6 min read  | HubSpot

Cost-Effective Marketing Strategies for B2B Startups

Businesses across the board are feeling budget crunches now more than ever. In the startup space, the requirement to do more (marketing) with less (money) is no new phenomenon; however, a few more layers of difficulty have been added in recent months.

The full-force introduction of AI to seemingly every facet of life impacts how people engage with traditional marketing tactics. This mounting lack of trust, paired with a digital environment that’s more cluttered than ever before—not to mention the current state of the economy—is forcing marketing strategists to get creative.

But it’s not all bad news. This need for agile strategic thinking pairs perfectly with the foundation on which startups are built. Now is your time to shine.

An expert opinion on B2B startup marketing strategy 

Aamplify is fortunate enough to have a B2B startup expert among us. Lisa Jansen, our endlessly talented Marcomms Manager, has worked with countless startups, developing tailored growth strategies to take these businesses to the next stage. In doing so, Lisa has gleaned valuable insights into the makings of a successful startup from a marketing lens and how to maximise those precious budgets.

Here’s a complimentary taste of Lisa’s deep knowledge of the B2B startup space. Just promise us you’ll put that marketing budget to good use. 

Lisa’s tips to make budgets go further

Be agile but organised

“You won't know what works until you try, so how do startups deal with that and operate in that environment? As a startup, how do you make your very limited budget go further when there is no set roadmap or plan?

“First of all—and this is kind of old news for startups—you have to be agile. You have to try different things to learn. You have to iterate and do that every day, all the time. However, what's really important is that you be agile but organised.

“I sometimes see startups, especially very early-stage ones, say they're agile, but when you look under the hood, they're just chaotic. They're chasing whatever looks shiny and interesting that day. Being agile, to me, means being reasonably structured in your experiments.

“So, I always recommend that companies that want to operate in that agile space start a spreadsheet (as the most straightforward example). Create a framework where you write up the assumptions and hypotheses you want to test or the marketing angles, messages and approaches you want to test. Then, you map out how you want to test these approaches, capture the results, and review and iterate based on your data.

“Run structured experiments and learn quickly from your data rather than making random changes daily.”

Decide whether a marketing- or sales-led approach is best for your business or product

“Startups can save a lot of time and money by figuring out early if they should follow a marketing- or sales-led approach. To be clear, you'll need both components, and both have to work closely together. But especially when budgets are tight, it's valuable to be intentional about how you will achieve the outcomes you need.

“Much of this comes down to goals and timing. Figure out what you need to achieve in the foreseeable future, and ask whether you’re more likely to get there with a marketing-led or a sales-led approach.

“There is no one-size-fits-all approach to determining the right strategy. However, companies doing something very disruptive that no one's heard of before and those selling a high-value product are often more likely to be successful with a sales-led approach, especially in the early days. Conversations need to take place with the right people to have an opportunity to get the message across, rather than just getting a generic marketing message in front of someone.

“On the other hand, startups creating lower-value products (such as simple SaaS tools) or solving a problem that the audience is relatively well aware of might be very successful with a marketing-led strategy. You can tap into an open-minded audience already looking for a solution, making running ads, campaigns and events much easier. You know what your audience is looking for, and you can target that.

“I think it’s easy to see how picking the wrong strategy can waste precious budgets. If you rely on personal relationships and in-depth conversations to get sales, spending a lot of money on advertising campaigns might not be the best use of budgets (which is not to say you shouldn’t spend any money on advertising!). On the other hand, if your target audience is looking for your solution and you know it can be a very quick purchase decision due to the nature of your product and price point, investing a lot in a sales team that spends a lot of time talking to a small number of prospects isn’t likely to deliver the ROI you need.”


Be super specific about your target audience

“The more specific you can be about your audience, the more you can channel your limited budget to specific activities to reach those people instead of spending money getting your message in front of the wrong people.

“Being specific means being clear about what industries, regions, roles and personas you want to target and what specific problems and needs your ideal customer has. The more specific you can be, the more you can use your budget in the right way. If you have a hard time being that specific, it could indicate that you just don't quite have a product market fit yet, and you may need to do just a little bit more general market validation and research.

“Startups that operate in a low-volume, high-value segment should consider taking this a step further and creating specific target lists that name the companies you want to sell to and the people at those companies you want to talk to.”

Think global from day one

“Another key element to making the most of limited budget is marketing to the right markets—and for many New Zealand startups, that means thinking global from day one. 

“Starting a new business is hard. Focusing on New Zealand initially can make it less intimidating. You likely know the market and have connections that can help you succeed. New Zealand startups should absolutely make the most of local opportunities. However, when it comes to marketing and allocating limited budgets, you have to ask yourself whether the local market is worth the investment. 

“New Zealand is small, and for some startups, it might be smarter to focus on international markets immediately instead of spending a lot of marketing dollars here in New Zealand. I always challenge startups to think carefully about their total market size here in New Zealand versus in other countries. If you need something like 50%+ market share in New Zealand for marketing investment to deliver a good ROI, it might be a sign that you should focus on another region where you can achieve positive ROI with a much smaller market share.”

Utilise the latest AI tools, but don't let them become a distraction

“There's so much that startups can do themselves now that they had to pay a specialist to do not that long ago. This is a massive opportunity to save budget. There are some cool tools for video and content creation now. Obviously, copywriting and tools like Canva can get you started with graphic design. If you have the capacity, make use of all those tools. However, I'd also say don't let AI become a distraction. 

“It's quite easy right now to get caught up in the hype, and before you know it, you've spent your day trying to find the right AI tool, and you haven't actually produced any outcomes yet. At this stage, many AI tools are overpromising and under-delivering, so you can look at the tool and its promises, but then you try it; it's just not quite there yet.

“In many ways, especially in the high-tech B2B space, AI can’t fulfil the brief as it could for a B2C or DTC brand. In short, AI can save you money and help stretch limit budgets further. But it can also cost you in time and missed opportunities (plus there are some quality and brand implications you want to think through carefully).”

Final thoughts

While it’s impossible to predict what’s next for B2B startup marketing or even marketing strategy in general, we can be certain of uncertainty. But with this unknown comes excitement and curiosity. Be disruptive, think outside the box, iterate, assess, and forge the course that fits your growth-minded business.

Continue this conversation with Lisa and our growing community on LinkedIn, and sign up for our monthly email newsletter for fresh B2B resources straight to your inbox each month.