Some will say the average cost per click is $2.32 SGD while others say it’s $0.93 SGD. 

Though these numbers aren’t drastically different, there are a few problems with most of the data out there on Facebook ad costs in Singapore:

• Many of these estimates come from US or global statistics – not original data from Singapore. 
• Many rely on Facebook’s estimates for audiences interested in “Singapore” – which is flawed in more ways than one
• Very few of these claims take into account differences in campaign objectives and industry, which play a big role in ad costs
• Some of the data is 2-5 years old

Our team really wanted to know how much it costs to run Facebook and Instagram ads in Singapore, and we weren’t satisfied with any of the data claims out there. 

So we gathered our own original data from nearly $1.5 million in Facebook / Instagram ad spend over the last year.

This post will look into:

• The (actual) average CPC and CPM in Singapore for Facebook and Instagram
• Average costs based on campaign objective and industry
• The true cost of running ads on Facebook or Instagram
• How to project ROI for an advertising campaign

The Real Cost of Advertising in Singapore

The data we’ve gathered is based on actual account data from ads run in Singapore throughout 2021. The below report shows how much ads cost each month broken down by objective, industry, and platform (Facebook or Instagram).

As mentioned in the intro, these are the three biggest factors that impact cost.

• Campaign Objective: Ads run to generate leads are generally the most expensive, while ads focused primarily on brand awareness and reach are generally the cheapest.
• Industry: Industry costs are based primarily on competition. Ads tend to be more expensive in more competitive markets and sectors.
• Platform: Though it has changed over times and continues to vary, Facebook ads are a little more affordable than Instagram ads – but this depends largely on where the ad shows (in the feed, story, video, etc..)

How Much Do Facebook Ads Cost in Singapore?

The average cost per click of Facebook ads in Singapore is $0.55 SGD. The average CPM is $7.80 SGD. 

Ads focused on lead generation and sales average $1.33 SGD per click, while ads whose goal is to generate brand awareness average $0.48 SGD per click.

Check out the complete data:

How Much Do Instagram Ads Cost in Singapore?

Based on our data, $2.05 SGD is the average cost per click of Instagram ads in Singapore. The average CPM for Instagram ads is $8.08 SGD. 

How Much Do Facebook and Instagram Ads Cost by Industry?

As mentioned, objective isn’t the only factor that plays into ad costs – industry has a big impact as well.

We broke our data down by industry to find that healthcare and finance advertising is the most expensive in Singapore. Advertising for nonprofits and industrial brands is the most affordable.

The True Cost of Running Facebook and Instagram Ads

The true cost of advertising on Facebook and Instagram isn’t just the price you’re paying for the ads. You also need to factor what you’re paying the employee or agency running them.

So for example, let’s say you wind up deciding on a monthly budget of $2,500 SGD. 

If you have an employee run these ads, you’ll need to consider how much time it requires of them and how much of their salary goes to their management and optimization of the ads. Let’s say you pay this employee $50,000 per year and about one fifth of their time goes toward these ads. Technically, you’d be spending $3,300 per month.

Note: Don’t let an intern or someone without experience run your ads. It’s tempting to have someone else on your marketing team run them, but without any prior experience, you won’t get the results you want.

If you don’t run these ads yourself, your other option would be to engage a digital marketing agency. Every agency will have a different approach and pricing structure, but let’s say they charge a base fee of $1,000 per month + 10% of your ad spend. You’d be paying $1,250 per month to the agency.

So your all-in cost to run Facebook ads in this scenario would be $3,750 per month. 

A good agency will make this money well worth your while – and if the ads aren’t as effective as they should be, a good agency will work with you to consider other channels, tactics, and strategies.

How Much Should You Invest in Facebook and Instagram Ads?

So you know how much Facebook and Instagram ads cost in Singapore, and you have an idea of the extra costs associated with running them.

But just how much should you invest in a Facebook advertising campaign?

The ROI of Social Media Advertising

The question you’re probably asking – and should be asking – is what kind of ROI (Return On Investment) should I expect from Facebook ads? In other words, “If I spend $2,500 a month on Facebook ads, how much revenue will I earn from it?”

Before we dive into how to calculate your potential ROI, let’s differentiate between two primary types of campaigns. There are lots of different objectives within Facebook, but to keep things simple, let’s look at two primary goals.

Reach and Awareness Ad Campaigns

A reach or brand awareness campaign is perfect for:

• Introducing your brand in a new location or region
• Introducing a new product or service
• Remaining top-of-mind within a competitive industry
• The first stage of a funnel or retargeting campaign

The goal is not necessarily to generate a lead or sell a product, but to build awareness and grow an audience.

Calculating your ROI (or potential ROI) for a campaign like this can be tricky. Because few direct deals or sales will come from the campaign itself, it’s wise to take a long term view by considering things like:

• Contacts collected
• New social media followers
• Website traffic
• Branded search volume

All of the above can help future acquisition or lead generation campaigns. So though a brand awareness campaign might not lead to direct ROI, it can certainly improve the ROI of future campaigns and create customers down the road.

Lead Generation and eCommerce Ad Campaigns

When running lead generation or sales campaigns, it is possible to calculate potential ROI (or ROAS – Return on Ad Spend) – if you have some key data points. To make an accurate projection, you’ll need to know:

• The average CPC for your industry. You can find these above for Singapore!
• Your average website conversion rate. How often to website visitors convert on your site? You’ll probably use a dedicated landing page for your ad campaign, but your average conversion rate will give you an idea – as long as the offer is the same or similar.
• Your average lead-to-close rate. Once you’ve collected a lead, you’ll need to know the percentage that will close.
• The average lifetime value of a customer. Once a deal has closed, it’s important to know the average deal value or average lifetime value of a customer.

Once you have the above data points, you can use this calculation to project ROI.

For lead generation campaigns:

((((Advertising Budget / Average CPC) x Avg Conversion Rate) x Average Lead-to-Close Rate) x Avg Customer Lifetime Value) / Project Budget

Let’s look at an example: 

• Advertising Budget = $20,000
• Average CPC = $0.90
• Website conversion rate = 2.5%
• Lead-to-close rate = 10%
• Customer Lifetime Value = $10,000
• Agency Costs or Employee Salary= $15,000

(((($20,000 / $0.90) x 2.5%) x 10%) x $10,000) / $15,000 = 3.70 = 370% ROAS

For sales and eCommerce campaigns:

(((Advertising Budget / Average CPC) x Avg Conversion Rate) x Avg Sale Value)
/ Project Budget

Let’s use some of the same numbers, but say average sale value is $50:

((($20,000 / $0.90) x 2.5%) x $50) / $15,000 = 1.85 = 185% ROAS

Should You Invest in Facebook Ads?

There’s a lot to consider when thinking about running a social media ad campaign. We’ve helped a lot of businesses think through and run successful campaigns.

We achieved a 288% ROI for Fuji Xerox and an 805% ROI for IDEAL Systems through Facebook and Instagram ads.

If you’re considering investing in Facebook ads, our team would love to help. Sign up for a free digital marketing audit and let’s chat!

As a digital marketing agency, we help a lot of Singaporean businesses drive leads, sell products, and expand their brands. In the process, we’ve collected loads of valuable data the marketing community here in Singapore could benefit from.

So as the year draws to a close, we decided to compile all of our Facebook and Instagram ads data and pull out some key insights to share with the community, including:

• How much does it cost to advertise on FB and IG in Singapore?
• How have COVID-19 and the iOS 14 update impact advertising?
• 5 things we learned from our best performing ads of the year

How Much Do Facebook and Instagram Ads Actually Cost in Singapore?

How much do Facebook Ads usually cost? How do they compare to common costs across the rest of the world?

It’s tough to pinpoint an exact cost, as campaigns vary greatly. But the most common metrics for CPC (cost per click) around the globe are:

• Facebook: S$1.31
• Instagram: S$4.83

There are numerous blogs on how much Facebook ads cost in Singapore – but most draw from global or US data, and many don’t separate Facebook from Instagram.

We’re seeing an average CPC in Singapore of:

• Facebook: S$0.55
• Instagram: S$2.05

And CPM (cost per thousand impressions) around the world:

• Facebook: S$13.65
• Instagram: S$13.69

Our data shows the average CPM in Singapore:

• Facebook: S$7.80
• Instagram: S$8.08

Based on our data, Facebook and Instagram ads in Singapore are a good bit more affordable than in the rest of the world.

That said, cost metrics like CPC and CPM can vary greatly depending on a number of things:

• Campaign Objectives. Campaign objectives can have a massive impact on cost. For example, brand awareness campaigns might cost a lot less than lead generation campaigns. In fact, combining different campaign averages into one number isn’t all that helpful – so we’ve broken our data down by objective, which you can see below.
• Audience Size. Targeting larger and broader audiences will typically be less expensive than targeting very specific audiences.
• Industry. Every industry is different, and although we focus heavily on B2B, a lot of our ad clients this past year were B2C.

It’s also worth noting that $1 million in spend and nearly 1 billion impressions is a fairly small sample size, but it’s big enough to be helpful and draw some conclusions. Also worth noting: there’s still one month left in 2021. We’ll update as these numbers come in.

Check out the full report here.

Feel free to explore the report using the dropdown filters at the top!

Recent Trends in Advertising

In addition to the fact costs in Singapore are a little lower than the rest of the world, we uncovered a handful of other trends to note.

The COVID Effect

The world saw a fairly significant decrease in Facebook advertising costs during the coronavirus outbreak of 2020.

Gupta Media

We only saw minimal changes here in Singapore, but we did see decreases in CPC and CPM. That said, it does appear things have leveled back out for us and the rest of the world here in 2021.

Gupta Media

For the most part, ad costs are up from where they were for much of 2020, but there are more factors than just the dwindling of the pandemic.

If you spent heavily on Facebook or Instagram ads in 2020 – congratulations, you probably saved some money. If you didn’t, it’s not too late. There’s a good chance advertising costs will continue to rise.

The Release of iOS 14.5

If you aren’t familiar with the iOS update that shook up the advertising industry, you can read Facebook’s take here.

