• Is Your Pricing Strategy Holding Back Growth? 

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• Let’s address a hidden growth lever in B2B SaaS: pricing strategy.

• Across the many companies we’ve worked with, the most common pricing “strategy” is to price a bit lower than the industry leader. But here’s the reality—this shortcut approach can hurt long-term profitability, brand perception, and customer loyalty. A thoughtful pricing strategy, however, can boost all three. 

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• To highlight how little thought goes into B2B SaaS pricing, Paddle found “that companies only spend 6 hours on their pricing strategy in the entire history of their business.”

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• Here’s why “a little cheaper” isn’t a winning approach and why CEOs should rethink their pricing model:

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1. It misses the mark on prospect needs.Prospects may share similar goals, but their specific needs and priorities differ. Some value integration, others prioritize ease of use, and some want customization. When pricing doesn’t reflect these distinctions, it can turn prospects away or attract the wrong customers.

2. It erases your differentiation.If your only advantage is being slightly cheaper, you’re not giving prospects a reason to choose you. Pricing should reflect your product’s unique strengths, not just its position relative to a competitor.

3. It devalues your product.You’ve invested in building a valuable product; pricing it as “the discount option” downplays that value. Discounted pricing signals to the market that your product is second-rate, undermining your efforts to establish a premium or differentiated brand.

4. It insures prospects will choose the market leaderIf prospects see you only as “a cheaper alternative,” they will go with the leader unless savings are substantial. Real differentiation is about adding value, not shaving off dollars.

5. It ignores switching costs and perceived risk.Challenger brands face significant barriers with switching costs and perceived risk. Simply mirroring the leader’s price doesn’t address these concerns. Pricing strategies that consider these barriers can help gain customer trust and convert more effectively.

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• To build a more effective pricing strategy, involve your marketing, finance, product, and sales teams in the conversation. As part of the process, make sure to address these three areas:

1. Customer Needs: Use insights from marketing to understand what each customer segment values most and build pricing tiers or options that cater to those specific needs.

2. Differentiation: Highlight your unique strengths and position your pricing as a reflection of that value. Your pricing should tell a story about your brand and stand out against competitors.

3. Brand Integrity: Maintain consistent pricing that supports your brand image. A well-respected brand builds trust, and price integrity is essential for sustaining that reputation over time.

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• Action Step for CEOs

• If you haven’t revisited your pricing strategy in the past year, consider holding a cross-functional pricing audit with finance, marketing, product, and sales. This audit can help you identify where your pricing may be misaligned with customer value and where opportunities exist to communicate your differentiation and reinforce your brand.

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• Pricing is more than a number—it’s a strategic reflection of your brand and product value. Bring in marketing, shape your pricing around value, and avoid the trap of “a little cheaper.”  Your customers, brand, and bottom line will thank you.

The Demand Gen Death SpiralWe were recently brought in to do an assessment for a B2B SaaS company, when we looked at their data we quickly realized then were in what I call the "demand gen death spiral." Sounds ominous, doesn’t it? It should—this is a place no company wants to be, yet many end up there.When we recognize this spiral during an assessment, it’s like watching a horror movie where the characters make the choice to go down into the basement. You can see the disaster coming and wonder: why head in this direction?So, what exactly is the demand gen death spiral?The demand gen death spiral happens when companies divert resources from effective strategies to double down on ineffective demand generation tactics. This reallocation causes performance to decline even faster, while marketing teams and agencies cherry-pick positive data points to justify the increased spend. This selective view hides the bigger picture of overall performance decline.Warning Signs You’re in the Demand Gen Death Spiral:- Missing revenue targets- Decline in branded search impressions year over year- Drop in direct traffic year over year- A high percentage of paid search revenue tied to branded search terms- Rising cost per click and overreliance on PMax campaigns- Spending across multiple channels that generates high volumes of low-quality leadsUnfortunately, many B2B SaaS companies are caught in this cycle.How to Escape the Demand Gen Death Spiral:Stop, reassess, and return to marketing fundamentals. Shift your focus to understanding core performance metrics and building a strategy grounded in your brand and true value creation.

