023 - Marketing is responsible for sales
“We want revenue accountability for marketing. That's the only way we can scale marketing's impact.”
1* Marketing is responsible for sales
“We want revenue accountability for marketing. That's the only way we can scale marketing's impact.”
Our job is no longer providing just “leads”, website copy and running ads.
Modern-day B2B marketers are responsible for revenue, as much as the sales team.
The more ingrained you and your marketing team are in the buyer's journey, the greater the impact and influence your marketing will have on sales.
2* 25 things buyers do all the time that NEVER get tracked by attribution software
This LinkedIn post from Chris Walker reiterates the evolving behaviours and actions of your buyers that won’t be tracked by HubSpot, Salesforce or any other attribution software you use.
Attribution platforms play a key role in your measurement framework, but it shouldn't dedicate all your marketing decisions.
Rory Sutherland coined the phrase “the more you measure, the less you can profit from the immeasurable”.
This of course doesn’t dilute the importance of being data driven, but don’t succumb to analysis paralysis over every single marketing decision.
The point is, that your buyers are being influenced by immeasurable actions.
If all your thinking, time and energy are being ploughed into marketing efforts that need to be accounted for, tracked and have direct ROI attributed to them, then you’ll be missing out on huge opportunities for growth.
3* Are pandemic behaviours here to stay
This fantastic piece of research identifies emerging behaviours from a pandemic era.
This 15-minute video shares some truly interesting insights around the challenges we marketers face from a more demanding customer.
Expectations from brands are at an all-time high, competition has increased, our buyers are under more pressure and the landscape is more complex than ever.
As a result, we’re seeing some emerging trends from the pandemic, the question is, are these here to stay.
Here are 5 key takeaways from this piece.
The sales cycle is taking longer
Customers want ALL decision-making information readily available on their terms
Customers have more brands in mind when they come to purchase
Expectations from more insight and an experience when customers speak to sales
Ethically brand positioning has less influence on sales vs marketing expectations
Conversations You Should Read
“What POSITIONING is and isn’t”
Making the switch from leadgen to demand gen
6 mistakes when planning B2B marketing campaigns
If you don't know how to build a marketing strategy, focus on fixing what already exists
Tools & Platforms
Each week I share a tool I have used, plan to use or I find interesting.
We don’t have one tool to share this week, but a curation of the “Ultimate Tech Stack”
My favourites from this list include Hotjar, Unbounce and SquareSpace.
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022 - Effective messaging is effective marketing
You can adapt your message, increase your sign ups and still not understand what has really influenced the sign up or purchase.
1* Effective messaging is effective marketing.
You can adapt your message, increase your sign ups and still not understand what has really influenced the sign up or purchase.
“Someone signing up for your thing after consuming your messaging is the effect. You can't impact the effect directly. Instead, you need to work on the cause.
To understand what makes messaging work, you need to distil it down to components:
1) clarity - do they get it?
2) relevance - is it aligned with their priorities and challenges?
3) value - do they want the promised value?
4) differentiation - why this and not the other thing?
5) brand - what does it say about me when I buy you?”
This is super smart.
It’s easy to get caught up in the quant data.
You make a change, CTRs go up, CAC goes down and you relish the praise thrown upon you.
But you haven’t truly understood what’s made that shift to enable that impact.
Truly understanding the cause will bring a more sustained impact.
Read Peep’s original post here
2* The curious case of attribution software.
Attribution software can be…
𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 - bring more insight to the customer journey
𝐀𝐠𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 - collate useful sales and marketing data/insight into one source
𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐍𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐫 - sending emails based on behavioural triggers can offer timely email prompts
Attribution software can also be...
𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 - Attribution software cannot accurately capture what’s really going on behind the scenes (“dark social”) which plays a key role in driving business decisions
𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐲 - Making big investments and bets on inaccurate data alone can lead to the wrong strategy, the wrong execution, and the wrong measurement of success
𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐎𝐟 𝐖𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 - Attribution software continues to flourish, they seem to be popping up everywhere. But no one seems to be trying to address some of the questionable data they attribute
Are attribution platforms important?
Absolutely, they play an important role in the overall measurement framework you and your team need to have in place. Their data, along with various other touchpoints (paid media platform data, website behavioural data, qualitative data) need to be taken into account when making key strategic and tactical marketing decisions.
Should you be 100% reliant on their data alone?
Absolutely not.
The B2B buying ecosystem is too complex to be reliant on any one source, attribution data needs to be taken into account and measured, along with a variety of customer and data insight.
B2B Excellence - Original Source
3* The problem with creating new demand.
“If you're mapping out content based on paint points, you're focusing on capturing existing demand.”
PLEASE READ THAT AGAIN.
It’s easy to gloss over this statement because it seems obvious.
But it’s profound, in the sense most content strategy consist of “focusing on pain points”.
And Jay is absolutely right.
When your focus, marketing and strategy is based on an existing belief, it’s difficult to shift the narrative.
Changing an ingrained behaviour or view, is tough.
If your product serves a different belief to the current behaviour you need to map out a different strategy to help change their existing belief.
Here’s an action.
Map out your audience, where they sit within your beliefs. And create a cadence that slowly shifts their beliefs to align with your value proposition and belief.
Jay Baron builds on this framework, but here are action points.
“🧊 Cold Audience(s): Map content to your buyers existing beliefs and shift them. Show them what's wrong with continuing these beliefs. You'll start to create and agitate pain.
🌡️ Warm Audience(s): Now that they have a new *narrative* you need to change their behaviour. As buyers have a new belief show them what they should be doing with it.
🔥 Hot Audience(s) Content that shows them how you help customers win with this new narrative. How are other buyers winning and how does your product help them win.”
To read Jay’s entire thinking, check out his post here.
Conversations You Should Read
Do you think Email is still an effective channel for B2B content distribution?
Data is only as good as the person analyzing it.
Fundamental skills needed for B2B marketing to SMBs
Here is how to start being taken seriously by 6-figure buyers
Tools & Platforms
Each week I share a tool I have used, plan to use or I find interesting.
A curation of the best of the best of B2B industry ads so you can get inspired and spark new ideas on how to make your own ads more effective.
https://oribi.io/ultimate-b2b-ads-library
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021 - The Real Marketing Funnel
Let’s move away from short term planning and focus on long term brand building.
1* - The Real Marketing Funnel
Less than 5% of your customers are ready to buy from you.
Marketers know this figure.
But yet, our actual marketing is still geared towards the 1-5%, and not the 95%.
Let’s move away from short term planning and focus on long term brand building.
2* Jobs To Be Done - Excellent Explanation
Harvard Business School marketing professor Theodore Levitt said, “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!” Clayton Christensen says, “People buy products and services to get a job done”.
For those unfamiliar with the jobs to be done framework, this is a beautifully simplified articulation of the jobs-to-be-done methodology.
Katelyn Bourgoin shares her own experience about purchasing an alarm clock.
She describes how brands selling alarm clocks missed a trick, and her example shows how easy it is for brands to get lost in a sea of mediocrity by selling based on features, vs selling on the output of the job someone is trying to complete.
Katelyn talks about how when browsing through Amazon to purchase an alarm clock, she noticed every single product focuses on the functionality of the alarm, the chimes, the casing, the shape, and size.
But no one discussed why people were hiring the alarm clock, and what job it was being brought to do.
Her example touched on the fact she wanted to get into shape, and she wanted a traditional alarm that had no snooze button.
This was an opportunity for a brand to have their Purple Cow moment.
Instead of blending into the dozens of alarm clock options available on Amazon, a brand could have easily stood out and resonated with a customer who instead of focusing on features, sold a better you, a healthy you, what if the alarm clock was a symbol of accomplishment for what the alarm clock allowed you to do.
Get up early, start the day with a win, go for a run, and start your journey to a better you.
What positioning would resonate with a customer in market for an alarm clock to help with their fitness routine?
“A beautifully crafted traditional metallic alarm clock for £5.99”, or “Our alarm clocks are designed to kick start your new fitness routine, our no snooze option ensures you get out of bed and start the day”
This 18 min video is an excellent watch.
3* Lead Gen to Demand Gen
“But how do you measure it?”
This seems to be one of the biggest objections to moving from a lead gen model to a demand gen model.
Cognism’s journey from a lead gen focused strategy to demand gen strategy is well documented.
The Cognism team continues to open up on their journey on how they’re evolving their marketing strategy to be more accustomed to how their buyer buys today,
They share practical steps and suggestions on how you can follow suit.
The irony is this is making for fantastic social content for their strategy.
