Gone are the days when agencies and martech companies had a finite number of B2B marketing channels to reach prospects, such as cold calling, direct mail, trade shows, and industry publications. 

Not only has the media diet changed, but how buyers of advertising and marketing services make purchasing decisions has fundamentally changed over the last decade. The path to purchase of modern B2B buyers is no longer linear, nor can it be prescribed.

Most firms still need to evolve their marketing channel strategy. Many still rely on outdated and ineffective channels or, worse, solely on word-of-mouth and referrals.

In today’s landscape, agencies and martech companies must update their channel strategy to not only accelerate growth and profitability but stay competitive. Or they risk drowning in never-ending testing, constant “pivots,” and budgets spread across too many channels.

What Is A Marketing Channel Strategy?

Marketers can use an ever-increasing number of channels — online and offline — to reach prospects. A marketing channel strategy is a plan for how a company will reach its target audience through various marketing channels. 

To ensure your marketing channel strategy is strong, agencies and martech companies must define goals, identify the specific channels to best reach prospects, and determine the resources to allocate toward implementing, analyzing, and optimizing.

The best strategy is one that not only acquires new clients but retains them within budget and is replicable. What you want to do is avoid spinning your wheels, chasing the next shiny object as new channels emerge.

What Are Some Examples of B2B Marketing Channels? 

A marketing channel is any medium that connects an organization to prospective clients. These channels enable agencies and martech companies to educate prospects, drive awareness, create demand, capture demand, and give them a positive experience with their brand. 

Examples of B2B marketing channels include: 

• Affiliate Marketing
• Cold Calling
• Cold Email
• Conferences/Trade Shows
• Direct Mail
• Display/Retargeting
• Email Marketing
• Field Marketing
• Guerilla Marketing
• Influencers/Brand Ambassadors
• Live Events
• Meetups & Industry Groups
• Out-of-Home
• Paid Search/PPC
• Partner Marketing
• Podcasts
• Print
• Public Relations
• Radio
• SEO
• Social Media
• TV
• Webinars
• Website
• Word-of-Mouth/Referrals
  

There were fewer channels for B2B buyers to consume information in the past, whereas today, there are a plethora. In most cases, these channels have become oversaturated, which presents new challenges.

When evaluating channels, each can be classified as paid or organic, demand creation or demand capture, and inbound or outbound. It is essential to understand the nuances of each.

Paid vs. Organic

Paid marketing channels require a monetary media spend behind them to see traction, whereas organic marketing channels do not require a media investment. However, organic channels still require an investment in the form of time, effort, and in some cases, technology. 

Demand Creation vs. Demand Capture

Demand creation occurs when marketing drives awareness and interest among prospects. In contrast, demand capture takes this engagement and captures demand in the form of a conversion (typically a meeting or demo). The two work hand-in-hand to move prospects through the buyer’s journey when they are ready. 

Inbound vs. Outbound

Inbound marketing occurs when the prospect initiates contact with the business, whereas, in outbound, the firm initiates contact. Inbound marketing focuses on creating content that educates prospective clients to create demand when they may not be ready to purchase. Alternatively, outbound proactively seeks out right-fit prospects to generate interest and connect them with your business development team.

When developing your marketing channel strategy, looking at each through these lenses is critical to ensure you reach your target audience across the entire buyer’s journey.

Why Is Having A Strong Marketing Channel Strategy So Important? 

A strong marketing channel strategy is imperative for businesses to flourish as it creates a blueprint for how a company will fill its pipeline with prospects and qualified leads. Gaining new prospects and leads opens doors for more business and revenue. 

However, what works well for one business might not work for another. The best B2B marketing channel is any channel that is repeatable, scalable, and delivers a profitable return on marketing spend. Consider the following before selecting your marketing channels: 

• Find New Ways To Reach Your Prospects

Before adopting new marketing channels, consider what your business is already investing in. You may have been trying to reach your target audience through thought leadership and SEO but have yet to try in-person events. By identifying a strategy around live or virtual events and diversifying your marketing channels, you are creating an opportunity to reach even more prospects within your target audience.

• Meet Your Audience Where They Are

The path to purchase for B2B buyers is complex and no longer linear. The buyer’s journey models how a typical purchase is made nowadays — starting in awareness, moving to consideration, and landing at a decision — which means marketers need to focus on creating content that supports each phase. However, a buyer does not always follow the path perfectly, popping in and out of the stages. Thus, sometimes different marketing channels are more effective for the different buyer’s journey stages.

• Maximize Your Existing Channels

If you already see traction from one channel, experiment with channels that can support or strengthen those results. Think 1 + 1 = 3. For example, maybe you’re already creating a successful weekly email newsletter. If you add cold email prospecting, you know the prospects use email and can even target subscribers engaging with the newsletter. Find channels that complement each other and can strengthen your efforts to maximize exposure. 

