B2G Market Intelligence: 5 Ways to “Do Your Homework”
Image Source: Shutterstock
I originally published this blog post as a LinkedIn article on March 10, 2019.
I’ve attended (or participated in) more than my fair share of business-to-government (B2G) marketing best practice presentations over the years. Sometimes the speakers are government executives discussing how best to cut through the clutter and get their attention. Often, the subject matter experts are marketing, sales, or business development leaders sharing their own real-world success stories
Inevitably, nearly every presenter repeats the same words you probably heard over and over from your parents: do your homework. Marketers who heed that advice will develop stronger, more relevant content that addresses customer needs and accelerates the sales cycle, particularly in account-based marketing models targeting specific agencies.
The Blessing of Publicly-Available Information
B2G marketers are fortunate to work in a sector that requires our customers and prospects to make detailed information available to the public. If you know where to look, what to listen for, and how to interpret the data you’re gathering, you can learn volumes about their vision, spending priorities, challenges, strategic plans, organizational structures, pain points, and progress towards goals. That knowledge can (and should) factor heavily into your marketing plans.
Such broad access to information means public sector marketing professionals have a unique responsibility that may be less prevalent in the B2B space. According to government marketing guru Mark Amtower, “in order for content to be germane and relevant to your audience, you have to be an active student of your market niche and know the issues that are of concern.”
By analyzing and synthesizing the volumes of available information with what your sales and BD teams are hearing in the field, you can develop messages, assets, and campaigns that are much more relevant and impactful. The process should also help you identify some of the key questions you must ask when developing your content marketing strategy (a topic I covered in an earlier blog post). It’s not always easy, but doing it correctly can improve campaign performance and win rates. Failing to do so puts you on the wrong side of your prospects, who expect your marketing and sales messages to address their concerns.
An example: at Government Marketing University’s annual GAIN conference last November, Steve Cooper — a former CIO of the Department of Commerce, the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization, the American Red Cross, and the Department of Homeland Security — urged us to do our homework and shared two anecdotes that drove home the point:
The good: Cooper recalled an email he received that opened with a reference to his recent public testimony on a very specific problem facing his agency — an issue for which he was chastised during the hearing. The sender got Cooper’s attention by offering relevant messaging that addressed how the firm could help him with that challenge.
The bad: Cooper revealed his system for handling sales calls with vendors who didn’t bring informed pitches to the table. He instructed his administrative assistant to interrupt vendor meetings after seven minutes and ask to speak with him, at which point he would decide if the meeting should continue or if he should make an excuse to end it. Another former government CIO on the panel volunteered that his window was 10 minutes.
Doing Your Homework: 5 Sources of Information
Take the time to become familiar with these sources of information on what your customers and prospects care about. You may have to read between the lines, but the more you digest, the more insight you’ll gain for your content marketing strategies.
1. Explore Third Party Databases and Market Intelligence Platforms
Many successful B2G sales and marketing organizations utilize third-party tools that provide data on RFIs, RFPs, programs, contract information, trends, and opportunities. GovWin IQ and Bloomberg Government are among the most well-known. Others include GovPurchase, EZGovOpps, epipeline, Fedmine, and Govini. GovTech Navigator, GovWin IQ’s OnVia, and CJIS Group offer platforms focused on the state and local market. Pick the right platform, integrate it with your CRM platform if possible, and set up alerts to track news and information about the accounts on your hit list.
2. Read What The Government Publishes
Start with agency websites to get the lay of the land and learn about core mission elements and initiatives they are promoting or writing about. Review any Sources Sought notices you find, which represent public solicitations of interest and market research the agency is conducting to determine which capabilities already exist in the marketplace. And don’t forget about Federal Business Opportunities (FBO or FedBizOpps), where you’ll find open market solicitations for which the planned acquisition is $25,000 or greater. That’s low-hanging fruit and your competitors are probably already engaged on these, so don’t stop there.
