Let’s not sugarcoat it. This year has been tough on many B2B marketers. 43% of marketers reported they felt high pressure to prove their value. In Q4, hitting B2B marketing goals is the priority and we’ve outlined 7 ways to make a big impact and reach goals.
2023 got off to a rocky start with many companies facing economic uncertainty and cutting back as a result. But as the year went on, many organizations realized they needed to ramp up efforts to keep up with their goals for the year. Q4 is the final opportunity to achieve your yearly B2B lead generation goals.
If you were feeling the pressure before—odds are it’s only getting stronger. But don’t panic, the year isn’t over just yet. Here are 7 winning strategies to help you hit your B2B marketing goals and finish strong in Q4.
1. Review your B2B marketing goals and current progress
Look at the marketing goals you set for the year and evaluate where you currently stand. Identify any gaps between goals and performance.
Take the time to go over your campaign results so far. Look at each tactic used and the results it produced. If you don’t have a standardized reporting process this may be a daunting task—but the information you’ll gain from it is invaluable.
By breaking down each campaign, you can get as granular a view as possible. For instance, try comparing individual ad creative and keywords targeted. This way you can really take stock of what is making a difference. Identify your top performers and either rerun or ideate off of them and use them as inspiration to make even better ads. See if you can find a common thread between ads that are performing well and apply that to other ads going forward. Take advantage of generative AI tools to get fresh ideas for your creative quickly so you can cut down on the time it takes to get your new ads into market.
Look for the channels that are performing the best and use this information to decide how to refocus your strategy. You may see some tactics or channels aren’t helping you reach your goals. Take the opportunity to adjust your strategy to decrease or pause spending there and place that budget behind the activities that are driving results.
2. Double down on lead gen campaigns
This may seem obvious, but you need to focus on running more lead generation. The more you focus your strategy around lead gen in Q4 the more likely you will be able to drive more leads and hit your upcoming goals, as well as build a solid foundation for Q1 2024.
This doesn’t mean you need come up with additional budget you don’t have, it just means you may need to shift your strategy to help you reach your current goals. For example, you may be able to move budget out of more general brand awareness campaigns and into more targeted lead generation campaigns for Q4.
Use tactics like social media ads and targeted email outreach to help bring leads into your pipeline. Try using intent data to fine-tune your audience to target those who are most likely to convert. Intent gives you an idea of who to target by analyzing online activity to show who is actively in-market for your solutions. You can then expand your targeting to reach all members of that prospect’s buying group to maximize the impact of your outreach.
3. Use blind form submits on high-value content
Blind form submissions allow you to immediately capture information from individuals when they click on certain things on your website. Add blind form submits when someone clicks a button to download high-quality content on your website. Blind form submits are a great way to get more leads because you can gather information without adding the barrier of a typical gated content form.
You can take this data and use it to gauge which prospects are interested in certain topics and then put them into topic-specific nurture to warm these leads up. It’s best to have a plan in place for how you will use the data you collect before adding these so that you do not end up overwhelmed with data you aren’t putting to use.
4. Run content syndication
Running targeted, personalized content syndication campaigns is a powerful lead generation tactic. Whether you need new high-quality leads that match your ideal customer profile (ICP) or are looking to get more contacts in the buying group, content syndication is a tried and true way to reach your lead generation goals.
Start with a high-quality piece of content and work with an experienced content syndication partner to get it in front of an audience filled with your ideal customers.
5. Host a curated virtual event
You don’t need a huge event budget to host an engaging event that drives leads. What you will need is content around a hot topic and a strong promotion strategy. Virtual events can be a very effective B2B lead gen tactic. While many marketers are also ramping up their in-person event schedule again, virtual events are here to stay. According to a recent Winterberry Group study, 74% of marketers report they have increased their use of online event marketing.
For a high-impact event, focus on a small group of engaged prospects. Choosing a topic that your prospects will care about is essential. Look at their intent data to see what they’re showing interest in and choose a topic that aligns with it. Focus your virtual event around their pain points or goals and actionable takeaways to help. Try to offer a unique experience for these prospects along with the content of your event. Just because it’s virtual, doesn’t mean it can’t be interactive. One idea is to work with a mixologist to host a virtual cocktail (or mocktail) class.
But it isn’t enough just to host an event—your target audience needs to know about it! Promote the event through targeted emails and work with your sales team to personally invite leads through email and social media.
6. Launch retargeting efforts
Q4 is a great time to re-engage old leads and try to move them down your funnel. We suggest taking an integrated campaign approach and retargeting them across multiple channels for the best results. For example, try re-engaging these older leads through LinkedIn ads as well as through a dedicated email nurture stream.
Send them new content or special offers to encourage them to begin engaging with your company again. Remember that this may take some time since these leads are probably cold and will need to be nurtured to get them closer to converting.
7. Leverage a cross-sell/upsell approach
Don’t forget that your current customers can be the perfect fit for other solutions you sell. Work closely with your sales team to stay aligned on potential cross-sell/upsell opportunities and coordinate any outreach.
This is another place intent data comes in. Monitor current customer intent data to see if your other solutions can solve any of their additional needs. You can also work with your product team to understand which of your solutions are often purchased together and create a cross-sell strategy around that. For example, if many of your clients purchase product A and product B together, develop a campaign that promotes product B to your current customers who only purchase product A.
Time to hit your B2B marketing goals
No matter what your goals are it’s not too late to revamp your B2B marketing strategy and make a positive impact at your organization. This Q4, focus on these lead generation strategies to help you cross the finish line.
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