And then, there’s the elephant in the room: meeting year-end sales and marketing goals. With this blog, we aim to provide you with a concrete, action-oriented plan that focuses on quick wins, so you can finish 2023 stronger than ever. Because if there’s one thing we know, it’s that every second counts when you’re racing against the year-end clock.

1⃣ Sharpen Your Targeting—Focus on the Ready-to-Buy

Why It’s Crucial

Missing the mark in targeting is just flushing your budget down the drain. The tighter your focus, the higher the ROI. Focus on the folks in your funnel already in “decision mode”.

How to Do It

• Re-Engage Open Leads: For example, if you’re in the business of SaaS for healthcare, it’s likely you have pending conversations with administrators or healthcare providers. Reach out to them and mention the new feature that directly caters to a problem they had expressed earlier.

? Pro Tip: Use a CRM to automate follow-ups and track engagement. Make sure the message is personalized. (Here’s HubSpot’s advice on how to do that in their CRM).

• Spot the Hyper-Engaged: Take note of the people who are engaging with your LinkedIn posts, Twitter updates, or regular newsletters.

? Pro Tip: Use LinkedIn analytics to track engagement and use Direct Messages to reach out with a soft sell.

Real-Life Example

A SaaS provider of ours in the logistics sector revisited their pending leads with a focused message around Q4 budget spend, capturing a 20% increase in close rate within a month.

2⃣ Skip the Fluff—Drive Sales Intent, Not Just Brand Love

Why It’s Crucial

With limited time and resources, you can’t afford to focus on activities that don’t convert. Save brand awareness investment for next year.

How to Do It

• Host Decision-Driving Webinars: For instance, if you sell recruitment software, a webinar titled “How to Streamline Your Hiring Before Year-End” can attract HR managers desperate to close positions before 2024.

? Pro Tip: Use the webinar to showcase your software in action, addressing problems in real time. (Here’s our guide on building successful webinars).

• Deliver Conversion-Oriented Content: Content pieces like ‘7 Reasons Why Our Software Beats Competitors’ are straightforward but incredibly effective.

? Pro Tip: Use A/B testing to fine-tune your CTAs and increase conversion rates.

Real-Life Example

A cloud-based inventory management service we advised switched from general topics in their webinars to specifics like ‘Managing Holiday Inventory Efficiently’ in Q4. They reported a 30% hike in trials and a 15% increase in conversions.

3⃣ Upgrade Your Conversion Playbook—Incentivize, Incentivize, Incentivize

Why It’s Crucial

Q4 is when budgets get spent. Your prospects are looking to make purchasing decisions; make it easier for them.

How to Do It

• Roll Out Exclusive Bundles: Package your core product with add-ons at a reduced price.

? Pro Tip: Highlight the savings they get from the bundled pricing prominently in your marketing material.

• Unlock Early Access: For example, if you plan to launch a new analytics dashboard in Q1 2024, give your Q4 customers early access to it.

? Pro Tip: Use this as an upsell opportunity to move them onto annual contracts.

• Boost Referrals: Offer a free month of service for every successful referral.

? Pro Tip: Use automated emails to remind your customer base of the referral program.

Real-Life Example

We worked with an e-learning platform that offered course bundles along with a free consultation session as a Q4 special. The result? A 40% uptick in course sign-ups and a new revenue line from consultation services.

Takeaway: Your Time Is Now + Quick Win Plan Template

Navigating the turbulent waters of Q4 doesn’t have to be a Herculean task. A focused, pragmatic approach can make all the difference, helping you secure those quick wins and ease into 2024 with momentum on your side.

Simply make sure that:

You’re speaking to the hottest audience (hot leads, that is).

Offering decision-making content geared toward their stage in the buyer’s journey and their pain points. (Read this for more insights).

Incentivizing them to buy now!

You’ve got this!

Quick Win Plan Template

The post Close Out 2023 Strong: The Essential Guide to Quick Wins for Early-Stage B2Bs appeared first on StepUp Marketing.

If you haven’t built your foundational marketing machine — you haven’t built anything.

This is a message we — at StepUp — spend a lot of time trying to communicate to our audience and our clients.

