The Evolution of B2B Marketing: Why Generating Leads Isn't Enough Anymore

If you're like most B2B marketers, you diligently plan and execute campaigns to drive new opportunities and, ultimately, increase revenue. But unless you're ready to rethink marketing's role, you may be throwing precious budget dollars out the window and missing opportunities to drive real customer value.
 
Customer buying behavior is evolving, and demand management is evolving along with it. Today's B2B marketers can't focus only on generating leads and turning them over to Sales. They need a new process for creating effective, targeted programs that hit the right people at the right time via the appropriate channel.
 
Here are four key steps to ensure your B2B marketing evolves to meet today's challenges.
 
1. Develop a lead-management process
 
Marketing and Sales must work together to design a more integrated—and collaborative—process that addresses goals, metrics, and activities at crucial lead stages.
 
That process includes...
 

• Identifying key business drivers to optimize demand generation
• Mapping out the customer lifecycle (from suspect to prospect, lead, and customer)
• Building marketing programs for nurturing and qualification
• Defining a Sales-ready lead
• Determining how leads should be passed to Sales and tracked

 
2. Master your customer data ...