As a marketing leader for over 12 years, I sometimes forget about my first experiences.
Not too long ago, someone asked me if I had experience in a bootstrapped company.
I vividly recall creating my first marketing department. I had no money, no resources, and the CEO challenged me to prove my value. It was so exciting—everything was waiting to be created.
So, what did I do? I looked at what the company could provide. I met with people and interviewed them. I realized that the company had a wealth of high-level consultants with deep knowledge that could be utilized. I also realized the company had numerous partners with more resources and funds. I understood that being creative was essential, but I saw a path forward.
And what did I achieve? I transformed the marketing department into a profitable entity. 😊
How Did I Do It?
First, I Positioned the Company within Its Sector to Stand Out
As a newcomer in the industry without prior sector knowledge, I needed to understand the market quickly.
I thoroughly researched the overall market and audited the company to comprehend its vision and what makes it different.
I had amazing insights from my interactions with the internal team. Through interviews with people from various departments, I gained a comprehensive, 360-degree perspective of multiple aspects of the company.
This process helped me realize that what truly set the company apart were its people. It was the individuals within the company who made the real difference.
So, I crafted my strategy with this insight in mind. I would infuse all my marketing activities, extending from our blog to social media to events, with this uniqueness.
Next, I Focused on Low-Cost Strategies: Inbound Marketing, SEO, and Partnerships
Having limited funds at my disposal, I needed to generate revenue from our existing resources—luckily, we had a wealth of knowledgeable individuals. 😊
I started interviewing them on specific subjects to create high-quality content. This led to the creation of an efficient content production process with a weekly drafting committee to gather new ideas and analyze results.
I invited one member of each company department to the committee to have different insights and foster a marketing culture within the organization. Sales provided insights from the field, including customer stories and use cases; consultants shared niche expertise and legal updates; developers contributed technical subjects.
With our focus on Enterprise Accounts, including multiple stakeholders, these diverse aspects were pivotal in turning prospects into mature opportunities.
Having previously worked as a media consultant, I was familiar with media curation. Recognizing the need for rapid market understanding, I initiated a daily media curation process from the outset. This curation helped me:
- understand the market,
- monitor competitors’ activities,
- identify industry trends,
- and gauge customer challenges and interests.
From my personal curation efforts, I devised two media curation newsletters—one for prospects and partners to provide high-quality content, position as a thought leader and gather leads for nurturing, and another for the company to foster knowledge and innovation, while giving back to those who were helping me in my job 🙂
I Simplified the Website for Clarity and Conversion
I also simplified the website to be clear, comprehensive, and drive people to convert.
Given the complexity of my industry, many competitors had websites laden with technical jargon. To counter this, I wrote the website to be as straightforward as possible, ensuring it was understandable even to my grandmother. This helped me simplify the message and make it easily digestible. As I didn’t have a big design budget, I focused on a simple design, no fluff, to highlight the content. The focus was on simplicity, with a design that highlighted content without unnecessary distractions.
Later, I would have many customers telling me that they appreciated the simplicity of the website, making it easier for them to understand our offerings and determine if we met their needs. Great, that’s what we wanted; we were too small to attract people who would be disqualified after because they thought we were doing more than what we could offer.
Transparency translated into efficiency and high-quality opportunities, as there was no room for confusing prospects. This approach ensured a more focused sales effort and greater trust in our marketing department.
I involved customers in my marketing activities.
Customers were my favorite. I started to attend business meetings to meet them, engage with them, and understand how they were talking to create content that was using their words and resonating with them.
I remember crafting notes on their word choices, and expressions. Indeed, customers are a goldmine for content creation. In fact, your content is dedicated to them, so focusing on mirroring their language is much more efficient than focusing on yourself or your company.
Then, I included them in the marketing processes, interviewing them to talk about their pain, including them in webinars and conferences, etc. They were the ones bringing me the deeper insights into what we needed to do and where to focus. These insights enabled me to produce high-quality PR and articles that captured the attention of potential prospects.
