From brand to demand: New-ish rules for the next era of B2B marketing

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Welcome to another fine edition of Marketing Under The Influence

"A lot has happened."

Those were Don Draper's words in the series finale of Mad Men, as he reflected on the past decade of his life on the frontlines of advertising's golden age. And, today, as I reflect on the first year of publishing Marketing Under The Influence, those same four words feel painfully apt.

Because, for me and B2B marketers everywhere, a lot has transpired over the last decade — particularly the last half. What once seemed like a promising career path is now shrouded with an overwhelming sense of uncertainty. Budgets keep getting slashed. Teams have been disbanded. And many have questioned whether B2B marketing still matters at all.

But beneath the layer of turbulence and collective disillusion, a contrarian truth is emerging: B2B marketing isn't dying — it's just getting started.

Don't just take my word for it, either. According to Jon Lombardo and Peter Weinberg, the biggest growth opportunities in marketing today are in B2B. Their proof lies in brands like ServiceNow, Oracle, Salesforce, and SAP with market caps larger than Ford and Ferrari combined and the expected CAGR of cloud computing (20%) compared to soft drinks (4%).

I also believe the best of B2B marketing has yet to come and have bet my career — my livelihood — that a new era is upon us.

There is, however, a catch to all of this. Because, just like the last B2B marketing revolution, the winners and losers will be determined by a new set of the rules — rules that aren't entirely new but newly relevant for thriving and not just surviving over the next decade.

Rules that separate the signal from the noise.

Rules that turn uncertainty into first-mover advantages for the pioneers who embrace them sooner.

Rule #1: Escape the tyranny of misconceptions and attribution and reestablish marketing's role

At some point in the last year, Jon Miller, founder of Marketo and Engagio, validated the outcries from marketers everywhere when he began publicly admitting that the metrics-obsessed, MQL-chasing B2B marketing playbook he helped author created a monster. The playbook, he says, "taught executives to view marketing as a gumball machine — in goes budget, out comes leads."

But while Jon correctly points out the negative consequences of direct attribution, his calls-to-action to turn away from its seductive appeal fall short of providing actionable advice. Mostly because his self-reflection fails to acknowledge how dramatic shifts in buying behavior play a prominent role in B2B marketing effectiveness.

What statements like "create content so valuable people will pay for it — then give it away for free" and "shift from revenue obsession to customer obsession" gloss over is the empirical evidence from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute that revealed B2B customers in the market today today choose from their "day one" list, a consideration set of typically three brands who were top of mind the moment customers actively needed a solution.

How, exactly, can marketers earn a spot on customers' day one list?

It starts by moving away from the "gumball machine" mentality and embracing new measurement frameworks that demonstrate the effectiveness of marketing that targets customers who aren't in market but whose decision is made the moment they're ready to buy. This will require marketers to develop the wherewithal to tell data stories that connect the dots between brand and demand for stakeholders.

More about that later when we get to Rule #8. First, let's talk more about the "broken playbook" narrative.

Rule #2: Reframe the broken playbook narrative and step outside the marketing echo chamber

Long before Jon Miller admitted the playbook he helped author was losing its potency, hundreds of markers rang the alarm about its diminishing returns (myself included). But nobody — not me, not Jon, not the smartest marketers in the game — seemed to have a bona fide solution. All we saw over the past couple of years equated to "old" ideas lost to the misguided "gumball machine" myth, repackaged to seem new or innovative.

Deeply bothered by my own lack of ideas and the downward trajectory of my career in the face of growing misconceptions, the proliferation of generative AI, and the end of the ZIRP era, I quit my full-time job and step outside the marketing echo chamber in search of answers.

I poured through every piece of content I ever consumed about content. I studied the history of media to separate the noise from the signal and better understand our present moment.

A month into my research, I discovered why the B2B playbook feels inefficient and realized it's not necessarily outdated.

