Planning Around Uncertainty:
#B2BSMX Shows Us How to Prepare for 2021
The gods laughed when they saw our plans for 2020, but here we are with our notebooks full of new lessons and insights about B2B marketing… and sharpening our proverbial pencils to sketch out what we hope to achieve in 2021. Planning isn’t futile, after all, it just needs to be flexible. With that, we’re grateful to have fueled up for new revenue realities at the 2nd annual The C4D strategy team has compiled a recap of some of our favorite, most helpful sessions from the online experience for you here. Bust out your 2021 planners and start imagining your own fresh 2021.
B2B Sales & Marketing Exchange.
1
Build a New "Plan A"
“The New Plan A: How to Regain Clarity, Get Proactive & Do Exceptional Work Again”
As marketers, we tend to rely on best practices and benchmarks to guide our decisions. But believes that in order to market in a new context…
Jay Acunzo
He shared some critical questions to help you do just that:
2
An “aspirational anchor” is a rallying cry for your team, crafted based on the goals and improvements you want to make in your industry.
Your “first principle insight” is the main thing you know about your audience and what they hope to accomplish. These insights should be rooted in the positive change you want to make for them.
Are you lacking time, budget or resources? Identify your key constraints up front so you can find creative ways to work around them.
3
If you want to reach them with messaging, you must be credible and demonstrate empathy—show customers that you can answer their questions and solve their problems. Feel the pain they’re going through and help them. Make customers the heroes of your content.
Empathy is the key to the future of B2B marketing, according to CEO of Marketing Insider Group. Today’s customers direct their own buyer’s journey, choosing the content that guides them to purchasing decisions. Content that talks all about you and your product just won’t cut it. Brenner described it this way:
Michael Brenner,
“Marketing in Times of Crisis: Embracing Empathy Is the Key to B2B’s Future”
Embrace Empathy
4
There’s a secret formula for this, according to who you probably already know as founder of Terminus and FlipMyFunnel:
Sangram Vajre,
“The Secret Formula to Becoming a CMO”
Become a CMO
Build Your Personal Brand
Know your business: to be a storyteller, own the metrics and build a team. You’re probably only great at one of these, but the people who rise to the top know enough about the other two to get by. Identify how you can become a better storyteller, understand the key business metrics and know your gaps so you can hire them first.
Dreamer
• Extreme Focus • Credibility
• Picture of Success
Doer
• Priority
• Kindness • Burnnout
Driver
Befriend the CFO, the CEO and the CRO. These are the relationships you need to cultivate to get where you want to be. Remember that trust is built one moment at a time.
Storytelling
Team
Metrics
CMO
And while you’re doing all this, build your personal brand. This doesn’t mean becoming an Instagram sensation. It means making yourself visible to the people who would hire you. No one hires the invisible, so get yourself on their radar by talking, teaching and sharing at every opportunity.
CEO
CRO
CFO
Define the actions you’ll take daily, weekly or monthly to develop your superpowers, cultivate relationships and tout your achievements on your path to becoming a CMO.
Talk
Share
Teach
5
Always-active Partner and Chief Strategy Officer at the Pedowitz Group, became a TikTok addict during pandemic lockdown after she hit her limit for reading and watching television. She has been following creative types who’ve chronicled how they turned their hobbies into professions after they lost jobs because of the pandemic, and it inspired her to articulate these planning points for 2021 to find opportunity during disruption:
Dr. Debbie Qaqish,
“How TikTok Can Shape Your 2021 Revenue Strategy: 3 Savage Takeaways from a TikTok Addict”
Let TikTok Inspire Your Revenue Strategy
Debbie suggests reimagining what Marketing and Sales looks like in the changed world and then take action to fulfill that vision. Don’t over plan. Think about all things you’ve always wished you could do and be, and then take action to make it happen.
Pandemic boredom is the driving force behind TikTok’s record user growth this year, and the lesson for Marketing and Sales is that people are craving a continuous stream of creative and innovative content. The No. 1 guiding principle for content going forward should be “Be Creative!” Boredom also presents opportunity, because studies have shown that people who are bored are more engaged when given an opportunity for creative interaction.
Debbie says she’s drawn to how authentic the people and stories are on TikTok (the people she follows, anyway), and that the pandemic has pushed the needle for “authenticity” into the must-do category for Marketing and Sales. “Nobody responds to a talking head anymore. You need to be as authentic as possible.”
6
The E2open marketing team’s ABM program turned upside down in 2020, along with most marketers’ plans this year. But
Annika Helmrich and Kathy Mammon
“6 Lessons—And Struggles!—E2open Learned Navigating ABM in 2020”
Navigate ABM
They created a rinse-and-repeat model that cut webinar execution from two months down to two weeks.
reacted quickly and turned their six struggles into successes.
They increased email conversion rates with creative subject lines, engaging email text and a narrowed audience.
They wanted to create hyper-personalized ABM journeys but learned that they needed more time to test engagement strategies, including digital ads and technology.
To get better alignment across the organization, the team worked on setting up better, easier cross-partner functionality.
After asking the field for their input, the team thought out of the box and built hyper-personalized messages in video mailers.
To combat declining webinar attendee rates, they kept attendees hooked through follow-up messages and LinkedIn Live sessions.
Content4Demand has collaborated with a number of successful brands as we’ve all navigated profound changes this year. We can help you prepare a plan with room to pivot in response to the surprises you encounter as the year unfolds. Schedule a call with our team or request your own customized one-on-one workshop to embrace new strategies, new content formats and new challenges coming in 2021.
Plan to Pivot