This 10-minute video shares their 6 key pillars to their measurement framework, they include.
Splitting the funnel
Inbound velocity
The sales cycle
Measuring Awareness Ads
Measuring Performance Ads
Human Attribution
If you’re interested in learning more, follow Liam Bartholomew and Alice de Courcy
Conversations You Should Read
Is your goal to drive a user to your website or to consume your content?
The problem with creating new demand
3 inexpensive things you can do to fix your positioning cadence
A Twitter Thread - What a coached learned from speaking with senior marketing leaders
“Every product has a unique personality and it's your job to find it” — Joe Sugarman
Tools & Platforms
Each week I share a tool I have used, plan to use or I find interesting.
Are you a creator thinking about how you can profit on your skills and experience, GumRoad offers creators the opportunity to sell their expertise and digital IP online.
020 - You can’t measure so you don’t do it
Unfortunately, some of the best opportunities to grow your brand are being ignored because attribution platforms cannot accurately track them.
1* You can’t measure so you don’t do it
Unfortunately, some of the best opportunities to grow your brand are being ignored because attribution platforms cannot accurately track them.
Podcasts, Community Management, Connected TV, Digital OOH, Content Partnerships, to name some.
All incredibly effective channels for content creation, storytelling, brand awareness and customer education.
However, their inability to directly attribute a sale or “lead” often means providing direct ROI is difficult, so they're substituted for traditional digital marketing solutions.
Attribution platforms alone should not dictate all marketing decisions.
Qualitative data, amongst others, should help inform a broader more informed view of your marketing decisions.
Chris Walker identifies additional data points that should be helping to drive your decision making.
Customer insights should play a much more prominent role in the strategic direction you take.
Using self-attribution and simply listening to your customers first-hand are two simple mechanisms for getting business-changing insights.
Watch the three-minute video here.
2* Content is great, but if no one sees it, what’s the point
How much of your time is spent creating content vs promoting it?
All that time spent on research, all those edits from everyone who seems to have an opinion on your content, all that back and forth selecting the best images.
All for that magic moment to launch into the world, and for your job to be done.
Wrong.
This is half of the battle, if not, just the start.
You should be spending at least the same amount of time putting together the article, as you do to promote, if not, a lot more.
Create. Promote, Promote, Promote, Repurpose Promote, Promote. Repeat
3* Three Routes For Growth
Performance marketing, brand awareness and demand generation.
Highly complementary strategies, but what do they actually mean?
Performance marketing, capturing demand from the 5% of the customer base who are in the market to buy. These will be customers who need your service/product right now, who will turn to their friends and colleagues for recommendations, the influencers they follow, they will leverage Google for research, they will ask the communities they’re a part of or they will go to review sites such as Capterra.
All intent signals that someone is ready to buy, and your marketing needs to reflect these behaviours.
That means, having a presence on Google and other search platforms, running campaigns in Capterra and other review websites and being active in communities where your buyers hang out.
Brand awareness is keeping your brand front of mind. So when a buyer becomes active, your brand is one of the 2-to 4 brands buyers will consider.
Most platforms can act as a brand awareness platform if done correctly, but some channels are more effective than others, this can be TV, OOH, Radio, Press, Events, Sponsorships, Programmatic, LinkedIn, and most other social media channels
Demand generation shares traits and tactics with brand awareness but has distinct strategy differences.
Demand generation focuses on attracting intent inbound opportunities.
Tactics are built around the creation and distribution of content, anchored to position you and your business as an authority, and to build interest around the POV you develop.
Content underpins this approach, this can be an organic social media strategy, the creation and development of your podcast or community, long videos or short-form videos, actionable guides, well thought out opinion pieces, or a newsletter.
The list is endless, and it’s typically not one content pillar, it’s usually a diverse blend, repurposed across multiple channels.
This post was inspired by this source.
4* Content consumption that signals intent
“The more content an audience is consuming, the more likely that audience is to be nearing a purchase decision”
This piece of research isn’t surprising, but it reiterates the importance of content.
Content shouldn’t only underpin your growth strategy. It should be top of the funnel, bottom of the funnel and everything in between.
Check out this report to get the full in-depth insight.
Conversations You Should Read
Create a demand waterfall and generate sales opportunities
Balancing LeadGen and DemandGen
Pay attention to your negative customer feedback! It’s more valuable than you think
Fostering a culture of celebrating each other’s work and creative ideas
99% of B2B SaaS companies I see don’t measure demand gen properly
Tools & Platforms
Each week I share a tool I have used, plan to use or I find interesting.
Get face-to-face with your prospects, customers or audience through asynchronous video.
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019 - Product Marketing Masterclass
This is powerful and a fantastic reminder of how two very successful growth businesses still don’t have it all figured out
1* Product Marketing Masterclass
This post serves two purposes.
One, is the seamless integration of Wynter, and how it’s incredibly smart founder Peer Laja organically discusses two other brands, whilst his brand is front and centre. Very organic, very smart, and product marketing at its best.
Secondly, watch the breakdown of how customers respond to different messaging, language and positioning of two competitors.
The use of real English vs jargon.
This is powerful and a fantastic reminder of how two very successful growth businesses still don’t have it all figured out.
This would be a great exercise for you and your business to review, with potential customers.
2*The ‘Flippening’ will usher in a Golden Age of B2B marketing
“We believe B2B marketing is on the cusp of a Golden Age, a glorious revolution that shall be ushered in by a momentous event.
And we call this event…the Flippening.”
This is a really interesting read from the clever folks over at LinkedIn.
This opinion piece shares an optimistic view of change, one where organisations place the marketing dollars into future planning and buying, coordinating their marketing efforts around the current habits of modern-day B2B buyers.
I share this sense of optimism, albeit I don’t think it’s quite on the cusp of a revolution. But the wheels are in motion, B2B is getting better, smarter, more strategic and more creative.
I would pit B2B marketing against the “product adoption curve” and say we are in the early adopter stage of The Flippening.
Change is coming, but how quickly, I’m not sure,
3 *Marketing is so hard, but we do overcomplicate it
Human beings have become accustomed to having anything we want, when we want it, with a few clicks of a button.
The most successful B2C businesses in the world make it easy for their customers to buy their products, unsubscribe from their services and send unwanted gifts back.
But yet, in B2B, we make it a little bit harder, we add a little more friction, and we make it a little more frustrating.
So when I go to your site to buy your product, why do I have to speak to a chatbot first?
Qualification calls when I’m ready to buy something.
Hidden prices so I have to talk to sales.
The list goes on.
Make your buyer's experience frictionless, easy and customer first.
Check out Chris Walker’s post where he shares his simplistic views on keeping it simple and putting the buyer's experience first.
4* Creating Demand With A Compelling Brand Narrative
I love this point of view on creating demand from a brand narrative and how not to “get lost in a sea” of who has the best feature, product, service.
It’s about being so obsessed with knowing your customers, that you can craft and shape a compelling narrative around a POV you completely own.
Doing so, forces you to reach new heights in understanding your customer, and potentially exposes those that don’t.
The full-length video goes on to talk about the difference between brand awareness and demand generation, along with some clear actionable advice on creating your brand narrative.
This is great viewing.
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018 - world-class storytelling
What an amazing piece of content from Apple.
1* World-class storytelling
What an amazing piece of content from Apple.
It’s not B2B, but it's truly a wonderful piece of content bang on trend, with The Great Resignation playing as a theme.
Four plucky work friends dream of a better life, a life away from their demanding belittling boss.
Throughout this 9-minute spot, you’ll see four co-workers come together to quit their job, and you watch in awe at how they overcome the modern-day challenges of building a business.
Apple is beautifully intertwined throughout, it’s a wonderful example of brand storytelling.
Please take 9 minutes out of your day to watch this video.
2* Defining what success looks like
There are multiple permutations of metrics that can make up your measurement framework.
This is a list of potential metrics that can help measure the success of your marketing.
Not all of these metrics will be relevant for your business.
But these metrics have a common theme amongst them.
It’s a list of growth and revenue metrics.
There are a lot of metrics that help measure success for you and your organisation, and it shouldn’t be made up of one number, but a variety of different metrics that help measure success.
But one key component of your measurement framework is a metric that you can tie back to business impact, sales, new customers, revenue, a number that clearly represents growth.
For your next marketing campaign, review what metrics you deem successful and understand what metrics could be potentially included that influence business growth.
It doesn't matter if you have a brand or performance campaign, if the goal is to generate demand, all marketing activity can (and should) be tied to some form of metric that influences business growth, either directly or indirectly.
