In an era where traditional approaches to B2B marketing are rapidly losing their appeal, a revolutionary playbook is emerging from Jon Miller from Marketo. This new strategy requires marketers to abandon outmoded practices in favour of a more sophisticated understanding of the buyer’s journey, which includes incorporating creative tactics into the Awareness, Consideration, and Decision stages. It is a call to action for B2B marketers to change or risk becoming obsolete.
Awareness: A Change in Brand-Building Strategy
It is no longer possible to create brand awareness just through gated content and thought leadership. Today’s buyer favours anonymity over the once-effective nets created by marketers. The new strategy signals a shift to digital advertising developed exclusively for B2B environments. However, this comes with a warning about the inefficiency of traditional advertising systems, which frequently waste cash without targeting the right accounts.
The concept of success has also evolved. The focus has shifted away from lead generation and towards emotional connections, with metrics such as cost-per-click being replaced in favour of account engagement and advancement through the purchase cycle. Marketers are encouraged to balance their budget by allocating 60% to demand generation and 40% to brand building, challenging the instant gratification of measurable outcomes in favour of long-term brand equity.
Consideration: Capturing Intent and Engagement
The Consideration phase is rife with opportunity, as consumers recognise their pain spots and become more open to involvement. Using account intelligence and predictive analytics to identify these situations is critical. At the account level, intent data serves as a privacy-compliant compass, pointing to prospects who are genuinely interested. This phase emphasises a deliberate blend of patience and precision, knowing that not every interested account is ready to buy right away but recognising the importance of those who are.
A multi-channel strategy becomes critical, addressing not just the right organisations but also important decision-makers within such companies. This technique promises much higher engagement by using intent-based advertising to cut through the noise.
Decision: Revamping the Sales and Marketing Dynamic
The typical transition from marketing to sales is outmoded. Instead, a more collaborative approach is advocated, similar to a soccer game in which marketing, sales, and sometimes customer success work together to transfer the “customer ball” back and forth. This new comparison replaces rigid attribution methodologies with a single team statistic that assesses the efficiency of sales and marketing synergy.
Find: Strategic Account Selection
The new playbook acknowledges that due to resource limits, it is impossible to adopt these tactics universally. It provides the FIRE framework (Fit, Intent, Relationship and Engagement) for account selection, which encourages a prioritised focus on accounts with the highest likelihood of producing a return on investment. This decision process should be led by sales, with marketing providing important support in the form of data and criteria guidance.
Embrace the Future
The B2B marketing landscape is undergoing a renaissance, fueled by rapid change and the demise of outdated assumptions. Adapting to this new playbook necessitates not only a tactical shift, but also a fundamental rethinking of strategy, the use of new technologies, and a collaborative mindset. Those who are willing to develop will be at the forefront of a new era in B2B marketing, one defined by intelligence, balance, and orchestration. The road ahead is difficult, but for those who traverse it carefully, the rewards promise to be enormous.