We know you’re hungry for leads, and we know you’ve picked up a variety of pretty solid instincts about how to convert your leads into sales. But building a pipeline — a marketing machine that consistently refreshes your leads pool with new qualified leads takes significant strategic know-how and a solid investment of time and money.

So, what’s the right way to spend, and craft your annual marketing budget, when you’re cash-strapped, time-crunched, and aching for new customers? We’ve broken it down for you into the five steps below — with some wisdom on how to structure your marketing dollars thrown into the mix.

Spoiler: We’re going to keep on recommending that you hire experts to do your initial go-to-market strategy (you know, like us).

In a world that’s become besieged by AI-fueled quick fixes (not that we don’t love AI), and performance marketing hijinx it has never been more vital to do ?? the ?? work ?? to craft a solid, well-researched, message and marketing plan.

We’re honored to work with some wonderful clients who’ve taken this important message to heart (and a few who wish they had done so several years earlier), and we’ve learned a lot about how to get your early-stage B2B company off the ground and running. Read on to learn!

Step 1: Set Clear Big Picture Goals (Spoiler: Your Goal is Always Leads)

This might be stating the obvious, but all of your marketing efforts should be designed to attract qualified prospects who are interested in your product or service.

But far too many businesses skip the MQL (marketing qualified leads) phase of business development growth, neglecting to build a pipeline of warm and open prospects and focusing instead on cold outreach via their sales team.

Not Just Any Leads: Marketing Qualified Leads

Setting clear goals around acquiring MQLs orients you toward building your pipeline — and gets you thinking about data-driving metrics such as lead acquisition cost, conversion rates, and return on investment of pipeline inbound marketing content — this will help you assess the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and make necessary adjustments along the way.

When setting your lead generation goals, it is important to consider various factors that may impact the success of your marketing campaigns. These factors include your target audience, industry trends, competitive landscape, and available resources. By taking these factors into account, you can set realistic and achievable goals that will drive your business forward.

Just as not all leads are the same, not all marketing activities and tactics are equal, and some may be more effective in generating leads than others. By understanding your goals, you can allocate your budget and resources to the strategies that have the highest potential for success (this is called “optimization”).

MQL Goal Clarity is Motivating for Your Marketing Team

Additionally, setting clear goals provides a sense of direction and purpose for your marketing team. When everyone is aligned on the overarching objective of lead generation, it becomes easier to collaborate and work towards a common goal. This alignment fosters a cohesive and focused marketing strategy, resulting in more impactful campaigns. As obvious as this sounds on paper, for the most budget-stressed team in most businesses — goal alignment is crucial to manifesting aligned creative energy and helping team members feel invested in being a part of the solution. Don’t overlook it.

Moreover, having measurable goals allows you to celebrate successes and identify areas for improvement. When you achieve your lead generation targets, it serves as a validation of your marketing efforts and motivates your team to continue their hard work. On the other hand, if you fall short of your goals, it provides an opportunity to analyze what went wrong and implement changes to enhance your future performance.

Step 2: Consider all Your Potential Marketing Costs

Like a parent at a grocery store with their kids — our inclination when budget setting is to figure out how to “take stuff out of the cart”.

Penny-pinching is understandable but I urge you to set your red pen aside and dream big when drafting this spreadsheet.

Early-stage B2Bs usually have big goals (“I’d like to eventually dominate the North American market!” is a sentence I hear more often than you realize). And big marketing goals are great! But they require big marketing visions — and the courage to execute. That doesn’t mean you’ve got to do it all today — or even this year — but a realistic snapshot of what efforts you might undertake, and what they’re really going to cost is essential.

Prepare for Paid Advertising

As B2B marketers, we want our message to reach the right audience, and that means allocating toward paid advertising spending. Whether it’s on Google, social media platforms, or wherever our target audience may be, we want to be there with our brand. After all, what good is a killer marketing strategy if it’s not reaching potential customers? So, when it comes to setting our marketing budget, we need to make sure we’ve got some allocated for digital advertising. That’s where the magic happens. By strategically placing our ads on the right advertising channels and boosting visibility, we can directly reach our target audience to generate brand awareness and ultimately qualified leads.

Bottom Line –> Have a digital marketing budget that includes enough money for a comprehensive digital spend: on PPC, LinkedIn paid Ads, Google Display, and wherever your audience lives online.  

