Digital media’s rise and constant evolution has reshaped the way we plan, execute and manage marketing activities. Regardless of industry, product or target audience, today’s B2B marketing mixes call for more ingredient diversity. This white paper provides an outline of best practices and key ingredients that facilitate your ability to create a strategic marketing mix that satisfies your desire for growth.

1. The Right Digital Marketing Mix
B2B Marketers
Kyle Bumgardner
January 2014

2. 2
James Culliton first described the role of the marketing manager in 1948 as a
"mixer of ingredients." This idea later became popular in an article by Niel Borden
called “The Concept of the Marketing Mix.” Essentially, marketing leaders find
their niche recipe by utilizing ingredients made successful by other and
developing recipes of their own.
The marketing mix is a broad concept that includes numerous ingredients that
seek to attract, acquire and retain a loyal customer base.
Digital media’s rise and constant evolution has reshaped the way we plan,
execute and manage marketing activities. Regardless of industry, product or
target audience, today’s B2B marketing mixes call for more ingredient diversity.
This white paper provides an outline of best practices and key ingredients that
facilitate your ability to create a strategic marketing mix that satisfies your desire
for growth.
Best Practices for B2B Marketing Leaders
Content Strategy
As consumer behavior continues to shift, we see a larger focus on the web as a
primary resource for research, insight and information. This shift drives business-
buying decisions more rapidly as years progress. B2B marketing influencers
must connect with customers where they spend time online through engaging,
relevant content. Product information, expert advice, industry best practices,
relevant articles and review ratings are all examples of content that can bond
potential leads to your brand. An effective content strategy extends beyond the
pages of a corporate website or blog; quality content reflects company activity in
relevant social spaces and communication channels, such as email marketing
and public relations.
Marketing Automation
By recognizing marketing automation’s potential, marketers can draw more
revenue, be better equipped to manage lead flow and prospect interactions and
close new business more efficiently.

3. 3
To maximize marketing automation value, consider these four critical elements:
1. An integrated lead management process
2. A well-planned content strategy
3. Relevant marketing data and target audience profiles and
4. Technology to execute activities, analyze data, and report results
Integration
“Mixing the right digital ingredients together starts with understanding your
unique situation and mapping the right tactics to a strategy that will build long-
term success and loyal customers.”
B2B enterprises have an opportunity to redefine integration across organizational
roles, media channels, agency partnerships, marketing technology and
messaging. While traditional initiatives continue to influence online activity in
terms of search, web traffic and online conversions, traditional sales model silos
are becoming less relevant in today’s digital, real-time world. More holistic
internal communication practices, external marketing strategies and a greater
understanding of the reverberations of one on the other yields improved
alignment between sales and marketing teams.
Mixing the right digital ingredients together starts with understanding your unique
situation and mapping the right tactics to a strategy that will build long-term
success and loyal customers.
Success hinges upon applying the right components to align with three B2B
buying process stages: Awareness, Lead Generation and Lead Nurturing.
How to Create the Right Digital Marketing Mix for Your Brand
Awareness
Delivering incremental results starts with awareness. Business executives
consistently express the desire for incremental leads and greater marketing ROI
(Return on Investment). Too often, their expectations and goals remain unmet
due to lack of understanding and budget limits. However, creating brand

4. 4
awareness does not mean measurement and return on investment are avoided.
By combining the right ingredients and applying best practices, the right mix for
awareness will provide insight and metrics that guide future decisions.
The Awareness Mix
Display Advertising
Totaling 50% of the ideal awareness mix, B2B digital display advertising typically
consists of static or animated banners, images and interactive media that
sometimes include AV elements. Display advertisers use cookies and browser
history to determine demographic interests in order to target individuals with
appropriate ads. Behavioral, demographic, geographic and site-based targeting
are proven, readily available strategies that fuel heightened brand awareness.
Social Media
Making up roughly 30% of the ideal awareness recipe, social media is a pertinent
factor to consider. B2B social media turns communication into interactive
dialogue and word-of-mouth sharing among individuals. LinkedIn, blogs, forums,
YouTube, Facebook and Twitter initiate awareness early on in a prospect’s
buying cycle. Individuals make buying decisions based on information they gain
via trusted social sites and peers. Businesses that share educational content and
engage themselves in relevant conversations create their own awareness,
driving more interested leads to your services.

5. 5
Search Engine Marketing — Broad Keywords
Search engines play an important role throughout the B2B buying experience,
making up the last 20% of the ideal industry awareness mixture. Typically,
search engine marketing is viewed as a strategy for capturing existing demand.
However, the opportunity to create awareness should not be overlooked.
Properly aligning keyword phrases with user intent is critical for reaching users
early in the buying process through SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
Marketers should identify and target users who search using broad, generic
keyword phrases versus more specific, brand name phrases. By achieving
visibility for broad phrases, companies have the opportunity to introduce a visitor
to their brand, which influences lead generation and nurturing. Brand name
phrases that gain visibility increase chances further for higher lead conversions.
“By combining the right ingredients and applying best practices, the right mix for
awareness will provide insight and metrics that guide future decisions.”
Lead Generation
There are numerous lead generation ingredients and best practices available to
all B2B organizations - not to mention an endless supply of customers seeking
purchase decision-making information. Due to the abundance of resources, we
ask ourselves why marketing executives rank lead generation as their top
challenge year after year. Is pressure to increase lead quantity and reduce lead
generation costs leading to a perpetual cycle of misguided strategies?
Quality lead generation should focus on metrics that reflect on quality and
quantity. For instance, considering your CPL (Cost per Lead) is important in your
overall marketing goals. However, honing in on what exactly your business
should do with it is where quality and strategy matter most.

