Stop "Doing Marketing"

Most B2B companies just “do marketing”.

Generally speaking, the reason why they just “do marketing” is because somewhere along the way someone told them they were supposed to.

They start off as scrappy sales organizations and hustle their way to growth, figuring out the sales playbook and are ready to scale…which is what marketing was supposed to help them do faster.

There’s just one problem. It either doesn’t work or only kinda works and the thing that was supposed to grease the groove for sales, ends up becoming a cost center and a chore that is hard to relate back to revenue.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, there are LOTS of people with an opinion on what’s best for you, even though they don’t know what it takes to build a sales-driven company.

So there’s that.

This is why I don’t believe B2B media companies should be “doing marketing” at all. Instead, I believe in a practice known as Revenue Growth Communications.

Now you know I don’t kiss and tell without expressed consent and money is one of those things that folks don’t like to share too much about but I will tell you this - every company I have helped implement this methodology has grown revenue by double digits because they were able to break out of the echo chamber and reach the people with the needs and means to do business with them.

All right, so that’s the big idea here - to drive revenue in a way that is predictably scalable which means we need to focus on doing two things and two things only:

1. Getting our best customers and clients to do more business with us, more often
2. And two, to find more clients just like our best ones

These happen to be the same two goals your customers likely have if you work in media or marketing, so turns out everyone is more aligned than we thought.

Great! Let’s keep going...

The challenge, like we talked about above, is that there are lots of opinions from lots of people, very few who are qualified in the first place to be speaking on the topic and even fewer who understand your challenge specifically.? So it can get confusing and that’s when you end up saying things like “half of my marketing works, I’m just not sure which half”.

Master your woes and better understand the challenges of your customers, while generating more business from your best ones and more just like them. Seems like a better way to go about it - which is why this strategy is called Revenue Growth Communications.

Here’s what’s really cool about making this shift - when you do, you’ll go from fragmented to frictionless and have simple, sustainable systems that you scale for your business, a strategy that evolves with you while providing the most important element - that being consistency.

Revenue Growth Comms are built on two pillars:?

Sustainability and Scalability

Sustainability has three elements:

• The technology used
• The team or talent required to execute it
• And the time it takes to do the thing. Whatever the thing is.

Scalability on the other hand is about distribution - that is, the ability to dramatically amplify the targeted or untargeted reach and frequency of our message. That could mean email marketing, paid social media strategies, growth hacking, direct mail. It means that we are able to do more of the thing that is working without creating exponential demand on the team, technology, or time currently being invested.

Make sense?

Said another way - it’s gotta be something that makes sense, that you can keep doing AND be absolutely dominant at, on demand.

And that has been really hard to do historically because it was expensive. Whether you built teams internally or worked externally with agencies or contractors, having all of the people required to “do marketing” can get really expensive. And as that grows, it becomes harder to align all of the pieces.

The secret is actually in doing more with less. It’s about simplifying the things you’re doing down to the most effective elements, focusing on those, and applying as much firepower to those efforts as you can.

That’s how you create traction at any stage in your company's growth.

So let’s get tactical and break down how it works:

There are 3 ways to communicate -

1. Digitally - online, via email, direct messages, text.

2. Analog - or as my son says “old fashioned” - making a phone call, sending a piece of mail, letter, postcard, whatever.

3. And lastly, face to face. Hopefully, no explanation is required.??

And ultimately all revenue growth communication should lead with the goal of answering one question -?

"Does whatever I’m saying right now help my client or prospective client understand why they should do business with me?”

If it doesn’t do that, stop. Review your content calendar right now and hold that match to it - does this help my client or prospective client understand why they should do business with me?

When I was building TryAdScout.com I visited more than 200 websites of offline media companies and agencies. I saw the good, the bad, and the ugly. I dug through their socials, and looked for their best copy to build their profile. And I’ll tell you the truth - of the 200 companies I reviewed, I’d estimate that 80% were indistinguishable from one another.

The most common claim was “we’re different” with no distinguishing feature or guarantee of how. About 10% were above average. Well executed and managed. But I can tell you without hesitation that less than 5 of the 200 truly communicated to the customers they claim to want to attract.

But more on that later.

When it comes to scalability, the key word here is “distribution” - HOW do you get in front of your audiences with the biggest impact?

