October 1, 2020

3 Ways CMOs Are Getting Experimental In Q4

by Melissa Caffrey

If you don’t follow Drew on LinkedIn, you’ve been missing out. Every Tuesday since July, Drew has asked B2B CMOs from various industries to share tips about all sorts of topics—from how to drive demand during COVID to what the CMO of the future will look like. In early September, Drew asked three CMOs to talk about what marketers should be testing in this year’s 4th quarter. You can watch the video and read our summary below.

 

1. Test Short Videos to Grow Brand Awareness & Generate Demand

As CMO Eric Eden writes in Postclick’s recent e-book, “The key to testing is to use a series of small tests to prove new tactics work before scaling them in larger tests.” In our #TuesdayTip video, Eric recommends testing short videos with distribution on social media networks as sponsored content or boosted ads.

Short videos on Facebook and LinkedIn only need to be 15-30 seconds each, and they can yield some great results that not only build brand awareness, but also drive demand. Imagine reaching users via video views for as low as $0.03 per view or increasing site traffic by saving prospects a Google search.

2. Test User-Generated Content to Enable B2B Sales

CMO Katie Risch of Centro says marketers should consider user-generated videos as sales enablement tools for your sales organization. To support B2B sales teams during this year’s digital transformation, marketing should create a library of content and tactics that salespeople can use to personalize and customize outreach to new prospects.

Katie shared one example: “You can utilize a screen record, go to the prospect’s LinkedIn page and say, ‘Hey, I noticed that you used to work here,’ or ‘these are your interests.’ It’s a really great way to personalize one-to-one reach out.” This is especially worthwhile since salespeople can’t pursue leads at in-person events—a really personalized video message about the potential customer about how you can bring value to their business is going to stand out from a generic video or email message.

3. Test Titles and Lead Messages to Get Prospect’s Attention

CMO Scott Brazina of Impact agreed that experimenting with attention-grabbing video right now is important, but he also emphasizes the relevance of testing different titles and lead messages. According to Scott, Impact has found great results by using numbers and concision, like “2x revenue growth” or “best in class companies using these kinds of practices are getting these kinds of results.”

He’s right; a powerful message in the Q4 2020 should either show your customer how your solution could help them make some money or save some money, especially if you have numbers to really show the value your business can bring. A/B testing is the perfect way to test the power of benefit-oriented messaging.

The 4th Quarter is the Video Quarter

It’s pretty appropriate that all 3 CMO tips point to the value of video while contributing to Renegade’s own #TuesdayTips video series. Most B2B businesses are still operating with a virtual workforce and there won’t be regular in-person events in the near future, and digestible, personable video content that focuses on bringing value to customers and prospects is a great way to stay relevant, stand out, and bring in new business.