Best B2B marketing strategies for 2023 (and 1923)

Recently, read a book called Humanizing B2B, discussing how the field of B2B marketing, communication, and sales is evolving, exploring what one might need to stay competitive, regardless of your product or service. Most people want to know what is the best B2B marketing strategies.

I can sum much of the book up by saying, and some of this applies to B2C marketing, it’s about personalization and the individual, as opposed to putting your services on blast to the masses expecting results in an ever-competitive landscape.

That this even needs to be repeated, and a book can be made of this no less, is stunning, yet at the same time, not surprising. So many in marketing, despite captain obvious one would think helming the boat, continues to be lost on people.

End of the day, the best way to do B2B marketing is the same way the best-in-class marketing has always worked:

• Be authentic
• Be real
• Be personable
• Be honest
• Show and communicate value
• Be of service

If Deep Blue shook hands with Kasparov, they could have been friends

From a baseline, everyone in marketing, B2B or B2C, should invest time and resources into research, be it SaaS tools, asking around, Google, Google Data, LinkedIn, whathaveyou; real craftspeople choose and pick the best tools for the job.

This said, a true craftsperson never blames their tools. 

The best at their craft measure twice and cut once. They understand it’s not the tools that plan and build great things, it’s the person behind the tools responsible for the outcome. 

A craftsperson knows, implicitly, it’s their relationship not with the tools that matter but the end result.

In marketing, communications, branding, and sales, the end result, regardless of the product or service offering, is building meaningful, valuable relationships. 

It is truly amazing that, in 2023, more and more, that relationship building as the core of brand building continues to get lost in converting marketing to sales.

Is marketing blinded by tech promises or laziness?

Many in marketing, regardless of their station or stage of their career, are fed constant articles and beliefs along the lines of data data data. Read this whitepaper. Use this data scraping tool. Look at these KPIs! Use these dashboards. No, these dashboards. ChatGPT will solve all your problems and make you rich, don’t forget to build those personas! On, and on, and on, ad nauseam.

Don’t get me wrong, some of these concepts are good starting points to inform decision-making, but they should absolutely and unequivocally ever be the sole factor in decisions, especially in large B2B conversational marketing, which is where deals are made. 

But let’s be honest here, almost all the biggest deals ever made in B2B history, certainly in my own time doing this, which is nearly three decades, came from an introduction, a handshake, and an honest discussion towards a mutually beneficial goal.

Crazy, right? Conversation. A pretty much free tool. Who’d a thunk it?

There’s a limit to how much product-centric marketing models relate to actual business. 

Full-stop. Read that again if you need to.

Data is great, I love data, I [heart] data, but in the end, you, me, we have to act upon our heart, mind, and gut. Date informs us, but it cannot define our business relationships.

Begin with the end in mind (psst: Relationships)

Business, as I’ve spoken about countless times in countless articles and at conferences, all comes down to relationships, both building and maintaining. Nothing more and nothing less. The rest is all just details.

No two humans are the same. We all have desires, wants, and needs to be filled, personally, professionally, and in business. 

The best B2B marketing advice I give others, above which tools work best for what audience or service, always comes back to the main tool: learn how to build meaningful relationships. This goes not only professional but personal. 

Professionally my advice is this:

1. Continually build new contacts
2. Maintain existing contacts through outreach and check-ins
3. Offer your assistance to new and existing contacts, even if not asked
4. Ask for feedback and listen; listen more than speak
5. Don’t sell, educate, inform, or share your knowledge willingly and openly, even if it doesn’t make you money

Note: I could write an entire article on how, when, and what, including approaches to each and how I personally go about maintaining professional relationships, personal too. For now, let me offer advice to find a system that works for you. Be it CRMs, calendars, reminders, or assistants to remind you, ultimately, it is you have to make a genuine, authentic connection.

There is no right way to create, build, and maintain relationships, just know it’s mission-critical to B2B marketing and sales. 

