S = Set the Right Goals
Marketing only wins when the goal posts are crystal-clear. In B2B, those goals can be broken up into 3 pillars:
Drive Pipeline – bring the right people into view.
Drive Conversions – turn interest into revenue.
Retain & Refer – keep them happy and talking.
Reality check (why this matters)
The Board: “More revenue—STAT.”
Sales: “More demos—YESTERDAY.”
Prospect: “Who are you again?”
Cold prospects rarely jump straight to purchase, so Marketing must defend the upper funnel. Push back (politely) when leadership skips to Book demos!—then show how each KPI ladders to cash.
“Successful marketers have to develop channel-specific content strategies that prioritize educational value and expert voices over product information to build lasting brand affinity that will eventually convert to sales.”
Budgets that Scale
Anchor every goal to the whole funnel, across your channels. Success lives in the system—not a single ad. When every piece snaps together, marketing makes money.
Notes:
This is where I like to start. Play with these ratios of spend and find what’s right for you. Make sure you’re always putting at least 20 % of spend in brand-building. Starve brand and the funnel dries up—fast.
The Retain and Refer budget is incremental to CS resources; Content + community still matter post sale.
Find the leak before you pour budget
Typical flow: Unaware → Aware → Engaged → Qualified → Converted
Always repair the highest leak first—optimising demos is pointless if the traffic is trash.
From goal to KPI:
Now look at each stage below. You’ll see there’s multiple ways to measure and achieve success for that stage and the associated pillar. Your primary goal remains the same, but now you have a KPI carries a different weight depending on where the real work is needed.
Two final reminders
Start-ups pivot. Goals will change—cool. Just reset the scoreboard and don’t measure past campaigns to new KPIs.
Over-communicate. Every time the goal shifts, huddle the team and spell it out. Saves endless “apples vs. oranges” arguments later.
Set goals that make sense, stick to the numbers that prove progress, and the rest of SALT gets a whole lot easier.
If you need help applying these principles to your marketing, I offer a comprehensive marketing audit to help B2B teams understand what’s working and where you should start setting your goals and building out your roadmap. Shoot me a message—I can’t wait to dig in and help!
