AMA: Gong Performance Marketing Lead, Bhavisha Oza on Integrated Campaign Marketing

It is important to recognize that the B2B buying cycle is not linear. Various buyers can be in different stages of the buying cycle and the best way to address this is to have: 1. Always-on tactics such as paid search, paid social, and email nurture. These are by nature evergreen campaigns and must be optimized quarterly or based on performance 2. Time-sensitive tactics such as webinars, tradeshows and in-person and online BOF events such as executive round tables That said, it is important to have the MOF/BOF tactics such as email nurture and SDR outreach sequences live before you launch paid media campaigns. This will ensure the right follow-ups are triggered the moment the first content lead or the first demo lead or the first event lead hits the CRM.

The key variable that affects the choice of channels is -- target audience. 1. Audience type - Is this a new business campaign or install base, cross-sell / up-sell campaign? New business campaigns are heavy on paid media and install base campaigns are heavy on owned media 2. Market segment - Is this an SMB/mid-market campaign or an enterprise campaign? New business SMB/Mid-market campaigns are largely driven by inbound tactics such as paid search, website, SEO whereas Enterprise campaigns require an ABM strategy Other key variables that affect choice of channels are of course pipeline goals and budget.

* Messaging and content should be funnel specific and aligned with the buyer jobs to be done. I have used the Gartner B2B Buying methodology which is based on the foundation that the buyer’s journey involves a common set of “jobs” that must be completed to their satisfaction before they decide to buy. To enable buying, marketers need to meaningfully help buyers complete a set of specific buying “jobs” including: * Problem identification - Thought leadership content, blogs * Solution exploration - E-books, E-guides * Requirements building - Checklists, Cheat Sheets * Vendor selection - Analyst content such as Gartner MQ and Forrester Wave * Validation and consensus building - Success stories and customer testimonials * Webinars work across all of the above * Visual design plays a crucial role in making sure the buyer experience is cohesive. The way I have ensured this is by looping in the creative team early on and sharing the campaign strategy and timeline with them so they can see the big picture and can create consistent visuals

This is where using Account Based Marketing and Demand Unit Waterfall (DUW) comes into play, especially for B2B Mid-market and Enterprise segments. Integrating a solution like Demandbase into your tech stack will help you identify accounts based on how they engage with your campaigns and execute channel tactics based on the DUW stages * Target Demand * This stage is all about sizing the market and identifying your Total Addressable Market or TAM based on your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). * Which accounts are most likely to buy your products/solutions/services? * Pro Tip: Execute TOF (top of funnel) campaigns on paid social and third-party media partners * Active Demand * Of the TAM, how many accounts are in-market to buy in the near future * Pro Tip: Present TOF and MOF (middle of funnel) content via paid social and email * Engaged Demand * How many accounts have interacted with your website, campaigns or content? * Pro Tip: Continue the buyer’s journey with MOF content served up by paid social, email nurture and webinars * Prioritized Demand * In this stage, you’ll take all the target accounts that have engaged with you and prioritize them by Account Score. * Pro Tip: Build dedicated Outreach sequences for Sales Development teams / SDRs to use * Qualified Demand * SDRs have to start multi-threading to key contacts within the account. * Pro Tip: Work with SDRs to execute a targeted, high-touch direct mail campaign via solutions like Alyce or Sendoso * Pipeline Opportunity * More and more marketers are getting involved at this stage * Pro Tip: Execute brand campaigns on paid social, YouTube and display to stay top of mind

First, I’d like to define a B2B campaign as a set of tactics that will drive pipeline revenue for a particular solution or a market segment. The campaign timeline can span over a quarter or 6+ months. To launch a successful campaign you first need to answer these 5 questions. * What are the campaign goals * Begin with the end in mind. * Keep your eyes on the prize and optimize relentlessly * Who is the Target audience * Persona - Business and technical buyer * Segment - Enterprise, Mid-market, SMB * Geo - North America, EMEA, LATAM, APAC * Verticals * What is the value proposition * What are the buyer pain points * How can our solution help solve * Why should they choose us over competitors * What is the content mix by persona and buyer jobs to be done * Buyer jobs to be done including problem identification, sol exploration, req building, vendor selection, validation and consensus building. Be sure to include different formats such as e-books, checklists, analyst content, video demos etc * By persona - business buyer and/or technical buyer * What is the budget * This will guide the channel/tactic mix * Define the tactic mix including both * Paid media - paid search, paid social, third party programs, trade shows * Owned media - website, email nurture, webinars, blogs Once you have the answers you are ready to plan and launch a solid campaign. Pro tip: Don't wait for everything (ads, emails, landing pages etc.) to be perfect. The mantra is to launch and optimize :))