Positioning, Messaging, and Branding for B2B tech companies. Keep it simple. Keep it real.
B2B tech CMOs have the shortest tenure among CxOs. Unrealistic expectations, overpromising, and marketing lag have a lot to do with it. Tech companies can help their marketing leaders succeed by creating a safe, transparent environment. Set realistic goals, invest in marketing and innovation, and encourage honest communication.
B2B tech is a high stakes game and the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) has the shortest leash.
With an average tenure of about 26 months, CMOs are pressured to deliver immediate results in a landscape where deals and market shifts are anything but immediate. It makes zero sense.
Understanding these challenges is key to fostering a culture that supports long-term success.
Marketing efforts in B2B tech have a significant time lag. Closed-won deals often take longer than a CMO’s average tenure, making it almost impossible to meet the instant gratification demands of the CxO. This highlights the challenges faced by CMOs in B2B technology companies and why maintaining realistic expectations around time lag are at the core of longer tenures.
As marketing leaders, we need to do a better job of educating (and reminding) the CxO about the time delay between marketing action and revenue recognition or business outcome. Unlike in the B2C world, where a purchase often takes place within minutes of an ad click, B2B customer journeys are notoriously long and complex.
B2B tech is often ego-driven, with CEOs making overly inflated promises to boards and investors. This pressure trickles down to sales and marketing, forcing them to suck water from rocks. For instance, 95% of business clients are not in the market for many goods and services at any one time, indicating a much longer sales cycle that conflicts with short-term expectations. Understanding why CMOs have short tenures in B2B tech is critical to addressing these issues.
CEO’s get trapped in their own web because they overpromise results to their board members and investors. This puts tremendous pressure on Sales and Marketing to make good on these inflated promises.
Angeley Mullins, CCO, Resourcify
In B2B tech, the mantra often is “Failure is not an option.” But this is unrealistic. Success is a string of failures. Without failure, there is no success. This mindset needs to extend to Sales and Marketing, where experimentation and learning from failures can fuel innovative and creative ideas.
A culture of safety doesn’t exist for Sales and Marketing. There are no heroes come forecast time.
Eric Quanstrom, 5X CMO | 4X Inc 5000 | 3X Exits
Engineering and R&D enjoy a culture of safety, where failures are seen as steps toward success. Sales and Marketing should be afforded the same culture of safety to innovate and grow. This disconnect is reflected in the fact as much as 60% of in-market deals end in no-decision, underscoring the need for a realistic approach that mitigates buyer risk.
40% to 60% of the average salesperson’s pipeline is lost to “no decision.”
Matt Dixon, “The JOLT Effect”
For good reason, the C-suite is often suspicious of what’s happening inside the marketing and sales “black box,” fearing that too much is being “cooked up” to meet (ironically) their inflated promises and unrealistic expectations.
This suspicion, combined with the pressure to deliver on unrealistic promises, leads to “cooking the books” (aka covering one’s ass). It also fosters dishonesty and a culture of fear. Additionally, 75% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free sales experience, highlighting the shift towards more transparent and customer-centric approaches.
I’ve experienced this dynamic firsthand and I’ll be the first to admit I was partially responsible (you don’t know what you don’t know).
On two occasions, I was let go after 24-26 months because I couldn’t deliver the immediate results the CEO was expecting. What’s funny is that 3-6 months later, the go-to-market (GTM) efforts my team initiated months prior began to materialize.
The company then enjoyed success from the lag and making boatloads of money, only to face a downturn months later when they failed to sustain the momentum. They ended up getting caught with their pants down scrambling to find another marketing leader to repeat the cycle.
Can you say, “Groundhog Day?”
B2C companies invest heavily in both Marketing and Innovation, understanding that both are equally important for success.
In contrast, B2B companies, led by engineering and sales, often invest only in innovation, believing their product is so cool that everyone will want it. This mindset neglects the importance of marketing in driving awareness, confidence, and trust, particularly when it comes to brand reputation.
Read more about Peter Drucker’s position on marketing and innovation and the converging B2B and B2C marketing trends.
We need to get back to basics. We need to stop the survey slapping and marketing malpractice in b2b.
Alan Hale, Consight Marketing Group
B2B tech companies can become agents of change. But they must be willing to (as Seth Godin says) create a ruckus by creating a culture based on innovation AND marketing.
It’s not your fault that you’re fucked up. But it is your fault if you stay fucked up.