How To Choose Your Marketing Channels 

There are dozens of available channels. Follow this six-step process to select those that will work best for your target audience and your firm’s situation.

• Define Your Marketing Goals 

Think about what you want your overall goal to be when adopting a new marketing channel and attach measurable KPIs. 

Do you want to raise brand awareness, generate more opportunities, or increase revenue? What stage or stages of the buyer’s journey are the channel’s primary focus? Different channels are better at achieving specific goals, and knowing your goals will help you decide which marketing channel to invest in, as each provides distinct benefits.

• Establish A Budget

In addition to having a clear plan with goals, you will want to establish a marketing budget. As with any business decision, set responsible limits and monitor the ROI. 

Marcel Petitpas, CEO of Parakeeto, recommends allocating 8-14% of adjusted gross income to sales and marketing. This includes all expenses related to bringing business (acquisition cost), including salaries for new business development, sales and marketing tools, ad spend, etc.

A budget should not be considered a constraint but a safeguard. It allows you to set parameters, so you’re not under or overspending. When you see positive signals from a channel, there will be an opportunity to increase your budget and scale over time.

• Create A Revenue Attribution Report

Revenue attribution is the process of assigning marketing costs and channels to sales revenue. It provides insights into what marketing initiatives are working and which are not and to what degree. 

By creating a revenue attribution report, agencies and martech companies can better allocate budget and human resources to the marketing channels that generate the most revenue at the lowest cost.

• Research Your Audience

Create a buyer persona but take it further than demographics, job titles, geography, and seniority. Research your audience to better understand what they are searching for online, the types of content they consume, the events they attend, and the groups they belong to.

Prospects are bombarded with media clutter. Invest in marketing channels where your target audience is already showing up. Know where and when to communicate with them.

• Investigate Your Competition

Check out what your competition is doing. It can provide inspiration and clarity into effective channels to focus on and new channels for consideration.

Investigating your competition could look like this: 

• Review the company and leadership’s social profiles — which platforms are they using, and what content are they posting or interacting with? 
• Google them — where do they show up in the search results? Are they running PPC campaigns? 
• Visit their website — do they have a blog, and if so, what content are they publishing? 
• Sign up for their newsletter — what are they sending out, and how frequently? 

• Select Your Channels

Once you have a budget, buyer persona, and competitive intelligence, you can start making marketing channel selections. Select the most relevant channels to your audience that you can realistically launch with available resources and net a positive return.

You will want a multi-channel strategy with at least one channel dedicated to demand creation and one for demand capture. You do not need every available channel included in your strategy. Become laser-focused on getting a few channels right and add more to your strategy later.

How To Test and Optimize Your Marketing Channels

Unfortunately, once you select your marketing channels, you cannot set it and forget it. Each channel needs continuous monitoring, testing, and optimization to ensure you deliver on your goals.

• Experiments

Treat the launch of each channel as an experiment. Depending on the channel type, allocate 3 to 12 months for each experiment. Provide sufficient resources to the channel experiments so that it has a reasonable opportunity to yield success, but not so many resources that create high risk. 

• Positive Signals 

Look for positive signals or early indicators of success. Positive signs can vary from channel to channel. On social media, a positive signal can mean engagement from your target audience. For outbound prospecting, it might mean replies from ideal prospects. If you’re not receiving positive signals after a reasonable period, consider pivoting or ending the experiment.

• Repeatability 

Once you see positive signals, try to repeat the results. Is your email newsletter driving similar engagement month over month? Are you converting prospects into qualified leads and booking meetings at a similar percentage each month? If you are unable to repeat the positive signals, uncover why. Did something change? If so, adjust. If you cannot repeat the results, perhaps the positive signal was luck. In that case, pivot or discontinue the channel experiment.

• Operationalize & Scale

After proving the positive signals to be repeatable, set up the processes, people, and technology to scale the channel. Continue to evaluate results and look for areas for optimization. With one or more successful channels operating at scale, look to launch new experiments.

What Does All Of This Mean For Me?

Today, agencies and martech companies have a wide variety of available marketing channels to reach their target audience, making it imperative to have a thorough strategy to choose, test, and optimize channels.

A marketing channel strategy helps find new ways to reach prospects, meet your audience where they are in their buyer journey, and maximize existing channels.

To choose your marketing channels:

1. Define Your Marketing Goals
2. Establish A Budget
3. Create A Revenue Attribution Report
4. Research Your Audience
5. Investigate Your Competition
6. Select Your Channels

After selecting your channels, launch experiments to test each. Look for positive signals that demonstrate traction. Prove repeatability in results. Lastly, operationalize the channel, scale it, and launch new experiments to accelerate growth.