You see, when the playbook was created, few were implementing it. This is called a blue ocean strategy in business terms, meaning there's little to no competition. Because of the low competition, anybody who implemented the traditional playbook were able to achieve two things simultaneously with minimal effort:

1. Capture demand

2. Grow mindshare

As I've mentioned before, B2B marketing was like shooting fish in a barrel in the early days. Because almost everything else on the web was a few years old, I could publish a blog post and see it rank in the top of SERPs the next morning. Then all I had to do was write a pithy piece of copy and post the link on social — in the post itself, not the comments.

But now, after a Cambrian explosion of content creators and platforms, reaching an audience feels insurmountable.

That is, unless we accept there's still a place for the "traditional" B2B marketing playbook that calls on brands to "think like a publisher" and deliver value to customers at every step of their buying journey. After all, that's why advice like "create content people would pay for and give it away" remains as relevant today as it did a decade ago 👇.

Rule #3: Shift away from keyword-centric content strategies to grow customer mindshare

The traditional approach to B2B content strategy often looks like this: gather keywords from an SEO tool, generate a list of trending phrases, and pump out content piece by piece.

That approach has two major flaws:

• Keyword-centric strategies tend to treat content like an arms race to see who can publish the most content and appease opaque algorithms.

• And today, when customers choose solutions before they enter the market, content strategies laser-focused on search engine optimization fail to grow the kind of customer mindshare required to earn a place on day one list.

This isn't to say SEO is dead or unimportant. Instead, it's a call for marketers to shift their focus to understanding and effectively communicating the value propositions of their businesses in the market. And to do that, marketers need to codify their value to customers.

Value propositions, like so many other concepts in business and marketing, can be misunderstood. Fortunately, the creators of the net promoter score (NPS) have identified the distinct value propositions marketers can promise to customers in their Value Proposition Pyramid (see above).

Value propositions, however, are egocentric. Which is why they must be paired with a more customer-centric concept called category entry points (CEPs).

CEPs are yet another construct from the brains at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute. They're the cues customers use the recall brands and solutions when drafting their day one lists. For instance, when a CTO is asked to upgrade their cloud storage solution, they don't need to search Google to think about AWS or Azure because those brands have built strong associations with customers' CEPs.

The combination of businesses value propositions and customers' CEPs form the basis for brand narratives — the narratives the brand needs to cultivate to ensure its solutions are top of mind when it matters most, which isn't always when customers search Google.

Rule #4: Overcome the commodified data trap with insights from the only source that matters

Earlier this year, Tommy Walker explored the pervasive sense of "(dis)content" felt throughout B2B marketing and discovered a striking correlation between leadership buy-in for content and audience research: "The data suggests that as content teams engage more frequently in audience research, leadership tends to be more bought in and supportive of content marketing efforts."

In response to this revelation, Tommy launched a series of cohort classes to upskill marketers whose research abilities were holding them back. And although I haven't taken his course, my network is buzzing with students who say they've found renewed faith in their abilities and a greater sense of purpose in their work.

What Tommy's research also concluded was that teams whose leadership is "extremely bought in" do something the others don't, which is use a combination of qualitative and quantitative data.

At face value, the correlation between executive buy-in and the inclusion of qualitative data makes a lot of sense. But this revelation becomes more profound when we consider an uncomfortable truth about the state of research in B2B marketing — quantitative data sources are a commodity and fail to account for the dramatic changes in customers' buying behavior and the media habits associated with them.

Overcoming the commodified data trap is easy. Just talk to your target audience and gather insights that build upon the firmographics of ideal customer profiles (ICPs), like:

• Top business challenges and goals

• Role-specific skills and competencies

• Role-specific challenges and pain points

• Category entry points (situations triggering solution consideration), solution discovery methods

• Purchase decision-making processes and influencers

• Content consumption preferences and perceived value, information-seeking behaviors, industry trend sources and consumption frequency, influential thought leaders and publications, industry event participation

• Social media platform usage and engagement

• Professional network characteristics

• Other shared interests and experiences

Just under 10 qualitative interviews is enough for the typical B2B SaaS company. The key is to conduct them within a short timeframe, say two weeks, and immediately synthesize the qualitative insights using proprietary data from your tech stack and the third-party tools everybody else (not just direct competitors) has access to.