I was nurturing the writing committee with fresh ideas, further enhancing my understanding of the market and audience, and driving additional opportunities for the sales team. Also, I was creating content for free. As I was including the consultant time within my marketing ROI, having customers doing the conference saved me marketing costs and improved my overall marketing ROI on content, events, and webinars.
Not only did I have access to pure gold, but it was much cheaper! For further insights on customer content, read my full article on “15 Reasons Why You Should Spend More Time Thinking About B2B User-Generated Content”
Partners allowed me to be profitable.
During my interviews, I also realized that we had a good number of partners out there, very active, with substantial resources and funding. These software editors had a big marketing budget as they were funded.
So, I met with them to establish shared business angles. This could stem from a joint customer case, a specific solution, or a market trend aligned with their interest.
By doing so, I preemptively mitigated potential competition-related issues. I was clear about the verticals we were attacking together. And in fact, concerns from competitors’ partners never arose. I even facilitated a gathering of them in the same room afterward, fostering a positive atmosphere 🙂
I crafted marketing campaigns to address each angle together. I was using their tools, webinar platforms, etc., but I was providing the ideas, content, and active qualitative leads coming from our inbound strategy. So everybody was very happy, and the partnerships thrived. As the relationships matured, we expanded our joint actions and added sales to the equation.
As I was at the center of these interactions and benefitting from the partners’ trust, I orchestrated gatherings of numerous partners, including competitors, in high-quality events that I organized. Partners were financing the events. The attendees comprised high-level executives, each with qualified projects and a willingness to engage with multiple solutions. As we enabled it, we were always involved in the projects.
So our pipeline increased further.
Over time, partners sought marketing collaboration with us, further transforming my department into a profitable entity. This financial advantage enabled me to finance new activities to enhance opportunities for the sales team, including utilizing paid marketing channels.
I Enforced the Sales and Marketing Relationship Into a Real Collaboration and even Used Gamification.
I needed the sales team to be in the game with me to achieve results. They were the ones talking with customers, the ones who could give me feedback from the field, knowing what the prospects were looking for. I wanted to forge a true collaboration between the sales and marketing teams. I needed it to achieve success. Marketing without sales is like bread without salt; nothing good will be baked.
As we had limited marketing resources but were in charge of lead generation until opportunity qualification, I needed to find ways to chase the leads we generated.
Partnerships were part of the solution but weren’t the entire answer. I needed to cover hundreds of MQLs per month.
I remember that after an industry conference that brought 800 leads (yes, an in-person event can work, you just need to plan activities to make the most of it), I needed forces to follow them up. As you know, the chances of transforming an opportunity decrease with time, so I needed to call them quickly.
So, I introduced a gamified approach involving both marketing and sales departments. Everyone had targets based on the time they could allocate, and achieving them led to prizes. Also, the one that had reached his target and overpassed all the others was to win a higher reward.
This approach fostered a happy, competitive spirit for four weeks within the company; everyone was involved, and we had fun. We were working toward the same results, in the same direction. And it worked; we generated opportunities for the upcoming year.
Since then, I’ve firmly believed that a real and respectful collaboration between marketing and sales is the true key to success in B2B Enterprise Accounts.
What Did We Achieve?
- 200% YoY growth in sales opportunities
- Generated 7 million in new pipeline within the first year, with no marketing program budget
- Tripled company revenue during my tenure
- Achieved profitability in the marketing department, with partners even outsourcing their marketing to us
- Cultivated strong relationships with partners, diversifying our opportunity sources
- Unexpectedly, attracted promising candidates to our HR pipeline
The entire company embraced marketing activities and recognized the value of marketing, a stark shift from the scenario when I first joined this true tech spirit company.
So now that money is not flowing:
- Remember your roots
- Leverage your strengths
- Think outside the box
- And be yourself
You can achieve remarkable results with limited resources; you just need to switch your mindset. Marketing is not just about burning money to fuel growth; it is a means of showcasing how you can help your ecosystem. Growth will come naturally.
Looking to achieve cost-efficient growth? Reach out to me for support in the journey.
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