B2B marketers are feeling the pressure from both sides. Research from Advertiser Perceptions shows that B2B marketers are facing tough goals with reduced resources. At the same time, the current tough market is making it harder for marketers to progress and convert leads.

Interestingly, it’s not too hard to generate the leads in the first place. With the pandemic behind us, events are back up and running and plenty of people are showing interest. Email campaigns and content are also generating the expected activity. The problem comes mid-funnel. Today’s buyer is a little slower to spend budget, creating longer consideration cycles and slower approval processes

When leads don’t progress through the funnel as fast as a marketer would like,  it gets harder to reach those important KPIs – right when B2B marketers are under extra strain to close leads.

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Balancing Quantity and Quality

When sales are stalled, it can be tempting to spend budget to drive more leads into the funnel. The simple math is “more leads in, more sales out,”  but this approach can strain resources and create an even bigger logjam, rather than helping to close sales and get leads over the finish line.

Yes, maximizing quality leads into the pipeline is a solid strategy, but it won’t be enough if nothing changes lower in the funnel. When leads are stuck, B2B marketers need to fine tune their approach – creating more targeted outreach, more relevant content, and a more consultative approach.

Mix It Up Mid-Funnel

B2B marketers can add custom questions into forms and allow content to be dynamically served based on how prospects answer those questions.  This “choose your own adventure” technique allows prospects to have a more organic journey with content, and a more personalized experience. For example, if a manufacturer has a product that can be purchased “off-the-shelf” or with customization, allow the prospect to access content specific to each unique product line.

B2B marketers can also up their multi-channel orchestration. By combining messages across different channels (like website, email and social media ads), prospects have the freedom to engage with content in the channels they are most comfortable with. Coordinating marketing messages across channels also allows a brand to have frequent and multiple touch points along the customer journey that logically tie together, creating a more powerful impact.

Take a software company with a number of prospects stalled mid-funnel. Based on what they originally searched for on the website, the marketing team can create a targeted campaign that shares content that can be downloaded via an email, a linkedIn article, and targeted display advertising. By seeing which one they engage with across those three channels, marketers can optimize their media mix.

A More Targeted Lower Funnel

Marketers can create digital custom questions and insight experiences to learn more about a prospective buyer. A team selling servers to large businesses could add a series of custom questions to a content form to diagnose prospect’s points and find the right point of urgency to move forward with a product or solution.  This information can help “pre-score” incoming leads, allowing for a quicker handover to sales.  Example questions include, “Do you have a project for a server upgrade?”, “What is your budget for your server upgrade?” “ Are you a decision maker and what is your timing for the server upgrade?”

In today’s tough market, buyers often have clear sticking points. Perhaps it’s the price, but there could be many other hurdles such as a long implementation time, uncertain ROI, or time consuming training for their team. Questions about what’s slowing down a sale and then deliver highly curated sales and marketing to address the concerns. For example, providing a custom ROI calculator or a video about how easy and effective the free training is that comes with a new contract, can directly address outstanding concerns and put the marketer out in front of their competition – whether the buyer is ready now or in the future.

Remember the Value Equation

Success in this process is to deliver a good offer that shows the prospect real value. B2B marketers should be asking questions and learning throughout the funnel so that they can actually apply what they learn about the prospect. Take those insights and talk about a solution in a way that relates to their specific needs with more relevant content and more targeted messaging. Make the journey as personalized and customized as possible.

Don’t forget, everyone has a boss or someone to answer to. That prospect in the middle of the funnel still has to get approval for their purchase. Arm prospects with all of the ammunition they need to get that purchase done in a way that feels good. A good long term customer relationship starts during the sales process.

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