Are you accidentally preventing your brand from reaching its full potential? It’s more likely than you think, and we’ve seen it all while helping B2B organizations make the most of their marketing budget over the years.
Here are some of the most common issues our Enterprise Marketing Team has encountered.
Mistake 1: Focusing on B2B Marketing Efforts Before Your Product, Service, or Branding is Established
It’s best to start your digital marketing efforts as soon as possible. But your team needs to know some basics before they’re able to, well, market.
Some core questions to discuss before launching campaigns include:
- What product(s)/service(s) are you offering?
- What audiences would be interested in said offering(s)?
- Where are those audiences found online and offline?
- What problems does each product or service address for their respective audiences?
- What differentiates your brand – as well as each product or service – from others on the market?
These questions can be tough to answer, and it may take months to get all parties in alignment. But it’s preferable to wasting budget on half-baked campaigns or content that doesn’t suit your finalized branding.
Mistake 2: Letting Internal Talking Points & Jargon Drive Your Digital Marketing
Jargon weasels its way into even the most experienced marketing teams’ messaging – especially when content is aimed at “technical” audiences. Plus, jargon can be hard to spot when your team uses those terms every day.
Help highlight potential gaps by asking questions like:
- Does the intended audience actually use the terms you’re including in content? Or are the terms used more by internal stakeholders?
- Does your marketing address intended audiences’ actual concerns, pain points, and potential use cases?
- Are your set talking points overshadowing marketing angles you’d otherwise explore?
- Have there been recent changes in the industry that would affect these answers?
Those questions may seem simple, but you’d be surprised how often they lead to a marketing epiphany!
Mistake 3: Not Talking with Your Sales Team While Developing Digital Marketing Strategies
The easiest path to uncovering issues with your angle or wording is often consulting with the Sales Team. After all, they’re constantly engaging with potential customers.
Try asking your salespeople questions like:
- What phrases are they hearing a lot from potential customers?
- Do any terms in your current marketing seem out of step to them?
- What are the biggest pain points they hear from potential customers?
- What do they see as the biggest misunderstandings from potential customers around your company, product, or service?
Mistake 4: Not Incorporating Appropriate Digital Marketing Channels & Formats
We get it: Marketing budgets are finite. That’s all the more reason to make sure you know how to get the biggest bang for your buck!
Often, organizations start scaling one digital marketing channel before developing a more appropriate, diverse marketing plan. We’ve seen many B2B companies who understand the benefits of SEO, so they want to focus most or all of their marketing budgets on developing blog posts. Others want to pour all their budget into PPC campaigns.
Some B2B organizations take the opposite approach. They listen for the latest buzzwords and then shift strategies on a dime to capitalize on the latest trends. It’s easy to miss that a big chunk of marketing thinkpieces and seminars informing their decisions are developed solely for B2C businesses – so their findings and ideas simply don’t translate to the B2B space.
To rip off the Band-Aid: None of these approaches comprise complete B2B marketing strategies in 2026.
If you think there might be a better solution out there, you’re probably right. Ask yourself:
- Which channel(s) are we focused on now? Why?
- Where do our desired audiences already live? (make sure to consider social media platforms like LinkedIn, Youtube, etc.)
- What formats speak best to those audiences, based on demographic data and past performance?
- Which channels and formats would be the most cost-effective for our KPIs?
- What content marketing solutions would best serve our needs?
It can be tough to find the right mix, and you’ll need to experiment with different avenues to find a blend that really works. But when you find powerful synergies between marketing channels, it makes all the difference.
Mistake 5: Disregarding Digital Marketing Best Practices
Due to many B2B businesses’ niche positions in their markets, it’s easy to assume that any conventional B2C marketing advice isn’t helpful to them. However, core tenets of successful digital marketing still apply, such as:
Making data a top priority
Collecting clean data is the foundation for making marketing decisions, but it’s also important to be able to digest that information. Today, it’s more common for marketing teams to feel overwhelmed by the amount of data available rather than lacking it. Understanding the narrative painted by data and creating actionable next steps from it is vital.
Staying curious and testing for improvements
Not every marketing campaign is an instant winner, and channels require maintenance over time. A/B testing landing pages for paid media campaigns, trying out a new email marketing template, or refreshing a page to improve its SEO and relevance to the target audience can all yield better results.
Keeping an eye on industry trends
Some industries are slower to change than others, so it can be tempting to hold the line. But when a new competitor enters the market or there’s a change in audience awareness or terminology, digital marketing strategies often need to shift. Staying ahead of the curve is always beneficial.
Avoiding marketing channel silos
Different skillsets and approaches are necessary for each channel. And that can lead to unintentionally disconnecting individual campaigns from your overall marketing goals. Regular communication within and across teams, as well as understanding how various channels influence one another, can keep you on the right path.
Mistake 6, aka “The Big One”: Not Seeking Expert Help When You Need It
Many organizations simply don’t have a marketing team large enough to fully support the digital marketing efforts their brands warrant. Some take a complete DIY approach – and that’s where many of the other mistakes in this list get their start!
Even if your team has the know-how, they may be wearing too many hats to devote the attention needed for each channel and campaign. It can be much more effective – for your time and often your budget – to look for agency help.
Creating a Successful B2B Digital Marketing Strategy
You don’t have to navigate the digital marketing minefield alone! If you need a partner in your corner asking the tough questions and providing an outside perspective on your efforts, the B2B pros at a digital marketing agency like Upward Engine can help.
Reach out to us today to uncover what your ideal marketing mix would look like.