1116 - B2B Marketing Tactics in 2022 with KEO Marketing's Sheila Kloefkorn

Mar 14, 2022

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In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to fractional CMO and the founder and CEO of KEO Marketing, Sheila Kloefkorn.

KEO Marketing helps entrepreneurs operate their businesses from a marketing perspective. They work primarily with mid-market B2B companies. They’ve worked with this model for 22 years and Sheila serves as an outsourced CMO. Her team operates as an outsourced marketing team. Marketing is now more sophisticated than ever, Sheila shares, and successful marketing requires specialists and teams that are dialed in and focused. They help companies that are cost-conscious scale faster than ever.

KEO focuses on why a fractional CMO and marketing team works for B2B businesses; some of the businesses they work with may not have the budget to flesh out an entire in-house team that specializes in the tactics that see success. This is why a part time, fractional, outsourced team can be more affordable and feasible for many B2B companies. With a fractional CMO, the CEO can be freed up to do what they do best while also having the support and in-house leadership they need.

Another benefit of outsourcing a marketing team and fractional CMO is that they’ve probably seen a lot of the issues your B2B business will encounter. They’ve seen the trends, the newer tactics to follow, and the major mistakes and blunders to avoid. Many of their clients are jaded from their experiences in marketing, Sheila shares. They take a limited number of clients at a time, and she saw a lot of discouragement especially after COVID began. With the massive pivots and changes since the pandemic, KEO Marketing has been able to help scale and pivot B2B businesses despite the wrench in the works. This would have been extremely challenging for any business on its own, but hiring specialists is the best way to see fast growth, even during periods of flux.

If you’re on the fence or unsure where the biggest issues are in your marketing, KEO offers a complimentary marketing audit. These reports typically cost money with other agencies, but KEO believes in offering value and helping entrepreneurs first. This audit clarifies up front what a company needs to achieve its marketing goals, and many companies return to execute this work with Sheila and her team.

Shelia shares some trends she’s seeing today in the B2B marketing space. She shares that you need to personalize marketing. This started in the B2C space, but now it’s becoming relevant in the B2B space. People want to KNOW who you are and what solution you bring for them specifically. Secondly, she’s seeing AI becoming more and more important when it comes to market and consumer research. Arming yourself with machine learning offers unprecedented data and research on your target market.

Want to learn more? Check out the KEO Marketing website at https://keomarketing.com/.

Check out KEO Marketing’s complimentary marketing audit at https://keomarketing.com/request-an-audit/.

Check out KEO Marketing on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/keo-marketing/.

Check out Sheila Kloefkorn on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheilakloefkorn/.

Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!