What’s your metric?
3* This post received over 1,000 engagements
A healthy reminder to truly understand the impact of your role.
Our job will all have a dose of necessary administrative tasks, but they don’t truly reflect what we will be ultimately measured against.
What parts of your role are the equivalent of “posting on social” and how much of your time is spent vs “creating content that educates”.
This has made me rethink where some of my time is spent.
4* 8 counterintuitive marketing strategies that actually work
This is an interesting article from the founding team at the SEO giant Moz.
Sometimes logic suggests a way of working just doesn’t make sense, it isn’t scalable, it’s not efficient, and it’s time-consuming.
But sometimes, that’s OK.
Sometimes, the more time consuming and the inefficient task is the right thing to do.
For example, I like No5.
Focus on niche channels to gain greater ROI.
Your more profitable and loyal customers don’t always hang around LinkedIn or wait for a sales outreach message. Your best customers could be a follower of a niche newsletter, a member of a slack community or maybe a member of an activity forum.
Investing time, money and resources into these channels/environments is sometimes hard to justify, hard to measure, it takes a lot of time and effort, it doesn’t always make sense at face value, but sometimes, doing the opposite to everyone else is the right thing to do to find those high-value customers for your business.
Conversations You Should Read
The Top Customer Success Metrics
What’s your marketing strategy?
What is "Community Management" in modern B2B?
Tools & Platforms
Each week I share a tool I have used, plan to use or I find interesting.
Create online graphics in a snap.
Whip up graphics for social media, ads, blogs, and more—even if you're not a graphic designer.
017 - Extra armour to your measurement framework
Self-reporting. A form of measurement that allows marketers to get a better understanding of where and how your customers have found out about you.
1* Extra armour to your measurement framework
Self-reporting. A form of measurement that allows marketers to get a better understanding of where and how your customers have found out about you.
Simply put, it’s a signup form, with an open-ended field asking, “Where have you heard about us”.
This is not new, or revolutionary.
But how you use, apply and think about it could be.
This is a simple outline of what self-reporting is and isn’t, from Silvia Valencia.
How would I use it?
Cross reference CRM data to self-reporting data to better understand discrepancies between source attribution
Learn what channels / content is really driving our customers to get in touch (then do more of that thing)
Use it as another touch point with my platform data, attribution software, my qualitative feedback and customer feedback. I’d use all of this to inform my next marketing decisions
2* The 8 roles all-new CMOs need to play
For those with aspirations to climb the marketing leader, the New CMO is much more than a marketing leader.
Shiv Narayanan outlines the key responsibilities for the modern-day CMO.
1) Be revenue accountable and tie all activities to revenue impact
2) Be one of the key leaders on the sales side of the business to understand how to impact revenue even more
3) Be the designer of customer experiences throughout the full journey
4) Be a brand builder and category creator
5) Be a member / leader of the pricing committee
6) Be a driver of strategic growth initiatives, including involvement in product management
7) Be a corporate development officer to support M&A activities of the company
8) Be a financial steward who ensures delivery of growth and EBITDA
3* The debate continues. Lead gen vs demand gen
“MQLs are the contact information for an uninterested buyer” – Love this.
But I would change it to. “MQLs are the contact information for an uninterested buyer, right now”
Keeping your sales team busy is not your job as a marketer.
Your job is to make sales easier.
Nelson discusses the difference between lead gen vs demand gen and outlines its sales developments vs marketing, and how more and more businesses are becoming marketing-led, and shifting away from being sales-led organisations.
4* Creative Investment ✔️ Marketing Investment ✔️ Tech Investment ✔️ Messaging Testing ❌
I found this intro to Peep Laja’s latest newsletter.
“Imagine sales doing demos in a Zoom call where the leads have both their mic and cam off.
Zero feedback. Can't pick up on cues nor ask questions.
The only thing you see is if they buy in the end or not. You'd have no way to improve your pitch. It'd be insane. No one in their right mind would do it.
Yet it's somehow the normal and standard way of doing it when it comes to messaging. If you don't conduct message testing to improve your messaging, it's like doing sales calls while leads have their mic and cam off.”
We spend so much time devising a marketing strategy, getting internal sign-off, we spend thousands on creative and content resources, we spend hours setting up and optimising campaigns, even more time on reporting.
But yet, we don’t ringfence anytime understanding if our message is landing beyond metrics such as CTR.
Getting feedback on your messaging could be the difference between all that time invested being a fantastic use of time or potentially squandered.
Allocating time to get sufficient feedback on your copy, from your customers, will only help your campaign.
Pivoting, or pausing mid-flight in campaigns to fix or optimise “poor” performance, slows down momentum, and increases the additional time needed for that campaign.
Would factoring in extra time and resources at the start of your campaign, to get feedback from a handful of your ICP help improve your campaign?
Conversations You Should Read
A mental model for how to think about setting up your B2B marketing machine
Creating vs. Capturing Demand from a buyer's perspective
Create opportunities for others to create value
Tools & Platforms
Each week I share a tool I have used, plan to use or I find interesting.
Scale your content creation effortlessly.
Testimonial is a really cool tool for collecting video feedback.
016 - "Data-driven" is one of the biggest mistakes in B2B marketing
There has been a lot of content recently around this idyllic philosophy that companies simply need to focus on building their brand, to create thumb-stopping engaging content, attribution is bad and paying for expensive technology is stupid.
1* "Data-driven" is one of the biggest mistakes in B2B marketing
There has been a lot of content recently around this idyllic philosophy that companies simply need to focus on building their brand, to create thumb-stopping engaging content, attribution is bad and paying for expensive technology is stupid.
The smart folks at Refine Labs, led by Chris Walker have created a wave of marketers repurposing their original point of view, with water down content with little substance.
Attribution is not bad, it’s an important piece of creating an informed view of your marketing. It shouldn’t be your only source, there is not such a thing as a single source of truth, but many sources, all collected together, analysed, with context, to help strategic thinking and planning.
This header and the opening paragraph “Most B2B interactions cannot be measured” is just wrong.
Yes, attribution can’t directly measure large components of the B2B buyer's journey, but you can consider a whole host of different strategies to measure your marketing, with data, for example.
Brand studies - how is your marketing influencing sentiment and purchasing intent for your business?
Brand Terms / Direct traffic - have you seen an increase in users searching for your business with an increase in brand investment?
Qualitative - sign up form asking where they have heard from you
Qualified Pipeline CVR - An increase in CVR from qualified pipeline vs marketing investment, by source
There is no perfect world for measuring your marketing efforts, and your data isn’t perfect, but with context, a smart framework, and a well thought out data strategy, YOU CAN MEASURE IT.
2* When was the last time you spoke with your customers
Joe goes on to say…
A. The best content topics come from the mouths of your prospects
B. The best insights come from the brains of your SMEs
I’m not sure point B hit home for me.
But point A really resonated.
How much of your planned content for 2022 was informed by speaking with customers and how much was informed by thinking what they want.
It’s a healthy reminder to ensure we’re always creating content for our customers. It's a big investment of time, resources and effort, so don’t skim over the basics of ensuring your customers will like your content.
When was the time you had a conversation with your customer, carried out market research, had feedback on copy from your customers, or listened to a sales call?
If you're creating content, and hopefully you are. When was the last time you carried out any of the above?
3* Top 18 B2B marketing themes that never seem to get old
I had the intention to share my top 3 themes, but honestly, I couldn't decide, so I thought I would list ones I would include.
Create content for people, not algorithms
Use platforms and channels for how your customers use them (Linkedin, consume content - so make it easy for users to consume it, post natively and don’t ask for an email. Intent search keywords, make your landing pages frictionless and easy to get in touch)
Be wary of the anti-data movement!
I would love to hear from you! What would you include?
4* Uncovering the Truth About Account-Based Strategies in Europe
This ebook has some interesting takeaways around the behaviours of ABM in Europe. Here are 4 key takeaways you’ll get from this article.
An evaluation of the technologies that leading companies use to ensure that their Sales and Marketing teams are working in an integrated and holistic way.
A review of the maturity of account based strategies across different European markets.
An insight into how European Marketing and Sales teams have overcome their pain points through effective ABM evolution.
An overview of how leading companies have worked to overcome GTM fragmentation through working smarter, not harder.
Conversations You Should Read
Gating and ungated your content - “data insights”
The future of B2B influencer marketing?
Struggling to move from lead gen to demand gen due to budget?
