5 Principles to Successful B2B Marketing in 2020

Modern-day marketing is evolving quickly. B2B marketing often gets ignored or undervalued compared to the flashier, louder B2C ways. But the playbook for B2B in 2020 and beyond is changing.

(First published in The Financial Brand - December 2019)

Historically, and still in many cases, B2B organisations are sales-led, not marketing or brand led, and marketing’s role is largely to support sales. But the landscape is changing - it has changed for those willing to look closely enough. The playbook for B2B marketing is completely different than it used to be.

The modern-day B2B playbook is made up of one North Star that guides everything the team and function does. And five principles that guide areas of the team and function. All of them work together to drive an effective and efficient B2B marketing dept for any industry. 

So what’s the North Star? It sounds so simple (and obvious) but it is: add value. Everything should be focused on adding value to the consumer, from the content you create, to the media you buy, to how you activate, to how you structure your funnel. You need to put the consumer first and your business second (in the short-term at least). 

Customers have incredible amounts of choice in the world of 2020 - whatever products or part of the value chain you’re selling, they can get it somewhere else (and find it quickly too). New, and in many cases better, offerings and experiences are popping up every month. Technology is creating new ways to deliver value, lower cost, and improve experiences. It’s no longer enough to differentiate on product, price, brand, and distribution. You must differentiate on value as well. And marketing with all its touchpoints offers a huge opportunity to add value for customers. 

Find any and all ways to add value (within reason for what you can afford and what won’t hurt you). You might pay a little extra, lose a little margin, invest a little more, or even take a hit in the short-term, but being customer-centric is the strongest differentiator you can build for the long-term. And whoever is more long-term oriented always has the advantage. 

Five principles to follow

1. Build a media company around what you stand for. Successful marketers think and act more like publishers than advertisers. They understand their audience, put themselves in their shoes, and produce content that will bring them value. This has always been the case, but is especially true in a media environment where people can easily ignore your message. Attention is not as captive as it used to be - you have to earn it. And you earn it though quality content. Challengers, or incumbents with challenger mindsets, have figured this out. Iwoca is a good example of this in the fintech world - sure they advertise, but they also publish. They put out a high quantity of high quality content that brings value to SMB owners and operators. Brands like Iwoca (and many in the fintech space) are much more human and relatable in what they say and how they say it. They produce content and experiences that offer information, utility, entertainment, or all three. They offer value to their audience - like a publisher would. Content is THE battleground for modern-day marketing. Every brand (and every person) is a media company in 2020. Set your marketing team up to think, act, and produce like a media company (or set up a separate media team like we have). Get someone from a publishing background to run it if you don’t have anyone who can. This is the world of editorial calendars, audio/video production, blogs and reports, and social media; and it will be the core of what you do.
2. Balance art and science. Marketing used to just be about the art. You came up with a strategy, developed some awesome (according to you, or a small group of your people) creative, and pushed it out in the general direction of your target audience. On the other end of the spectrum, many online-native and e-commerce businesses live on the other end of the qual/quant spectrum. They’re all about performance marketing - data-driven decisions only, 1% optimisations at scale, and only investing in what can be measured. Modern-day B2B is a balance of both approaches. You need strong quant, data, and analytics chops, but you also need brilliant strategic thinking and creativity. You need to be data-driven, but idea-led. Which is tough because usually people, including the CMO/leader is more one or the other. Know where you and your team over or under-index and try to balance it out with your next few hires and investments. 
3. Win on quality, then quantity. It’s a noisy world out there. Everyone is producing content and vying for consumer attention. In crowded marketplaces, the cream rises to the top. You need to establish your brand as a voice and outlet of quality content first and foremost. You can’t afford to pump out crap content - people will either ignore it or devalue your brand and products because of it. Find good content people who know how to make high quality content and set them up with what they need to do their job well. But…you can’t win on quality alone. It’s a noisy world out there. You need to stand out for quality and be consistently surfacing content that adds value. You need to win on quantity as well. Once you have your media team in place and your quality standards are set, look for ways to scale the operation. And however much content you think is reasonable, double that and you might be close to what you need. 
4. Be consistent, but find ways to breakthrough. The thing that will matter most for your marketing success in the long-term is whether you can produce high quality content on a consistent basis. Are you bringing your audience value week in, week out in a way that builds trust? This is the realm of blogs, podcasts, Linkedin posts, reports, and white papers. Get this machine in place before you worry about anything else. But once you’ve got that steady drumbeat of content, the next gear to add to the machine is the breakthrough gear. Drumbeat content is great, but it will only bring marginal growth in awareness, equity, and audience size. Breakthrough content and campaigns are what bring exponential growth. This is the realm of your 10x ideas, your moonshots. Like, say, doing a feature-length documentary :). Or putting on a massive conference for accountants like Xero does every year with XeroCon [full disclosure - Xero is a media client of 11:FS]. Breakthrough ideas are hard - they usually (but not always) take more time, money or both. But they’re so important to cut through the noise and expand your audience in a way that day-to-day content can’t (or can’t do quickly at least). 
5. Leverage your competitive content advantages. So much opportunity is lost, not by doing the wrong thing, but by not doing enough of the right thing. Every brand and business has a competitive content advantage. The truths and realities of your business that could bring value to others. Some companies are just documenting how they’re building their business. Some are putting their best and brightest in front of a camera and pushing record. It’s more about documenting what you already have and are good at, rather than concepting and creating something entirely new and aspirational. Whatever your competitive content advantage is, find ways to maximise the arbitrage within it. Don’t just do what everyone else does because that’s the standard. Don’t buy that event sponsorship because your competition is there. Or pay for a magazine spread because it’ll get you points internally. Double down on where you can get outsized returns relative to your competitors. Now, while this would have been good advice in 1920 as well as 2020, it’s so much more important now because the media and marketing landscape has opened up such a wider delta between the leaders and losers. You have so much more arbitrage now than you did even 5 years ago. Figure out what it is and invest heavily into it. 

That’s it. That’s all you need to do to be successful as a B2B marketer in 2020. Pfff. Hell no, that’s not all you need to do. There are hundreds of strategies and tactics that could and would work. And every industry, business, and team is different. But these 1+5, North Star and Principles are what matters most for most B2B marketing organisations in this new decade. 

Would love to hear your thoughts!