Invest in Content, Content Management Tools (and a Martech Stack)

Content Marketing (this includes social media marketing) is the backbone of any marketing strategy, it plays a vital role in attracting and engaging potential customers around their pains gains, and wants. But these days, content is more than a killer 2000-word blog (like this one), it’s about keyword optimization, SERP scores, and integration.

Your content tools should include talented writers and content creators, but they’ll also need to make room for your tech stack — from SEO optimization and Google Analytics tools to AI batch generators to distribution management software (ie: HubSpot) — the content marketing world is its own ecosystem and gone are the days when you can neglect those vital aspects of your content marketing strategy.

Bottom Line — budget for creating great content — and the tools you’ll need to make sure people see it. 

Event Marketing Works, Put it in Your Company Budget

Event marketing is crucial for boosting brand visibility, and incorporating it into your budget is a must-do. Whether it’s through digital or in-person industry events that you attend (or host!), this powerful marketing strategy offers opportunities to connect with potential customers, showcase your products or services, and establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry.

Bottom Line — From digital webinars to industry booths, budget for participation and marketing to show up as a thought leader in the right spaces.

A Budget Line for Salaries, External Hires, and Marketing Agencies

This topic deserves its own whole blog (or book). But suffice it to say that talent costs and talent matters. Make sure you’ve got your ad spend separate from your salary and contract spend — hiring the right people — the people who know how to do what you need to be done (and no, you cannot “wing it” on SEO anymore so cut that out), is simply a must.

Step 3: Hire an Early-Stage Expert to Build Your Go-To-Market Machine (yes, we’re talking about us)

Speaking of a budget for hires and agencies: Step 3 in building an effective B2B marketing budget is in planning — intentionally — to hire GTM experts to build your marketing machine (ideally BEFORE you begin investing in tactics and channel marketing).

As impressive, capable, and vital as your in-house marketing leader hire (CMO, marketing manager, etc.) is — creating a GTM strategy and building a solid marketing machine pipeline is its own specific skill set. We highly recommend that you plan and budget for this investment out of the gate (and our business is made of supporting companies who need this — we’re really speaking from experience here).

So what exactly IS a Go-To-Market Strategy / Machine?

In short, a GTM Machine is a framework (or pipeline) that is designed to generate demand from your ideal target market. It’s a strategy for who you’re going to talk to and how you’re going to talk to them that is based on a deep understanding of your services and products as well as a deep understanding of the market you’re targeting.

As a business owner, partnering with early-stage marketing experts (who specialize in B2B) to craft this crucial strategy will save you heaps of time, money, and frustration.

• It is the process that every business needs in order to operate from the knowledge of their marketing.
• It is the opposite of (and anecdote to) guesswork and blind experimentation.
• It is the answer to the question ” what’s your plan for business growth?”
• It’s the work/strategy that comes before your sales team picks up the phone or sends an email;
• and more importantly than any of this: it is the foundation upon which will rest all of your effective marketing efforts for years to come.

Here’s What to Expect from Your GTM Machine Architects

1. A deep understanding of you, your business, and your products and services.
2. A comprehensive analysis of all your competitors, their messages, and their offerings.
3. Elaborate persona profiles of your Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) that clearly identify their goals, the challenges they face, the solutions they crave, and how you solve their problems.
4. Powerful Value Proposition Messaging that marries your product or service with their most painful needs.
5. A content strategy that outlines for you the types of content you should be creating so that your ENTIRE funnel is full of awareness, consideration and decision-making messages that compel your potential customers to click on you.
6. An execution strategy that tells you where you want to be and how to distribute and deliver your marketing in optimized and effective ways.
7. Expert guidance on the right Martech Stack tools to maintain and grow your company. (To go down the rabbit hole of this key topic that often creates budget friction, read this blog, or to check out growth in this marketing department sector based on CMO surveys, read here).

I could go on. A well-executed GTM is not something you can get around, and something you’ll feel the lack of if you don’t invest. Hire these experts — and let them guide your early-stage business down the right path toward growth.

Step 4: Hire Your In-House Marketer and Build Your Team

I know that you know the value of hiring an in-house marketer (or maybe, dear reader, you ARE the in-house marketer — looking to understand your budget and structure needs better).

