Marketing leaders need to become business leaders and storytellers

B2B Excellence is a weekly newsletter that curates the best B2B marketing content from the brightest minds in our industry.? I like to share provocative, intelligent, and original POVs that challenge conventional wisdom and create a conversation.

Sign up to receive the email in your inbox every Friday.?

For more content, you can follow me on LinkedIn.

--

You don’t have to stay small

Marketing's best and brightest have come together to help aspiring brands rethink their ambitions and GTM strategy, which can help propel their growth ambitions.

Mark Ritson, Tyrona? Heath, Jamal Miller, Peter Weinberg, Jon Lombardo and Greg Shumchenia have banned together to share this report with Intuit Mailchimp.?

Pedro Porto Alegre shares an excellent overview, with his own perspective added.

I loved this.

Going After Goliath.

So, how does a David beat Goliath in such a lopsided game?

Well, let’s look at how he managed to do so in the story to uncover some lessons:

• He avoided direct engagement by playing a different game (speed and distance, as opposed to strength and close combat)
• He leveraged his unique strengths to circumvent dealing with Goliath’s size (he was an excellent slingshooter)
• He was bold and confident effectively surprising Goliath and catching him off-guard (David saw Goliath’s arrogance as a vulnerability)
• He used precision over power to cause localized damage (he slingshot a rock straight to Goliath’s forehead, one of his few exposed areas)

While we could unpack each of these insights further, the key lesson here is that small brands cannot beat big brands at their game.

Read his full article here.

This thinking reminds me of the Console Wars book. The story behind the Sega / Nintendo public warfare on market dominance. It’s a fantastic and inspiring story of marketing genius. A decent summary here , but I would highly recommend purchasing the book.

--

Marketing leaders need to become business leaders and storytellers

Sticking with inspiration.?

Good marketing leaders should, by now, have a good sense of what they are getting from their marketing investment and have a true grasp of a measurement framework that reflects business performance.

The metrics will differ by business, but this 60 second video from Chris Walker outlines the leading indicators marketers should be looking at for $100m companies.

Our job should be carving our own narrative and story to the role of marketings ability to drive business growth and using data and storytelling to reinforce the opportunity with more investment, because it’s never enough!

--

The Brand vs. Performance Debate: Time to Put it to Rest

A fantastic POV, supported by none other than Mark Ritson.?

My newsletter writing allotment has run out, but I wanted to squeeze in one more insight and piece of content.

Check out the dual posts here , and I love this simple, yet elegant paragraph.

It's time to stop this debate and start resourcing our teams for long-term brand building alongside short-term performance. Brand isn't a luxury, it's fuel for your performance marketing. Strong brands simply convert better.

?

Conversations and articles I like

Specificity vs complexity: How HSBC and Deloitte differentiate in B2B

There is no bow tie funnel in marketing.

What is demand generation??

In order to scale demand…

If you’re a small brand, and want to become a bigger brand - Les Binet

This is an EXCEPTIONAL piece of communications from McDonald's

An ad served does not mean an ad seen, and definitely doesn't mean an ad recalled.

?

***