Tools & Platforms
Each week I share a tool I have used, plan to use or I find interesting.
Testimonial is a really cool tool for collecting video feedback.
015 - Google's newest competitor isn’t a search engine
But how satisfied will your customers be when they “google” their problem or solution they seek and find the most optimised content. How does your SEO ranked piece of content help them? How satisfied will they be with your ranked piece of content?
1* Google’s newest competitor isn’t a search engine
This simple three sentenced post provoked over 220 comments.
For good reason, because I think Michael is absolutely right.
I’m finding Google is becoming less and less relevant for good quality content, yet, for all my personal needs, like buying a wardrobe, looking for the nearest hardware store, and when the local dumb is open (I have recently moved and these are my most recent searches), Google is the King, Queen and Emperor. But, for smart, original, intelligent content, for research on a pain point I have for my job, it’s becoming less and less helpful.
Google is an intent and research channel, your buyers will mostly start or end up here at some point when they’re researching for products like yours.
Despite it, in my view, becoming less informative and less of a reliable source to find good quality content, it’s still the ingrained behaviour for most B2B buyers.
But how satisfied will your customers be when they “google” their problem or solution they seek and find the most optimised content. How does your SEO ranked piece of content help them? How satisfied will they be with your ranked piece of content? How does your search strategy reflect the problem your buyer is trying to solve?
This need to be the mindset, and consideration. Vs all out focus on “how do we get more clicks”, “improve our CTR” and “to get people on our website”.
I think this will be an emerging shift, Google isn’t going away, but it won’t be the sole owner of choice for users seeking answers.
Your customers are already turning to their community of choice and influencers they follow to seek answers vs Google.
Then how does your marketing reflect this behaviour?
2* Mo Data, Mo Problems
Covid has impacted the world and businesses forever - “Captain Obvious”.
But, this interesting report (attached) from Treasure Data has highlighted some revealing behaviour changes from both business and marketing leaders.
At its core, with such an evolving environment, businesses have struggled to maintain the pace of change, and the influx of data is increasing the complexity, decisions making, and confidence professionals have in making key business decisions.
Behaviours that we need to take into account as professional marketers, marketing to such audiences.
Here are four really interesting takeaways from this report.
57% of C-Suite leaders take longer to deliberate over key business decisions, post height of COVID
FOMU (Fear of messing up) is on the rise
Four in 10 leaders say they don’t feel confident using data to make decisions.
56% of marketers don’t feel they harness the power of data
3* The real marketing funnel
On my quest to encourage change, and to shift away from brands focusing solely on generating leads. I came across this really simple visualisation of your target audience.
Your audience, category and product aren’t different, the below will be a pretty good description of your customer base.
1-5% of your customers are not ready to buy.
Is your marketing geared towards the 1-5% or the 95%?.
A simple framework to help shape your Demand Gen approach.
Jonathan Bland and his team have put together this canvas for you to download and use, check it out directly here.
Conversations You Should Read
The difference between average, good and great marketers
Over-frequency is not talked about enough in paid social
10 Reasons Sales Efficiency Plummets as You Approach 10m ARR
Some Zoom banter, pretty good actually
Tools & Platforms
Each week I share a tool I have used, plan to use or I find interesting.
Do you want to spy on your competitors, see what they’re promoting and how?
AdBeat allows you to quickly gather intel on your competitor’s creative, messaging and landing pages being used
014 - Yes, you need a good product, but it's not enough to win in the market
Everybody says B2B marketing is boring. But nobody talks about WHY it's boring
1* The power of a good idea
There was a lot of hype, and rightly so about the infamous Coinbase Superbowl ad. It’s not often you get such a simple creative execution that captivates so many. My LinkedIn feed has been full of opinion pieces on the ad, but in keeping with simplicity, I really liked this succinct summary from Milkroad.
“• 117M people watched
• 20% scan the QR code (the chief product officer said the page got 20M visits in 1 minute)
• 10% signup
• 20% of them link their bank account
• = ~500k new customers
What’s 500k customers worth to Coinbase? Does that cover the $14M spent on the ad?
According to their last quarterly report, the average customer generates $90 in revenue per year for them. Let’s say these Super Bowl customers are half as valuable (lower intent).
$45 revenue per user x 500,000 new users = $22.5M”
2* Lines continue to blur from one company page to another
Spidey caused a bit of a storm, check out the 825+likes and 65+ comments for this post.
So, whilst Marvel’s latest addition caused a stir, how do you break the chain of a model that works, and actually should you?
SaaS companies are starting to blur, from the software they use, the advertising they deploy and the websites they build.
However, for those executing properly, the formula works.
If it’s not broken don’t fix it.
Catchy value proposition, clean website, social proof, killer statement, key feature listings. And my favourite, a newsletter pop up and an annoying chatbot.
This is the standard playbook from the most successful SaaS businesses, so does this template help us, buyers? SaaS websites are so well templatized, b2b buyers know the drill, they know how to navigate around a site, and find exactly what they want.
So, whilst this meme provoked a laugh amongst SaaS marketers, it did little to suggest what the alternative would be.
Going against the grain can be a great thing, but sometimes being too clever can be to your downfall.
Solution - unknown.
3* “Yes, you need a good product, but it's not enough to win in the market.”
Nicely put from Peep Laja.
The shift in the market in the last 5 years has been incredible.
There have never been so many software, service or product options for b2b buyers.
The chances are, your best product, feature, and USP, are somewhere rolled into your competitor's product and value proposition.
Peep elaborates on how you can win into this ultra-competitive market.
“The all-rational B2B buyer is a myth
The story is that if you only give people the right economic incentives, they would automatically follow their own rational self-interest.
In reality, we're more psycho-logical than logical, driven by emotion. We value the meaning of products, and what we're signalling to ourselves or to others.
Instead of all-rationally comparing all the options when making a purchase, we're satisficing.
This has profound implications for marketers.
1) Appeal to emotions; even your B2B product has to bring emotional value and signal something
2) Knowing that people satisfice means you need to predominantly focus on building up mental availability”
Peep hosts the “Wynter Games” where he speaks to B2B specialists around a variety of topics, you can find the YouTube recording here.
Peep shared a link to the content discussed on his podcasts. THERE IS SO MUCH VALUE HERE with 8 different Google Slides.
4*Lessons Learned Building a $2 Billion Database Company from Scratch
Building a business is hard, building a $2billion from scratch is pretty amazing.
Here are the $2billion dollar lessons from Neo4j’s CEO.
Awareness - Building free content and tools to engage their audience (educate and be useful)
Activation - Integration with key infrastructure tools within their ecosystem (seamless experience and minimise friction)
Fit Centricity - Giving away their open-source product suite (mass adoption)
Growth - Open-source by nature is PLG, but by doing it allowed to engage communities that might not otherwise be known to them (Product Led Growth)
Conversations You Should Read
36 life lessons from Y Combinator and OpenAI CEO
The 7-step process that helped these B2B brands kill it in hyper-competitive markets
Everybody says B2B marketing is boring. But nobody talks about WHY it's boring
Oldie but a goodie from Steve Jobs - don’t talk about the product
The Demand Generation & Thought Leadership Pyramid
Tools & Platforms
Each week I share a tool I have used, plan to use or I find interesting.
Audience & category research tool Sparktoro.
Sparktoro aggregates intel from a number of different sources to give you valuable category and audience insight, not bad with plans starting for free. Get insight on where your audience hangs out, and content they consume.
013 - driving everyone to your website by default is a big mistake
Is your goal to drive a user to your website or to consume your content?
1* “In a social first world, driving everyone to your website by default is a big mistake.”
Image Source - Shiv Narayanan
Is your goal to drive a user to your website or to consume your content?
The former is the default for most marketers, but the obsession with the use of the traditional funnels can lead to diluting the goal of your marketing campaign, which should be to educate and engage your customer.
Two scenarios to consider, as a customer yourself, what would be your preference.
Click on a LinkedIn ad
Go to a website that takes 3 seconds to load
Accept a cookies link
Start reading your article
Interrupted by a chatbot
Ignore, keep reading your article
Interrupted by a newsletter invite
Leave…
Vs
Go onto LinkedIn
Click ad
Consume the article natively in LinkedIn
Go about your day
Limit the friction between your content and your customer.
2* How to break down data silos and become the data-driven marketer you need to be
Every year, marketers have more data at their disposal, but what good is that if you can’t access, connect and understand it in any meaningful way?
With this core issue in mind, B2B Marketing spoke to several senior marketers to understand the barriers to becoming data-driven and, more importantly, how to overcome them.