Whoever you are — our advice for hiring an in-house expert is this:

No marketer is (or should be) a jack of all trades. Find a marketer whose strengths play to your needs. You can hire based on skill set, but hiring based on industry expertise is just as valuable an approach. Whatever you do, understand that you’re hiring a partner; and a good rule of thumb is to invest in wisdom, and be willing to bring in full- or part-time support for them so that they can execute the vision you (and your GTM experts) have crafted.

Step 5: Optimize Your Marketing Pipeline Every Six Months

Okay! Whew! We’re done outlining where you should invest your money.

You’ve got your marketing budget lines clear and a plan you’re ready to implement.

Just remember to put a little cash aside for some strategy refreshes twice per year.

Why? The market changes.

Audience behavior changes, keyword costs change, digital advertising changes.

Bring in your GTM experts to do a check-in once in a while to make sure that you’re course correcting along the way (and to avoid waking up one day and realizing that your target market just isn’t where you are anymore).

Regularly analyze your marketing metrics to determine which marketing channels are generating the most leads and conversions. Consider A/B testing different ad creatives, landing pages, and email campaigns to optimize your conversion rates. Adapt your messaging and tactics based on customer feedback and market trends.

The digital landscape is dynamic, and consumer behavior is constantly evolving. Regularly reviewing your marketing efforts enables you to identify what’s working and what’s not, allowing you to make informed decisions regarding resource allocation.

Remember that B2B marketing budgets are not set in stone. They should be agile and adaptable to accommodate changes in your industry, market conditions, and customer preferences.

By following these steps and staying committed to continuous improvement, you can build a marketing budget that maximizes your investment and drives sustainable growth for your early-stage B2B marketing department. So, set your marketing goals, evaluate your costs, seek expert guidance, build your team, and optimize your pipeline.

With these strategies in place, your B2B marketing budget will be a powerful tool for propelling your business forward.

For more nitty-gritty marketing budget advice, check out HubSpot’s blog on the topic (we’re proud to be HubSpot partners and love their resources on these topics).

The post B2B Marketing Budgets: A Step-By-Step Guide to Spending Smart on Your Early-Stage Marketing appeared first on StepUp Marketing.

This case study sheds some light on how StepUp used excellent strategies and HubSpot tools to improve the marketing approach of Elsight. Working with the marketing team on optimizing their processes, we saw a 470% increase in MQLs and a 26% increase in organic traffic. 

Client profile

Elsight strives to revolutionize the connectivity market and reduce the existing digital divide through its unique software and hardware solutions. The company develops comprehensive end-to-end connectivity solutions to propel businesses towards success in a seamlessly connected environment. Elsight specializes in customized and mass-market solutions for various industrial sectors and keeps everyone connected on-site and on the go.

The company started in 2009 and currently operates from Tel Aviv, Israel.  Elsight has established itself as a top brand with multiple projects for public security organizations, militaries, fleet management companies, government offices, logistics/fleet management companies, and other essential industries.

The major challenges

Elsight approached us with little to no experience in the digital marketing domain. lack of a digital marketing strategy meant Elsight was significantly lacking digital presence. The marketing team was stressed because higher management demanded tangible results and new leads.

StepUp started by identifying Elsight’s key challenges and worked with the marketing team to address them. We also trained Elsight’s marketing team on using Hubspot Marketing Pro which provides the tools they needed to maximize productivity. Check out what Asaf, Elsight’s marketing director, has to say about our services:

“When I reached out to StepUp I was a young marketing manager. Elsight had minimal digital presence or processes in the B2B environment. StepUp coached, taught, and made everything work for Elsight in the digital marketing sphere, ‘from zero to one’ and more. Hiring outsource services is not an easy decision to make, there are a lot of doubts and questions in the beginning. With StepUp everything was clear, with a plan, timeline, and transparency to the highest level….”

Here are the three main issues Elsight had that needed immediate attention:

Connecting the digital marketing strategy to Elsight’s marketing goals

Elsight was new to digital marketing. The marketing department did not have a customer segmentation system or helpful personas to target through its content strategy. This meant that the overall marketing effort focused on hitting KPIs but lacked a clear digital marketing path.