Jen Sincero, “You Are A Badass”
It’s time for a reality check. The short leash on marketing leadership in B2B tech is stupid and we B2B marketers have only ourselves to blame.
By understanding and addressing the inherent lag in marketing, setting realistic expectations, and treating marketing as a strategic business function, tech companies can better support their marketing leaders and drive scalable growth.
But it starts with Marketing leading the way. When we become change agents, we give ourselves permission to build confidence and earn respect, ensuring our efforts are recognized and valued.
This approach is absolutely critical for improving CMO retention in B2B technology.
Strong marketing leadership cannot be attained in a revolving door. Neither can long-term growth.
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B2B tech companies often waste resources by trying to appeal to everyone and chasing immediate results. Instead, prioritize deep customer insights and brand equity. This approach boosts engagement, conversions, and long-term growth.
In B2B tech marketing, it’s easy to spread ourselves too thin. We pour all our energy into chasing immediate results and end up missing opportunities staring us in the face.
We live in a society addicted to instant gratification. Social media is a good example. We’ve become jaded to instant feedback and that fuels our desire for quick wins.
However, this often leads to waste. Instead, we should focus on building lasting relationships and brand equity by deeply understanding our customers’ needs and challenges.
Casting a wide net may seem a like good idea, but it only creates more problems. Diving deeper into insights helps us hone in on our best-fit customers and find more of them today and tomorrow.
Many B2B tech companies try to appeal to everyone, believing a broader reach guarantees success. This is wrong.
Some of my clients struggled because they didn't understand their target audience. They spread their marketing efforts across multiple sectors without focus, leading to ineffective campaigns. One SaaS client tried to target five different industries simultaneously, resulting in generic content that didn't work.
Many B2B tech companies try to appeal to everyone, believing a broader reach guarantees success. This is wrong.
Some of my clients struggled because they didn’t understand their target audience. They spread their marketing efforts across multiple sectors without focus, leading to ineffective campaigns. One SaaS client tried to target five different industries simultaneously, resulting in generic content that didn’t work.
Further Reading: Niche Marketing for B2B Tech: Unlock Faster Growth and Higher ROI.
In sales-led organizations, there’s a tendency to throw everything into the mix, including the kitchen sink. Driven by the fear of missing out (FOMO), this scattergun approach leads to unnecessary anxiety and wastes resources on strategies that don’t align with our goals.
When we rush things, we often end up wasting resources on strategies that don't align with our core objectives.
Driving depth means sticking to a strategy and choosing the most effective marketing tactics, not trying to do everything at once. When we narrow our focus and dedicate our efforts to understanding and serving a specific niche, we create relevant and meaningful marketing campaigns and build a stronger brand reputation.
To market well, we must understand our customers. Interviewing our best-fit customers is the simplest and most effective way to do this. Direct conversations directly reveal what they really need, what frustrates them, what motivates them, and how they talk about problems and solutions. Without this knowledge, marketing is mere guesswork.
Many tech companies think they know their customers, but they’re often wrong. Interviewing ten of our best-fit customers can unveil patterns and information we wouldn’t find otherwise. They tell us what really matters to them, how they decide, and what influences their purchases.
I once had a client who, after interviewing their top customers, realized their marketing was off. They had focused too much on product features instead of the value their customers cared about. Adjusting their messaging based on what they learned led to significant increases in new business and brand reputation.
Further Reading: Customer Research: The Foundation of B2B Tech Marketing Success.
B2B tech companies, particularly SaaS, focus too heavily on lead generation, often at the expense of building a strong, lasting brand. This short-term thinking can undermine future success.
Building brand equity is the added value our brand brings to our solutions tomorrow. Like financial equity, it doesn’t happen overnight.
A strong brand helps future buyers choose us over the alternatives, including the status quo. Every interaction with our brand influences a buyer’s perception of our company and our solutions.
Ignoring brand building makes life harder for the sales team. Without brand recognition and reputation, they will continue to struggle to close deals, creating more pressure on marketing to generate leads.
Reputable brands build credibility and trust, providing the air cover to convert leads into customers and customers into fans.
Brand building is like investing in your finances. Think long-term by consistently communicating your brand’s unique value and benefits across every customer touchpoint.
Companies that invest in brand equity enjoy higher customer loyalty, better customer retention, and increased word-of-mouth referrals. It’s kind of like compound interest.