In short, iOS 14 requires apps in the App Store that engage with “tracking” to prompt iOS users and allow them to easily opt out of such tracking. Though you could previously opt out of in-app tracking, most iPhone users didn’t think to do so. With this new prompt, the number of users opted-out increased dramatically. This impacted:

• Targeting: Brands have lost a big portion of their custom audiences due to the limitations of iOS 14. Many saw their retargeting lists shrink by 50% or more.
• Reporting: Apple’s policy has limited businesses’ ability to measure their ads performance and forced Facebook to estimate and aggregate data more than they did previously.

Businesses have found it harder to target who they want and measure their ads’ success.

As a result, most businesses have seen their ad performance decline (even if just slightly), resulting in higher CPC’s and CPM’s, lower ROAS (return on ad spend), and higher spend overall.

Some brands have made the decision to shift their ad spend to other platforms, but those who have navigated the iOS rollout successfully continue to spend – including many of our clients. In fact, Facebook ad revenue is on pace to continue increasing through 2023.

eMarketer

Having trouble navigating the iOS rollout with your own ads? Start the conversation with our team today – we’d love to help you keep your leads and sales rolling.

And if you’ve never spent on Facebook advertising – it’s not too late. We’d love to help you, too.

What’s Working on Facebook and Instagram in Singapore?

We were able to compile a lot of macro data like average spend and CPC, but we were also able to identify our 5 best performing ads across all of our managed accounts. Most of these ads were run primarily in Singapore – though some saw reach from surrounding countries.

In the process, we noticed a few trends that have worked throughout 2021, and we believe will continue to work well into 2022 – both for paid ads and organic posts.

Storytelling

HubSpot Marketing Manager Sam Balter says,

“Nothing sticks in your head better than a story. Stories can express the most complicated ideas in the most digestible ways.”

Stories do a few things in marketing:

• They resonate. People connect with stories far better than sales copy.
• They appeal to the entire funnel. No matter where someone is on their journey with your business, stories work.
• They make the customer the hero. Stories in marketing can certainly promote the product or service, but more often than not they paint the customer as the hero of the story.

We ran a campaign for Nikon Asia that focused on telling photographer’s stories and showcasing their work. This ad below received over 17k reactions and a CTR (click-through-rate) of over 18%.

A Focus on Real Data

“Show. Don’t just tell.”

This popular notion has never been more true. In an age where false claims and unrealistic hype are rampant – using data and statistics is huge in building trust with your audience.

In an ad for Hitachi Asia we wowed the audience with impressive stats around their world-class, ultra-high-speed elevator. Once hooked, the click-through was a no brainer. This ad received nearly 3k engagements, but more importantly boasted a CTR of 28%.

Want to see all 5 of our best performing ads from 2021?

Download our 2021 ads report to see all 5 of our best performing ads, our takeaways, and the biggest trends we noticed from 2021. Plan your 2022 campaigns with confidence:

Advertise on Facebook with Confidence

We hope these insights help you advertise more effectively on Facebook and Instagram.

But if you’re unsure about the constant swings, recent iOS update, or how to connect with your audience – our team would love to help. Don’t hesitate to reach out.

They were running Google Ads to a landing page offering a free consultation. A fine strategy, right? 

But it wasn’t working. 

The problem was not enough people were searching for their solution. And the few that wound up requesting consultations were unqualified.

This company needed a demand generation campaign to supplement their lead generation efforts. They needed to generate demand around their new offering before spending on lead gen. 

How do you know which approach you should take for your business so that you don’t waste your marketing budget? We’ll cover that as well as:

• How to use each strategy for maximum success
• What to do if you have no clue where to start
• Examples of both strategies working together

What’s the Difference Between Demand Generation and Lead Generation?

Demand generation expands your audience pool, while lead generation captures your audience.

If you’re fishing – lead generation would be the act of catching fish, while demand generation would involve adding more fish to the lake.

Defining Demand Generation

Demand generation is the process of turning strangers into prospects. It’s one step down the funnel from lead generation, and focused on driving interest for your products or services.

The ultimate goal of demand generation is to spark interest.

Demand generation involves:

• Educating your target audience on your product / service
• Building trust and sparking interest
• Increasing brand awareness

If we look at a traditional AIDA marketing funnel, demand generation would move strangers into the awareness stage and through interest.

To measure demand generation success, you’ll want to measure metrics like:

• Reach
• Social media engagement
• Email signups
• Organic traffic
• Content downloads

Defining Lead Generation

Lead generation is the process of turning prospects into leads that go on to become customers. You’re taking prospects who are interested in your product or service and convincing them why you’re the best fit for their business.

The ultimate goal of lead generation is to convince a prospect to take action.

There are plenty of lead generation tactics and strategies you can employ to generate leads – especially if you’re in the B2B space.

Lead generation might involve:

• Capturing in-market traffic
• Capturing prospect information
• The beginning of the nurturing process

Inside the ADIA marketing funnel, lead generation moves prospects into the intent and action stages.

To measure lead generation, you’re going to want to track metrics like:

• MQLs and SQLs generated
• Subscriber to MQL conversion rate
• Customer acquisition cost
• Time to purchase

Is Demand Generation the Same as Brand Awareness?

Demand generation and brand awareness are very similar and often involve many of the same tactics.

That said, demand generation (in most cases) is more focused on creating prospects who come to the brand for a solution, whereas brand awareness campaigns are more of a long term play focused on improving brand perception and aesthetic.

A demand generation campaign seeks to answer the audience’s question, “Why do I need your product or services?” A brand awareness campaign might instead answer, “Who are you and what makes you unique in the market?”

Newer brands selling newer-to-market products and services should rely more heavily on demand generation, whereas brands selling commodities who already have a stake in the market should invest more heavily in brand awareness.

For example, Coca Cola might not necessarily need to generate demand for their product. Their brand perception is far more important.

A new-to-the-market sales software might need to introduce their brand to the world, but demand generation tactics are going to be a quicker track to leads and sales. 

That said, these tactics should work together in an ideal world. Your demand generation tactics should improve brand awareness, and brand awareness campaigns should help generate demand for your products and services (more on this later).

How Do I Decide Between Demand Generation and Lead Generation?

As mentioned, in an ideal world, demand generation works in tandem with lead generation.

But if you have minimal budget and resources, this question alone should help you make a decision:

Is my product / service in high-demand? 

Or: Are lots of people already in-market for my solution?

Consider a spectrum between products no one has ever heard of and don’t know they need (like a new software that helps you quickly create GIFs), and commodities everyone needs (like a laptop). 

If you’re on the GIF software end of the spectrum, you probably need to start with demand generation. Educate your audience on their need and your solution while you introduce your brand.

If you find yourself on the other end of the spectrum, your money might be better spent on lead generation efforts. You don’t need to convince someone they need laptops for their business, you just need to be visible while they’re in the market.

And if you’re in a competitive market, you might want to invest in some brand awareness as well.

Lead Generation Strategies and Examples

There are a ton of lead generation strategies one could implement to drive qualified leads:

• Search Ads
• Highly Targeted Social Ads
• Email Capture w/ Gated Content
• Email Marketing

Not long ago, our team worked with a conversational commerce software company who helps companies better communicate with customers through SMS, WhatsApp, and other instant messaging platforms.

We weren’t sure whether their audience was in-market for these kinds of services or not. But after some research, we determined these products were very much in demand. So instead of having to drum up demand, we could lean on lead generation campaigns and trust our audience was already interested in the product.

Demand Generation Strategies and Examples

There are a ton of demand generation tactics and strategies:

• Brand Awareness Advertising
• Content Marketing
• Thought Leadership
• Webinars
• Social Media Marketing
• Viral Campaigns

Our team recently had the opportunity to work with an enterprise software company. Their solutions were fairly well known, but they needed help generating more demand in a specific region.

We ran Facebook and Instagram ads to a webinar signup, where they would learn more about the solutions our client offered and hear from industry thought leaders. We then retargeted those who attended to remain top of mind.

If you’re marketing in China, WeChat is a great place to run a demand generation ad campaign.

How Demand Generation and Lead Generation Work Together

In an ideal world, the conversation shouldn’t be demand generation vs lead generation, but demand generation with lead generation.

The two should work together to drive growth.

Demand generation should be used to drive qualified leads into lead generation efforts. The tactics and strategies are almost interchangeable, and can be easily connected.

For example, a piece of thought leadership content can be gated by an email capture. Once the email is captured, a welcome series can do the work of turning an interested prospect into a qualified lead that can then be nurtured.

The two strategies should work together to drive sales and revenue for B2B businesses.

Terakeet, an organic search company in US, recently ran an effective campaign that involved both demand and lead generation.

First, they created a really solid market trends article for the beauty and cosmetics industry, including a step-by-step case study on how one of the leading brands in the market leveraged SEO for growth. They heavily promoted the article and landed some solid press from popular websites.

The market share piece drew a ton of attention, while the case study piece educated the viewers. This is demand generation at its finest.

On the article, the team included a few CTAs to download the full study in exchange for an email, generating a ton of leads.

This is a textbook example of demand generation and lead generation working together. And note that it doesn’t have to be complicated – this was a fairly simple and straightforward marketing campaign.

Deciding Between Demand Generation and Lead Generation

To reiterate what we said above: you don’t have to choose. Great marketing campaigns often involve both strategies. But perhaps you have a limited budget and you’re still not sure where to start?

Let’s revisit the question we asked above:

Are lots of people actively searching for the solutions I offer? 

If yes: A lead generation campaign might be a good place to start. Consider Google Ads or SEO to drive users to a conversion-optimized landing page. Consider an offer or free download of some kind, and be ready to nurture the leads you capture. And again, if you’re in a competitive market, some brand awareness might be helpful as well.

If no: You need to drum up some demand. Try demand generation tactics that put your solution in front of people, rather than waiting for them to come to you. Focus on compelling copy and highlight benefits. Consider Facebook Ads and lead people to authoritative content that both educates and piques interest.

Now go generate some growth.

He’s making 5x what he made at his salaried job, and has much more flexibility.

He learned digital marketing for free, at home, at his own pace, and in just six months.

