This month, we’ve been writing about the impact of strong marketing campaigns. But in addition to the intended impact, B2B marketing campaigns can have unpredictable repercussions.
Sometimes, these unintended consequences hit a business right where it matters most: in sales. In a blog post called “Are Your Go-To-Market Strategies Creating Negative Buyer Perceptions,” buyer insight strategist Tony Zambito tells the story of a high-tech company that began a new content marketing program with terrible results. In an effort to promote the company’s executives as thought leaders, the business stopped emphasizing the research and development for which they were known. Clients began to leave the business for competitors.
What can marketers learn from this example? How could the tech firm have changed the negative sales repercussions of its marketing?
If the company in question had paid more attention to what their clients valued in a tech supplier in the first place, they would have created a content marketing strategy that emphasized what the client wanted. In this example, clients placed a higher value on research and development than on thought leadership. By taking away what their clients valued, this company showed that they were out of touch with what their clients wanted as well as their own strengths. That’s why Movéo often recommends customer research that will identify these valued attributes, so that we are able to craft messages and campaigns that drive business growth.
Even as the tech company dedicated more funds than ever before to research and development, their marketing ignored it. The business would have done better to build its thought leadership around the research and development emphasis. Adding the thought leadership component need not have eliminated messaging about research into new products or value for money.
Before embarking on a major change in strategy or launching an expensive new campaign, get feedback. The architects of even the best campaigns can be too close to their own work to catch its flaws. To build the strong marketing campaigns that perform as intended, consider testing your messaging or creative to see which send the message you intended and which resonate the most with your specific audience.
As we’ve seen throughout the month, marketing can have surprising consequences that can be positive, negative or neutral in nature. Let us know: what’s one unintended consequence you’ve seen in your business?
Photo credit: PICNIC Network via Flickr Creative Commons
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