Every once in a while, there comes a golden opportunity for marketers to jump on a timely topic. You might recall when the Barbie movie was released, Airbnb used it as an opportunity to create hype videos for a stay at the real-world Malibu DreamHouse. Or when Uber partnered with Etsy to place friendship bracelets in Uber rides to coincide with Taylor Swift’s Eras tour dates, including offers for a discounted future ride.
Sure, these are some big names and fun examples. But the same sentiment rings true in the B2B space: being able to effectively respond to trends, news and cultural movements in a timely way delivers a big impact. When B2B companies can launch digital campaigns faster, they set themselves up for increased visibility, engagement and conversions.
The unfortunate reality is that many teams struggle to execute quickly. One of the biggest reasons, as highlighted by the responses to a recent Kuno newsletter poll, is lengthy approval processes. (More on this below.) With too much red tape getting in the way of their digital marketing strategy, B2B brands are at risk of losing relevance, revenue and competitive advantage in their respective industries.
If you’re wondering how to adopt more of a real-time marketing strategy, this is a good read for you.
Why Real-Time Marketing Is More Critical Than Ever in B2B
B2B buyers aren’t just evaluating solutions. They’re assessing how well your business understands the latest industry news and trends, with an expectation that you’ll engage in these conversations. Being able to deliver insights and responses in a timely manner tends to foster a more positive brand perception.
When the FDA released updated AI validation and compliance guidelines, GE Healthcare quickly published a breakdown of what the new rules meant for radiologists and hospital administrators. By delivering timely, expert-driven content via blogs, whitepapers, and LinkedIn discussions, GE positioned itself as a trusted resource.
While B2B transactions may take time, vendors and partners are looking for companies that can quickly respond to industry shifts and emerging trends. While this inevitably takes time from a solutions standpoint, executing a real-time marketing strategy that ties in with these changes shows a brand is dialed in and moving in a strategic direction. A brand that is slow to react may raise doubts about their ability to be proactive in both the service and solutions they provide.
All the while, AI-driven content is growing fast. B2B audiences are craving real stories, human insights and unique perspectives that go beyond AI-generated output or summaries. They want insightful content that helps them navigate the current state of the market, not the market of years’ past.
How Lengthy Approval Processes Kills Marketing Campaign Momentum
For many marketing teams, approval processes act as bureaucratic roadblocks rather than as a safeguard. When multiple layers of approval are required for every piece of content, campaigns stall, momentum is lost and real-time marketing opportunities slip away. Often, this can lead to lost motivation, deteriorating morale and a risk to keeping your brand where you want it to be in the eyes of your market.
Some of the most common hurdles in the approval process include:
- Too Many Decision-Makers: The more people involved, the longer it takes to finalize content—leading to endless revisions and often conflicting feedback
- Legal and Compliance Bottlenecks: Legal reviews for every campaign in industries with strict compliance guidelines can cause even routine content to get stuck in approval limbo
- Lack of Clear Approval Tiers: Many teams treat every piece of content the same, even though not all content requires the same level of scrutiny
- Silos Between Departments: Teams operating in silos experience communication gaps and approval delays
- No Standardized Workflow or Automation: Manual approval processes, like sending files over email or multiple review rounds, create unnecessary delays
If it takes weeks versus days to approve a campaign, the trend or industry shift that made a campaign relevant may already be old news. Meanwhile, a faster-moving brand can step in to dominate the industry conversations and outpace the competition.
Strategies To Streamline the Approval Process & Move Faster
Launching digital campaigns faster doesn’t have to come at the expense of quality. By implementing smart approval strategies, teams can accelerate their marketing efforts while laying the groundwork for campaign success.
Here are some things you can do to reduce approval time and keep campaigns moving forward:
Implement Pre-Approved Content Templates
Have key stakeholders review a series of marketing assets—from email templates to messaging frameworks—and add them to a library of pre-approved content assets. Marketing teams can use these components as a starting point for developing real-time marketing content, customizing them based on the use case and streamlining sign-offs.
The brand guidelines and buyer personas we develop at Kuno contain pre-approved messaging frameworks. These resources provide marketing teams with ready-to-use messaging tailored to their audience.
Using AI and Automation for Faster Approvals
By leveraging AI, brands can turn one piece of approved content into multiple formats, generating high-value, real-time marketing materials using key messaging. Kuno uses tools like HubSpot’s Breeze to help brands repurpose content quickly—turning an approved whitepaper, for instance, into blog posts, emails, social media snippets and more.
Automated notifications, meanwhile, via a project management tool keep stakeholders informed of any tasks on their plate and accountable for their part in the approval process.
Establishing a Tiered Approval System
At the start of every client engagement, Kuno helps define a tiered content review system designed for efficiency. A tiered approval system categorizes content based on risk, giving high-priority content like press releases and compliance-sensitive content necessary oversight while low-risk content like social media posts and blog posts can move faster. This system should be defined by pre-set guidelines with a clear understanding of approval roles within teams.
Enable Real-Time Marketing With an Agile Approach
While approvals support the execution of a real-time marketing strategy, it’s an agile approach that plants the seeds for these marketing campaigns in the first place. When teams collaborate and marketers listen, they’re better equipped to stay on top of their industry and act accordingly.
Breaking Down Traditional Silos
Just as marketing teams need input from sales and customers’ success to understand their target audience, the same can be said for industry news and trends. Having these teams, as well as leadership, involved in real-time marketing strategy discussions can help shape existing concepts, or even shed light on new ideas to pursue. In either case, there will be less back-and-forth down the road.
Social Listening & Trend Monitoring
In real-time marketing, spotting the trend at the right moment is crucial. What are your customers, competitors and influencers talking about? Monitoring industry conversations on social media and in search can provide you with real-time data to act on. Tracking audience sentiment can further help you define which topics to engage with.
How Kuno Helps Brands Launch Digital Campaigns Faster
At Kuno, we help businesses capitalize on real-time marketing opportunities without getting stuck in red tape. Our approach ensures that every campaign—whether planned months in advance or turned around in a matter of days—is strategic, high-quality and results-driven.
Take, for example, AAON’s trade show campaign. With only eight days’ notice, they needed a bold, attention-grabbing way to promote their new video at a major HVAC industry event—without having a booth. Kuno quickly put together a multi-channel strategy, including a cinematic teaser landing page, geofenced and programmatic digital ads, organic social media syndication and on-site activation in Orlando at the event.
The results: immediate engagement and buzz. AAON’s video was widely shared across the industry, driving nearly 4,000 views and 80 social shares from a campaign executed in days.
This is what real-time marketing done right looks like: fast, strategic, and impactful.
For more insights on how to launch digital campaigns faster, see this resource.