Download this report now to learn more about:
Four reasons B2B marketers are failing to realise their data-driven dreams.
Product usage data and subscription models: a help or a hindrance?
Smashing down data silos once and for all.
3*Aligning brand and demand: the future of B2B marketing
“Only 9% of marketers devote more than 60% of their budget to long-term programs. This is down from 21% the year before.”
A worrying statistic in a world awash with more and more competition, with disruptive start-ups around every corner, with similar websites, similar advertising, all implementing the same growth playbook.
How do you stand out?
This coupled with marketers continuing to be under pressure to deliver results “now”.
It’s hard to see a world where markers can look beyond performance with the pressure to deliver leads, leads, and more leads, without stopping to think how good are these leads (that’s for another week).
But, back to this point, aligning brand and demand is not only the future, it’s the present day for brands hoping to be successful in today's marketing world.
Read this piece of The Drum to the 5 practitioner steps to align your brand and demand plan.
4* Influencer marketing done wrong
I love B2B brands being bold, original and creative.
To some this is an older gentleman spitting bars about karate and software.
The Netflix series Cobra Kai offers a trip down memory lane, who doesn’t like nostalgia.
I rather enjoyed it.
But this seems very forced, I’m not sure of the connection between John Crease and Data Fragmentation, but bravo to Demandbase, for trying to be creative, it just misses the mark for me.
Conversations You Should Read
Most marketing fails because of the offer
34 marketing automation trends to keep an eye on
Tools & Platforms
Each week I share a tool I have used, plan to use or I find interesting.
A one to one personalised video service. Bomb Bomb.
Using outreach to prospect to a customer, or do you want to send a quick video to your colleague?
012 - Are you playing the short or long game?
“If you don’t have a long-term view, you're missing lots of opportunities because most of the most impactful opportunities take a long time to develop”.
1* My favourite meme of 2022 so far
Source DGMG
2* Are you playing the short or long game?
“If you don’t have a long-term view, you're missing lots of opportunities because most of the most impactful opportunities take a long time to develop”.
How quick are you to stop your strategy, a campaign, tactic, or test?
What’s the cause for stopping this initiative potentially prematurely? Self-doubt, pressure from your line manager, expectations not managed from the offset, outputs not aligned with your personal objectives.
It’s difficult, when you get questions such as “Your leads are too expensive”, “What’s my ROI”, “This isn’t working, Google is cheaper”. “Your content isn’t bringing in any direct leads”
What is the default reaction when something doesn’t work? You go back to the “tried and tested”.
One day “tried and tested” will not be as effective or obsolete.
Field sales, cold calls, and unsolicited outreach, All once upon a time great tactics for your marketing strategy, sure, they still all have a role to play in today’s world, but you wouldn't hang your hat on those tactics for growth in 2022.
The takeaway, have conviction with your strategy, see it through, adjust, adapt, don’t pause. Reconsider what good looks like, learn how to manage upwards, educate managers and decision makers, and place guardrails into your experiments and minimise your losses.
Keep learning, keep pushing forward, don’t settle for mediocracy and plan for the future.
Another gem from Chris Walker.
3* How To Align Marketing and Sales: 4 Leaders Share Why You Should Not Wait to Do So
Marketing and sales, what often should be a match made in heaven, with one aligned goal, is often two teams, with two agendas, not singing for the same hymn sheet.
This piece by Dave Gerhardt provides so much practical advice on how marketing and sales can play nicer together.
Heidi Bullock, CMO at Tealium discusses the focus on Mindset.
Kyle Lacy, now SVP at Seismic recommends managing the marketing and sales handoff.
Guillaume Cabane, founder of HyperGrowth Partners suggests building campaigns fit for both teams.
This blog is jammed back with real life considerations and actionable insights.
4* Customer Partnerships To Boost Growth
When considering your partnership program, you're naturally drawn to channel partners and strategic arrangements with synergistic brands.
But one technology manufacturer has cleverly adopted a partnership program led by customers.
PVD Products outlines their playbook, results, and the considerations you need, to build your own customer partnership program.
What is your customer led program? Check out this blog for inspiration.
5* 9 Thoughts On What Makes a GREAT Pricing Page
Jason Lemkin shares 9 helpful tips on what makes a great pricing page. He goes one further and links to 19 SaaS businesses and their pricing pages.
Conversations You Should Read
99% of websites don’t address these 3 key things for their customers
The VP of Sales doesn't care about marketing attribution at all.
How to check on your competitor’s growth plan
Tools & Platforms
Each week I share a tool I have used, plan to use or I find interesting.
This week I haven’t got one tool to share, but 30! Check out this Twitter thread outlining a ton of helpful tools.
011 - “The promise of attribution software is cracking like cheap glass.”
Marketers striving for a “single source of truth”, do so at their peril. Measurement does require attribution platforms, absolutely. But data needs the reinforcement of a qualitative perspective, combined with some mileage of someone who gets marketing, audiences and buyers.
1* “The promise of attribution software is cracking like cheap glass.”
A strong statement from Mr Walker, as he continues his charge on challenging the status quo on measurement and modern-day B2B buying.
It’s really hard to disagree with the logic.
Attribution platforms are limited by design, data and agenda.
Marketers striving for a “single source of truth”, do so at their peril. Measurement does require attribution platforms, absolutely. But data needs the reinforcement of a qualitative perspective, combined with some mileage of someone who gets marketing, audiences and buyers.
Your marketing decisions need to be made up of multi stacks of data, insights and knowledge.
Chris Walker entices 184 comments on this first-hand example of attribution vs qualitative data.
2*Content marketing isn’t just newsletters, blogs and promotional videos.
Here are 50 different types of content marketing you can consider for 2022
My personal favs are 2,3,17 and 50. What’s yours !?!
3*How to structure your marketing department.
Former Drift and Privy CMO, Dave Gerhardt interviews several marketing leaders to discuss how they approach building their marketing infrastructure.
Here’s what I liked.
An 8,000 employee strong company tackles marketing with an integrated approach in 4 key areas. Portfolio Marketing | Demand Generation | Marketing Operations | Brand and Communications
Building a brand that creates demand with connected teams
A scrappy start-up team designed for sales enablement
A centralised, demand-driven model
The three people to hire first!
4* “There is often a gap between when companies need to invest in Marketing and when they actually do it.”
The impact of delaying your marketing investment might not be felt immediately, but there’s only so much you can ride that wave of a historical good campaign, a great piece of press or that sales introduction. Brands need to ensure their investment in marketing is consistently planned and approved ahead of time.
This isn’t just paid advertising dollars, but getting the content production in place, along with the staffing infrastructure to ensure you can deliver and execute on your strategy.
Check out Shiv’s full post here.
5* Would you like to keep your customers for a decade?
“Forever customers build forever companies”. An amazing statement, and takes a refreshing alternative look at a marketing economy built on short-termism.
Saastr takes a look at the key ingredients for driving decade long customers.
Understand what it takes to win enterprise deals
Overdelivering
Invest! A $250k a year client can be worth a lot over 10+ years, make sure you invest appropriate sums to acquire those high-value clients
Slow it down, multi-million dollar clients can wait an extra month to get it done right
Say hello…in person (covid pending)
Conversation(s) You Should Read
Henry Ford “If I had asked what people wanted, they would have said faster horse”
Risking short-term metrics for a long-term healthy pipeline.
The VP of Sales doesn't care about marketing attribution at all.
Tools & Platforms
Each week I share a tool I have used, plan to use or I find interesting.
Harry Dry is back with a new look, feel and more content than ever before.
If you're looking for creative inspiration, look no further than Marketing Examples. A blog that collates the best creative and copywriting executions.
https://marketingexamples.com/inspiration
010 - “Most of your customers are not ready to buy from you, 95% of them to be precise.
To grow a brand, you need to advertise to people who aren’t in the market now, so that when they do enter the market your brand is one they are familiar with.
1* “Most of your customers are not ready to buy from you, 95% of them to be precise.
This mammoth piece of research from LinkedIn, goes into detail on several topics, these are the 3 I like the most
How Salesforces built mental availability. A big difference between being known and being considered, the author dives into the challenges salesforce had for being known but wasn’t considered by buyers. I love this visualisation on this topic, and this is one of several.
2. The 95-5 rule. “To grow a brand, you need to advertise to people who aren’t in the market now, so that when they do enter the market your brand is one they are familiar with.”