Next, make sure you’ve read published government-wide strategies that indicate overarching priorities and trends. Examples include the National Cybersecurity Strategy, CloudSmart policy, and the President’s Management Agenda. The many media outlets and associations that cover government business track and report on these items relentlessly and translate them into high-level business language, giving you a great place to start.
Beyond that, consider reviewing Inspector General Reports from your target agencies to learn about problems and challenges they may be experiencing, as well as reports from the U.S. Government Accountability Office that explore issues your product or service may address. Here’s a recent example: an 86-page report from the GAO on information security that found Inspectors General from 17 of 23 agencies reported their programs were not effectively implemented. Think you’ll find some pain points in there? Read it to find out!
Another useful information source is the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s IT scorecard based on the Federal Information Technology Reform Acquisition Act (FITARA). MeriTalk recently launched a user-friendly FITARA Dashboard that makes this content easy to digest and hosted a useful webinar on the topic that’s worth your time.
3. Follow the Money
Annual appropriations budgets can be a tricky, complex, and dense source of information, particularly as continuing resolutions plague the budget process and make it more difficult to clearly identify new funds allocated to the development, modernization, and enhancement of IT systems (otherwise known as DME spending).
Unless you’re an expert at reading budget documents (or have access to one), you may be better off spending your time looking at:
The IT Dashboard gives the public the ability to view details of federal IT investments online and track their progress over time. It displays data received from agency IT Portfolio and Business Case Reports, including general information on over 7,000 federal IT investments and detailed data for more than 700 that are classified as “major.”
IT Portfolios (formerly known as the Exhibit 53) show how the largest government agencies manage their IT budgets. According to immixGroup’s Chris Wiedemann, who wrote a useful blog post on how to utilize this tool, “agencies are required to submit a wide range of data in their IT Portfolios, from simple three-year spending levels at each line item through to CIO evaluation scores, performance metrics, shared service categories and cloud spend rates.”
Business Case reports (available on the IT Dashboard) provide additional transparency into the cost, schedule, and performance data related to spending on “major” investments. Focus on your target agencies and dig into their specific reports.
4. Listen to What They Say in Public
We’ve all seen many of the same government speakers on the event circuit. Track the executives from the accounts you are targeting and make sure someone from your team is capturing information from their speeches at industry conferences, trade shows, and association events. Ensure you’re represented at Industry Days by someone who’s ready to take notes and provide information back to the extended marketing or content team.
Don’t forget to pay attention to Congressional testimony by agency heads, and the written reports that follow (such as this report on Artificial Intelligence released by the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee).
5. Capture What Your Team Already Knows
Your sales reps, product managers, account managers, channel partners, and customer service personnel are interacting with your customers and prospects on a daily basis. Consider holding regular get-togethers over lunch, hosting internal focus groups, or producing informal surveys of your team to capture and digest what they’re hearing in those interactions. In a future post I’ll write about how to incorporate those colleagues into your extended B2G content marketing team to guide, contribute to, validate, and distribute your content once it’s produced.
An Embarrassment of Riches
This article only covers a portion of the resources available to public sector marketers, with a focus on the IT industry. As you can see, there’s no lack of information available. The challenges revolve around finding the time and resources to review the data, understanding what you’re seeing, and applying it to your content strategies. After building a marketing career in both the B2B and B2G sectors, I see this as a good problem to have — and one that many B2B marketers should envy.
If it feels overwhelming, consider hiring an external consultant, market research firm (such as Market Connections), or marketing firm that specializes in the government sector. You’ll even find trade publishers (like GovExec’s Government Business Council) in the market that have their own internal research and intelligence capabilities. Ask what tools and information they use to advise their clients on campaigns, and ensure they are using these sources effectively to provide data-driven direction.
Not sure where to start? Contact me at arubin@marketb2g.com or call (571) 758-3323 to discuss your specific needs.
Allan Rubin is Owner and Principal Consultant at Market B2G, LLC, which provides Business-to-Government (B2G) marketing services for the government contracting community.
