10 business-to-business marketing mistakes

Learn best practices for B2B marketing by avoiding these mistakes

How will this free guide help me and my business?

Everyone makes mistakes! Over the last 20 years, we have consulted and trained with many B2B businesses which means we've seen mishaps made by people at all levels of seniority. But time and time again, when things go wrong, it’s for the exact same reasons: lack of planning, preparation, and audience understanding. This means that B2B companies are failing to deliver on the promise of the latest inbound marketing and marketing automation techniques.

In this guide, we summarize the 10 most common B2B marketing mistakes that might be holding your business back. We'll explain planning techniques and show you examples so you learn how to avoid them and deliver more quality leads for your company.

How is the B2B mistakes guide structured?

Expert B2B marketer Jill Quick explores 10 common B2B marketing mistakes based on her years of experience in the B2B sector. The guide references steps to take in each section and recommended resources. The guide is highly practical, providing steps for you to take to avoid the mistake in the future, as well as providing recommended resources.

The guide covers 10 common B2B marketing mistakes and how to fix them including:

1. Incorrect product positioning
2. Not setting up your Analytics to correctly track your leads
3. Not testing improvements
4. Buying technology and not knowing how you will use it
5. Not aligning content assets to the sales funnel
6. Using social media as a billboard
7. Not cleaning your database
8. Not attributing your marketing efforts
9. Using car sales copy
10. Thinking that user experience is just for web developers

Who is this guide for?

The guide is for anyone who manages B2B marketing, applying to B2B marketing in general across a variety of industries. The guide references many digital marketing techniques, so if you're embracing or struggling with digital this guide can help you prioritize improvements.

Latest updates

This resource has been updated with two brand new entries, 'Incorrect product positioning' and 'Not attributing your marketing efforts'. The guide has also been improved with new case studies from Mailchimp and WeWork, as well as insight from digital experts April Dunford and Lianna Patch.

Resource Details

• Guide format: Online interactive format suitable for printing
• Author: Jill Quick, edited by Smart Insights
• Related resources: See our Business-to-Business marketing toolkit

About the author

Jill Quick

Jill Quick, a digital marketing trainer and co-founder of The Coloring in Department. A candid and experiences marketer who loves to teach you not just how to ‘get’ digital marketing in theory, but how to actually DO it.