3. The double jeopardy law in B2B. It highlights the correlation between market share, loyalty, retention, and business growth
2* SaaS businesses can save $10,000 with template
Dan Martell shared his amazing SaaS metrics template, if you have a SaaS business and don’t have a dashboard or tool to host your key business metrics. This template allows you to easily track your key growth metrics, without the need for a fancy analytical tool. Save yourself $10,000.
3* The 8-must-have landing page content pieces to drive leads.
Whilst described as SaaS landing pages must-haves, these are all considerations for any B2B lead capture page
4* Here are 5 things that will help you become a better copywriter
Dave Gerhardt is the epitome of writing like you talk.
No jargon, clear, but yet, still very smart.
Check out his suggestions and style.
5* Do you have a side hustle, do it in public
Building in public, is you, the creator of your “side bustle” telling your daily story. The wins, the lessons, the learnings, the losses. All captured on your daily Twitter for the world to see. This trend has gained popularity in the last few years and has helped hundreds of side hustles, small businesses, and catapulted them into fast growing start-ups.
If you're building something, don’t be shy, tell the world your troubles, your big wins, your revenue. Human beings are drawn to storytellers, so tell yours and build your business on the back of your wins, and losses.
*Bonus
My colleague shared this early this week, thanks, Alex! It was too good not to share.
*Conversation(s) You Should Read
15 observations for B2B companies who are winning
A creator’s journey on making their first $3.5k
https://twitter.com/LBacaj/status/1482456207205888000
A framework for having difficult conversations
https://twitter.com/blakeaburge/status/1482340980397260800
Lots of opinions and debate on the buyer journey
*Smart People To Follow
Peep Laja is a successful entrepreneur with two successful marketing businesses. His podcasts dig into founders and their success, he often shares soundbites and summaries on LinkedIn.
*Tools & Platforms
Each week I share a tool I have used, plan to use or I find interesting.
Our “smart people to follow” also has an amazing market research tool.
You're spending $10,000s on paid media, your marketing team, your agency, attribution software, your creative team, but yet, how much do you spend asking your target audience what they think of your messaging? Wynter is a great tool to get that qualitative feedback to help ensure all the time, money and resource helps land on those that matter most.
Two platforms this week, after going down a Metaverse rabbit hole I came across this interesting business. Virtual events that I’ve seen have been pretty basic, boring, and uninspiring, but this business from Germany might be ready to make virtual events, exactly that.
009 - You don’t get fired for hiring IBM
You don’t get fired for hiring IBM
1* You don’t get fired for hiring IBM
The old adage that you don’t get fired for hiring the known and trusted brand.
This fantastic piece of research reiterates the need for companies to invest in brand building, and the key influences for buyers when making a purchase decision.
This report is jammed back with insights on the B2B buyers journey, and I could cover the whole newsletter deep diving into these insights, here are the key takeaways and key reasons to read this doc.
Only 17% percent of companies consider 4 or more brands when they’re ready to buy
If the brand is known to the user, they’re 2x are likely to win “the deal”
The top three research sources throughout the decision journey process
What type of content makes the biggest influence on the buying decision
What types of content are more effective at different stages of the buyer's journey
2* Milkshakes can help figure out how to speak to your customers and identify what products to build
Harvard Lecturer, Best Sell Author and former Boston Consulting Employee, Clayton Christensen has an impressive CV. His Jobs To Be Done Methodology is known, but not widely adopted.
But this super-smart thinking needs to be a part of your arsenal.
His profound methodology outlines how customers buy products and make decisions. It looks at the decision making through the lens of a customer with a job to solve.
These “jobs” can be deciding on what breakfast snack to buy, what software to purchase or what house to buy.
This methodology applies to everyday use both personally and professionally.
Clayton simplifies this methodology with his explanation of buying milkshakes. You’ll become immediately more equipped after taking 5 minutes to watch this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SfUsSyGWJ8
3* Features vs benefits vs value
Last week I shared (point 3) a positioning framework that took you step-by-step when considering how to speak with your customers and position your brand.
This table in April Dunford’s book ‘Obviously Awesome’ breaks this down beautifully with a clear visualised example.
Its beauty is within its simplicity.
It outlines how your core features should be positioned as a benefit.
How to frame the benefit and articulate the value.
.
4* “Know where your target audience is on their path to buying your product or service.”
What is your brand doing to engage the 95%-98% of brands who are not in the market for your product?
5* is ABX the new ABM
“Experience is the differentiator”
Personally, it sounds like another potential buzzword with a self-promoting agenda to boost vendors who offer an “experience” within the ABM ecosystem. But adding a layer of experience to your ABM program can certainly help you stand out. The folks at Reach Desk have outlined the benefits of using gifting and personalisation within your ABM program.
These slides reinforce some good hygiene and consideration for your ABM program.
Conversation(s) You Should Read
This one liner provoked over 85 comments. “Growth marketer is just a marketer who never learned to say 'that's not my job'.” Nicely done Ognjen Bošković
Smart People To Follow
Tim Davidson shares practical and smart advice on B2B tactics.
Chris Walker needs no introduction. HIs profound views on measurement have played a key role in B2B marketers rethinking their entire GTM strategy.
Oliver Meakings has already featured here when we discussed his tool Roast My Page. But Oli consistently provides nuggets of advice for founders getting their first customers, his newsletter is worth signing up to.
Tools & Platforms
Each week I share a tool I have used, plan to use or I find interesting.
ReachDesk, personalised gifting at scale.
I sat next to the founders at a booth 3 years ago at SaaSStock, little did I know that small team of 4 was on the verge of exploring. Their product is now an integral part of 100s of ABM programs all around the world.
008 - If you’re waiting for intent data, you have already lost
If you’re waiting for intent data, you have already lost
1* “If you’re waiting for intent data, you have already lost”
A strategy focused purely on capturing demand exposes the longevity of a brand and the long-term effectiveness of its marketing.
“Having a comprehensive strategy to create new demand and then capture existing market demand is what companies should be striving for.”
Understanding the distinction between Dark Social & Dark Funnel and modern-day B2B buying is vital for 2022 marketing success.
Understanding where your buyers are spending their time and how they use those platforms is pivotal for optimal marketing success.
B2B buying is happening in dark social and WOM.
Communities, Internal Company Comms, Podcasts, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook Groups, Third Party Event Platforms, the list goes on. Channels that are often hard to attribute, but it’s where the modern-day B2B buyers spend their time. This is where buyers come to learn, consume content and educate themselves.
The dark funnel is where someone has intent. They have a problem, they’re smart and informed, and they turn to Google to research the brands they have in mind (those winning in the dark social), they check out review sites, company sites, conduct a demo/free trial and make an informed decision.
We, as marketers, can overcomplicate the buyer's journey at times. The reality is it’s not that complicated. The chances are you have 3-5 brands in mind when you want to purchase software or a B2B service/product, and the steps outlined above are typically the ones most buyers will follow.
Check out Chris Walker’s evolving view of the dark funnel and dark social
2* The trouble with using personas
Charles & Ozzy, a perfect representation of why you should tread carefully when using persona’s when targeting your ICP.
One of our main jobs as marketers is to understand everything about our ICP. What do they care about, what’s going to get them fired, promoted, what’s their biggest challenge with their role, what are they trying to accomplish, what’s their favourite sandwich and so forth.
Personas have a purpose and can be a useful addition, but in isolation with no supporting context or collateral, they at best play a useful addition, at worst they can send you down the wrong path and cost you 100s of thousands in advertising spend and resources.
A really simple solution is to pick up the phone and speak with your customer. Simply asking good questions and listening can help extract an invaluable amount of knowledge that will inform your marketing decisions.
Alternatively, speak with your sales team. The likelihood is they will use tools like Gong, which record sales calls, and this can be pure gold dust with picking up the language your customer is using, the challenges they discuss and questions they ask.
This insight can help inform the channels you use, content you create and the copy you put together.
If you need a framework to help guide those questions, consider the really smart “Jobs To Be Done” methodology. More on this next week.
3* Leaving customers on the table, because you don’t know how to speak to them
I can’t give credit to this positioning framework, but I believe it was distributed on the DGMG group.
This is a really simple, yet comprehensive framework for positioning.
“Even a world-class product, poorly positioned, can fail”
This couldn't be truer.
No amount of marketing can save you if your positioning isn’t resonating with your ICP.
If you have high churn, a longer sales cycle vs your category average, you’re under price pressure, new customers don’t understand your product and what you stand for, then it’s likely you have a positioning problem.
