The Essential B2B Marketing Planning Checklist for Engineering Success

Going to market with only a set of ideas about how to attract and engage your target personas and grow leads and revenue for your business can be a hit-or-miss proposition. Usually a miss. Your time and budget are limited, so to ensure inbound marketing success and deliver measurable results, you need a solid, documented plan. 

7 Checklist Steps to successful B2B marketing planning:

  Define your business goals for the next 1, 3, and 5 years

• • Define measurable, attainable goals and objectives for each

  • Define how marketing can contribute to achieving these goals and the roles/responsibilities for key team members

  • Determine what sets your products or services apart from your competitors

 Establish an annual marketing budget

• • Target 6-12% of revenue based on company size, margins, past marketing investment, the economy, and revenue forecasts.

  Create or engage your marketing advisory team.

• • This is typically up to five stakeholders including the head of marketing, head of sales, senior sales manager, senior engineer, and the president or CEO.

Audit Current Marketing Activities & Create a Strengths, Weakness, and Trends Analysis

• • Audit your current marketing activities including:

    • Brand Positioning and Messaging

    • Content

    • Website

    • Leads

    • Channel Partners

    • Martech Stack

Define 3 personas as your target audience and market

• • • • Determine how your personas view your market, industry, and company

      • Determine the best way to attract and engage those specific personas

Create 3-to-5 marketing campaigns and their corresponding marketing activities

• • Prioritize and define integrated marketing activities for up to 5 focused campaigns

    • Campaigns are often centered on an industry, persona, and/or major product/service initiative(s)

• • • Define meaningful key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure your campaigns and activities against your business goals

Getting Started

Review your current marketing efforts against this checklist and take a realistic view of your current state. Start at the top of the list and work down from there. Set a timeline for progress and stick to it!

Need help building your marketing plan? Read our Guide to B2B Marketing Planning!

TREW is a marketing agency dedicated to reaching engineering and technical audiences through a range of marketing initiatives. Contact us today to learn more about the services we offer.