6. 6
The Lead Generation Mix
Search Engine Marketing — Paid Search (PPC)
Your B2B customers rely on search engines throughout the buying process to
find relevant information and research potential solutions. Paid search
advertising provides testing and control over keyword effectiveness, messaging,
geographic targeting and a user’s first impression beyond the initial click. While
research suggests organic results garner more engagement, an SEO strategy
often requires a long-term investment of time, resources and budget.
Many marketers are expected to justify future initiatives by demonstrating short-
term results. Paid search has proven to be an effective tactic that gains
immediate search engine visibility while simultaneously intercepting relevant,
targeted visitors who are actively engaged in the buying process.
Display Advertising — Retargeting
Retargeting is a form of display advertising that delivers a specific message to
website visitors who leave without converting. How does it work? When visitors
leave your site and continue Internet browsing, your ads display on other sites
they visit. This keeps your company on a front burner while the individual surfs
the web. These ads can display the exact product, white paper or case study
they were viewing while on your site. These subtle ad reminders provide a
vehicle to bring visitors back to your site, often resulting in higher conversion
rates.

7. 7
Content Marketing
Content marketing is the creation and sharing of information that answer
prospective buyer questions. Effective forms of B2B content include articles,
videos, blog posts, case studies and white papers. Deploying the right content at
the right time throughout the buying cycle is critical for converting prospects into
loyal customers. Successful content strategies require marketers to think more
like publishers. Aside from customer research, creating editorial calendars keep
company content consistent and relevant. As part of the lead generation mix,
compelling content fuels engagement from an SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
and display advertising standpoint.
The Lead Nurturing Mix
Social Media
Social media marketing extends the concept of one-to-one communication by
allowing prospects to control how they consume and share your content.
Nurturing leads through social media requires your content to be consistently
educational and shared regularly. . Social media is not the platform for “closing
the deal.” Rather, when performed correctly, social media will build trust among
prospects and create a customer community that relies on your business for
advice. B2B marketers who follow best practices will be able to convert social
media connections into profitable business conversations.

8. 8
Email Marketing
Today, B2B lead nurturing via email marketing is much more than “batch-and-
blast” campaigns. For effective customer engagement, one on one email
campaigns need to embody three facets: preferences, segmentation and
automation. With these three steps in place, your business can boost customer
retention and sales revenue. Let’s examine each facet closer to see the direct
impact:
 Preferences
Identifying and fine-tuning prospect preferences are key for loyal customer
development. By asking the following three questions, B2B organizations
can improve email communication with potential clients:
1. How often would you like to receive communications from
us?
2. Which types of communication would you like to receive?
(i.e. email, direct mail, text messages, etc.)
3. What are your primary interests? (Offer multiple
checkboxes that apply to your products or services.)
 Segmentation
Segmentation divides email opt-in lists into various categories (or
segments). Afterward, specifically written content is sent to one or more of
the targeted segment lists for each group’s filtered interests. According to
Marketing Sherpa, segmented campaigns produce at least 30% more
opens and 50% higher CTR (Click Through Rate) when compared to
undifferentiated messages.
 Automation
Email automation supports lead nurturing by sending relevant messages
based on certain online subscriber actions or triggers. Automating
immediate follow-ups to confirm an email subscription or download is a
perfect opportunity to request further information and define future
communication preferences.

9. 9
B2B Digital Marketing Mix Strategy Worksheet
For each objective outlined (Awareness, Lead Generation, Lead Nurturing),
answer the questions below to create an action plan using each element of the
B2B marketing mix. Also note where sufficient information is not available to you
at this time to make such a determination.
Objective Marketing Ingredient Current Mix % Ideal Mix %*
Awareness
Display Advertising 50%
Social Media 30%
Search Engine Marketing - SEO 20%
Lead
Generation
Search Engine Marketing – Paid
Search
50%
Display Advertising –
Retargeting
20%
Content Marketing 30%
Lead
Nurturing
Email Marketing 60%
Social Media 40%
* Forrester Research. Will vary based on industry and situation.
Steps to Reallocate Mix
1.
2.
3.
4.

10. 10
The Agency
Overground is a B2B demand generation and sales enablement agency that
creates revenue growth opportunities across the entire customer lifecycle. We
believe that by creating inspired customer experiences we can close the loop
between marketing and sales to achieve previously elusive business objectives.
With our broad industry expertise, Overground helps top B2B organizations
establish and deepen profitable customer relationships.