The Pareto Principle as Applied to B2B Marketing
According to our friends at Wikipedia, the Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule and the law of the vital few) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Pareto observed that 80% of the peas in his garden came from 20% of the pods, and he went on to apply this formula to many other areas, including some that have more relevance to us B2B marketers. This caused me to ponder on the importance of understanding which 20% of the causes in B2B marketing and sales are responsible for 80% of the effects – or in marketing, the results.
To accomplish this, our team at Fusion Marketing Partners identified the major functions of a B2B marketing department and came up with 20. The next step was to rank these 20 functions in terms of their impact on results and finally, to ascertain whether the top four (20 percent) can influence 80% of the results? The last question is particularly tough to answer because, like it or not, there are parts of marketing that defy quantification (e.g. public relations, social media), even if you know they have a positive contribution.
The result of this effort is the Four Pillars of Unstoppable Marketing. We believe, and have shown through client results, that if you spend the majority of your time on these four important areas, you will receive much better results than an equivalent amount of time spent in all the other 16 areas. So (drum roll please….) the four areas of focus are:
- Pillar One: Compelling Brand Promise
- Pillar Two: Informative & Engaging Website
- Pillar Three: Effective Pull Marketing Strategy
- Pillar Four: Optimized Marketing and Sales Model
I will have much more to say about each of these pillars in the coming weeks. In the meantime, you can listen to a six-minute overview of the four pillars at:
http://fusionmarketingpartners.com/resources/four-pillars-of-unstoppable-marketing/