There’s a famous quote often attributed to W. Edwards Deming: “Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.” Pretty catchy, and it’s a mindset many of us default to. But Kevin Gray nails it better: “With data, you’re just another person with an opinion. Data by themselves have no meaning.” https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hard-hat-stats-some-common-uncommon-sense-june-23-2024-kevin-gray-gegwc/ One of the hardest jobs for a CEO is determining what opinion on the data is correct. Two recent stories showcase this challenge: Amazon’s massive losses on smart devices and Nike’s recent struggles as part of a data-driven pivot. These stories are intriguing, but I’m more interested in how the decisions behind them were made. In an article by Dana Mattioli, Amazon’s continued investment (and losses) in smart devices were driven by a metric called "downstream impact" (DSI). This internal measure aimed to track how a product influenced spending across Amazon’s ecosystem but had significant flaws, including double-counting revenue. Why bet so much on DSI? It was developed by a team that included a Nobel laureate—in a world of opinions on data, this team would have a strong argument. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dana-mattioli-7b09779_alexa-is-in-millions-of-householdsand-amazon-activity-7221495240203866112-b8_I/ Another example is highlighted by Massimo Giunco’s recent article on Nike which breaks down three critical decisions by CEO John Donahue that have hurt Nike: - Eliminating categories from the organization (brand, product development, and sales). - Becoming a DTC-led company, moving away from wholesale. - Centralizing and digitizing marketing, making it heavily data-driven. Nike used data science to help make these decisions. The result? Nike has lost billions in market cap, its share price has hit lows not seen since 2018 and it now has a new CEO. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nike-epic-saga-value-destruction-massimo-giunco-llplf/ Both articles point out that data played a key role in these strategic choices. If data is the Holy Grail of decision-making, how did these decisions go so wrong? It’s clear that data alone isn’t enough. What does this mean for CEOs and marketing? Marketing teams are flooded with data yet still make poor choices—pursuing ineffective growth strategies, wasting money on unproductive marketing channels, and rolling out initiatives that damaged the customer experience. So what can CEOs do? Before making significant marketing decisions, make sure your team addresses these points: - Ensure the decision aligns with your company’s vision and principles. - Explain how it supports customer needs and enhances the experience. - Present opposing viewpoints. - Define how success will be measured using real numbers, not vanity metrics. - Set clear goals and decision criteria upfront. If these steps don’t lead to clarity, you have to trust your gut.

The playbook mentality in marketing is one of the most damaging mindsets for an organization because it can lead your company to negative outcomes all while making it seem like you are doing the right thing. It is the “road to hell is paved with good intentions”.The most popular posts on LinkedIn are some sort of playbook, tips, hacks or rule;  Increase your LinkedIn presence, here is how I closed X number of deals through cold email, the ABM playbook, tips to grow organic search through AI etc… Learning about what others have done is important, but just following a playbook will not lead to meaningful results and can be harmful. The playbook mindset is thinking that executing simple steps can replace complex ideas and hard work. It is very appealing, the promise of the playbook is that you follow these steps and you will achieve these results.  Who doesn’t want a simple guide to success? Except it doesn't work that way. The deception is that you think you are doing the right thing because you are following steps that resulted in success for someone else. - Companies follow the product-led growth playbook and ruin their inbound marketing efforts.- Companies follow a Lean Startup playbook and put out low-quality MVPs that kill their business.- Teams execute the demand gen playbook wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars to no results. These companies thought they were doing the right thing while headed in the wrong direction. There is value in all of these strategies, but the value is never in simple steps. Why does the playbook mentality exist? Because it is easier. - It is easier to read an article on customer satisfaction than to talk to our customers and prospects- It is easier to have AI generate an article for SEO than create great content. - It is easier to justify the strategy by using someone else’s results than doing the analysis yourself. - It is easier to buy branded paid search terms than taking the time to build our brand awareness. It is so important to get out of that mindset. There is no playbook to get out of the playbook mindset, but there are some steps that will help get out of the marketing playbook mentality- Set a vision and create a brand based on truly understanding your customers’ needs. - Require your team to do customer research that has them communicating with customers and prospects- Give your team goals to go out and build relationships within the industry and their area of expertise- Before running any playbook, have them speak with others who have run the playbook to hear about the successes and challenges- Do not rely just on the results of others, have your team do their own analysis on how the changes will impact the business and define the goals of the effortIt would be great if there were simple steps we could follow to success, but success requires hard work and thinking.

