Focus on the Fundamentals. Ignore the Hacks.
the sh** you see on LinkedIn, my GOD
Hi! š
Welcome to the 20,324 Orcs that can now walk around in daylight. This is the B2B Bite - your portal into a realm where marketing helps enterprise companies win new business instead of just making decks look pretty.
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Iāve spent a little more time on LinkedIn recentlyā¦
(Twitter, youāll always be my first love, but I have to try new things)
ā¦and I have come to realise something important.
99.9% of marketing advice on LinkedIn should not be taken at face value.
It's easy (and comforting!) to think that there is a silver bullet to your problems.
"Ungate your content!"
"Launch a podcast!"
"Self-attribution!"
But the reality is that every B2B business is different. There are no copy-and-paste frameworks that can be applied successfully to every context.
What DOES exist is strategic fundamentals.
#1. DIAGNOSIS.
Understanding what works and what doesn't. Auditing the last 12 months of strategy, digging into the CRM, conducting win/loss analysis... you need to understand where you have been to understand where you are going.
#2. STRATEGY.
Developing an intentional theory on how you are going to achieve a specific outcome in a specific playing field with a targeted group of buyers. This encompasses goal-setting, positioning, messaging, segmentation and what strategic levers you plan to pull to drive results.
#3. TACTICS.
Breaking down a sequence of actions cross-channel with estimated costs and timelines that will deliver on the proposed strategy. I prefer to build a plan against Eugene Schwarz's Five Stages of Awareness (Unaware > Most Aware) versus the conventional TOF-MOF-BOF model.
#4. ANALYSIS.
Most B2B brands will roll out a campaign and forget to evaluate how successfully it has performed. And even if they do, this analysis is kept in a black box somewhere in the marketing department. Create feedback loops that distribute actionable insights across functions.
Remember:
Most marketing advice on LinkedIn goes viral because it resonates with other marketers.
Focus on the fundamentals. Ignore the hacks.
PS. want to connect on LinkedIn?
ā¤ļø Some articles, podcasts and books Iāve recently consumed and loved:
Did you know Iām a professionally trained thespian?
I hated monologues during my three years of drama study. All eyes on me? No thank-you. So letās make this a dialogue. What kind of things do you want to talk about?
Drop me an email with your burning questions on how to win in B2B
šļø Every week, I sit down with a kick-ass B2B marketer to discuss how they are changing the game around winning new business. Hereās the most recent interview.
šØ NEW EPISODE šØ
3 Things B2B Marketers Can Learn From Their D2C Cousins w/ Tina Donati
Quick one before we get into the usual pleasantriesā¦
This interview is a bit different to other episodes of B2B Better.
More guests, more narrative, more music. Moreā¦ quality (in my humble opinion)
It would mean the world if you could share your feedback on whether you prefer the new format. Just send me an email.
Listen here:
You can listen on any other podcast directory too.
(Seriously - Iām everywhere. (ooOOoo)
In this episode, I sit down with Tina Donati, direct-to-consumer and eCommerce expert, to talk about what D2C fundamentals can (and should!) be picked by B2B marketers.
We talked about unforgettable Customer Experiences.
We talked about doing Unscalabe Things.
We talked about the Founder's Story.
...covering real-world examples from the consumer side of the aisle and how they can be applied to enterprise sales.Ā
šÆ = "But the reality is that every B2B business is different. There are no copy-and-paste frameworks that can be applied successfully to every context."