Improving departmental alignment

Converting a lead requires seamless operations and collaboration from all concerned departments. But marketing and sales alignment can be very complex. Most organizations don’t even realize how much of a priority it is and a key factor of success. Luckily, Elsight’s leadership understood the importance and jumped on our plan to create a joint system that would enable a productive and collaborative operation between marketing and sales.

Limited marketing budget

Elsight’s marketing department had found themselves in a challenging position. They felt there was a discrepancy between the KPIs put in place that was expected of them to hit in comparison to the budget they had to work with. The primary challenge was in understanding how to correctly assess and prioritize the KPIs and calculate according to the budget at their disposal. This left them with the decision to either not fully reach each KPI or to prioritize a select few whiles completely giving up on the rest. 

Our solutions

After understanding the expectations and challenges of Elsight’s marketing team, we implemented a series of effective changes for immediate results. 

Identifying Elsight’s Buyer Persona and Developing a Content Strategy 

We started by revamping the content strategy and introducing basic customer segmentation to optimize the process. Appropriate buyer personas from each segment were developed, and we built a content strategy around each profile.

Leveraging Technology for structured and systemized growth

We used HubSpot to ensure a seamless and automated onboarding process. HubSpot allows users to manage all campaigns and conversions from a single platform, so tracking progress became simpler. We also worked with the marketing team to develop functional KPIs that allowed the department to gauge its performance and take corrective measures when needed. HubSpot’s reporting feature proved to be most helpful as it allowed Elsight to track its incoming traffic and keep a record of MQLs from digital sources.

The reports and insight feature of HubSpot allowed us to track and measure the performance of ongoing marketing activities and determine the best course according to a situation. Our team worked with Elsight to create a comprehensive marketing plan with an attractive campaign and distribute the brand’s message across various media platforms. The insights from HubSpot also allowed us to further optimize Elsight’s customer segments and come up with a razor-sharp approach for guaranteed results.  

Training the marketing team for consistent performance

While working on the strategy and integrating the necessary technology in Elsight’s existing setup, we also trained them on the basics and demonstrated how to deal with prospective clients according to their digital journey. Our team worked with the clients to show them how to effectively use insights to make informed decisions.

The impact

Elsight’s marketing department immediately saw the potential of our solutions. The project was a success for Elsight as they saw an immediate spike in organic traffic and gained new customers in a short time.

Some of the most noteworthy benefits we were able to introduce are:

1 – 470% increase in marketing qualified leads (MQL)

Our targeted content, along with excellent distribution strategies increased Elsight’s engagement with potential customers. Marketing qualified leads (MQLs) are an industry-standard metric for gauging the success of a marketing campaign. In only 4 months, we were able to increase them by 470%, which shows just how much of a difference strategizing can make.

2 – Significant increase in digital marketing budget

Once the marketing department started showing results and generating converting leads, increasing their overall budget was imperative. Many new clients appreciated the professional content Elsight was creating with us and admitted that it was among the major reasons for their consideration. This indicated the importance of inbound marketing to the management, who complied with the department’s demand and increased their budget by five times.   

3 – Optimized resource allocation through HubSpot

HubSpot tools are a must-have for any effective marketing team. Having all the key data in a single platform allows the concerned parties to make informed decisions at the right time and improve their overall marketing strategy. This platform also allows the users to effectively allocate the resources at their disposal and seamlessly work towards capitalizing on new opportunities.

Summary: StepUp helps effective demand generation campaigns using HubSpot tools

StepUp successfully changed the marketing approach of Elsight in a short time span. Our proven methodology and focus on efficiency through automation was well received by the client, who wholeheartedly recommend our services. Asaf declares that:

“I have never experienced anything like it. I trust them, I enjoy working with them, and will continue to work with them, as they are one of the main reasons we are now scaling, generating valuable accurate leads, and marketing our products to the right people while reaching our quarterly and yearly goals like a charm. Oh, due to my work with StepUp I got promoted to become a marketing director. Not only the work done helped the company, but my personal career path changed, as I got a significant promotion.”

Thinking about getting started with HubSpot? Are you an existing user looking to make the most out of the tools in hand? Contact StepUp today and revolutionize your marketing approach.

The post Case Study: How through Transformational Quick-Win Strategies and HubSpot Onboarding Process, Elsight Gains Vision For Growth appeared first on StepUp Marketing.