So if you want to learn digital marketing–whether to improve your skillset in hopes of a promotion, to help you do your current job better, or so that you can quit your job to take on clients – this guide has everything you need to get started.

We’ll cover some basics everyone needs to know about digital marketing, the best resources for learning each type of digital marketing, some certifications you should consider to improve your resume, and a few secrets to mastering digital marketing (these are crucial).

Here’s how to learn digital marketing in 2021:

1. Learn general digital marketing basics
2. Choose a field or channel to focus on
3. Start learning using reputable resources
4. Get certified in your field
5. Join a community and find mentors
6. Start experimenting and testing

Digital Marketing Basics

If you want to get started in digital marketing – whether to improve your skills, enable you to quit your current job, or to get a job at a digital marketing agency – it might make sense to pick a single type, channel, or platform to specialize in. But before you start down that path, there are some skills everyone in digital marketing should excel in. These basic skills will set the foundation for your digital marketing journey and help you make the most of it.

Trying to become an expert in SEO, for example, without some of these foundational digital marketing skills could lead you to failure down the road.

So what do you need to know before diving into a specific track?

#1. Experimentation & The Scientific Method

Do you remember the scientific method? You make an observation, come up with a hypothesis, test your theory, draw conclusions, and then run another test?

It’s used in digital marketing all the time (or it should be).

Occasionally you might find yourself working on a campaign in an industry where you know exactly what will work. You’ve done it hundreds of times, and you just need to replicate your past strategies and tactics.

But most of the time, digital marketing is a game of trial and error. It’s all about testing, drawing conclusions, and reworking your tactics.

So if it’s been awhile since you did a science project, re-familiarize yourself with the scientific method, and start practicing it.

#2. Understanding People

At its core, digital marketing is all about people.

This might seem like a funny “skill” to have, but it’s everything in marketing. If you’re going to sell someone a product or service, you need to deeply understand them: their wants, needs, challenges, aspirations, etc… And you need to understand how to influence and persuade them.

And most importantly, you need to get to know your audience.

So if you want to get started in digital marketing, be sure to focus on people. Try reading Influence by Robert Cialdini or Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins.

#3. Copywriting

Even if you don’t go into copywriting or content marketing, the ability to write good copy is a game changer. Whether you specialize in digital advertising, SEO, email marketing, or video marketing –there will be copy involved.

KopywritingKourse

And in an age where just about anyone can set up a Facebook advertising campaign or publish a blog post, good copywriting makes the difference.

There are some books you can read on copywriting (like Everybody Writes and Ogilvy on Advertising) and courses to take (like these from Udemy), but the best way to get better is to practice. Even if you don’t have a client to practice for, just start writing.

Many successful copywriters claim they got started by handwriting ad copy and emails from successful campaigns over and over until they understood why and how they worked.

The Best Digital Marketing Resources for Learning

There are countless free and paid digital marketing resources on the internet – perhaps more than any other industry in the world. The digital marketing industry loves to share. There’s plenty of content right here for learning.

SEO Resources

The best SEO blogs to follow:

• Ahrefs’ Blog
• Search Engine Journal
• Search Engine Roundtable
• Moz Blog
• Backlinko

The best SEO courses to take:

• The Beginner’s Guide to SEO
• SEMRush Fundamentals of SEO Course
• Hubspot’s SEO Course
• DistilledU

Content Marketing

The best content marketing blogs to follow:

• Content Marketing Institute
• HubSpot
• Copyblogger
• Convince and Convert
• Animalz
• Seige Media

The best content marketing courses to take:

• Hubspot’s Content Marketing Course (Free)
• Blogging for Business by Ahrefs (Free)
• Udemy’s Content Marketing Masterclass (Paid)
• Coursera: Strategy of Content Marketing (Free)

Social Media Marketing

The best social media blogs to follow:

• Buffer
• Social Media Explorer
• HubSpot
• Social Media Examiner
• Sparktoro

The best social media courses to take:

• HubSpot’s Social Media Certification (Free)
• Facebook’s Blueprint (Paid)
• Hootsuite Academy (Paid and Free Courses)

Google Ads and PPC

The best Google Ads blogs to follow:

• WordStream
• AdEspresso
• Optmyzr

The best Google Ads courses to take:

• Google Ads Certification (Free)
• Udemy’s Google Ads Masterclass (Paid)

Email Marketing

The best email marketing blogs to follow:

• HubSpot
• Campaign Monitor
• Mailchimp
• KISSMetrics
• Litmus

The best email marketing courses to take:

• Hubspot’s Email Marketing (Free)
• Udemy’s Start Growing Your Email List (Paid)
• ClickMinded’s Email Marketing Course (Paid)

Other Digital Marketing Resources

Other digital marketing blogs you should check out:

• Brew Interactive Blog
• Digital Marketing Institute
• Martech

Plenty of the resources mentioned above also have great newsletters and social media accounts. Sign up for some email lists and start following big names in your field on social – you’ll start getting better at digital marketing without even realizing it.

Some might group skills like web design or branding in with digital marketing as well, but we feel these are more important for a creative career at a creative agency. Though there is definitely overlap, there are some major differences between digital and creative agencies.

8 Online Marketing Certifications to Improve Your Resume

Once you’ve learned the basics of your desired field, getting certified is a great way to test your knowledge and bolster your resume.

Most of these certifications involve a comprehensive course followed by a test. These tests usually require you to get at least 70% – 80% of the answers correct to be rewarded the certificate.

Once you get the certificate, you can add it to your resume, your LinkedIn, and your website to increase your credibility. Most of them expire somewhere between one year and two years, so be sure to keep up with your certification and re-certify before it expires.

1. HubSpot Inbound Marketing (Free)
2. Google Analytics (Free)
3. Digital Marketing Institute (Paid)
4. Google Ads (Free)
5. Facebook Blueprint (Paid)
6. SEMRush SEO Fundamentals (Free)
7. Hootsuite’s Social Media Marketing Certification (Paid)
8. Content Marketing University (Paid)

Two Keys to Mastering Digital Marketing

Now that you have some basics down, learned from top resources, and earned a certification – it’s time for next steps. Here are two vital keys to mastering digital marketing and becoming a marketing expert:

#1. Start Practicing

One thing to know about digital marketing – and any field for that matter – is at some point you have to move from learning about it to doing it. Reading blogs and watching YouTube videos can only take you so far.

So how can you get started doing digital marketing?

• Start your own project. Start a blog, create a YouTube channel, build a drop shipping eCommerce site, or try to grow your social media following. This is (in my opinion) the best way to learn digital marketing fast. You’ll make some mistakes – but that’s okay. Just make sure you learn from them.
• Intern at an agency. There are marketing agencies in every city in the world. Find an agency hiring interns and give it a shot. If you’re still working a full-time job, perhaps you could intern remotely on nights and weekends for a flexible firm. If you feel good about your craft, you may be able to get hired for a junior role. Most agencies are incredible environments to learn in.
• Take on your own freelance clients. If you feel ready, consider taking on your own clients. Just be up front about your experience level, and consider offering a low rate at first until you have a good case study or two.

#2. Join the Community

Digital marketing is full of people willing to collaborate, share information, and build relationships with other practitioners. If you want to grow and learn digital marketing, take advantage of this.

Here are a few ways to do so:

• Interact on social media. This is a great way to plug into the digital marketing community. Follow others in your field, share learnings, comment on their learnings, and make some friends.
• Join groups. There are plenty of digital marketing Facebook groups, Slack communities, and meetups that are always open to new members. These are great environments for marketing newbies.
• Find a mentor. If you’ve found someone in your industry who is a few steps ahead of you, consider asking them to mentor you. It doesn’t have to be all that formal – maybe just a Zoom call once a month. Ask questions, share your work, and receive feedback.

Enjoy the Journey

More than anything else, enjoy the journey as you start learning digital marketing. There’s no feeling quite like logging into analytics or your dashboard and seeing more followers, traffic, leads, or sales. It really is amazing.

That said, award winning campaigns are hard to come by. Don’t get discouraged if your first campaign doesn’t result in 10x growth.

Keep trying and keep learning.

Best of luck on your digital marketing journey. Enjoy it!

These people aren’t just checking email for a few minutes either – according to a HootSuite report from 2019, the average internet user spends almost 7 hours per day online.

If marketing is all about connecting with your audience in the right place and at the right time, then connecting with your audience on the internet must be a priority in 2021.

Enter: Digital Marketing

Whether you’ve worked in marketing for a long time and are trying to adapt to the new world, or you’re just dipping your toes into digital marketing as a new skillset, this post will help you:

• Understand the field of digital marketing
• Learn the 5 types of digital marketing (as well as some new categories)
• Find out the key to being a successful digital marketer

Introducing Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is simply marketing that takes place on the internet. 

Anything you or your business does to connect with customers, build a brand, sell products, or generate leads while on the internet is considered digital marketing.

Digital marketing can be performed by an in-house marketing team, digital marketing freelancers, or a digital marketing agency.

Is Digital Marketing Better than Traditional Marketing?

To gain a proper introduction to digital marketing, you need to understand its benefits and how it compares to more traditional advertising methods. 

The digital marketing industry hasn’t grown like wildfire simply because more people are using the internet. Almost the same number of people watch TV, yet television ad spend has been decreasing over time. 

There are three key benefits and advantages digital marketing has over traditional. Let’s look at a marketing example to examine each.

Imagine this: your B2B company is entering into a new territory and wants to generate some brand awareness. You and your team decide to put up some billboards around main roads and run a few LinkedIn ad campaigns focused on your target audience.

Two months pass and you sit down to review data from the campaigns and determine how to allocate your marketing budget going forward. You learn your sales team had a great first two months, so something must have worked, right? 

As you dig in, you learn the LinkedIn Ads led to 700,000 impressions, 3,000 landing page views, 200 collected emails, and 12 new clients likely to have a lifetime value of $4,000 each. You spent $10,000. 

Hootsuite

As for the billboards, you find out an estimated 200,000 people saw the billboard, which might have led to 50 sales conversations. Your sales team estimates 4 sales came as a result of the billboards, but they can’t be too sure. You spent $14,000 on the billboards.