The truth about B2B marketing

Look, I get it. “Work on relationships” doesn’t sell a new SaaS tool or the latest AI purporting to supposedly make your job easy or even replace you. 

Nobody wants to hear you’re better off spending under $10 for the still relevant century-old book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” than getting a hot insider tip on the latest killer app or automation. Anything promising you incredible ROI with more conversions than you can handle through the touch of a button magically connect your product to millions of prospects sells these days. But let’s face it, if it were that easy, everyone would be doing it, and there’s a reason they’re not.

Some reading this may be all, “boo, I thought he was going to make my job of B2B marketing easy; I want tools, tips, tricks, and shortcuts.” 

Me too! But until we have chatbots selling to chatbots — which, BTW, then we’ll all be out of jobs — in the end, if you make meaningful conversions, you’ll need to do them with another human. 

Realize for this article, I could have taken the clickbait route, “B2B marketers hate this one simple trick,” which may be accurate in that the “trick” is having conversations. 

Nurture maps, marketing funnels, and automation will only take you so far in B2B marketing, and arguably if that’s all you’re putting your efforts into, you’re not using your time wisely.

These truths may hurt, but the truth is mastering B2B marketing is understanding relationship building and maintaining.

And yes, there are great resources for introverts. If you need advice from someone who feels for and has worked with many introverts helping them make and build relationships, feel free to set up a meeting, 

Dispelling cold calling

Speaking not just to introverts but everyone, you absolutely do not have to be a stoneface fearless, cold-calling machine to start relationships. In fact, I can make a case that may be the worst way to start B2B marketing and sales relationships.

I personally know multi-million dollar relationships between clients on providers that all started with one (1) engaging, well-timed, well-placed, well-written email. 

This isn’t even touching upon millennials to yours truly usually don’t pick up if we don’t recognize the number; that’s what voicemail is for. The interruption can be rude, and let’s face it, we’re all crazy busy with the crushing speed of life. 

This all comes back to meeting your potential client at their level. For many, that may be email, LinkedIn direct messages, or other text intros where you can be brief, succinct, and honest in your intention.

If you’re pitching a product or service to a potential client, start with their why, understand their needs, and let them do the majority of the talking. 

And realize what you’re offering may not be right for them, and that’s okay.

Why your B2B isn’t working

With the rise of digital data collecting and SaaS on oh-so-many levels, automation became a tempting crutch for marketers, some wanting an easy fix, figuring if they lean into data, the sales will follow. The old adage “if it sounds too good to be true…” rings clear.  

Even if one could simply point and click and poof, customers, it would decimate much of the innovation that happens because of the symbiotic relationship between business services provider and business customers. 

Great ideas, processes, and even entire industries are born when both client and vendor seek to challenge and help grow one another’s business. 

If you’re in a position having a decent tech stack but never approaching the relationship stage, it’s not your tech stack, it’s your strategy.

I have used and even been certified in several of them, they’re all more or less the same (sorry, Salesforce and HubSpot). They’re great platforms, and they will help you connect the dots and manage accounts, but it’s not just using them; it’s going a step further. 

The horror… the horror…

There have been horror stories of B2B sales departments setting unrealistic revenue goals believing all they needed was the right software.

There’s a case of a well-known company in Atlanta that jumped from Pardot to Hubspot to Salesforce in under three years. From leadership to marketing to sales, they believed their CRM and tech stack was the problem holding them back. It’s as if they ignored a book’s introduction and prologue and thought they could skip to the last page. That’s not how it works. 

Big league B2B technology can only, at best, inform you; you have to make the connections.

An old-timey Rolodex with business cards will work better than any modern CRM as a tool if you don’t understand their very similar purpose.

Both can present you with actionable steps to make, build, and nurture relationships, and one, quite frankly, is easier to use correctly. A Rolodex makes no bones about what it si.