I often emphasize the need to find evangelists for your company. While the concept is gaining traction, it still doesn’t get nearly enough attention. This is a huge missed opportunity. Throughout my career, I’ve seen firsthand the incredible impact of evangelists. Simply put, there’s almost no other marketing activity that can deliver such immediate and significant results. In this post, I am going to share two examples of the power of evangelists. The first case is from when I led marketing for Pentagon Federal Credit Union. PenFed was the second largest federal credit union, but compared to the big banks it was a relatively small player and my marketing budget was a rounding error compared to the budgets of the big FIs. While we may not have had big budgets, we did have exceptional products with the lowest mortgage rates, highest savings account rates and the richest credit card rewards. Our cards were so good they attracted the attention of Curtis Arnold founder of cardratings.com. While there were credit card comparison sites whose primary focus was to generate affiliate revenue, cardratings.com was not one of them. Curtis’s mission was to find the best credit cards for his users. Because we had a great product and treated our members well, PenFed was a good match with Curtis’s mission. The power of evangelism was really demonstrated in earned media. Financial reporters trusted Curtis and he was often their source when they wanted to write an article on the best credit cards. PenFed was at the top of his list. This led to coverage in the NY Times, USA Today, Money Magazine, Forbes, Fortune, Kiplinger’s, the WSJ, The Today Show, and more—worth millions in exposure and thousands of new cardholders. No other marketing tactic could have matched Curtis’s impact. Can this work in B2B? Absolutely. My second example is more recent and comes from Mark Kosoglow. He recently wrote a post about trying to find a good CRM for his business. In the post he described his selection process and why he eventually chose NetHunt CRM. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mkosoglow_when-i-resigned-as-cro-at-catalyst-i-got-activity-7212432051625492481-hSEk Two weeks later he posted an update, NetHunt shared that they had received over 200 signups from Mark’s post. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mkosoglow_if-i-mention-a-product-in-a-post-a-couple-activity-7219728726773673984-QN_O Once again, there is almost no marketing activity NetHunt could have implemented that would have that big impact so quickly. Curtis and Mark probably do not think of themselves as evangelists, but they meet the three requirements of a great evangelist. The 3 Traits of a Great Evangelist - A person who believes in the product - A person who has authority and is trusted - A person who has an audience Great evangelists can have a significant impact on growth, has your company found yours?

In the early 1900s, there was a marketing “law” known as cumulative value. Publishers used this concept to convince advertisers that they needed to advertise frequently and consistently in their publications. The idea was that repeated exposure would maximize the impact of an advertisement on readers.William A. Shryer, outlined the reasoning behind cumulative value in his 1912 book ‘Advertising Analytics’:- A single ad placement isn't an effective test of its success.- To gauge effectiveness, an ad must run at least three times in a publication.- Consistent repetition will eventually yield profitable returns.- Sporadic ad placements won't work; persistence is key.- The longer you run your ads, the more profitable they become.But Shryer himself wasn’t convinced. He stated:“Their cumulative value theory attracted me mightily, first because it violated every principle of psychology, logic, and reason and nevertheless appeared to be the guiding principle of every seller of space I met, as well as the accepted belief of most advertisers.”Shryer set out to test this theory through empirical research, meticulously tracking the performance of hundreds of ads across different advertisers. The results were surprising: contrary to the cumulative value “law,” the first ad placement had the most significant impact, while the benefits of additional exposure were limited.As Shryer wrote:“The first insertion of a tried piece of copy in a new medium will pay better, in every way, than any subsequent insertion of the same copy in the same magazine.”Now, you might wonder why you should care about what someone you never heard of said over 100 years ago about a law that is never discussed.Here’s why: much of today’s marketing still relies on the idea of cumulative value. Companies invest in martech assuming that if one email works, wouldn't a workflow that will send 5 or 10 or 15 be better? Do a Google search and you will see many results that recommend prospects need to see an ad 7 or 9 or 15 times to act.But if cumulative value isn’t true, how much money are we wasting on ineffective marketing?Many modern studies also cast doubt on the cumulative value theory.  For instance, Shryer's book brought to mind a post from Dale W. Harrison where he referenced a study (link in comments), which found that “ad response is ENTIRELY flat after the initial exposure to a given brand's advertising.”https://lnkd.in/eNU5fm3FI don't know if there is a definitive answer, but there is enough research to at least make us question this belief and ask why it is so entrenched in marketing.