Let’s examine the benefits of the digital marketing campaign:

1. Measurable ROI

Digital marketing is capable of showing end-to-end data of the metrics that matter most to your company. Offline marketing efforts can at best give you estimates.

Digital marketing campaigns give you more than high level metrics like impressions and clicks. If you implement analytics well, and you can calculate the value of sales and new clients, then you can typically measure your ROI (return on investment) as well.

MarTech

This makes it infinitely easier to plan marketing campaigns, make marketing decisions, allocate your budget, and – ultimately – improve your business.

2. Target Prospects Likely to Purchase

If you run offline marketing campaigns like billboards or magazine ads, you have very limited control over who sees the ad. Sure, you can learn the demographics of a town or run an ad in an industry magazine, but you’re still mostly guessing at who will see it.

Digital marketing campaigns allow you to cut through the noise and send your target audience highly personalized messaging.

Channels like SEO allow you to put yourself in front of those looking for solutions you offer, while social media advertising allows you to target very specific demographics, locations, interests, and behaviors.

3. More Cost Effective Campaigns

Because digital marketing gives you more specificity in targeting, most digital marketing campaigns are more cost effective than traditional tactics.

Estimates show it costs around $35 to reach 1,000 people through a newspaper ad and $20 to reach 1,000 people through a magazine ad. 

On the other hand, depending on your industry, it can cost as little as $3 to reach 1,000 people through Facebook ads – and if you target well, there’s a good chance all 1,000 are good fits for your business.

Nuanced Media

Because digital marketing is measurable, allows for specific targeting, and is more cost-effective – it levels the marketing playing field. You don’t need to spend millions of dollars to compete with the big brands in your industry.

It allows for leaner tactics and strategies that can result in smaller brands grabbing serious market share.

What are the Types of Digital Marketing?

If you want to learn digital marketing, a good first step is to understand the different types, fields, channels, and platforms associated with online marketing.

Though there’s some debate, there are probably five main types of digital marketing, along with a few other categories that fall under the digital marketing umbrella:

• SEO. Search Engine Optimization improves your search engine rankings to capture traffic and convert leads who are searching for what you offer.
• PPC. Pay-per-Click advertising can be done on a range of platforms including Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and more. The goal is typically to generate leads.
• Content Marketing. Content marketing focuses on creating blog posts, videos, white papers, and more to build brand awareness, capture leads, and nurture prospects.
• Email Marketing. Email marketing can be used to accomplish a number of goals, but is typically used to nurture leads through the sales funnel.
• Social Media Marketing. Social media marketing is the strategy behind building a brand and growing an audience on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

And then there are a few other categories of digital marketing that are often grouped beneath one of the above or encompass multiple types:

• Analytics. Analytics is the work of tracking, organizing, and interpreting data from marketing campaigns. Analytics is (or it should be) involved in all the disciplines above, yet some people in the industry are dedicated full-time to analytics.
• Marketing Automation. Marketing automation streamlines and automates different marketing activities. It’s used often in regards to email marketing, analytics, and sales.
• Sales Enablement. There’s a fine line between marketing and sales teams in 2021, and sales enablement tip toes that line. It involves a marketing team providing their sales team with data, information, content, and more in an effort to make more sales.
• Digital PR. Digital PR is sometimes grouped beneath SEO, but it involves earning mentions, press, and links on external, authoritative, and relevant sites.
• Conversational Marketing. Conversational marketing primarily involves chatbots or similar bots that seek to welcome and nurture site visitors. This category of marketing is growing quickly.
• Web Design. A lot of important actions take place on a company’s website. It can be described as the heart of any effective digital marketing campaign – so the design and copy on the site plays an important role.

You may find a few of these skillsets at digital agencies, while others will be more prominent within creative firms. Learn the key differences between digital and creative agencies.

Some digital marketers specialize in one field, while others generalize in a handful of them. 

But most agree the best route to help you master digital marketing is to become well-versed in a single type of digital marketing, while having general knowledge of multiple fields. 

We call this a T-Shaped Marketer.

Digital Marketer

What Does a Digital Marketer Do?

Digital marketers are typically dedicated to driving brand awareness and lead generation for their company through the digital marketing channels described above.

Digital marketers are often assigned specific marketing and sales objectives based on company-wide goals. 

For instance, let’s say a VP of Marketing or CEO wants to drive sales by 50% this upcoming quarter. Their digital marketing team (or agency) might then be assigned KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) like:

• Increase website traffic by 50%
• Improve rankings by 30% for target keywords
• Generate 100 form fills
• Collect 200 emails
• Improve Facebook Ad reach by 25%

There may be a team of digital marketers or a single marketer working to achieve these objectives through free and paid digital channels. These metrics will be tracked on some kind of reporting dashboard and reviewed regularly to track progress.

Adlibweb

Due to the always changing nature of the internet, digital marketers spend lots of time testing, experimenting, and learning to stay ahead of the curve.

How to Get Started with Digital Marketing

If you’re just getting started on your digital marketing journey, there’s good news: the internet is full of resources to help you learn. Thankfully, our industry is great at sharing helpful information for newcomers to the field. If you’re in the Singapore area, feel free to reach out to us or one of the top agencies in Singapore.

There are countless blogs to follow, courses to take, and certifications you can earn. Some courses and certifications cost a bit – but many are free! The Brew blog is a great place to start.

We hope this introduction to digital marketing has served you well. Best of luck on your journey!

I recently talked with a friend looking to grow their business. He has a Marketing Director, but their background was in PR, and he knew they needed some more marketing help to get to the next level. He thought he should work with an agency.

But his approach to hiring an agency made me cringe.

His biggest need was lead generation.

“I’ve been talking to this agency who says they can help me with business cards, create signage around the office, and they mentioned they may be able to run some Facebook Ads to drive leads,” he explained.

This was his problem.

Don’t get me wrong, business cards and signage are great. But these weren’t his biggest needs. He needed his marketing to perform better and generate more business.

Yet he was looking to a creative agency to make it happen.

What he needed was a digital agency.

So what’s the difference? And what kind of an agency do you need? We’ll tackle these questions along with:

• The 2 key differences between creative and digital agencies
• The distinct services each agency provides
• The 3 questions to ask yourself when hiring an agency

What is a Digital Agency?

A digital agency is a business who specializes in digital marketing strategies, channels, and tactics. Most digital agencies are focused on performance marketing and generating ROI for their clients.

Most digital agencies will work with you to understand your pain points, uncover your biggest needs, and develop a strategy to address them. 

A digital marketing agency might recommend a single channel (like Search Engine Optimization), and other times they will recommend a multi-channel approach (like Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and Email Marketing). 

Single Grain

The majority of digital marketing agencies are:

• Performance Focused. They aren’t interested in launching a campaign just because. They’re dedicated to meeting business objectives.
• Data Driven. Not to say they aren’t creative thinkers, but they rely on data to optimize campaigns and drive business.

That said, every agency is unique. Some digital agencies specialize in design and creative, too. 

What is the Goal of a Digital Agency?

The goal of a digital marketing agency is to help you meet your business goals and to achieve a positive ROI.

Databox

Most digital agencies will seek to understand your biggest needs, create a strategy to meet those needs, and then set KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) or OKRs (Objectives & Key Results) to gauge success. If you want to get started in digital marketing, understanding how to set goals and objectives is key.

For example, you might approach a digital agency needing to grow your business in a new region. They will typically hear your situation, gain an understanding of your goals, and get familiar with your audience. 

Then, they might recommend you invest in an SEO campaign to capture those looking for solutions, Facebook Ads to build brand awareness, and email marketing to nurture contacts into leads and sales.

They might identify a few KPIs like:

• Increase website traffic by 50%
• Improve new sales by 25%

The digital agency will launch the campaigns and walk through the results with you weekly, monthly, or quarterly. They may even recommend shifting your funds to different channels throughout the engagement to ensure you’re getting the most out of your campaign.

What Services Do Digital Agencies Offer?

Some digital agencies specialize in a specific field or industry, but most offer a range of digital marketing services. If you’re looking to learn digital marketing, picking a field is a great place to start:

• SEO. Search Engine Optimization improves your search engine rankings to capture traffic and convert leads who are searching for what you offer.
• PPC. Pay-per-Click advertising can be done on a range of platforms including Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and more. The goal is typically to generate leads.
• Display or Programmatic Advertising. These advertising methods are generally used to build brand awareness around the web through display ads.
• Email Marketing. Email marketing can be used to accomplish a number of goals, but is typically used to nurture leads through the sales funnel.
• Marketing Automation. Marketing automation can help you market more efficiently, nurture leads, and drive more sales.
• CRM Implementation. A properly used CRM (Customer Relationship Management platform) can help you improve sales processes and close more deals.
• Social Media Marketing. Social media marketing is the strategy behind building a brand and growing an audience on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
• Content Marketing. Content marketing focuses on creating blog posts, videos, white papers, and more to build brand awareness, capture leads, and nurture prospects.
• Web Design and Development. This is the creation or redesign of a website used to convert visitors into leads and sales.

What is a Creative Agency?

A creative agency specializes in the creation of a brand’s visual assets. Most creative agencies design all of the assets needed for a business and their marketing campaigns.

Creative agencies get to know your business, what makes you unique, and your audience in order to create a brand and visuals that resonate with your target market. 

The majority of creative agencies are:

• Design-Driven. They may rely on data, but most of their work is hyper-focused on design and resonating with your audience. The data they look at is more qualitative than quantitative.
• Visually Focused. Creative agencies want their work to result in a positive return on investment, but success will typically depend on your satisfaction with the final product.

Studio 1

What is the Goal of a Creative Agency?

The goal of most creative agencies is to create visually appealing designs that reflect your brand and resonate with your audience.

Creative agencies aren’t just artists looking to create something pretty – many are focused on results and driven by data – but the data tends to be more qualitative.

For example, let’s say you engage a creative agency to redesign your logo, design a brand identity, and create business cards. 