I’d even wager that a Rolodex and a good marketer worth their salt could quickly produce more B2B profits in sales and retention than any of the supposedly best B2B CRM listed on G2.

Customers didn’t change, the tools change

A major issue with marketing and communication strategies is every year, through automation and more data, they put more and more emphasis on the impersonal aspects of the tools.

This reeks of a type of thoughts and prayers approach to selling services and products akin to the spray and pray marketing approach. If that term is new to you, spray and pray is where you spend obscene amounts on traditional and digital ads hoping someone will click, putting no thought to where or who they target.

The book Humanizing B2B gets this wrong, claiming customers have changed, but this is far from the case at their core. Customers have always wanted personalization to be of equal importance to the marketing and sales efforts of services. 

This was true during the era of Mad Men, it was true in the 80s and 90s, which is when I studied branding, marketing, and advertising, and it’s true today. Three completely separate eras of B2B marketing, but, in the end, the buyer’s core needs are the same.

You and the client are in this together

Treat your B2B service or product as a potential solution to a problem you both have. Your marketing should reflect any deal made is a collaboration of your offering and their business. Assuming you, dear reader, are human, so may too may be your client. As humans, you’re seeking equal footing. 

It boggles my mind many overlook the entire ‘do onto others as you would want to be done to you’ aspect; your marketing should reflect the partnership, even if the relationship is as vital to you ask it is to them.   

Start with why, not yours, theirs

If your marketing is misaligned with a potential client, if it does not ease their pain, don’t waste time trying to cram a square peg in a round hole. You’re not only doing a disservice to them, but you’re also wasting your time and marketing resources. 

How do you really know a customer or client’s pain point? Easy, ask meaningful questions, and listen. Then, when you’re done listening, listen some more. 

Data will only take you so far

In Humanizing B2B, the book leans into acronyms. 

For example, FEAR, which I’ll paraphrase their acronym for our own edification below:  

• Frustration. Customers are being asked to do more with less and suffer from a general sense of being overwhelmed. 
• Evasiveness. Feeling overwhelmed, customers are likely to ignore or purposefully block marketing attempts such as email or digital ads (I rage did this the other week, BTW).
• Apathy. Everyone is bombarded with hundreds of offers claiming to be the solution to all their problems, pretty much a disease to which we’re numb.
• Risk. Spending time and money in a shaky economy with tightening budgets on promised solutions just does not sit well, and, on a gut level, honestly, it shouldn’t!

The overwhelming truth about B2B sales

I’ve spent considerable time with tens of millions of dollars at stake as both a B2B marketer and a B2B client. 

It’s not lost on me how this informs my B2B sensibilities with a deeper understanding and insight as both buyer and seller of services, and it definitely influences how I approach B2B marketing. 

In fact, and this will sound bold but damned if it weren’t true, many B2B marketers and maybe salespeople should spend a year or three on the other side of the table. Running an organization reliant on B2B service providers to run a business would open their eyes. The more salesy who feel selling is something you do TO and not with a client would have a rude awakening.

Storytime with Colin

I was hired a few years back at D’Youville University to build an internal marketing and communications agency within the institution. With it came a reasonably sizeable budget to spend on various services to help grow the institution’s revenue and brand recognition. Beyond enrollment, fundraising, events, profile, build and launch new brand initiatives, and increase its visibility across five continents, not to mention payroll, hiring talent, update the entire branding, marketing, communications, and PR tech stack, expense accounts, and whatnot, all in short order.

While a sizeable lift, I had all the experience, dexterity, agility, and mindset to get all that was asked, in fact, considerably more. As per my usual, I set goals and have expectations far beyond what most will ask. Mailing it in or doing the bare minimum simply is not in my wiring. I want to build great things and am, truthfully, similar to golf, in competition with and setting high expectations for myself more than anyone else. 

