Most B2B companies are dead in the water.
At least that’s true if they haven’t updated their marketing playbook in the last 24 months.
Thinks move fast these days and there are THOUSANDS of B2B organisations out there still running the same tired strategies that worked in 2010 and left feeling surprised at the diminishing year-on-year returns.
Instead of addressing the fundamental marketing strategy – how does our buyer like to buy and how do we meet them there? – businesses pump a ton of money chasing short-term results across short-lived experiments on channels they don’t understand.
You need to back to the beginning.
Below I’ve shared some of my strongly held beliefs that help guide my decision-making as a modern-day B2B marketer.
#1. Closing the Sales and Marketing Gap
I’ve written before about the relationship between sales and marketing. Commercial functions historically have been built around the concept of a marketing journey and a sales journey with some kind of handover in between where contact information is shared.
This is flawed thinking in 2022.
Buyers have more tools at their disposal than ever to influence their vendor selection. It’s possible for someone to do 100% of their research online and pull the trigger without ever speaking to a sales rep. And research suggests that it’s going to become more and more common.
For B2B brands this means taking a much closer look at the customer journey – not the ‘sales’ or ‘marketing’ one – and building a strategy backwards from here.
I break this down into three buckets:
- Aligned Leadership and Goals. Both functions must share common north star objectives that incentivise the accumulation of revenue through the generation of value.
- Optimised Organisation. Map team responsibilities against actual buyer behaviour backed by research, not assumed behaviour based on legacy thinking.
- Invest in Infrastructure. Operations are the single most underappreciated opportunity for B2B organisations to fix. You need the foundations before you can build the house.
You can learn more about my thinking on this here.
#2. Media as a Moat
Over the last half-decade or so there has been a renaissance in the appreciation of high-quality informational content. Spearheaded by Hubspot, inbound marketing has flourished as a dependable strategy to acquire and nurture new commercial opportunities.
Unfortunately, this has had an unintended consequence. Content has become a commodity.
It’s never been easier to quickly get a reasonably good looking inbound marketing programme off of the ground. And this has led to a tidal wave of information that floods our feeds until we don’t know where to look.
Today, it’s not so much a question of “can I create something?” as it is “can I create something that’s worth consuming repeatedly over everything else?”
I’ve been obsessing over the marketing strategy of ProfitWell for the last few weeks. It started after reading this blog post and listening to the accompanying podcast. You can check out the article for the full details, but essentially it boils down to this – media equals moat.
Every B2B organisation today should be focused on building an audience that sticks with them full-time; not just in the moments when they’re in-market for a solution. This comes with an acceptance that:
- Value should be given freely and without obligation. Being helpful is good for the community and for business.
- Creative is key. 75% of B2B brands are failing to produce collateral that drives long-term growth – or in other words, is boring as hell. Be better.
- Results are gradual and consistent. Your goal is to build trust and this takes time. But the results will be orders of magnitude higher in the long-term.
#3. People as Brands
There is one marketing statistic I love above all others.
On average, a company’s employees’ networks are at least 10x larger than a company’s follower base.
It’s so powerful because it represents a huge opportunity that any organisation – from fledgling startup to established enterprise – can (and should) take advantage of.
People buy from people. It’s cliche, but it’s true. And they don’t just buy – they engage with people. Learn from people. Connect with people. It comes as natural to us as flight comes to a bird.
Can the same happen with brands? Sure, but it requires concentrated investment over a significant period of time to achieve deep coverage. It is far easier – and more effective over the long-term – to lean into the power of employer advocacy.
All B2B companies should be developing playbooks right now on how to equip colleagues with the tools needed to be effective on social media. Not only that, they should actively invest in developing the willing into thought leaders in their own right.
“What if they decide to leave?” says the CEO worried about plumping up an employee for a competitor to come and poach.
But really the question is – what if they decide to stay?
You employee’s networks are 10x larger than your brand following. Their posts are viewed as 3x more authentic. And they have a 2x higher click-through rate. Advocacy is a no-brainer.