They might interview some of your customers to learn more about your target audience. Then, once they’ve delivered the final products, they may interview some members of your target audience to learn what emotions your brand stirs in them, what they think about the logo, and whether they would work with a brand like this.

What Services Do Creative Agencies Offer?

Creative agencies tend to offer a range of different creative services including:

• Logo Design
• Typography
• Color Palettes
• UI Design
• Business Cards
• Brand Identity & Messaging
• Infographics
• Video Creation
• Graphic Design
• Banners and Print Ads
• Web Design and Development

What are the Major Differences Between a Digital Agency and Creative Agency?

A digital agency is focused on performance marketing strategy and execution, while a creative agency is more focused on branding and design. Most digital agencies are data-driven and ROI oriented, while creative agencies are design-driven and visually oriented.

That’s not to say a digital agency can’t have design chops or that a creative agency can’t be hyper-focused on data and ROI. There’s plenty of overlap. 

Many agencies focus primarily on web design and UI / UX – these agencies tend to lie somewhere in-between your typical digital and creative agency.

Other agencies might refer to themselves as advertising agencies, focusing on print ads, TV ads, and multimedia advertising. They also might live somewhere between creative and digital.

There are also more and more full-service agencies emerging. These agencies cover both digital marketing and creative services.

Every agency is unique. 

So what should you look for when choosing an agency?

How to Choose the Right Agency for Your Business

Here are some helpful questions to ask yourself when engaging an agency:

1. Do I have a brand identity that resonates with my audience? 

This is a good starting point. Because if you have a poor brand and messaging that doesn’t speak to your target market, it doesn’t matter how much you spend on Facebook ads – you likely won’t see great results. If this is where you need to start, engage a creative agency. If you feel you have a solid brand foundation, consider a digital agency.

2. What is my biggest sales & marketing pain point?

Is no one aware of your brand? Do you have some brand awareness, but you’re struggling to generate leads? Are you generating leads, but never closing? If you aren’t sure where your biggest problem lies, a digital agency can typically help you uncover it.

3. Does this agency have proven experience?

Once you start engaging agencies – whether creative or digital – dig into their work experience. If a creative agency: is their past work up to par with your design standards? If a digital agency: have they gotten positive results for businesses like mine in the past?

And at the end of the day, know that there’s no rule against working with both. Plenty of successful businesses use a creative agency for design assets and a digital agency for digital marketing campaigns.

If you’re tight on cash, consider engaging a creative agency for brand work. Once you’re satisfied with your brand identity and design, hire a digital agency to help you grow.Choose an agency you trust and start the journey of growing your business. If you’re not sure where to start, our team at Brew Interactive would love to help, or you can check out some other top agencies in Singapore.

But CRM implementation projects fail more than 50% of the time.

Companies love the idea of using a CRM, but more than half fail to use them correctly, resulting in wasted time and lost money.

In this guide we’re going to walk you through how you can see an 800% ROI from your own CRM strategy:

• The importance of a sound CRM strategy
• The 6 reasons why more than 50% of CRM implementations fail
• The 8 steps to a successful CRM implementation

Why Do You Need a CRM Strategy?

Successful CRM implementation coupled with an ongoing CRM strategy help B2B companies:

• Close deals at a high rate. 82% of top salespeople cite CRM tools as “critical” to their ability to close deals.
• Retain and satisfy customers. 47% of CRM users said that their CRM had a significant impact on customer retention and customer satisfaction.
• Save time and improve productivity. CRM apps can increase sales productivity by up to 34%.

Despite the obvious benefits, CRM projects fail between 50% – 75% of the time.

CRM implementation can be tricky.

Why Do Most CRM Implementations Fail?

There are six primary reasons CRM implementations fail:

1. Lack of coordination across teams
2. No CRM business strategy
3. Lack of process change
4. Lack of executive support
5. Poor business representation
6. Inappropriate IT investments

Salesforce

The majority of these issues can be avoided with a sound CRM implementation plan.

Pay close attention to these eight steps and roll out a B2B CRM strategy that works.

How to Implement a CRM Strategy for B2B?

1. Understand Your Sales Process + Lead Flow

Many sales and marketing professionals believe a CRM can just be “turned on” and they’ll see results. They believe CRM software is just plug-and-play.

But anyone who has spent time in sales and marketing knows that software alone can’t solve our problems.

Our CRM software will only take us as far as our sales process, sales strategy, and lead flow will allow.

You’ve got to answer some very important questions before diving into a CRM software:

• What are your goals and KPI’s for your CRM?
• Is your sales process well documented?
• What is your plan for lead flow? How do leads move through your funnel?
• What are the stages in your sales pipeline?
• Who owns which leads and accounts?
• What customer fields and properties do you currently keep track of?

You need to be crystal clear about your sales process before attempting to dive into a CRM implementation.

And – this is very important – your whole team needs to be on the same page before engaging a CRM software. A few weeks into the implementation is not the time to have these conversations. Have them before you get started.

2. Map Out Your CRM Implementation Plan

During this step you’ll be breaking down your CRM project into manageable steps with associated timelines. You don’t want to wind up being this guy.

Here are a few key roles to assign before getting started with your plan:

• Make sure you have top management buy-in. Top management drives opinions and culture, so it’s crucial they’re on board.
• Appoint a project manager. They will make sure deadlines are met and goals are achieved.
• Assign someone as a super-user. This person will be responsible for all things CRM. They will be the go-to for any problems or questions during or after implementation.

Once you have these three key players on board, have your project manager draft a timeline for the below steps, set deadlines, and assign tasks to team members.

If all of this sounds overwhelming, you may benefit from expert help. Find yourself a Salesforce partner agency or HubSpot integrations partner.

3. Define CRM Settings & Customizations

A very important part of CRM implementation is defining your CRM settings and customizations before getting started with data migration.

Every CRM has a range of settings you need to consider and suit your team’s needs:

• Company profile
• Custom fields or properties
• User permissions and management
• Mailing policy and consent list
• Deal stages or sales pipeline (more on this below)
• Admin settings

Custom property setup in HubSpot

4. Clean and Migrate Data

It’s time to move your data and populate your CRM. This might be the most important step in any CRM implementation. For most CRMs, you’ll have three or four categories of data to migrate:

• Contacts
• Accounts
• Deals
• Custom Fields / Properties

The first step is to clean your data

This is an all-hands-on-deck task. Whether your current customer data lives in a database, spreadsheets, or in another CRM, we’d recommend having every team member comb through their contacts to make sure all data is accurate and relevant.

Accurate data needs to be updated and irrelevant data (old contacts, unused fields / properties, etc…) needs to be removed. Dirty data can be a waste of time – not to mention confusing for your sales team.

Next, backup your data

Just in case something goes wrong or you decide you hate the CRM within a few weeks, you need a fallback plan. Back up all your data before moving it.

Then, migrate your data

There are lots of ways to move your data. Some CRMs will actually handle the migration for you – some free of charge while others will cost. If that’s not the case, most CRMs allow for fairly simple .csv imports.

Salesforce Data Import + Mapping

Since there’s no reason to move everything all at once, consider moving data in batches to identify any unforeseen issues in your migration.

5. Connect with Other Sales Tools and Apps

Some CRM platforms have plenty of tools and add-ons. HubSpot, for example, has sales, marketing, service, and CMS platforms. If you wanted, you could use their full suite of software for your sales and marketing.

Other CRM platforms offer much less, meaning you likely need to connect and integrate your other sales tools to ensure all of your software is communicating.

Popular integrations include:

• Email apps (like Mailchimp)
• Lead generation tools (like Unbounce or Lead Pages)
• Project management tools (like Asana or Monday)
• Messaging and communication platforms (like Slack or Teams)
• Social media management (like Buffer or HootSuite)
• Live chat (like Drift)
• Help desk apps (like Zendesk)
• Marketing automation programs (like ActiveCampaign or Drip)
• Analytics platforms (like Google Analytics)
• Accounting software (like Quickbooks)

Some CRM platforms, like Salesforce, have app marketplaces where developers can create integrations for all users.

If your CRM doesn’t have an app marketplace or first-party integrations, you can develop your own or utilize something like PieSync or Zapier to create your own syncs.

6. Configure Your Sales Pipeline

One of the most important pieces of a CRM implementation is your sales pipeline. Your sales pipeline is very similar to your sales funnel. The key difference is that a sales funnel refers to the general buyer’s journey, whereas a sales pipeline refers to the specific stages of your sales process.

Salesforce

Some CRMs refer to this aspect as your “deal stages.” Your Salesforce sales pipeline is built using “opportunity stages.”

Salesforce

As mentioned, if you use HubSpot, you’ll be working with deal stages.

Hubspot

Some tips for setting up your sales pipeline:

• Be sure to customize your pipeline so that it works for your company’s sales process
• Adjust your close probability percentages over time to make your forecasts more accurate
• Make sure your sales team uses the pipeline habitually
• Set up the necessary custom fields you need for your deals / opportunities

7. Set up Helpful Automations

Most top CRMs have plenty of potential to automate aspects of your sales process to help you run more efficiently and effectively.

Setting up sales and marketing automations is a crucial step to getting the most out of your CRM.

• Automate email follow ups. You can automate (while still personalizing) email follow-ups and lead check-ins.
• Automatically log customer interactions. Most CRMs have integrations with your email client so you can automatically log all emails.
• Automatically assign leads to sales members. You can set criteria for certain sales people to receive certain leads based on attributes.
• Automatically segment contacts to email lists. If you connect your marketing with your CRM, you can automate assigning them to different email lists.
• Create follow-up reminders. Need a reminder to follow-up with a lead after so many days? Create automatic reminders so you don’t have to make your own task or let sticky notes rule your life.

Automate lead assignments with Salesforce

8. Document Usage Policies and Train Your Team

A CRM isn’t going to improve your organization if your team isn’t using it to its full potential. Lack of process change is why 45% of CRM implementations fail.

Avoid this failure by documenting usage policies and adequately training your team on how to best use your new CRM.

Here are some processes that might benefit from detailed documentation:

• How to add new companies, contacts, and deals
• How to name files, emails, and automations
• How to add new users to the CRM and what permissions different roles in the company should have
• How to log notes after a sales call or meeting

Once everything is documented well, it’s time to train.