B2B tech marketing is fast-paced, and it’s easy to get distracted with quick results. But this often wastes resources. Instead, focus on driving depth instead of width.
Interview your customers, build your brand, and choose effective customer insights. This will provide the air cover you will need down the road.
Every day, you can either invest in your brand or chase leads. Understand your audience today so you can reap the rewards tomorrow.
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B2B tech companies often fall into the trap of broad targeting, trying to be everything to everyone. This dilutes their message and stunts growth. Niche marketing, on the other hand, is like being a big fish in a small pond. It focuses on a specific audience with unique needs, leading to faster growth, stronger brand loyalty, and higher ROI. By tailoring your solution, marketing, and sales pitch to a niche, you can establish dominance and expand from a position of strength.
Is your B2B tech company pouring resources into marketing programs and sales outreach, only to see minimal returns? Do you feel like your message is getting drowned out by the competition?
Over the past 30 years in B2B tech, I’ve often seen many companies overspend on marketing and sales, yielding minimal results. Their messages get lost because they cast too wide a net, trying to appeal to everyone. It almost always results in weak or copycat marketing, high customer acquisition costs, and stagnant growth.
The Solution: Niche Marketing
Niche marketing allows us to be the big fish in a small pond. It helps us stay focused on the audience most likely to care about our unique value. It helps us understand their specific needs and tailor our marketing accordingly.
We not only stand out and get noticed, we also create fans, grow faster, and build brand equity.
TIP: Word-of-mouth is much more prevalent in a single market niche.
A fast-growing cybersecurity software company (who shall not be named) tried to sell to every business: small, medium, enterprise, healthcare, education, retail, etc.
“We have no competition and we can sell to anyone,” proclaimed the CEO, with feeling!
They ended up spending too much on sales-led outreach and marketing trying to reach everyone.
The result?
Their messaging got lost in the sea of “me-too marketing” and only produced a handful of leads. The few leads who did find them didn’t understand their unique value proposition or how they could help. Sales cycles were longer, conversion rates lower, and customer acquisition costs (CAC) higher.
This is the trap of broad targeting: Trying to be everything to everyone makes us irrelevant.
This doesn’t mean we should only ever serve one type of customer. But when starting out, we need to stay focused on the smallest market that cares the most about our unique offering and build up from there.
The cybersecurity company eventually realized their mistake. They narrowed their focus to financial SMBs. They tailored their message to this sector’s cybersecurity challenges and partnered with industry associations.
The results were transformative: shorter sales cycles, higher conversion rates, lower customer acquisition costs. They become the go-to provider for financial firms, establishing a strong market foothold and grew rapidly.
Niche marketing is ongoing. Keep listening to your best-fit customers, adapting to their needs, and continuously refining your solution to stay ahead of the curve.
Following these steps will help you establish your brand reputation as a market leader:
Being a big fish in a small pond can be the best way to establish authority, build brand reputation, and scale a business.
Niche marketing sharpens our focus by forcing us to understand and cater to a specific audience instead of trying to “boil the ocean.”
Staying focused on a niche affords us with:
And as we dominate our niche, we can expand into new markets from a position of strength.
If you’re a B2B tech company tired of blending in, look to niche marketing as your path to success. Embrace your unique value and cater to a specific audience. The rewards are worth it.
Ready to uncover your hidden potential? Let’s discuss how niche marketing can transform your B2B tech business. Schedule a free consultation today.
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Building a strong B2B tech brand boils down to understanding our customers and market niche, then using that insight to create actionable marketing strategies before jumping into creative tactics.
Only when we stay focused on building genuine relationships and delivering real value, are we able to elevate our brand reputation.
Keep It Simple and Real: Stay focused on practical insights that build genuine connections with your customers.
With over 100,000 software solutions in-market, it’s tough to stand out in B2B tech. Having the best product or the newest tech isn’t enough—we need to maintain meaningful connections with our customers over the long haul.
What I see happen all too often is short-term thinking gets in the way of marketing effectiveness. We jump straight into creative tactics hoping that all we need is better looking marketing materials to win. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
All great marketing stems from great insight. It’s about knowing what motivates our best-fit customers, the viability of our market niche, and the predictive and causal data that drives our decisions.
The better we know our customers, the better prepared we are when they are ready to buy.
Focus on best-fit customers. Why? Because they love us for a reason and we need to know why. What motivates them? What is their decision-making process? What is their buying cycle?
