"My B2B campaign failed"

1. Objective-aligned: Has it been agreed what success specifically looks like – and with agreement from all stakeholders? Too often brand awareness campaigns suddenly require leads, or stakeholder’s personal drivers derail the campaign’s original purpose. Ensure the objectives are agreed in writing upfront – and then shared as part of any output for review. Keep reminding people of the objectives.
2. Customer-centric: Has this been developed about the customer and for the customer, or is it’s centre of gravity around your product or brand features? Does it actually provide real value to them? Too many campaigns satisfy stakeholders to the detriment of what customers want or care about.
3. Conscious strategy: Does the strategy leave anyone out? It should; good strategy kills. A campaign that does everything to everyone will be ineffective to any of them. A good strategy is as much a decision on what not to do – and sticking to it.
4. Creatively different and/or distinct: Is it any different to what’s out there? Is it actually? And where differentiation isn’t always possible, is it at least distinctive? Objectively, does it stand out and would it stop someone scrolling their newsfeed? Most B2B creative is shit. Just look at the promoted ads on your feed…
5. Emotive: Does it elicit some kind of emotion in your audiences – whether joy, fear, reassurance, etc? The best way to capture attention, invite exploration, and convince, is to make them feel all [something] inside. Emotion feels dangerous to stakeholders – but being emotive isn’t brave, it’s necessary.
6. Fluent: The idea should be natural, consistent, and effortless for the audience while still being strategically sharp and measurable. It’s about making the message easy to understand, recall, and act upon, no matter the channel.
7. Tactile: Are the tactics and assets easy and enjoyable to access, understand, share, and recall? Does the world really need another fucking whitepaper? Does it really need to be a PDF? Where the medium is the message, make sure you’re turning up in the right ways to create moments for your audiences.
8. Accessible: Are you gating your content needlessly (is it actually good enough to gate?) Is it searchable, discoverable, and accessible for all audiences? B2B marketers are guilty of chasing leads way before they’ve earned the right to secure them; make a very objective assessment on your content’s real world value and provide access accordingly.
9. Aligned with sales: Do they understand and believe in the campaign, and have they inputted and bought in? Too often campaigns are created at them instead of with them. Include them as part of the process – both upfront and throughout. And optimise their own tools as you would any other assets in market. Sales are an audience too.
10. Tested and proven: Has anything been done to test whether this will actually resonate with audiences, whether in development or in-market? Too rarely is the customer’s actual voice included in development. And where marketers are the customer within the business, missing their voice can be catastrophic.
11. Optimised: Has it been released and forgotten about, or has it been constantly measured, optimised and improved? Messaging, creative, and formats should all be reviewed and refined. The best campaigns are sharpened over time.
12. Out for long enough: Has the campaign run in-market for long enough to build traction and saliency? Does it span across sales lengths and buying cycles to capture those now entering the buying state? Brands are very guilty of getting bored of their campaigns way, way, way before their audiences do.
13. OR is it papering over more serious cracks? Are there more fundamental issues at play, such as an incoherent positioning, an indecipherable value prop, an ignorable brand, or a broken sales journey?

Don’t let unreasonable deadlines, erratic stakeholder involvement, and the disparity between expectations versus budgets leave you feeling like you’re ‘being set up to fail’. Use these tips to get the recipe right, and enjoy the sweet taste of success.