2 B2B Marketing Campaigns That Have Inspired Me

Most of us don't have a challenge in listing down a few marketing campaigns by consumer brands that have inspired us. Some of the biggest brands like Apple, Nike, Nestle, etc., come to mind.

But we rarely think about B2B marketing campaigns we could learn from. That's primarily because B2B promotions don't appear on channels like TV or newspapers. In addition, some B2B campaigns are not out there in public for everyone to see.

Hence, in this edition of the Elevate Your Marketing newsletter, we look at two campaigns that will teach us key lessons in B2B marketing. While one is more about positioning and messaging, the other is an example of how to wisely use influencer marketing in the B2B space.

Let us get started.

1. Gong - the conversational intelligence platform

We all know Gong . It's a great case study for category creation in B2B. None of us had heard about conversational intelligence 10 years back. In a way, Gong introduced the idea to the world. But that's not what I want to talk about today.

Instead, I wanted to discuss a video created by Gong that talks directly to its ICP, which is a VP of Sales.

What is one of the biggest challenges of a VP of Sales managing a large team of sales professionals?

He/she doesn't (and cannot) know whether his/her team members are saying the right things on customer calls!

Do their pitches work? How do customers feel about the different statements salespeople are making on calls? How does a VP of sales know what is working and what is not on these calls?

All these can be achieved using Gong.

The idea is not to sell Gong here. Neither do I think that the platform adds value to every organization.

But look at how beautifully Gong has spoken to its target audience in the below video:

Here are some of the highlights of the video:

• It directly refers to some of the key pain points of the target persona.
• It talks about how the platform helps to improve overall sales effectiveness with a focus on meeting targets and reducing sales cycles.
• It speaks about how the tool creates a win-win situation for everyone (the VP of Sales, his team members, and customers). After all, when the team wins, the VP wins, and the organization grows.

The benefit of creating a laser-targeted content piece like this is that it can be used in different campaigns such as email newsletters, outbound emails, LinkedIn InMails, or even customer presentations.

This campaign is a great example of perfect targeting, unique positioning, and crafting a message that resonates with the target audience.

2. HighLevel

What comes to your mind when you get to know about a new MAP (Marketing Automation Platform)?

When I hear about one, I start to think that the world doesn't need one more MAP.

Large players like HubSpot and Salesforce have positioned themselves as 'MAP and CRM for everyone', and the space is already crowded.

However, this has given birth to niche players who have built MAP and CRM solutions for specific industries. HighLevel is an example of this.

The company has positioned itself as an end-to-end marketing automation platform for agencies. While any business can use it, the company has niched down on the agency market by offering them the ability to whitelabel the product to their customers.

This is how it works:

1. You purchase High Level's agency plan for $297 per month.
2. You can resell the platform to your customers as a tool of your own and charge a price that suits you.

This would mean that if you as an agency charge $100 per month, you will break even with just 3 customers. In addition, you get to use a marketing automation platform for free.

Check out the below video to learn more about how this works:

Now, let us come to how High Level created a masterful marketing campaign.

The company partners with micro-influencers to improve awareness about the product. For example, check out this person who is offering a course on starting a social media marketing agency (among a few others) completely for free.

He uses this as a channel to promote High Level by showing how to use it to set up marketing automation for the agency you are starting as well as your clients.

I found this to be a brilliant tactic. While the attendees get value from a free course, the influencer earns affiliate commissions, and the company benefits from the increased reach of the product.

This is called out-of-the-box thinking. The company wisely leveraged influencer marketing to reach aspiring agency owners who could become its future customers. The course creator also asks his students to create videos and other forms of content by mentioning High Level. These content pieces act as user-generated content , giving extra reach to the product.

That's all I have this week. Hope you loved the content.

As always, until we meet next time, keep learning!

Skalegrow - a new-age B2B marketing agency

Want to grow your business by using innovative marketing tactics? Check out Skalegrow or reach out to us at [email protected] .