When is the right time to scale your firm’s marketing

Most B2B firms initially experience growth organically through networking, referrals, and direct sales outreach. With luck and sheer determination, they score some early wins and leverage those into a few additional sales.

They may find new customers by offering promos and discounts to win a deal but often end up squeezing margins in the process. And, when sales dry up, they’ll start bombarding prospects with increasingly desperate sounding email and social media messages. This haphazard approach to marketing makes it difficult to anticipate when sales will land or to plan any sort of growth. It’s also ineffective and very frustrating for all those involved.

You can avoid this roller coaster by having a plan and a good team.

Let’s start with some clear signs that it’s time to scale your marketing effort. Then, we’ll look at some key questions to ask before you make any big moves. I’ll also share some costs you should anticipate.

Why Scale Up?

Company leaders often tell me they want to grow their business in a more planned and strategic way. Among other things, they are looking for marketing to help:

Roll out a new product or service

Years of work may have gone into development. Now, it’s time to introduce it to the world, build buzz, connect with prospects and gain a foothold. Dedicated marketers can ensure that the brand is clearly differentiated and relevant, go-to-market plans leverage multiple channels to reach prospects while stretching budgets, and creative campaigns are flawlessly implemented.

Build a more consistent, reliable lead generation system

Marketing connects with new prospects when word of mouth and networking aren’t enough to sustain growth. A new marketing program that is focused on buyers’ needs and their purchasing behavior will help build awareness, grow interest and engagement, and nurture leads through the whole sales process. A marketing leader can create a plan and budget, establish processes, recruit and oversee team members or partners, implement and optimize marcom and sales tools (e.g., CRM, ABM, etc.), and ensure regular measurement of campaigns’ impact.

Reach new markets or deeper within existing markets

What does your audience your “ideal” customer look like? Is it your current client mix? Or do you need to expand or shift your focus? Consider profitability, growth potential, deal size, and intangibles like whether you actually enjoy working with them or their industry. Marketing can help with the analysis and make recommendations on new target markets. If you are already working with your ideal client mix, marketing can help you find ways to capture more of their business each year with new service or product offerings.

Increase brand awareness, visibility and positive perception

It’s no surprise that 90% of B2B buyers choose to work with brands they already know. If you’re not on their radar, you will likely not get the call. Marketing can raise your profile with your target customers, help communicate why your firm or product is unique and a better fit for their needs, share ideas and build connections with prospects. This will keep you “top of mind” so they’ll know who to call when there is a need. Brand building is one critical part of marketing and sets the stage for future conversations.

Re-position the firm to align with an updated strategic vision

The business climate may have changed and priorities shifted. Or a merger could have opened new doors. When the business is moving in a new direction, marketing can help lead the way and make sure that both internal and external audiences understand the benefits. Market leaders will adjust their target audiences as needed, refine messaging, revisit collateral and digital assets, and create an actionable plan to get the word out.

Turn agility into a competitive advantage

Knowledge is power in marketing. History is littered with “leading brands” that got caught flatfooted and missed the shift. Similarly, many small firms found an untapped niche and skyrocketed. Marketing leaders should regularly leverage research to understand the competitive landscape so they can position the brand well. They also use research to align messaging with customers’ needs and build deeper relationships with prospects.

Before You Begin

Keep in mind that marketing is a time and money commitment that requires executive support to sustain it. Marketing is neither a band-aid nor a quick fix. Products or services must actually work well, serve a viable need for your audience, and be able to be profitably delivered. Finally, it’s important that you don’t wait to scale marketing until your firm is teetering on bankruptcy. You must give it time so it has a fair chance to work.

Plan for success by carefully defining goals, budgeting for costs, and establishing the benchmarks against which ROI can be regularly measured. Consider how long the marketing program will take to bear fruit and how can you get the best results, more quickly, for your budget. If you’ve done any marketing before now, review how well that performed. Are there lessons you can adopt or is it time to start from scratch?

Also take the opportunity to review strategies, brand positioning, and creative. Look at systems, processes and tools. Consider the collaboration between sales and marketing teams that can best ensure respective plans are in sync around lead nurturing, promotions, events, advertising flights, sales blitzes, etc.

Costs to Expect

If you’re not reinvesting on marketing for your business, you’ll always be lagging behind your competitors. Most B2B businesses spend 2-5 percent of their revenue on marketing. More is often better, but not always. A clear brand position and creative strategies can focus marketing efforts and stretch lean budgets.

To varying degrees, you’ll want marketing to focus on brand building, demand generation, lead nurturing, and customer relationships. Put another way, the goal for most B2B firms is to:

Make new prospects aware of our product or service
Inspire them to learn more
Engage them with meaningful content that helps make our brand benefits clear
Connect them with our sales team to tailor a solution
Welcome them to the family of happy, lifelong (and repeat) customers

You’ll need to consider which channels make most sense – digital, social, email, direct mail, events, advertising, PR and so on. A marketing leader can help make sense of which to focus on and when. For example, positive media coverage is a great way to earn much-needed credibility during a launch.

Next, if you’re starting a marketing program from scratch, consider how to structure the new team and how that will affect operational costs for salaries, marketing tech tools, hardware, and office space. Many growing businesses choose to minimize fixed costs while scaling up their marketing by using a contract or fractional CMO and a dedicated team of vendors. This gives them cost-effective access to senior-level talent to help set up the marketing program, position the brand, drive the strategy, and orchestrate campaigns. (Learn more about my Fractional and Interim CMO services.)

Whatever the structure, insist on clear budgeting with expected outcomes for each major line item. Measure performance against planned and revise as needed to ensure maximum ROI for your marketing spend.

And, Finally…

If you’re ready to grow your business more strategically with a concerted marketing program, congratulations! You’ve reached a critical milestone in your business growth. By clearly defining your needs for the new program, assessing the structure that works best for your firm, setting clear expectations, and regularly measuring impact of efforts, you’re setting your team up for long-term success.

Don’t be afraid to tap experts as needed. It’ll almost always save money and time in the long run. Lastly, don’t delay. Building a marketing program doesn’t happen overnight, but it is well worth the concerted effort as it will be a critical lever that you can use to transform your business.

Want to learn more about how I can help your growing firm? Let’s connect. Schedule a call.