This is huge, because don’t forget, nearly 50% of CRM implementations fail due to lack of cross-department collaboration or due to lack of process.

Here’s a suggested road map:

1. Document any and all necessary processes. Place these in either a digital folder (or physical book if you’re old school).
2. If you’re a larger company, designate one person from each department to be the department’s CRM super user.
3. Hold a meeting with your project manager, super user, and each department’s super user to outline the gameplan for training.
4. Have all employees log into the CRM to look around, read their processes, and come up with questions.
5. Then, either gather the whole company for training (if you have less than 20 or so employees) or gather each department separately.
6. Go through the most common use cases, walk through processes, and answer questions.
7. Give the company a week or so to explore, run into roadblocks, and generate more questions.
8. Collect feedback, make changes to the configuration, update processes, and then communicate all changes.
9. Start using your CRM!

9. Measure, Audit, and Improve Over Time

Once your CRM is set up, it’s time to measure adoption and focus on improvement over time.

Most CRMs have usage data such as logins, data stored, and reports accessed.

Salesforce’s AppExchange has a free dashboard to help you measure adoption:

Salesforce

If you’re a smaller company, you may not need this kind of data. It’s probably clear who is using and not using your new CRM.

But if you’re a larger company, pull data to help you determine how adoption is going. You can track metrics like:

• Total number of user logins
• Contacts added
• Deals or opportunities created
• Reports pulled, downloaded, or accessed
• Calls and notes logged

As the CRM is getting used more often, it’s natural that roadblocks and issues will arise. Lean on your project manager to collect this information and your dedicated super user to address it.

Execute sales audits regularly and focus on improving your CRM and its surrounding processes regularly.

CRM Strategy for B2B Success

CRM implementation doesn’t stop with the initial roll out. Your B2B CRM strategy should be constantly evolving as your business grows and changes.

Follow the above steps, but above all, ensure your CRM strategy and processes work for your company. Revisit your goals and KPIs to ensure it’s effective.

And above all, don’t forget that software can’t fix your company. Your strategy is just as important as your CRM platform.

If you want to generate leads through ABM, you need a data-backed campaign that’s full of creative plays.

But generating great accounts based marketing campaign ideas can be so tough.

So our team thought we’d pull together our seven favorite accounts based marketing examples – some of our own, and some from others – to help spark the creativity you need to roll out your own ABM campaign.

Our 7 Favorite Accounts Based Marketing Examples

1. 5x Revenue Through Email Nurturing ABM Campaign

Our team here at Brew recently helped a B2B company in the energy space 5x their revenue over the course of two years – largely in part to a highly successful accounts based marketing campaign.

One of our client’s biggest struggles was landing large deals. They were relying heavily on traditional sales outreach methods, and finding no success. They desperately needed to land a few larger accounts to meet their revenue targets.

We knew that an accounts based marketing campaign could do the trick.

Here’s What We Did:

We interviewed our client’s clients to get a crystal clear understanding of their ideal customer profile, and created buyer personas to guide our account selection.

We leveraged third party tools to obtain a database of prospects with the decision maker’s job title in the region they serviced.

We set up a lead nurturing workflow in Pardot targeted at these prospects. The series focused primarily on cost as the pain point, where the CTA was to input more information in exchange for an ROI calculator.

Why It Worked: The key to this accounts based marketing campaign was the specificity of our client’s ideal customer profile. We dedicated a lot of time and resources to understanding their buyer personas so that we made sure our marketing efforts were going to the right person with the right message.

2. 8x Conversion Rate Through Personalised Direct Mail ABM Campaign

Jellyvision is an employee communication company whose interactive software helps employees make tough decisions throughout their day.

Their marketing team wanted to target key accounts with highly personalised content that spoke to their industry-specific pain points.

Here’s What They Did:

They put together a very creative and highly personalised six-week, three-touch direct mail program.

Touch One was a personalised mailer of communication tips for the HR industry they were seeking to reach.

Image via RollWorks

Touch Two was a really cool branded viewfinder along with a customized booklet regarding HSA and FSA savings – an incredibly relevant topic for HR directors.

Image via RollWorks

Touch Three was a neat little kit full of fun and useful goodies to help people be prepared for communication challenges.

Image via RollWorks

Why It Worked: Plenty of directors and decision makers receive direct mailer goodies on a regular basis. If you want to run a successful direct mail campaign, you’ve got to make sure your mail stands out. Jellyvision nailed it with their personalized and creative plays.

3. 31% Meeting Rate From ABM Bobblehead Play

Engagio, a B2B marketing software company, was expanding their services and needed to start conversations with new accounts. Though they were a fairly well-known brand, they needed a creative campaign to get their foot in the door at some of their target companies.

They rolled out a creative campaign that led to a 31% meeting rate with their target accounts.

Here’s What They Did

Engagio recognized the key decision makers they needed to reach were Directors of Marketing. They also knew many of their ideal clients attended Dreamforce, Salesforce’s annual conference.

So they took a list of attending companies, identified their Directors of Marketing, and had lifelike bobbleheads made for each of their targets. They took pictures of these bobbleheads and emailed their targets letting them know they could pick theirs up at Engagio’s Dreamforce booth.

Image via Business2Community

From there, they attempted to set up a meeting with the prospect. For those who didn’t make it to the booth, Engagio let prospects know they could pick up their bobblehead at a meeting with one of their sales reps.

Most of their target prospects picked up their bobbleheads, and 31% attended highly valuable sales meetings.

Why it Worked: I think it goes without saying that the key here was the item. A personalised bobblehead is a genius idea to get in front of target decision makers. After all, who wouldn’t want a free bobblehead of themselves?

4. 323% Increase in SQLs Thanks to Well-Designed ABM Funnel

Our team here at Brew recently approached us needing more – and cheaper – sales qualified leads. They had been relying on inbound efforts, but spending far too much money per lead. They needed a more targeted approach that drove qualified leads and saved them money.

We helped them roll out an ABM campaign that improved their monthly SQLs by 323% in just a few short months.

Here’s What We Did:

First, we worked with our client to hand-select 200 target companies we both knew would make ideal clients. Many ABM campaigns start off with buying a list or casting a wide net, but due to the length of their buying cycle and typical deal size, we took a more targeted and customized approach.

If you don’t have any idea how to go about selecting a list of target accounts, you can get help from B2B data solution companies.

We rolled out targeted LinkedIn ads to these accounts, prompting them to download an industry specific eBook full of valuable insights and information.

Anyone who downloaded the eBook was manually followed up with by a sales representative to move the conversation forward.

Additionally, we retargeted those who had viewed the page, but not downloaded to remind them of their free offer.

Why it Worked: There are two reasons this campaign saw success: the hand selection of target accounts and the insight of the eBook magnet. We heard from many of their leads that the eBook was exactly what they needed and full of valuable information.

5. 7 High Ticket Opportunities Through a Custom Report ABM Campaign

Radius, a B2B data and predictive marketing company, was looking to hit their lofty revenue targets while also helping their customers better understand what Radius offered.

They rolled out an accounts based marketing campaign built around a custom report personalized at the account level. The campaign brought in seven high ticket opportunities within weeks.

Here’s How They Did It:

They started by selecting warm target accounts, focusing on those who were actively in-market for their products or already engaged with Radius. They only selected accounts with a high opportunity value / potential deal size to get the most out of the campaign.

They tapped on every team at Radius to put together a detailed and helpful report on the importance of B2B data and how to use it well. The taem wrote the first draft, developed it with internal stakeholders, and worked with their in-house design team to create the final template for the report.

The report was delivered to the decision maker at the target account along with a gift basket featuring a locked bottle of wine or Bailey’s. Once prospects took a meeting with sales, they received the code to unlock the bottle.

Image via RollWorks

Why It Worked: There were a few keys to the success of this campaign:

• Choosing warm prospects who were already in the market for Radius’ services
• The detail of the customized report
• The prospect’s desire to unlock the nice bottle of wine

6. 3x Increase in Appointment Rate Through Multi-Channel ABM Campaign

Rollworks, a B2B growth platform, was seeking to scale. They needed to get more SDR’s in the door, more effectively push stalled deals, better nurture accounts post-meeting, and do a better job of onboarding new clients.

They rolled out an accounts based marketing campaign to do all four. It resulted in a 3x increase in appointment rate and a 15% increase in close rate.

Here’s What They Did:

They rolled out an email campaign that lead to personalized landing pages to get the conversation started. To help this phase, Rollworks ran “air cover” ads to warm up the prospect along with personalized retargeting ads to remind those who clicked to take their next step.

Image via Rollworks

Things didn’t stop once a meeting had been held. The Rollworks team wanted to push these prospects along their sales pipeline and prevent stalled deals. So they sent a direct mailer within days of the meeting.

If a prospect had not progressed after 35 days, they sent a final push in the form of an “Over-the-Line Kit.” This branded kit included a notebook with a checklist that outlined the final steps they needed to take to get their first ad campaign up and running.

Why It Worked: The key to this campaign was its thoroughness. The Rollworks team left no stone unturned, and didn’t assume a prospect was in the clear just because they had a decent sales meeting. They got the attention of prospects, nurtured them, and then helped them to the finish line through creative and personalised ABM plays.

7. 77% Demo-to-Opportunity Rate Through Segmented ABM Campaign

Saleswhale, a lead conversion software, opted to run an ABM campaign to drive revenue back in 2019. Their focus on segmentation helped them close $210,000 in revenue from a $2400 campaign investment.

Here’s How They Did It:

They began by analyzing historical sales data to determine what types of accounts had performed best over the years. The Saleswhale team teased out similarities between our best performing accounts, and clustered them.

Next, they segmented their chosen prospects into four groups:

• P1 – Heads of Marketing / Growth / Demand Gen (decision makers with purchasing power)
• P2 – Marketing / Growth / Demand Gen Managers
• P3 – Marketing / Sales Ops Managers
• P4 – C-level decision makers (interestingly enough, they are not decision makers, but executive sponsors / influencers)
• P5 – Sales / SDR Directors

They created unique content for each segment.

