channels

There are many routes to market through which you can promote your business. From social media to event sponsorship, podcasts to Google Adwords – there are many routes to go down when creating a B2B marketing plan. It is important to consider which channels will be best for your business. You don’t have to use them all and it’s often the case that targeted activity with lower but more defined reach will be better than larger, less focused campaign activity. 

Find out where your audience will be most engaged by marketing content. It could be video content, blog posts, or sponsorship of a key industry event. All of these offer different types of marketing opportunities, but the first thing is to define which channels you want to use as part of your B2B marketing plan.

5. Create the content

Setting SMART objectives, completing market research, and defining your target audience have helped put some clear shape into your B2B marketing plan. You have also considered the most effective channels to create content for. The next step is to tailor your content to promote your business.

Keep in mind key messaging, tone of voice, and channel to create fine-tuned content that resonates with and motivates your target audience. Focus on the benefits rather than the features of what you have to offer. 

6. Consider the budget

Whilst there are many ‘free’ opportunities to market your business like via social media or your website, it is also important to plan how much budget you have to spend on activities.  The budget can be used for paid social media, event sponsorship, or advertising. You may also want to consider engaging an external agency to support the process and help execute the plan. By setting and sticking to a budget it will be easier to understand what the ROI (return on investment) is for what you have done. 

7. Assess, refine, optimise

Once your marketing activity is live, it’s crucial to keep assessing how it’s performing. Platforms like Google Analytics or Semrush will help track the success of your digital activity, and it’s worthwhile comparing these statistics with previous content and other competitors so you don’t look at them in isolation.  Data enables you to see exactly what is working, and also where changes are needed. Don’t be afraid to make tweaks if an activity is not delivering results as expected. A marketing plan will always need to be refined and optimised as you go along to ensure it is effective.

Check out Grammatik’s B2B marketing case studies for examples of how we have helped our clients cut through.  Need something similar for your business? Get in touch for a chat.