We talked about digital communication, and face-to-face communications, both of which you can do in one of two ways:

1. 1 to 1
2. 1 to Many

In a sales-driven company, every single person should be expected to communicate in a revenue-growth-oriented way. That is, willing to have direct communication, one on one, with key stakeholders, internally and externally via digital means, analog, or face-to-face.

If you’re a sales-focused company and someone in your org is unwilling to do that, I’d argue there may not be a seat for them and that there’s probably a piece of software or generative AI script that can do that job function because whether it’s front line sales or back office problem-solving, revenue growth communication is a mindset and a decision and these are the frameworks and rules to create that culture.

When it comes to 1:Many, this is what you’re traditionally thinking of as “marketing” but here’s the big difference - instead of posting pictures of your last campaign or the tray of sandwiches from your last lunch-and-learn, content should be focused on - what?

“Does whatever I’m saying right now help my client or prospective client understand why they should do business with me?”

Does, "we ordered turkey and roast beef sandwiches for this week's lunch-and-learn" help your client or prospects understand why they should do business with you?

Maybe if your client is Boars Head, but most likely the answer is no.

And the answer is no because the world is noisy and you are forgettable.

We are only the center of our own universe. For everyone else, we have to remind them, daily, of why we’re here and why to choose us.

A great question that comes along with this is - “Tim, how often should we be communicating with our clients and prospects”

And this is my answer. EOR

Not the sad donkey from Winnie the Pooh, E-O-R -? EOR

• As early in the lifecycle as possible
• As often as you can sustainability support
• And repeatedly - before, during, and after each transaction, interaction, etc

Start - Keep Going - Do Not Stop

There ya go, billion-dollar secrets here that the gurus can’t sell a course around.

It’s like getting in shape - start eating salad, eat more salad, don’t stop eating salad.

Or if you want to get out of shape - start eating cake, eat more cake, don’t stop eating cake.

My dad used to tell me to keep it stupid simple (or was it "simple, stupid"?), so I guess this is me finally listening.

All right, the #1 mistake to avoid is this - it’s that you start, get a little traction…and stop.

The secret of all of this is what Albert Einstein called "the 8th great wonder of the world" - the effect of compounding returns over extended timelines.

The barometer you’re going to use for whether or not you’re doing a good job is to ask your customers how hearing from you makes them feel. Direct, I know.

But do they look forward to hearing from you? Or do they dread it?

One means you’re nailing it. The other means you are off course.

Because what it comes down to is this - if you believe that the thing you do adds value for the people who work with you and that you could help more people with the value you create, then you have an obligation and a responsibility to make sure that people know so they can work with you and benefit from what you offer.

Literally, revenue growth communication is your obligation.

Here’s the juice, this is the big reveal - the way you create that flywheel is simple:

Ask your customers (preferably on video, so you can use it in the Ultimate Video Content Engine as case studies and testimonials)

• Have we saved you time, money, or frustration?
• Have we helped you develop new business or foster key relationships?
• Have we helped you to become a trusted authority to your best customers and people like them??
• Have we helped you grow revenue?

Capture those stories, put them into your social-video content engine, and grow!

Remember: Language Shapes Communication.

What words are you using?

Who are you speaking to?

Are you reinforcing why-to-buy from you?

Consider this your permission to not overthink it because...

Recently I was catching up with a friend who ran one of the biggest social media agencies in the world for the famous Gary Vaynerchuk, Gary Vee.

And I asked him point blank - what’s more important: quality or consistency?

And his answer was this

“'Ok' quality, consistently, will always beat inconsistent perfect quality.”

So there you have it - don’t overthink this.?

It's like that saying "hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard". Perfection still requires distribution systems. Execution > Everything.

Breaking Bad

Here’s your launch checklist:

Is it ‘mostly ready’ aka is it ‘good enough’? This is the point of diminishing returns. Stop here, ship it.

Is this helpful? (Or self-serving?) Both are okay, but it’s best to be helpful.

And lastly, if it’s good enough and helpful, then it will be valuable, so throw a check on valuable if you got the first two - good enough and helpful.

Remember - don’t just “do marketing”, drive revenue intentionally.

That’s it, that’s the framework for revenue growth communications.

If you’re curious how a shift to revenue growth comms could generate more consistent, qualified inbound lead flow and impact your bottom line, feel free to email me at [email protected] and look forward to connecting with you there.