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May 29, 2025
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3 minute read

B2B Marketing Strategy Check-In: Is It Time to Pivot?

Author: Natalie Solomon

We’re almost halfway through 2025, so now is the time to pause and take a hard look at your annual plan. What goals did you set? What assumptions were baked into your strategy? And—most importantly—are you still on track?

As a strategy-led marketing agency that caters to both B2C and B2B clients, we know that a mid-year marketing strategy appraisal is a critical discipline––especially for B2B businesses. In the B2B world, sales cycles are longer, buying decisions are more complex, and the ripple effects of macroeconomic or industry changes are more pronounced. If your strategy hasn’t been reviewed or recalibrated in the past six months, you’re likely flying blind.

Strategy Should Guide, Not Dictate

Annual strategies are important. They provide direction, focus your team, and keep your marketing efforts aligned with broader business goals. But they’re not set-it-and-forget-it documents. They should evolve.

The market shifts. Buyer behaviour shifts. Internal priorities shift. And sometimes, external forces you didn’t account for—like tariffs, supply chain issues, or regulatory changes—force your hand. These things weren’t necessarily on the radar during your annual planning session, but they’re here now. The smart move isn’t to throw your strategy out the window—it’s to adjust it with purpose.

Reacting without thinking it through often creates more problems than it solves. Strategic pivots, on the other hand, are based on data and context. That’s why a mid-year review is so valuable: it gives you the space to make those adjustments thoughtfully.

Agility doesn’t mean chaos. Your strategy should be a living document—grounded in long-term vision, but flexible enough to adapt to short-term realities.

Your Mid-Year Marketing Check-In: Top 5 Things to Review

Start with the big question: are the goals you set at the beginning of the year still relevant—and realistic?

If you were aiming for aggressive growth in Q1 and Q2 but the market cooled or priorities shifted, it’s time to reassess. That doesn’t mean scrapping your plan—it means refining it. By taking a proactive approach now, you can adapt your strategy thoughtfully and avoid reactionary decision-making later.

Here are five key areas every B2B business should evaluate mid-year:

  1. Content Relevance: Is your messaging still aligned with buyer pain points? Are you addressing what’s urgent to them right now?
  2. Lead Quality & Conversion: Are you attracting the right prospects? Are they converting?
  3. Channel Performance: What’s working? What’s lagging? Has your audience shifted platforms?
  4. Budget Allocation: Are you putting your money in the right places based on what the data is telling you?
  5. Competitive Landscape: Has a new player entered the market? Is a competitor gaining ground? What’s changed?

B2B businesses, in particular, can’t afford to wait until year-end to course correct. With longer lead times and more complex buying processes, any adjustments you make now may take weeks—or months—to show results. If you’re behind, it’s better to catch it early while there’s still time to shift gears. Take a step back, reassess your marketing game plan, and build a strategy that gets you back on track for Q3 and beyond.

Stay Agile Without Losing Focus

Agility doesn’t mean chaos. Your strategy should be a living document—grounded in long-term vision, but flexible enough to adapt to short-term realities. That balance is what separates strategic marketers from those who are constantly reacting.

When the environment shifts—like with new tariffs or global disruptions—you need to think critically: How does this affect our customers? Our messaging? Our timing? Don’t just pivot for the sake of it. Consider the full picture, adjust the right levers, and communicate clearly with your team about the “why” behind any changes.

Final Thought

The mid-year point is your opportunity to reset and refocus. Get honest about what’s working and what’s not, and use your strategy as a guide—but give yourself permission to evolve it. The goal isn’t to stay rigid. It’s to stay smart, so you can finish off the year on a high note.

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