Is all B2B marketing the same?

Do you find B2B marketing generally dull? I find it’s just webinars and whitepapers for led-gen. I’ve done it. It kind-of works. Works less today for sure.

Typically, whitepapers and webinars dominate the field. It's quite clear that these are used for lead generation. They serve as lead magnets, maybe offering an effective method to gather leads.

A whitepaper might offer valuable insights into improving your brand, available in exchange for your email address. So, while it appears to be a giveaway, it's not entirely free. The content often concludes with a promotion of their product. This approach might have been effective five years ago, but it doesn't seem to have the same impact now. Marketers are increasingly aware that this method often leads to a bombardment of sales pitches, often in a non-meaningful way.

The same applies to webinars. Webinars often advertise limited space to encourage sign-ups, when in reality, a webinar is essentially a podcast. They are free discussions with no capacity limitations. In fact, it's questionable why webinars continue to exist when podcasts, which do not have these limitations, have not replaced them.

Why does B2B marketing appear monotonous? It seems that the websites and approaches are similar, which can be dull. This may stem from past success, prompting everyone to imitate what worked and continue without trying anything new.

So do you think there's a big space for trying something new in B2B marketing that is different? And I'm sure there's brands out there that are doing that now. If you know any, please send them to me. I'd love to see them.

‍

I have three ideas to make B2B marketing more interesting:

1. Offer something for nothing in return
2. Remove friction to learn
3. Maintain authenticity

‍

Offer something in return

Firstly, offer something to your audience without expecting anything in return.

Present the great things that you can do. There's no need for anything from your audience, not even an email address. If your content is valuable and they like it, they'll be interested in following you as a brand or an individual associated with that brand. Offering something for free is really important.

Remove friction

Another important factor is moving away from the traditional approach of getting an email address for sales purposes only. This outdated tactic can often lead to ineffective outcomes.

Instead, aim to pique someone's interest in you and your product without resorting to cold sales. By the time they engage with you, they've likely already gathered 50 to 60% of the information they need. The more information you provide, the smoother the process and the better they'll feel about you.

So, it's essential to remove these traditional frictional barriers often found in traditional B2B or enterprise-level marketing.

Be Authentic

Being authentic is key. Considering the multitude of SaaS platforms, particularly in B2B, brands that are authentic and unique tend to stand out. Hence, authenticity is crucial. How can you be authentic? Don’t copy your competition, use your own way of speaking, and don’t try to be everything for everyone. It is ok if people don’t like your brand. (as long as it is not your ICP!)

If you have any examples of b2b brands that are doing something new doing something authentic, the stand out, please send to me. I'd love to see them.

It's really hard to do B2B marketing well. I'm struggling now with a few of my companies. But I try to remember those 3 aspects when doing it.