Follow this guide on the steps you need to take to tackle your positioning problem.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sUB6mPDSZv_4AxChLG-LhFjtRaHZHMzC_dfXtCu0GF8/edit
4* The unsung heroes of marketing
Marketing ops often vilified when things go wrong and often forgotten when things go smoothly.
Darrell has a refreshing post with a simple recommendation to make your ad ops teams day.
5* Optimal LTV:CAC ratio
“Why hold back any spend when you'll recover your investment in less than a year and generate returns for 10+ years”
A suboptimal LTV:CAC ratio will hold back growth. Understanding your Payback Period and your optional LTV:CAC ratio will help inform your investment, whether aggressively scaling growth with marketing, or doubling down on customers to help establish PMF
Bonus
Each week I share a tool I have used, plan to use or I find interesting.
MarkerPad is for future builders.
A platform that provides knowledge, direction, and everything you need on no-code. If you're looking to build an app, website or your own SaaS business but have no coding experience, then MakerPad is a good place to start.
007 - Performance marketing is dying
Marketers are increasingly becoming more accountable for driving business impact. The days of simply driving website traffic and reach as your KPI, and that’s your job done, are becoming numbered.
1* “Performance marketing is dying”
Marketers are increasingly becoming more accountable for driving business impact. The days of simply driving website traffic and reach as your KPI, and that’s your job done, are becoming numbered.
Brands who are choosing to duke it out at the bottom of the funnel with all the other advertisers, as their sole strategy in 2022, are in real danger of becoming outgunned because of increasing costs, increasing competition and no differentiation,
Your buyers have changed, but your marketing hasn’t.
But what percentage of your ICP is actually in the market for your product? Less than 10%? Less than 55? What about the other +90%?
For that +90%, how are you educating and engaging them based on their problems? What are you doing to keep front of mind?
Capturing demand is easy. Using your attribution to report back on” good” leads is easy.
Creating demand is hard. Being top of mind is hard. Changing your KPIs to what matters to your business is hard.
But doing what’s easy, isn’t usually what’s right.
Performance marketing is getting more expensive and more competitive. If your 2022 strategy is largely dependent on performance marketing, anticipate tougher times ahead.
2* We can’t track everything, but that's OK.
Making all marketing decisions based on attribution alone is a mistake. I said it. My steak is officially in the ground.
2020 Chris Peters would have thought I’ve gone mad.
But since then, my POV has evolved.
I have seen and reviewed the data of multiple B2B businesses, analysed dozens of campaigns and consumed 100s of hours of content from super-smart people.
My conclusion.
So many of your buyers are buying your product that is wrongly being attributed in your attribution tools, and you and your team could be making some pretty big calls based on a blinkered view.
The decision journey is being influenced more and more by activities you can’t track.
The Dark Funnel, where a lot of this action takes place, represents a huge opportunity for brands to drive more business impact. The issue, it’s hard to track, justify to your finance team and get budget for it.
For now, here’s a simple explanation of The Dark Funnel and where attribution is going wrong.
I just signed up to purchase a SaaS product.
Here were the steps I went through
- I ask a former colleague for a recommendation
- Googled the company name and 2 other competitors I also knew of
- Read a review site
- Conducted a free trial for 2 of them
- Watched a webinar after the trial I most liked
- Purchase from a brand I preferred, which happened to be my friend's recommendation
"Source" in their CRM is 'Organic Search' - the first time I got to their site was through Google.
If they stop looking at their attribution there, they'd think 'Great, our SEO is working! Let's invest more in it!'.
Understanding your buyer, and how they buy in today’s world is imperative for success in 2022 and beyond.
Is attribution important, 100%, it should be an important part of all decision making for your marketing, should it be the “single source of truth” no. I don’t think there will ever be one. You should be using multiple pieces of data to make the bigger overarching decision for your marketing.
3* This statement is soooo powerful
https://twitter.com/agazdecki/status/1467159141038788613?t=POqXlwKBw29m-ULVrodxyA&s=19
Taking my former start-up hat off and applying this statement to myself and my B2B peers.
Don’t fall in love with your customers but be obsessed with them.
Marketers should have a healthy obsession with their customers.
This means truly understanding their challenges, how they attempt to solve these challenges, where they hang out, what they talk about, what they’re interested in, who they’re interested in.
Everything you do in marketing starts with the above.
4* “More attention, ultimately means more sales”
My super smart colleague Andrew Spurrier-Dawes put together this analysis of. “Contextual of the Attention Economy“.
Features:
Seedtag teamed up with Lumen to assess the value of context on attention and found:
Ads holding attention for more than 2.5 seconds can drive sales up to 50%
Social drives more seconds of attention per ad (2.4”) than standard display ads (1.4”) Outstream video (1.8”), but less than rich media (3.6”)
This is built on how much ads are noticed – social ads are noticed 84% of the time, vs 61% for standard ads, 80% for Outstream video and 40% for Rich Media
This means the Social has the most attention time per 1,000 ads, at 2,024” vs 837 for standard ads, 1,448 for outstream video and 1,437 for rich media
What this means or us specifically:
Ignoring the PR nature of the partnership here there are some interesting variances
Rich Media delivering such a huge amount more attention but then underdelivering on getting noticed is a delta that can be optimised
Social delivering a consistently decent seconds in view time is also something to be noticed – keeping an eye on how we define viewability and attention is key here
How are you measuring effectives or digital KPIs as a proxy for effectiveness? And how are they consistent across channels?
Check out the full piece below.
3011_SEEDTAG_LUMEN_WHITEPAPER (hubspotusercontent40.net)
5* The best B2B content marketing agency in the world just shared their content marketing benchmark report.
Side note, I have never used Animalz, but their brand is so powerful, their content is so captivating, their leaders are so impressive that this is my genuine perception without ever working with them.
Take a look at their website, follow their leaders on LinkedIn, and read their podcast. This is an excellent example of brand positioning done very well.
Now back to the report.
The report is jam-packed with insight for you content marketers.
Here is a quick teaser, but please check it out for your yourselves. https://www.animalz.co/blog/benchmark-report-2020/
*Bonus*
Each week I will share a tool I have used, plan to use or I find just interesting.
Zapier is the easiest way to connect and automate your workflows.
For every manual process, for every cross-platform process, there is likely to be a “Zap” solution for you to claw back and save your time.
006 - High-volume low-quality vs low-volume high-quality…..apparently
“ All brand activity should be ‘performing’, so all good marketing is ‘performance marketing’”
1* High-volume low-quality vs low-volume high-quality…..apparently
The debate rumbles on, and Demand Gen marketers take another swing at Lead Gen marketeers.
Whilst the above, in my opinion, is a pretty fair assessment, it feels like an unnecessary cheap shot with a broad stroke of all things lead gen.
Lead gen is still important to your 2022 strategy, but don’t build your moat around it.
The image provoked a stir championing the post, worth a read to hear a few alternative views.
2* “ All brand activity should be ‘performing’, so all good marketing is ‘performance marketing’.
A somewhat lacklustre interview was saved by two fantastic questions and two insightful answers. Read the full piece here
C4 CMO reiterates the stance for brands to think long term, measuring what’s easy isn't necessarily right. Taking a broader more holistic view, over a period of time, supported by short term measurement. This combined with common sense and experience is a much healthier methodology vs being over-reliant on digital-focused attribution methodologies.
Q - How do you balance brand building with performance, especially as budgets migrate towards digital and social channels?
A - All brand activity should be ‘performing’, so all good marketing is ‘performance marketing’. I'd prefer to think of it as brand marketing versus ‘call to action’ marketing, that always existed in every media. They're two slightly different parts of any sales and marketing funnel. I think there's a great danger in allowing what’s easy to measure to drive your marketing strategy.
People who are fooled into quick clicks that they can see straight away will soon discover that, without a strong bedrock of brand marketing, they won't have a sustainable business, and they'll just be forced to pay higher auction prices for a quick fix against all the other people who want them. And the only way to get that down and have a sustainable business is to build a brand. Now, that's not to say we don't operate in all parts of the funnel; we absolutely do. I just think it's really misguided to shift money into ‘quick fixes’, and away from brand, just because it's easy to measure.
3* SaaS is HOT, HOT, HOT!
This is the 5th annual SaaS Financial & Operating Benchmarks Survey from OpenView Partners.
The survey is designed to draw a comparison between high growth SaaS companies to understand the metrics fuelling their growth and where companies are investing their capital.
The report also dives into popular topics surrounding SaaS, including the prevalence of product-led growth, positioning in fundraising rounds, pricing models and key value drivers.