Then, they rolled out ads on LinkedIn, only showing to their target accounts (with unique content based on the role of the prospect).

Image via SalesWhale

Image via SalesWhale

Their ads led to a landing page featuring an eBook download on the “Best Kept Secrets of Demand Generation Marketers.”

They then used an AI assistant to reach out to engaged accounts (accounts that had multiple employees engaging with content) to speed up the conversation. Those who engaged with the assistant were kicked to sales reps to close the deal.

Why It Worked: The key to this campaign was segmentation. When going after big accounts, there are multiple people at the company you need on board, so why not market to all parties? If multiple employees like what you have to say, your chances of closing increase dramatically.

Your Turn

Now that you’ve gotten some inspiration and insight into what has worked for these seven companies, it’s time to create some magic for yourself.

Keep in mind:

• Account selection is key
• Segment your targets (if applicable)
• Get creative with your touchpoints
• Make sure your content is hyper relevant to stand out
• Consider multiple touchpoints
• Have a lead flow plan so leads don’t stall
• The deal isn’t won when a meeting is scheduled – get them across the finish line
• Consider using a “you’ll get this when you schedule a meeting” play (like the code for the bottle of wine or the bobblehead)

Do you have an awesome accounts based marketing example you’d like us to add? Let us know!

But if you want a healthy number of qualified leads and opportunities at the bottom of the funnel, you must start at the top. 

The 2020 B2B Marketing Research Report from Marketing Mag shows that “growing and measuring brand awareness and brand health” is the top challenge B2B marketers faced last year.

It’s tough, but it can be done. And this post will walk you through how.

Not long ago, we helped a B2B company grow their social media following to over 500,000.

We helped another B2B brand improve top of funnel site traffic by 950% over just a few months.

We’ve learned a thing or two after running numerous successful brand awareness campaigns for clients.

In this guide, we’ll cover:

• Why brand awareness matters for B2B
• 3 unique challenges B2B marketers face in building brands
• The 3 most effective digital marketing channels for brand awareness
• How to approach each channel (where many B2B marketers get it wrong)

Why is Brand Awareness Important for B2B?

Brand awareness is important because the first step a company takes to working with you is becoming aware of your brand. You can’t convert, qualify, or close a contact that doesn’t know you exist.

That said, B2B marketing is complex. The buyer’s journey isn’t all that linear.

Gartner

Unlike B2C marketing, companies rarely buy products or services on a whim. You may wake up one day and say, “I think I’ll buy an Apple watch today.” But no CFO or Director or Purchasing wakes up and says, “I think I’ll purchase a whole line of new servers for my company.”

The B2B buyer’s journey almost always starts with the identification of a business problem.

The next step in the journey is research. Once the company feels like they have a good understanding of the solution and what will be required to fix the problem, they begin looking for companies to help them.

So as a B2B marketer, you must ask, “How can we insert ourselves into this process, and make sure we make the final list?”

There are three ways:

1. You ensure your brand is visible during their research stage
2. You ensure someone at the company is already familiar with your brand before research even begins
3. You build demand to make your audience aware of a problem them didn’t know they had

All three of these can be achieved through building a brand awareness strategy among your target audience.

Unique Challenges of B2B Brand Awareness Strategy

That’s easier said than done though, right? Building awareness for a B2B brand is difficult for a few reasons:

1. Brand perception is tough to measure

All good marketing tactics and strategies should be measurable. But how do you measure how many people at relevant companies are aware of your brand?

Social media followings, website traffic, and email lists are a great place to start – but they aren’t exhaustive and you don’t always know how many of these people fit your buyer personas.

On top of that, you don’t know for certain that these people have a positive perception of your brand. Just because they follow you on LinkedIn doesn’t mean they love your company.

2. Brand ROI isn’t immediate and nearly impossible to calculate

Most marketing decisions come down to potential ROI. Some channels provide direct and easily calculated returns. But brand awareness tactics rarely do.

It’s nearly impossible to say, “Okay if we get 100% more followers on LinkedIn, we know that 10% of them will become leads in the next 5 years and then 5% of those will close within 1 year after that, meaning we’ll see a roughly $100,000 return within 6 years.”

It’s even harder to estimate ROI for offline activities.

3. Other marketing activities are more tangible

When making marketing decisions, it can be tempting to put resources and budget toward channels that are more easily measured and attributable.

Targeted advertising, ABM, and email marketing campaigns are all measurable and produce results closer to the sale.

But if you want to fill your funnel with potential leads to retarget, email, and nurture, you’ve got to find them first.

Best Marketing Channels to Build Awareness

Brand awareness and demand can be built through a number of digital marketing channels. You can even take things offline through events, print advertising, speaking engagements, and traditional networking.

But after a decade helping B2B brands grow, we’ve found that the three most effective channels to build brand awareness are content marketing, social media, and SEO.

Thought Leadership Through Content Marketing

Content marketing refers to any type of content – blog posts, white papers, social media posts, downloads, videos, podcasts – that primarily seeks to educate. And this is what makes it so powerful.

While there’s still a place for traditional advertising, content marketing has become one of the best ways to build brand awareness.

B2B buyers are tired of having ads and direct mailers shoved in their face.

70% of people would rather get information about a company or learn something from an article or blog post rather than from a traditional advertisement.

Demand Metric

They would much prefer to learn about a brand while having their questions answered and problems solved.

Picture this: your business is having IT inefficiencies. You’re spending too much and things aren’t firing on all cylinders. You don’t know what to do.

You open Google and start doing some research around your problems. The same site keeps coming up with stellar blog posts that speak your language and answer your questions. You bookmark a few of their posts and revisit them.

A few weeks pass and you chat with your superior about a budget to fix this problem. He approves your pitch.

What do you do next? Reach out to the company who has been answering your questions, right? They’re clearly an expert and likely have what it takes to help you solve your problem. Sure you are familiar with a few other IT companies, but this one has earned your trust.

This is why content marketing is so effective.

Marketers have caught on to its effectiveness, too. A few years ago, B2B content marketers said brand awareness was their biggest goal for their content marketing efforts.

Content Marketing Institute

It’s clear content marketing works to build brand awareness. But if you’re not already investing in it, how can you get started?

How to Use Content Marketing to Build Brand Awareness?

1. Define your buyer personas. You need to make sure you know exactly who you’re talking to, their challenges, their aspirations, their role, and more.
2. Create a detailed strategy. Sure, starting to blog regularly is a great first step. But having a well planned strategy is a much better route.
3. Create content for every stage of the buyer’s journey. The biggest problem many businesses make is relying too heavily on informational, top of funnel content. This might drive traffic, but creating content for the middle and end of the journey is crucial.

Growing Awareness Through Social Media

Social media platforms offer a gold mine for building brand awareness. One reason why is that it’s a great place to distribute your expert content.

Did you know 75% of B2B buyers and 84% of C-Suite executives use social media when considering a purchase?

It’s not just for big B2C brands.

That said, B2B marketers face a unique challenge when it comes to social media marketing that B2C brands don’t: B2B companies tend to operate in niche industries. This means your content isn’t relevant to the majority of the world, and it’s often not the easiest subject matter to build excitement around.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t craft an effective social media marketing strategy. Here are some pointers:

Introduce Yourself in a Compelling Way

There’s a big difference between someone knowing your brand and knowing about your brand. Knowledge of your brand is good, but an understanding of who you are, what you do, and problems you solve is invaluable.

Because of this, introducing yourself to your audience is a big piece of building brand awareness.

Make sure your social media content communicates:

• What you do
• Who you serve (primarily)
• What problems you solve
• What sets you apart from similar companies

SUSE Asia (an open sourced enterprise software) does a great job of this with quick, compelling, and well designed explainer videos.

Educate Your Audience

Once your audience knows who you are and what you do, a great strategy is to begin educating them on your area of expertise.

Like content marketing, social media can be a great way to establish yourself as an expert and build credibility with your audience.

The key here is to add value. B2B buyers are already familiar with the basics of their industry. Posting surface level content about what they do might hurt your brand more than help it.

Seek to publish educational content that’s:

• Original. Regurgitated content your audience has already seen isn’t going to help you establish yourself as an expert or thought leader.
• Timely. Speak to relevant trends and issues that your audience is seeking clarity on.
• Aligned with business objectives. Any education is great, but when possible, try to align your educational content with products and services you’re looking to push.

Drift does a great job of educating with relevant, original, and valuable content.

Capturing Top-of-Funnel Traffic Through SEO

While social media is a great place to put your content into the hands of your audience, SEO offers an opportunity to introduce your content to new people.

Research is such a big phase of the B2B buyer’s journey. 71% of B2B researchers begin their research with Google searches.

This makes SEO the perfect place to get expert content in front of buyers beginning their research process. If your content helps them take a step in their research process – you’ll likely find yourself on their shortlist for solutions.

Here are some pointers for SEO that drives brand awareness:

• Make your buyer persona your first priority. Over optimizing content for search engines is an okay way to improve rankings, but a poor product to deliver to your readers. Write first for humans.
• Follow on-page optimization best practices. Once you’ve written great content, then it’s time to optimize.
• Cover semantically related topics. If you write a post on accounting tips, make sure you also consider covering budgets, forecasting, taxes, and audits. This can improve rankings and fully satisfy your reader’s query.
• Don’t fear low volume keywords. If you work in a niche industry, it’s unlikely there will be a ton of search volume around your subject matter. That’s okay. It’s likely your potential buyers have complex problems and questions. Rank for these questions – even if they don’t have thousands of monthly searches.

Gong.io does a fantastic job of ranking well and driving organic traffic (nearly 20k per month), without sacrificing on their content.

It’s original, valuable, and written in a compelling way – rather than having keywords stuffed into every headline.

Learn more about how to master B2B SEO.

Don’t Neglect B2B Brand Awareness Campaigns

Closing deals keeps the company lights on, but you need a steady stream of qualified buyers if you’re going to close at a high rate. Brand awareness is the key.

