Strategy is Important, but Effective Execution is Critical for B2B Marketing Results
Let’s be honest — if one cannot execute their marketing plan and fabulous ideas, one does not get results. In order to drive actual outcomes you need an intelligent and motivated staff, and a lot of TLC.
For context, consider the process to develop a plan:
- First, an umbrella framework that defines the role of your marketing and the strategy for which levers to pull, which problems to solve, and where to allocate budget.
- Then a more detailed framework that shapes the role of individual delivery channels — for example, maybe revenue is driven online and depends entirely on online marketing/infrastructure; maybe marketing adds value by supporting the sales team and driving brand awareness/thought leadership; maybe events have the most potential to drive new leads; or maybe marketing can best support by keeping leads warm and engaged through the sales process.
The work then begins to design tactics and measurements, and determine how they will tie together (this is where online marketing often adds the most value). At this stage, the devil is in the details, so consider whether there is …
- A strong staff in place, with the right skill sets
- Budget and resources that address key dependencies and critical barriers
- Sufficient time for the team to think, brainstorm, and iterate
- Superb project management of the plan (and of details that take more time than one thinks)
- Internal alignment, as well as tools and training
- Someone focused on testing and analytics, to make sure progress and results are being measured real-time (or at least regularly)
- Someone assessing progress and facts to determine whether the ideas are working, and recalibrating tactics and/or messaging accordingly
The point is – developing the strategy is important, but excellence in execution is often the biggest challenge and opportunity for meeting the metric goal. You will likely be rewarded with higher and faster ROI if you devote a large part of the budget to execution (and proactively attack that pesky devil that lies in the details).