The result? A marketing strategy that connects the dots between customers' media consumption, social influences, and category entry points. Otherwise known as the key ingredients for converting customer mindshare into the lion’s share of demand for the business 🦁

Rule #5: Challenge industry norms, resist fleeting trends, and steer clear of checkbox paradoxes

Most B2B marketers approach distribution like throwing spaghetti at a wall — posting everywhere possible and hoping something sticks. LinkedIn? Check. Instagram? Check. Email newsletter? Check. But this checkbox mentality ignores a crucial question: Are we showing up where our customers actually spend their time and attention?

Brendan Hufford, a prominent voice in B2B marketing, calls this "checkbox marketing" and, like the seductive appeal of direct attribution, blindly following distribution best practices is a recipe for disastrous results. Similarly, the solution is to take a step back and survey the landscape, understanding where audiences already invest their time and trust.

I call this process distribution cartography. Because it's an exercise that requires B2B marketers to test their assumptions by drawing a literal map of their owned, rented, and borrowed properties (channels and platforms) in order to devise a strategy that positions the business to bypass gatekeepers, connect meaningfully, and drive engagement in the right places.

Placing distribution channels in the proper categories is the first step. The real value of this process comes from thoroughly auditing each distribution property for it's appeal to customers, relevance to the brand, supported mediums, types of engagement, and performance benchmarks.

Distribution cartography is the foundation for a more informed distribution and amplification strategy that ensures the brand isn't just present — it's positioned to connect meaningful and build strong associations with customers' CEPs.

Rule #6: Put an end to the undistinguishable slop or succumb to content entropy

Five years ago, Ryan Law named a problem I had been fighting at Eventbrite, where the three year lead we had in SERPs was being challenged by competitors who weren't necessarily plagiarizing our content but very obviously copying our entire strategy by thinly veiled rewording our top ranking pieces.

The pervasiveness of "sameness" with B2B content has gotten worse. Last year, research conducted by OGM, a SEO agency founded by Nigel Stevens and John Collins (who ran content at Intercom and Ramp), quantified the problem by finding 55% of customers agree B2B content tends to look and feel the same.

And now, thanks to generative AI, we’ve entered the age of content entropy.

There is, however, hope for those who wish to stand out in an endless ocean of dull, easily ignored or forgettable drivel masquerading as content. But it requires B2B marketers to accept an audacious idea... treat content as a product (even when it exists to promote a product).

Content is the currency of attention in our modern, information-saturated world. It's no longer enough to simply create content. It must be crafted with the same rigor and intentionality as a product itself. Just as a product must offer a compelling value proposition and align to category entry points to stand out in a crowded market, content must do the same – but on a much grander scale.

The byproduct of adopting a product mindset for content is formats.

In his newsletter Attention Matters, Storythings founder Matt Locke explains formats are often misunderstood. "In the world of digital marketing, it is often used as short-hand for a specific platform or channel. We often hear clients talk about podcasts, TikTok or Youtube as examples of a format."

Matt champions formats for the same reason I'm championing them now. Unlike one-off, one-size-fits-all "content types," a good format is a distinct asset — another concept from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute that enables brands to grow customer mindshare. That's because they're purposefully and programmatically crafted to naturally fit into customers' media diet.

And because formats are repeatable, they make content product dramatically more efficient compared to standard operating practices that approach each piece of content starting from scratch.

Of all the rules, this is the one I could go on about forever. So stay tuned for more on this topic. And in the meantime, let's talk about another shift in mindset.

Rule #7: Think like a broadcaster and a media mogul to build a hyper-efficient marketing engine

As I revisited all the content about content I consumed at the beginning of my career, the phrase "think like a publisher" appeared frequently.

The mantra coincided with the death knell of a print journalism that led to a mass migration of seasoned journalists, editors, and print veterans who found refuge in marketing departments. These professionals brought with them established practices — fact-checking, long-form storytelling, careful curation, and calendar-driven content planning — that became ingrained in how B2B marketing is done today.

The dominance of editorial professionals and wordsmiths in marketing is undeniable. Market research I conducted earlier this year showed that an overwhelming majority of the products, vendors, and education targeting B2B marketing share a common editorial DNA.