Some time ago we were brought in to work with a mid-sized B2B SaaS company and their CEO, let’s call him Jim. Jim had a big personality, and if he was in the room, you knew it. Everything he or his company did was "the best." The company had achieved some initial growth by tapping into Jim’s network, and their product was well-received by early customers. But when it came time to scale, growth stalled.They expanded their sales team and invested some money in marketing, but growth was hard. Worse yet, a new competitor was getting noticed, and Jim was frustrated. “We have a great product. Why don’t they care?” he asked.Here’s the hard truth: No one cares about your business… unless you give them a reason to.The Reality Check Many Companies Need: Most CEOs are deeply passionate about their companies and because of this, they think other people will care as well. But the truth is, most people don’t think about your company at all. They don’t care if it thrives or dies — unless you earn their care.People don’t like or dislike your company; they’re simply indifferent.Your business is just like any other, unless you deliver undeniable value or build an emotional connection.If you can’t get people to care, you will be ignored.Many companies worry about being liked or disliked, but being ignored is far worse. Research shows that for growth and retention, the biggest threat isn’t being disliked — it’s being ignored.Is your company acting like people care already or does it know that care must be earned?  When companies approach prospects as if they care, they think:- The value they offer through their product or content is enough- People will be convinced to buy with one more email, call or ad - Their product features are what they should lead with- Relationships within the industry, customers and prospects aren’t necessaryThis misperception is what caused Jim’s company to struggle to grow. - Their existing customers valued the product, but it was in the “nice to have” category, not “must-have”- The company wasn’t creating any content that provided actual value to prospects or demonstrated expertise- Their marketing materials just talked about their product features and didn’t address prospect needs (and they wouldn’t add pricing to the website)- Demand gen tactics were ineffective and they tried to force people into the funnel- They lacked focus on relationships with partners and within the industryHere’s How to Earn Their Care:- Deliver value that’s impossible to overlook.- Create emotional connections.- Build relationships.Remember, the world doesn’t care about your business — but that’s your opportunity to make them care. Go beyond the ordinary. Deliver extraordinary value. Make an impact. Don’t let them ignore you.

How did three entrepreneurs grow Shibumi to $75 million in sales with almost no advertising? They followed the challenger playbook almost to perfection.

Here’s how they did it:

- Differentiate based on customer needs and competitor weaknesses.

- Be the best in the world where you differentiate.

- Validate your product-market fit through word of mouth and emotional resonance.

- Build a distinctive brand and product.

- Capture your competitors' customers as you grow.

- Continuously improve what you do best.

- Expand by entering adjacent markets.

These steps can work for almost any challenger brand.

If you’re wondering whether your company could leverage marketing more effectively, feel free to reach out.

Article:

https://slate.com/life/2024/07/shibumi-shade-beach-cover-north-carolina.html

Ray Rike provides a terrific resource for finding benchmarks and some guidance on how to utilize benchmarks correctly. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rayrike_b2bsaas-benchmarks-activity-7232404615386836992-HlA2/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop My take: I have seen some people railing against the use of benchmarks, but used the right way, they can be incredibly useful in identifying issues and setting priorities. There are many different aspects of marketing so it can be extremely difficult to know what to prioritize. Benchmarks shouldn't be your sole or even primary guide, but if one of your company’s metrics is significantly different than peers, it is worth looking into. Benchmarks help you quickly identify differences. Also, check out Omar Akhtar for benchmarks. Omar has some great data and a good post on how to use benchmarks. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/omarbilalakhtar_a-prospective-client-asked-me-a-great-question-activity-7232023554324672512-X1iD?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop Linas Beliūnas posts that startup failures are through the roof but also says this actually isn’t bad https://www.linkedin.com/posts/linasbeliunas_wild-the-rate-at-which-us-startups-are-going-activity-7232344786391711744-6z-4/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop My take: Startup founders are either getting incredibly bad advice or not following good advice. Linas says the increase in the rate of failure isn't actually a negative, but to me, all of these failures seem wasteful. Not because startups are bad, but without the right approach they will never succeed. Following a path that won't succeed is a waste of time, money and emotions. For mid-sized brands, this also makes it clear that competition is increasing. To protect your business, this means that it is time to invest in brand and make sure you are so good in a specific area that customers can't switch away from you because they need what you offer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you want to know if your company can utilize marketing more effectively, send me a note.