To get started, use the “Best-Fit Customer Canvas” on page 4 of my free and ungated One-Page Plans. It will help you:
Once we know who loves us the most, it’s time to understand what makes them tick. This is where qualitative research comes in.
Forget surveys. Have live conversations with your customers instead. Ask open-ended questions that encourage them to share their thoughts and feelings freely with zero pressure.
Here are some tools to help you:
TIP: People are more likely to open up when they feel comfortable. So, create a relaxed and informal atmosphere for your interviews. Be a good listener and show genuine interest in what they have to say.
Translate your research into targeted marketing strategies:
Keep it Simple: Don’t overcomplicate things. Use customer insights to create marketing that resonates with your target audience on a jobs-to-be-done level.
Insight from research helps us understand our business’s place in the market and identifies opportunities to stand out. By analyzing our specific niche and what competitors offer, we can position our brand better and make smart decisions.
This is about finding our sweet spot and sizing up our competition, not boiling the ocean. Think of it like this: Would you rather be a small fish in a big pond, or a big fish in a small pond?
“When you try to be everything to everyone, you accomplish being nothing to anyone.”
Bonnie Gillespie, Actor, Casting Director, Author
A niche is where our solution perfectly matches a specific need that others aren’t fully meeting. To find this, we need to understand our strengths and what’s missing in the market.
Use the “Positioning Canvas” on page 3 of my One-Page Plans (it’s free and ungated). This will help you identify:
Knowing your competition is as important as knowing your niche. A good analysis helps you understand the competitive landscape and how to differentiate.
SUPER IMPORTANT! Don’t forget the “alternatives.” More often than not, the status quo or the “fear of messing up” is your biggest competition. This is why so many potential deals end in “no decision.”
Once you understand your niche and competition, use this to position your brand. Highlight your strengths and the specific needs you meet that others don’t.
Here’s how:
Helpful Tools:
Use Your Insights:
Data helps us tell our brand’s story by helping us understand our customers’ behavior, preferences, motivations, and interactions with our brand.
Looking in the right places helps us build stronger relationships.
For example, predictive analytics might tell you that customers who visit your website multiple times are more likely to convert. But causal analytics can help you understand why they’re visiting multiple times. Are they seeking more information? Comparing your products to competitors? This deeper understanding allows you to tailor your website and marketing messages accordingly.
Data-driven insights can transform our brand-building efforts in numerous ways:
I am not a data scientist nor an expert in analytics. For a deeper dive into data and analytics, I highly recommend checking out the work of these two experts:
TIP: Data is a tool, not a magic bullet. The real magic happens when you combine data-driven insights with your creativity and expertise to create marketing that resonates with your audience. It’s about building relationships that last, not chasing leads.
Customer Research Mistakes
Market Research Mistakes
Data Analysis Mistakes
Building a successful B2B tech brand requires understanding your customers, market, and data. Use this knowledge to connect with your target audience, build relationships, and achieve long-term success.
Ready to take the next step? Grab my 10 One-Page Plans to help you define your ideal customer, clarify your positioning, and create a roadmap for your brand.
TIP: Brand reputation is defined by every interaction your customers have with your solution. Focus on building genuine relationships and using data to deliver real value.
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Case studies can help B2B tech companies overcome credibility challenges, attract future customers, and increase brand reputation. This article explains how to plan, create, and promote your customer success stories.
Case studies are an effective way for B2B tech companies, especially startups, to get closer to their customers, gain credibility with future buyers, and help build brand equity.
Oftentimes, we struggle to win over hesitant buyers who doubt our ability to deliver. Case studies are an excellent answer. They’re real-world stories of how our solution resolved challenges and delivered results. They build trust, create tangible proof, and attract more of the same customers we’re putting in the spotlight.
Integrating case studies into our marketing strategy doesn’t just help win business, it reinforces our positioning and elevates our brand reputation.
Creating effective case studies doesn’t happen by accident. It takes insight, strategy, and execution that focuses on showcasing how our customers succeed using our solution.
TIP: You don’t need to wait until you have “enough” customers. One good success story integrated into your marketing strategy is all it takes to begin attracting more customers.
Need help developing buyer personas? Check out:
TIP: Always ask. Most customers are happy to share their success stories. If a company doesn't have case studies, they probably haven't asked.
Need help interviewing customers? I highly recommend Ryan Paul Gibson’s Customer Interviews That Don’t Suck.
TIP: Every successful project, install, or adopted product is an opportunity to create a customer success story.
Here are three success stories to help get you started. If you need help, reach out.
Your case studies are valuable assets, but they won’t work if they’re hidden or buried deep in your website.
Here’s how to integrate case studies strategically into your marketing mix:
Promoting your case studies is an ongoing effort. By consistently showcasing your customer’s successes, you’ll build credibility, attract the right future customers, and gain a reputation as a trusted partner.
TIP: Turning your case study into a customer testimonial video will impact your credibility and reach exponentially.
Showcasing our impact on a customer’s bottom line builds trust and demonstrates expertise. Case studies are investments in our brand’s future, establishing a reputation for excellence and lasting relationships.
Stories about how your solutions created success for your customers create a win-win that not only elevates your brand, but can also turn customers into fans.
The path to credibility and growth begins with your first case study. Make it happen by talking to your customers.
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Over the last 10+ years, I’ve used various formats of B2B tech marketing plans to help my clients triple and even 10x their businesses.
I’m a big fan of how industry experts like April Dunford and Allan Dib have simplified complex planning documents into simple one-page canvases.
Being a visual thinker, I prefer to keep things simple too, so over the years, I have tweaked 10 of my favorite planning canvases.
I’m sharing them with you below in Google Slides format that you can use right away. You can also download the templates in PowerPoint format if you prefer.
Some of these planning canvases I have kept intact, like the Business Model Canvas, while others I have made my own. You can too.
No doubt you will recognize some of these one-pagers. Others may be new. Regardless, they’re the battle-tested tools I’ve used to guide countless tech companies toward marketing success.
No more guesswork or flying blind. These canvases give you a clear, visual framework to build a tech brand that resonates with your best-fit customers.
If you struggle with complexity like I have, grab these templates and start planning your next move forward with confidence.
Each canvas tackles a different piece of the marketing puzzle, and together, they create actionable steps towards building a comprehensive marketing roadmap for your B2B tech company and solution.
The template uses a hypothetical SaaS company as an example to provide context, but you can easily swap it out for your own product or service.
You can also use one, all, or any combination for your specific requirements.
1. Business Model Canvas
The classic canvas that helps you focus on the foundational aspects of your business, innovation, marketing, and revenue streams. Who is it for? What is it for? What value do you bring to the table? How will you make money?
2. Positioning Canvas
Based on April Dunford’s work, this canvas helps you clearly differentiate your solution from the alternatives and pinpoint the audience that cares a lot about what you offer.
3. Best-Fit Customers Canvas
Get to know your most valuable customers, their needs, why they love you, and why you love them.
4. Audience Persona Canvas
Develop a detailed audience persona for your buying team that speaks to their pain points, motivations, and desires.
5. Strategic Planning Canvas
Think big picture and set realistic marketing goals that are aligned with your business objectives.
6. Marketing Brief Canvas
Define your goals, target audience, key messages, and channels for creating marketing tactics that support your strategy. This canvas is especially helpful for the folks on your team or the team you outsource to.
7. Campaign Planning Canvas
Outline your campaign strategy, tactics, timeline, budget, and dependencies.
8. Four P’s Marketing Canvas
Another classic that helps you clearly define your product, price, place, and promotion strategies.
9. Buying Stage Canvas
Based on Avinash Kaushik’s See, Think, Do, Care methodology, this canvas helps you understand how your buyers move from awareness to advocacy and tailor your approach.
10. Sales & Marketing Canvas
Based on Allan Dibs’ book, this is a concise overview that keeps everyone on your sales and marketing teams aligned.
If you’re curious how these canvases have worked for others, check out these case studies.
They’re real-world examples where I used combinations of these planning canvases to achieve significant growth for my clients.
Too often, B2B tech companies build products without customer research, leading to all kinds of waste.
They also tend to focus solely on sales and leads, neglecting brand building, which is essential for long-term success—the reputation of your business and solution depends on it.
Using planning canvases can help address these challenges by providing a structured approach to understanding your best-fit customers and building up your brand equity.
Think of these canvases as a starting point. Experiment, adapt, and find what works best for you.
Don’t hesitate to tweak or modify these one-page plans to suit your needs. Fine-tune them to craft your own unique GTM strategy.
Ready to elevate your marketing?
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