Check out the full report here
https://openviewpartners.com/2021-financial-operating-benchmarks-report/#.YakimNDP2Uk
4* End to end understanding of all the levers and conversion points is how you build the right growth model for your business.
Acquisition -- building the right model to generate the right demand at profitable CAC levels.
Activation -- building the right framework to get the right prospects to activate and onboard on your platform.
Adoption -- building the right infrastructure to have your customers embed your solution into their environment while getting all stakeholders involved.
Retention -- driving towards customer success with everything you do (marketing, sales, product, UX)
Expansion -- identifying opportunities to grow your relationship with customers with increased usage or additional products, services, and offerings.
The more you understand these levers and pull them effectively, the more budget you can invest into acquiring customers in the first place.
The more you can profitably spend to acquire a customer, the faster you grow.
Source: www.howtosaas.com
5* A lesson from a billion emails and $75million
This is a jam-packed Twitter thread with bags of insight.
My favourite 3.
2 - Selling a product
Email doesn't sell only a product. It also sells a click.
Leverage your email + landing page to drive the conversion.
Emails job is to take the most qualified and eager prospects to a link.
The email framing paired with the lander drives the sale home.
3 - Writing like a robot
If you read your email out loud and it doesn't sound like a human,
Chances are you have to rewrite it.
Bonus
Each week I will share a tool I have used, plan to use or I find just interesting.
Roast My Landing Page is exactly that. Founded by a CRO veteran who reviews SaaS landing pages and provides qualitative feedback on your messaging, landing page structure, the offer, and user experience.
https://www.roastmylandingpage.com/
005 - The Dark Funnel. Where media can’t be measured, attributed, or justified by your CRO
The biggest influence in B2B buying decisions and no one in marketing cares.
1* The biggest influence in B2B buying decisions and no one in marketing cares.
The Dark Funnel. Where media can’t be measured, attributed, or justified by your CRO. But arguably the most influential part of the buyer's decision.
B2B buying has changed forever.
Customers are smart, they know what they want, where to find it and where to research and learn about it.
For the best part, buyers do not see an ad, download a piece of content, and book a demo immediately after.
They will be in the market for a product, they will have brands in mind, they will ask their peers, friends for recommendations, they will reach out to a vertical-specific community/ group, they will “Google” their pain point, with a solution or brand(s) in mind, and they will make an informed view about that product or service.
This process might be slightly different, but the core behaviour won’t differ too much from reality. But this could be over 1 day, 3 months or 2 years.
The key questions are…
How does your brand keep top of mind?
What content supports the research phase of the buyer's journey?
How does your strategy for 2022 consider the dark funnel?
Check out the comments in this LinkedIn post from DG to get a broader perspective from a variety of different marketers. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/davegerhardt_marketing-activity-6869266684927066114-8Mvg/
2* Waging war on commodity content. A.K.A let’s stop creating generic run-of-the-mill content
This is a powerful post that attracted over 100 comments from B2B marketers sharing their admiration for this post.
We’ve all done it.
We have created a piece of content that wasn’t particularly inspirational, it wasn’t original, we’ve cut a few corners to get it signed off, and with a big sigh of relief, we post it, and forget it.
This is a fascinating take on how brands should tackle their content strategy.
The core message is to identify your villain. This means, what’s the one consistent pain point for your ICP, and identify this problem. Then underpin your content strategy to this problem. All your content should be attached to this one problem and your company should be famous for this one thing.
Read this brilliant post here.
3* MQLs are not dead, but they must be redefined
LinkedIn has been good to me this week.
This is another brilliant take on MQLs.
The rise of Chris Walker and the demand gen waterfall has thrown shame and embarrassment to those “old school” marketers still daring to create campaigns that focus on generating “Leads”.
So, whilst I agree with the sentiment, that B2B marketing has changed, and we need to evolve our marketing with how B2B buyers are making their buying decisions.
This doesn’t mean MQLs, and lead generation is dead.
I agree with Edward’s post, that with the right parameters, the right measurement, and the right approach, MQLs still have a role within 2022 and beyond. Check out this thoughtful post, which has some fantastic comments.
4* Why It’s a bad thing to say all your growth is ‘free’ and ‘organic’ and based on ‘content marketing’
Nathan Latka uses his 1000+ SaaS founder interviews to discuss ARR. He takes this data and makes it usable for the rest of us to benchmark and predict who may get acquired, raise, or IPO next
In this video you will learn:
8 x steps on how to grow your SaaS company valuation and ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue).
How and why you should spend to grow your ARR rate
Why It’s a bad thing to say all your growth is ‘free’ and ‘organic’ and based on ‘content marketing’
The cost of making sure you always have ‘leverage’ before you do a funding round
How a ‘Churn Funnel’ can save you customers, and increase your ARR
+ See what world-class ‘Net Revenue Retention’ looks like with examples & case studies from over 1000+ interviews
5* Today’s trends are already yesterday’s has-beens
This report by Wavemaker will break down the key trends across content, people, innovation and media...
Check out the report now.
https://wavemaker.ds8.io/02NueAYBpM
Bonus
Each week I will share a tool I have used, plan to use or I find just interesting.
Copywriting is one of the most undervalued skills in marketing. It’s often outsourced and afterthought, but the words we use should be front and centre of our content strategy.
Copy.ai is a cool technology that uses AI to create copy at speed. It's not perfect, but it can play a supporting role with those producing a lot of content with limited resources.
****
004 - You want to get to a place where there is minimal friction to as many people as possible consuming the information
“You’re not trying to get someone to consume your content because your goal is predicated on whether or not they land on your website”
1* You’re not trying to get someone to consume your content because your goal is predicated on whether or not they land on your website”
Smart, smart, smart.
1000s of our buyers and customers are going to social media every day to consumer content, some to spend hours a day. Is your goal as the marketeer to get them to consume your content, understand your brand value, what you stand for, your POV, or send them to your website?
“You want to get to a place where there is minimal friction to as many people as possible consuming the information”
Watch the video here. Sub 2 mins
2* 5 steps to kick start your ABM strategy
TK Kader talks about switching from a “defensive go-to-market machine go-to-market offensive machine”
TK shares his take on going on the front foot for your growth strategy, shifting from a lead generation focus to a more tailored account-based focus.
If you are just getting started in ABM, this is a simple process and structure to follow.
Who are your best customers, it sounds simple, but ask yourself? Who has the highest LTV, the quickest sales cycle, what vertical uses our product more, what’s their seniority, and who influences decision-makers?
Use this data to refine your ICP, build out a power user segment around the most likely cohort to buy your product.
Use this refined ICP to put together a dream 100 customer list. Build out the mechanics of targeting them, their job titles, where they work, their seniority
“Create a Manifesto”, which means purposely created content for this “dream 100 list”
“Create your “Broadway Show”. This is your go-to-market tactics, which includes your joined-up approach with sales. This can include outreach, sending out merch, cold calling, social media, and display advertising, events, strategically placed OOH, the list is endless!
3* If you aren't talking to your customer, buyer, or target audience before you create content, you're creating it for YOU and not THEM”
“Call some people up, ask some questions!
Do you still read eBooks?
Do you even use PDFs?
How do you like to consume work-related information?
What's the most memorable piece of business content you've seen lately?
We're thinking of publishing X about Y. Is that important to you?
What do you care about, in your business, right now?
Stop assuming you know and go KNOW.”
4* Digital pollution and what is it
I have been interested in looking at different brands and what they stand for. What space do they own, where do they hang their hat on a specific POV? What motivates their content creation and brands values.
It got me thinking, what’s my strong POV, my clients, the influencers I follow. On my quest to define that I came across BombBomb who coined the term Digital Pollution.
In this article, you’ll learn.
What digital pollution is.
The role brands and we as advertisers play in digital pollution.
Taxonomy of digital pollution
Consideration for reducing our own digital pollution and why that’s important
https://bombbomb.com/blog/digital-pollution/
5* The Low Viral Coefficient of SaaS, And Why That’s Just Fine
A quick digest on growing your SaaS business. Your 7-year journey to $100m and why slow growth is just fine
https://www.saastr.com/the-low-viral-coefficient-of-saas-and-why-it-thats-just-fine/
Bonus
Each week I will share a tool I have used, plan to use or I find just interesting.
This is an incredible bootstrapped business that has managed to carve its own path to building a $100m business in less than 5 years, in what’s a very cluttered and competitive industry. The tool is an impressive as the founder.
Your Go-To Cold Email Software & Outreach Automation Tool (lemlist.com)