As this relates to the many times I’ve been given sizable budgets, I’ve always focused on minding P&L in the best interest of the organization and never threw money at a problem. My methodology for scaling an organization and its revenue is calculating and deliberate, again, with Occam’s Razor, make everything as simple as possible. In this case, it means only spending what you need to to create ROI, but no more than that. 

Sidenote: The predecessor related to my role was known for lavish spending with no strategy and never met an offer he couldn’t refuse. He had blown at times four to five times his budget over meaningless exercises that would net him trips, freebies, and in general, ego-stroking. He was the polar opposite of my no-nonsense approach to serving my organization and its client’s best interests. 

A primer on how NOT to do B2B sales and marketing 

Despite years of experience, I was not prepared for the onslaught of B2B marketing and salespeople that befell me stepping into my new corner office. 

Within the first half of my first day on the job, B2B salespeople blew up my new phone number and email, even making unannounced visits to my building’s floor and offices before the paint had a chance to dry and hires had unpacked boxes. 

It was incredibly awkward and a case study on how not to make B2B sales calls.

It became painfully apparent within the first week that with the constant distraction from B2B marketers who may or, definitely in some cases, may not have meant well. These B2B pushers were a distraction from the business at hand.

A few, some of who I did resign contracts with considerable renegotiate, did back off and took a “we’ll check back when you’re ready.” Many, however, did not get a hint. 

My team, my admin, and myself were unified on creating a blacklist. If, later on, we determined we needed a vendor for certain SaaS, outside marketing or agency help, or a traditional marketing lift, we’d intentionally find or go with other vendors. 

This is the high cost of not seeing yourself as a B2B service as a team member or ally but rather as assuming being pushy will get business. That may work for some clients, but more and more with many, especially with your competition in the myriad of spaces, it will not.

To add value — and this goes for both sides of a B2B relationship — requires listening, understanding others’ benefits in working together, and respect. 

Building a win-win, not a lose-win or win-lose or lose-lose

This gets us back to what every potential customer or client wants, to be treated fairly, like a human, and that there’s a win-win involved. 

This really isn’t complicated. Nor is this some new-fangled fancy way of easy trick to building B2B relationships. 

Not to sound like a broken record, but the data and resources will evolve, and how we build and nurture solid relationships has not changed.  

The brave new world of B2B marketing foundation is in the old world of B2B marketing 

The book Humanizing B2B goes on to have more fun with acronyms, the following I jokingly could have twisted into BEHAVE, BLAZE, BRACE, but will leave their original intent with BRAVE, though I made their copy more succinct below:

• Buyers. They’re human, treat them like humans with real problems. 
• Recognition. Acknowledge they’re human.
• Appreciation. Seriously, the book states this. 
• Value. Find opportunities to solve their problems, even going above and beyond (amen). 
• Engagement. Talk with not at them. 

The book elaborated on these, but if I must be honest, I wanted to headdesk reading their explanations. 

If you’re in marketing, communications, or sales, and you don’t know these fundamental principles of relationships, maybe you need to look into a different career.

Retention costs far less than replacing clients

Let’s take their last bullet above, engagement, a big, important step further. 

You don’t want just to engage your customers, you want to re-engage, follow up, and continually nourish that relationship, and not in an email newsletter way.

We’re talking personal emails, phone conversations, texts, and even coffee and lunches. If you value relationships at all in business, it’s vital you continually find out how your product or service is working for your clients, potential clients, or anyone that may now or ever be in contact with your service or product. 

Again, as in every relationship, consider it an opportunity to listen, to seek to understand, and to create value simply by showing up. 

You’re not only trying to make their lives or jobs easier, you’re trying to make your life and job easier. It goes both ways, as every great solid relationship does.

Business starts with relationships, so does life, and so does everything.

How do you get better at B2B marketing? Keep learning, evolve your tools, have a great but intentionally streamlined and not overwhelming tech stack, and keep learning and growing as a human being that relies on and craves to be better at relationships. 

Master relationships and you’ve mastered B2B marketing.