“A manufacturer whose plant is estimated to be worth about two million dollars recently remarked : "If I were forced to choose between sacrificing my plant and the good-will which this company has established thru continuous advertising for the last twenty years, I should willingly say, ' Burn down the plant . I can obtain capital to rebuild it tomorrow, because our advertising has created a demand which has a bankable value and will bring new capital . '”

This is a passage from a textbook called ‘Advertising Campaigns’  written by Mac Martin in 1917.  

It is hard to imagine a mid-sized B2B SaaS CEO today reaching a similar conclusion. 

I have no idea if the manufacturer’s brand was worth more than the plant, but I do know the concept that a brand has actual value is rarely expressed by SaaS CEOs today.  Having worked with many different B2B SaaS companies I have never had a CEO assign value to their brand.  A few CEOs might say we need to improve our brand or increase brand awareness, but they wouldn’t have an answer if asked what their brand was worth.  

Yet in 1917, the manufacturer was very aware of the value of his brand.  

Why does it matter if a CEO knows that their brand has value?

It matters because if they don't see the value, it will affect investment decisions.  While a CEO will never have to choose between burning down a factory or maintaining the brand, the same decision is made writ small with every budgeting decision.  Do we add or take money from brand?  Without understanding value, it is easier not to invest in brand because the impact seems illusory.  

Two examples that highlight that a brand has real value:

1. Warren Buffet invested in Coca-Cola in 1988 because he saw its brand value as a moat

2. Research shows that large and growing brands continue to grow for a time after stopping advertising

Three takeaways:

- Your brand has value: It is important to realize that your brand is more than how your company is perceived, it has an actual value.  Imagine there were two SaaS companies in a category that were similar in almost every way, but every prospect in the category was familiar with one of the companies, but very few were familiar with the other.  Which company is worth more? 

- Think about brand Investment: When making investment decisions it is important to understand the value of brand is more than the measurable impact it has on current sales or perceptions.  An investment in brand is also an investment in future growth. 

- Brand is bigger than advertising - Investment decisions on brand are about more than just whether you should increase or decrease your advertising spend.  It is important to think about brand impact in other areas as well.

Over 100 years ago it was understood that brand had a value and that is still understood among many consumer good companies today, but it seems like the lesson has never been learned for many in B2B SaaS. 

Despite what you often see on LinkedIn or hear from agencies and consultants, there is no secret magic trick, tactic, or hack that will instantly create transformational growth for your company. There isn’t some hidden “growth door” that, once opened, will lead to immediate success. Instead, let’s talk about the growth path—a journey that you complete by walking it every day, step by step. Sometimes it will feel like you’re running, other times it might seem like you’re moving backward, but every company must walk this path to achieve growth. This can be a tough pill for some CEOs to swallow, especially when they’re chasing quick results. We once worked with a company whose CEO—let’s call him Ed—was always on the hunt for this elusive growth door. When Ed first became CEO, the company experienced rapid growth and secured investment from a PE firm. But with that investment came increased pressure to continue growing. Ed, feeling the weight of this pressure, constantly searched for the next growth tactic that would drive results. He was always trying to open new “doors” to find growth. They spent millions on paid media. They A/B tested endlessly. They invested in organic search, offered discounts, and cycled through various agencies and consultants. But despite all these efforts, none of the tactics led to sustainable, transformative growth. Even worse, Ed’s approach started to affect his team. