This weekend celebrates not only annual Top Gun Day, but also the 30^th anniversary of the movie’s release. So, we thought we’d see how a maverick approach to your B2B marketing (i.e. failing to focus on ROI) can result in a less-than-happy ending. Instead of being a hero, your targets could end up more like Goose.

Be the best of the best

The requirements to reach Top Gun was to be the best of the best, to have a multitude of capabilities, be able to achieve targets (destroying the enemy), and doing all this in a way that didn’t place the rest of the squadron in danger. Surprisingly, successful B2B marketing is very similar. To be an industry-leader requires a variety of skills, a laser-focus on goals and objectives (leads and ROI), and the awareness to never place the wider business at financial risk. So how is it possible for B2B marketing or even individual marketers to go ‘maverick’?

Your ego’s writing cheques your company can’t cash

For every week that passes, another B2B marketing channel or strategy becomes ‘the next big thing’ and reaches hot-topic level on the industry news pages and forums. For a marketing manager trying to achieve leads and sales, every one of these activities is an opportunity to improve on current results. Some strategies promise to reduce costs, others apparently increase quality and quantity of leads. So, it’s easy to see why marketers want to invest and start using all these channels and strategies as soon as possible.

You’ve lost that loving feeling

Every organisation is different and so too are their buyers. This means there’s a unique target audience with different preferences, pain points, and buyer behaviour. The outcome is that not every channel or marketing approach will engage them, generate sales, and prove its worth with ROI. So, for those maverick marketers that want to jump on every new bandwagon, it’s vitally important to remember that activities and channels that don’t generate ROI, are basically endless money pits. For example, using budget and internal resources to start marketing on a social media channel that isn’t used by the target audience is a quick way to bankrupt the team (and risk your squadron). Unlike the movie though, there’s no ejector seat here. When you end up in a flat spin, it’s very difficult to recover or get out safe and sound.

Focus on ROI and you’ll be flying

So, before your marketing goes maverick, be sure that all future activity is definitely capable of generating ROI. You can do this by reviewing your buyer personas and ensuring that the target audience will engage with the activities before you invest. If you do this, you’ll become the best of the best, you’ll kiss the love interest, and you’ll get to buzz the tower – is that too many Top Gun references?

To find out more about measuring ROI…

  

Roger. Over and out.