This isn't a bad thing, mind you. There's undeniable value in the editorial rigor and deadline-driven content production.

But it does spotlight a glaring gap. Because, as B2B marketing evolves in an era defined by multimedia formats, rapid experimentation, and continuous, audience-centric engagement, teams that fail to grow beyond these inherited print-era frameworks are falling behind.

The new era of B2B marketing demands iterative, agile approaches that account for distribution dynamics, media diversification, attention economics, and feedback loops more akin to broadcasting than traditional publishing.

In other words, the market's deep editorial roots are both an asset and a constraint. And addressing these realities requires us to look beyond "think like a media company" as a banal platitude half-heartedly parroted to rebrand "content marketing" and instead see it as a call for the kind of business acumen missing today.

Rule #8: Redefine marketing effectiveness by transforming metrics into narratives for stakeholders

Remember the first rule? Escape the tyranny of misconceptions and attribution and reestablish marketing's role? In case you forgot, I mentioned that survival in the new era of B2B marketing hinges on marketers wherewithal to tell data stories that connect the dots between brand and demand for stakeholders and promised to expand on this idea.

You see, in B2B marketing, there's a misbelief that finance is the enemy of marketing. But nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, when the going gets rough, the marketing budget is first to get cut. But this common scenario says more about marketing's ability to showcase its value to stakeholders.

Too often, B2B marketers get caught up reporting numbers from their tech stack — impressions, clicks, and downloads — without crafting a narrative that connects the dots back to core business objectives like revenue growth, market expansion, or strategic differentiation. All executives and decision-makers see plenty of charts and tables, resulting in the inevitable conclusion.

For B2B marketing to thrive and not just survive in the next chapter of this story, teams need to challenge conventional thinking around attribution and set the stage for a more meaningful approach to measuring and interpreting results in the context of the company’s financials, competitive landscape, and long-term goals.

In an effort to trim down this already lengthy tome, I suggest reading this piece by Deborah Carver to get a leg up on marketing effectiveness.

Deborah and I sometimes quibble about minor differences in our measurement philosophies. But more often than not, she's right — and while the piece I'm recommending is focused on content, the dimensions and the model she outlines are applicable to all of marketing. And, more importantly, I believe they're a solid foundation for explaining how customer mindshare converts into captured demand.

Rule #9: Break apart marketing silos and act programmatically for a better return on investment

Last but not least is the major reason B2B marketing strategies fail — despite the genius of their hypotheses or the caliber of the individuals tasked with executing it: the wherewithal of the business to provide the fiscal support and cross-functional infrastructure for marketing to unlock its true potential and compound its return on investment.

Fiscal support, operational infrastructure, and a willingness to integrate across teams are not just “nice-to-haves” — they’re the bedrock upon which great marketing programs are built. Without them, marketing is left fighting an uphill battle, struggling to justify incremental expenses and orchestrate campaigns within narrow, disconnected silos.

It begins by breaking marketing out of silos and viewing the function as a holistic, enterprise-wide initiative rather than an isolated function. By tearing down silos, aligning budgets with long-term growth goals, and ensuring flexible, data-driven cross-functional collaboration, businesses can empower their marketing teams to operate more like cohesive, well-funded programs and less like fragmented projects scrambling for scraps of attention and resources.

Once the marketing team is running on all cylinders, operational synergy with other departments can be achieved.

Don't forfeit the first-mover advantages in the next era of B2B marketing to competitors (or creators)

If you've made it this far, thank you.

This unwieldy edition of Marketing Under The Influence is the result of seven months of deep, obsessive thinking about the current state of B2B marketing and my earnest effort to equip B2B marketers with a fresh perspective as we say goodbye to 2024 and tackle the challenges that await in 2025.

Every rule is based on how we ran content at Eventbrite and Hopin reframed through the lens of research from Ehrenberg-Bass and encapsulates everything I know about wielding media and running profitable media businesses from working in music, events, movies, and television prior to considering myself a marketer.

Starting January 2025, I'll begin diving deeper into each of these rules every week through Q1. And “ultimate guide” that includes all the concrete, actionable steps and quick-start templates for implementation will also go on sale soon.

Until next time,

Ronnie

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