To build brand awareness as a B2B brand, make sure you focus on:

• Valuable content that resonates with your target buyer personas
• A social media strategy that educates and builds trust
• A sound SEO strategy that increases your reach through search engines

Put yourself at the top of your audience’s mind and win their business when the time comes.

Segmentation itself isn’t necessarily a lead generation or lead nurturing method, and it’s not a channel. It’s more like the secret ingredient no one really sees.

Proper segmentation doesn’t replace your SEO strategy, content marketing plan, or email automation workflow – it enhances them.

But so many B2B marketers don’t know how to segment properly – or they’ve never tried. Those who have tried often implement B2C segmentation methods, which don’t work nearly as well in B2B markets.

In this post, we’ll walk you through:

• The basics of B2B segmentation
• The four primary types of B2B segmentation
• How to decide on how you will segment
• 5 questions to ask yourself to make sure you’ve made the right choice

What Is B2B Segmentation?

Segmentation refers to dividing your target market into approachable groups.

You determine the criteria for segmentation, use data to divide your target market into groups, and then allow those segments to dictate your product offerings, sales approach, and marketing messaging to each group.

Segmentation isn’t a marketing channel in and of itself, but it improves the effectiveness of all other marketing efforts.

One of the simplest examples of segmentation (that you’re probably familiar with) comes in the form of geographics – segmenting your audience based on where they’re located. You may have one market segment in each country you operate. Or if you only do business in one country, you may break your segments down by region.

Doing this helps you visualize your groups of customers, optimize your lead flow, create your sales funnel, organize your sales teams, and likely affects your messaging to each group.

For example, customers in Singapore may be more likely to respond to one kind of messaging while your customers in Japan may be offended or turned off by similar messaging. Or customers in both countries may prefer to work with sales people of their same nationality.

Why is Segmentation Important in B2B?

Segmentation is important because it allows B2B marketers to:

• Visualize their target audience and customers
• Group them according to similarities
• Personalize product offerings
• Implement highly targeted sales and marketing efforts

Using personalization in marketing has been shown time and time again to improve campaign results.

Mailchimp recently looked through their data and compared segmented campaigns with non-segmented campaigns. They looked at 18 million email recipients and determined that segmented email campaigns:

• Saw 14.3% higher open rates.
• Resulted in 2x CTR’s
• 4.6% lower bounce rates
• 9.4% less unsubscribes

Source

Segmentation works.

Where Do You Apply Segmentation?

Once you’ve chosen your method of segmentation, what do you do with it? B2B segmentation can be applied at a few different levels:

• Market / Product (how you approach the market altogether)
• Prospect (how you generate leads)
• Lead (how you nurture or organize your sales team)
• Customer (how you retain)

It can have a big impact on your product itself, your messaging, your content, your lead flow, your sales teams, your sales approach, your account management structure, and your retention strategies.

What Are the Types of B2B Segmentation?

For B2C, the four types of segmentation are: demographics, psychographics, behavioral, and geographic.

However, some of these segmentation methods don’t work quite as well for B2B marketers. For example, segmenting by gender could certainly be an option for B2B, but type of company, industry, and needs are likely to be far more effective.

Here are the four primary types of B2B segmentation:

• Geographics (by location and region)
• Firmographics (by business size, industry, etc…)
• Behavioral (by behaviors, how they make purchase decisions, what they value)
• Needs-Based (by which products / services they need)

Source

Segmenting by Geographics

B2B International actually refers to segmenting by geographics as “convenience” segmenting. Segmenting by geographics is one of the simplest ways to segment, and makes application fairly simple.

If you can use a CRM or map to visualize where your customers and prospects are located, then you can quickly identify the best way to segment.

Source

Using geographics to segment makes sense if you rely heavily on sales teams, send time-sensitive communications, or your marketing messaging could be easily misinterpreted among different cultures or languages.

You may choose to segment based on:

• Country. If you operate in a handful of countries, this often makes the most sense.
• Region. If you operate in a large number of countries in similar time zones, it may make more sense to segment by region.
• Language. Similar to regional segmentation, if you operate in many countries, it might be most convenient to segment by primary spoken language.
• Cultural Preferences. If you operate in different countries with vastly different cultures, this may make sense for you, and protect you from offending certain groups.
• Time Zone. If you operate across the globe, and you rely heavily on a sales team for lead nurturing a, segmenting by time zone makes a lot of sense.

Pros: Segmentation is simple, implementation is straightforward, relevant data is very easy to collect

Cons: The conclusions you can draw are limited, messaging can be personalized, but will be surface-level (only based on location or language)

Segmenting by Firmographics

Segmenting by firmographics is one step up from geographics in terms of ease and effectiveness. Rather than looking strictly at location and language, you can begin to segment by more meaningful attributes.

Much like geographics, pertinent data for firmographics is pretty easy and inexpensive to come by.

Source

Segmenting by firmographics makes sense if you work with a range of different industries, size of companies, types of companies, and sophistication of companies.

You may choose to segment based on:

• Size of Company. Size of company often indicates their sophistication, organizational structure, and the role of employee you would be working with.
• Revenue of Company. Revenue often indicates the needs and quality of a company.
• Industry. This makes a lot of sense if you work with a range of different industries and need to approach each differently.

Pros: Data is easy to find and inexpensive, segments are easily translatable to the sales team, and marketing campaigns can be personalized with little trouble.

Cons: Though these segments are more meaningful and effective than geographics, they still may not indicate much about a company’s fit or needs.

Segmenting by Behaviours

Behavior-based segmentation focuses on how customers act. What are their methods for researching and how are they currently interacting with your brand?

A lot of the data needed to make these segmentation decisions can be gathered through site tracking, lead scoring (using a CRM / marketing automation tool), or web analytics. You can also look through deals to see how clients went about making their purchase decision.

Source

You may choose to segment based on:

• Source Channel. You can group based on referrals, organic traffic, or paid campaigns.
• Engagement Style. You can group based on those who frequently submit RFPs and those who look for advice and guidance.
• Content Engaged. You can group based on what type and category of content they spend the most time with.
• Technologies Used. You can group based on the types of tech they used –both related to your offering and unrelated.

Pros: If you have web analytics or site tracking set up, this data can be easy to gather and – at times – very insightful.

Cons: Behavior doesn’t always indicate need or product fit. Someone could read every blog on your site, but have no interest in working with you.

Segmenting by Needs

Needs-based segmentation groups your customers based on what they’re looking for in a product or service. A segmentation based on needs gets to the heart of marketing.

That said, segmenting by needs is a bit more sophisticated and meaningful than geographics and firmographics, which means the data required to segment your market typically can’t be found or bought online – it requires some manual work and data entry (or some automation).

One of the best ways to identify and categorize needs is by interviewing current customers to learn their biggest motivations for working with you and criteria in making their purchase decision.

The two best ways to segment by needs are:

• Buying Motivations. Are they budget conscious, productivity focused, results oriented, etc?
• Pain Points. What specific pain points does your audience have that your product solves?

The four most common needs-based segmentations are:

• Price-focused
• Service-focused
• Quality-focused
• Partnership-focused

Source

Pros: Involves very meaningful attributes, when implemented well it can prove very effective

Cons: Difficult to implement, tough to obtain necessary data, and it can often be hard to relay vision to the sales team

How To Decide How You Will Segment?

Now that you have a good idea of the types of B2B segmentation, you’re probably wondering how to make a sound decision.

1. Make sure your database / CRM is up-to-date. You need up-to-date data in order to understand your existing customers and audience.
2. Start by looking at existing customers and use common sense. As you evaluate your existing customers and target prospects, your segmentation may be immediately obvious. For example, if you already target a single industry with a single product in a single location, you can immediately rule out geographics and needs-based. If you serve companies of all sizes, firmographics may be the best choice.
3. If no pattern stands out, start by considering firmographics. This is a great first step for many businesses. If you serve a variety of business types, sizes, and industries – firmographics might be for you.
4. Look for a needs-based segmentation next. If a firmographics approach appears obvious, go for it. But if it doesn’t appear immediately helpful or all that easy to implement, your next step should be to try a needs-based approach. Evaluate the common pain points and work with your team to identify the top 3-5 primary pain points. If everyone agrees and you can split your current client base up relatively evenly – needs-based is for you. If you aren’t sure what kinds of needs your audience has and what differentiates them, do some research. Consider interviewing current and past clients.
5. Try behavioral segmentation. If a needs-based approach isn’t doable, behavioral segmentation should be your next option. Sometimes B2B purchasing is done by a group of people whose needs are always changing. But they may always approach the buying process the same way. For instance, some businesses always issue RFP’s with specific scopes, whereas others are open to suggestions and guidance. These are two great segments.
6. Consider complex clusters. If you really want to set yourself apart from competition and get hyper-personalized, you should consider multiple layers. For example, perhaps you serve three different countries with different languages. This is your first layer. Next, you serve three unique industries, your next layer. Of these industries, there are two pain points that always lead to purchase. So now you have 18 highly segmented clusters.

You’ll notice we didn’t mention geographic segmentation. This is a great option, but it’s the simplest and the least likely to lead to any kind of advantage over your competitors.

Source

That said, geographic segmentation is a fine place to start – especially if you serve a variety of regions or languages. It’s also a perfect starting point if you don’t have the resources or time to devote to a more complex segmentation strategy.

Will Your Segments Be Effective?

Once you’ve made a decision, run your strategy through these questions to ensure it’s the right fit for your business.

Are they clear enough? Is it obvious which segment a business should fall into? There may always be some customers who toe the line between two segments, but if a significant number of businesses’ segments are vague, you may not have chosen a meaningful enough strategy.

Are they meaningful enough? In other words, will your sales and marketing strategy change in any way based on a segment? If not, your strategy might be sound, but it won’t be effective.

Are they big enough? This is important. Ten segments with just a few customers or target accounts in each will require far too much work and effort. Try to cut the number of your segments in half.

Let the Data Speak for Itself

Lastly, give your segmentation choice some time. Are you finding marketing efforts more effective? Are more leads entering your sales pipeline? Is your sales team seeing more success closing? If yes, then you’ve probably made a great choice.

If not, it could be worth reconsidering your segmentation strategy.