In marketing, speed is critical because most things take time to work. That’s how it is – whether you like it or not. This is also the reason why many startups and early-stage companies hesitate to venture into active marketing.
And this is not just a problem new businesses face. Mature businesses and large enterprises face this issue too. There it takes a different form. They attempt to go for a ‘perfect start’, and often end up not starting a new marketing initiative at all. There are also other practical challenges that come in the way, such as multiple levels of approval, for example.
Whatever the case, the reality is that getting started with marketing might not be as complex as you think. There are various tactics you can implement that will help you launch your marketing activities fast than having to wait for every piece of the puzzle to come together. That’s what we will cover in this article today.
Outsourcing your B2B marketing efforts
We know that outsourcing marketing is definitely one of the ways for you to get started with marketing quickly, especially if you don’t have the expertise internally.
Here is an article that covers in detail all the factors you need to consider while outsourcing marketing.
8 factors to consider while outsourcing your marketing activities
While outsourcing is an option, you still need to do a few things internally if you need a quick headstart. So today, we will discuss a variety of techniques that involve the combined efforts of your internal marketing team, founders & senior leadership, and external entities (like agencies or freelancers).
On that note, let’s get started.
What do I mean by ‘quick’?
Many think that you need a large team, a lot of tools, and a heavy budget to get started with marketing. Setting these up takes time.
But the reality is that you don’t need many of these to initiate your marketing efforts. Look at my agency Skalegrow for example. We have been managing all our marketing efforts with a 1-person marketing team. With the limited resources, we have been able to:
- Launch a website
- Regularly upload content on our YouTube channel
- Post consistently on our LinkedIn page
- Publish newsletter articles once every week
- Manage multiple LinkedIn handles including our company and newsletter pages.
- Publish atleast 1 2000+ words article every week.
Essentially, if you have the will and know the right tactics to get going with your marketing, there is a lot you can do much faster even some of the largest B2B brands in the world.
Marketing tactics to get started quickly
To achieve the goal of getting started quickly, first, you need to make sure that you cover the basics when it comes to your business’s marketing channels. These include:
- A website
- LinkedIn page
- YouTube channel
There is a reason why I think these are the most basic elements when it comes to B2B marketing.
Ask yourself this:
Which is the first place someone goes to when he/she hears about your company?
It’s the website beyond doubt. If you are a B2B business, LinkedIn and YouTube are the next two places people go to. So it is absolutely necessary for you to maintain a presence on these channels.
We will talk in detail about how you can create content at scale for these channels. But let it register in your mind that you need to be active on these 3 channels to create some visibility for your business online.
That said, following are the tactics you can follow to get started with your B2B marketing efforts quickly
- Build a website quickly (including design and development)
- Create YouTube content by appearing on podcasts and video interviews
- Write one long-form article every week
- Batch create LinkedIn content
- Create multiple media assets
- Repurpose long-form and old content
- Build a lean martech stack
- Put together a lean marketing team
1. Build a website quickly
This is only applicable to companies that haven’t managed to build a website yet. But many struggle with this in their early days – mostly because they don’t know where to start.
Building a website is not just about hiring a freelancer or website development company. There are many things to be done even before you do that. Following are the absolute essentials you need when you start working on the website for your business:
- Your positioning: this can be a statement or unique differentiators that set your business apart from your competition.
- The design: to get the ball rolling quickly, you can find a theme that fits your business from websites like ThemeForest (if you have very specific requirements with respect to your website design, it is recommended to hire a designer). You can also consider using templates available in design platforms like Canva.
- The copy: This goes together with the above 2 elements. Your copy has to match the positioning and design you have chosen.
It is after having these elements in place that you start the development process. You can either go for custom development or use a no-code website development tool like Elementor or Webflow. But bear in mind that these tools also have their own learning curve.
2. Create YouTube content by appearing on podcasts and video interviews
This is a tactic that I have talked about a lot in the past. This is by far the best tactic I have seen to easily create video content at scale. I also spoke about this in my article on Micro-influencer marketing in B2B.
You can look at Skalegrow’s YouTube channel to understand how we have wisely used this tactic to consistently publish a video every week. We also have a pipeline of 15 to 16 videos waiting to be published.
Here is a video that is a great example of this:
An additional benefit here is that these videos only need basic editing, which you can get done with something like Canva – which even a generalist can learn to use quickly. Further, since you are collaborating with a micro-influencer, he/she will also promote your content.
3. Write one long-form article every week
I know this requires effort. But it’s worth it.
You need to know the basics of SEO to do this right. You can either hire someone internally or take external help to do this. My article on getting started with SEO-led content in 3 days is a useful resource on this:
Getting Started With SEO-led Content In 3 Days
Now, here are the benefits of investing time and effort into SEO-led content:
- SEO is one of the best long-term channels. Its scalability is unbeatable.
- A piece of long-form article can be repurposed into many things – including videos, social media posts, and even newsletter editions.
- Once you have a decent pool of long-form articles, you will never run short of ideas for your short-form content – because you will always have something to repurpose.
- Long-form articles are the best way to showcase your industry expertise, which is more challenging to do in a short video or social media post.
If there is only one long-term marketing tactic I could invest in, I would go with SEO-led content any day.
4. Batch create LinkedIn content
Have you ever wondered how we create so much content on Skalegrow’s LinkedIn handles (we got 3 of them, and post about 8 to 10 times a week all 3 of them put together)?
It’s by using batch creation.
We create and schedule all the posts for a week on the last day of the previous week.
Now, the question is, how do you come up with a process for consistently creating content on LinkedIn? Read the below article to learn how:
How To Create Content For LinkedIn Organic Marketing [With 10+ Examples And 5 Templates]
The ideal scenario would be you having a pool of long-form content that you can promote and repurpose (we will talk more about repurposing in an upcoming section). You also benefit if you have multiple content types such as blog posts and videos. They together make a good mix of content for LinkedIn distribution.
5. Create multiple media assets
This is my favorite on the list, and this is the most overlooked.
The challenge with many is that they take a short-term view of marketing. Instead, if they are willing to play the long game, they start to identify the long-term benefits of marketing that compound over time.
This is where creating multiple media assets becomes a game-changer.
What do I mean by media assets?
It can be any form of media such as a YouTube channel, a newsletter, or LinkedIn handles.
But here’s the catch. Many restrict themselves to creating only 1 channel under each media type (say only 1 LinkedIn handle).
Change this mindset and approach the game differently.
For example, for Skalegrow, I have 1 company page and 2 showcase pages (for the company newsletter and my personal newsletter). I have 3 newsletters (1 for the company and 2 for myself). I only have 1 YouTube channel, but I have my content promoted on the channels of the micro-influencers I collaborate with.
Next, think about a day (say 2 years down the line) where each of these media assets having thousands of followers/subscribers. That’s 4 or 5 channels of distribution with a large audience. You can also cross-promote a lot using these channels without having to depend on a third-party media company to promote your content.
Wait. There is more!!
On LinkedIn, you have another advantage of having multiple handles. You can use all of them to comment on each others’ posts. In addition, you can use them to leave multiple comments on the same creator’s post without sounding monotonous.
6. Repurpose long-form and old content
We already spoke about the importance of creating long-form content. Following are some of the content types you can repurpose a blog post article into:
- A video
- A LinkedIn newsletter article
- Social media posts
- A newsletter edition
- A podcast episode (either your own podcast or by appearing on others’)
The following article I have written discusses a framework in detail that will help you create and repurpose content at scale.
Content Clustering And Repurposing – The Formula to Building A Scalable Content Strategy
It focuses mostly on SEO-led content. But you can extend the same method to any other form of long form content.
7. Build a lean martech stack
If you have been following my content, you know that I talk about lean marketing all the time. And building a tech stack without breaking the bank is one of the tactics involved in it.
I happened to have written an article on this topic as well. I recommend you give it a read. Here is the link:
How To Build A Lean Martech Stack For Modern B2B Demand Generation
In fact, you don’t even have to spend $1200 a year (as I mentioned in the above article) to build a martech stack. If you are focusing on a limited set of channels, and you don’t want your tech stack to be exhaustive, you can build one for half the cost (sometimes even lesser).
Now, how is this even related to getting started quickly?
The thing is, you need the right tools to get the right things done in marketing (at least, you need the essentials). Knowing to use good tools that don’t cost thousands of dollars is key to kickstarting your marketing on a high.
8. Put together a lean marketing team
Building a lean team is similar to that of having a lean tech stack. You need to be able to operate lean when you are starting your marketing efforts (unless you have a large budget or are well-funded).
Given that, you need to learn how to build a team that doesn’t empty your bank account. The following article covers the detailed steps you need to follow to do this:
How to structure a lean B2B marketing team if you are tight on budget
Final words
It’s very much possible that you got overwhelmed by all that we discussed today. If you are thinking it’s impossible to create all this content on your own (especially when you have limited resources), trust me, it is much easier than you think – only that you need to create a system for it. If you need help with it, you can always write to us at info@skalegrow.com.
But the point is, starting with B2B marketing is not as expensive or complex as you think. With the right mindset and approach, you can build a marketing engine that eventually turns into a lead machine for your business.
Skalegrow – B2B content marketing agency
With marketing getting tougher and tougher, every wrong foot you make might hamper your growth. What you need is the right guidance and a helping hand. This is where Skalegrow can make a sea of difference.
Skalegrow helps IT, tech, SaaS, and embedded systems companies leverage new-age marketing tactics to grow their business. Check out the below intro video to learn more about what Skalegrow brings to the table:
Content marketing is one of our focus areas and we are already helping some of our clients generate leads and improve brand awareness using high-quality content. Visit our content marketing services page to learn more about how we can help. You could also write to us at info@skalegrow.com.
About the author
Naseef KPO is the Founder and CEO of Skalegrow. He comes with rich experience across multiple areas of B2B marketing including content marketing, demand generation, SEO, account-based marketing, marketing analytics, revenue attribution, marketing technology, etc. He writes thought-provoking and relevant articles on The Skalegrow Blog and his weekly LinkedIn newsletter Elevate Your Marketing.
Prior to starting Skalegrow, Naseef led large marketing teams in multi-million dollar B2B organizations where he made significant contributions to the topline growth of the business. He has also appeared on numerous podcasts where he shared his thoughts on trending marketing topics such as the application of AI in marketing, startup marketing, ABM, and B2B content marketing, just to name a few. Being the founder of Skalegrow, he is currently focusing on helping its clients stay ahead of their competition by using innovative yet practical marketing tactics.
You can connect with Naseef KPO on LinkedIn.
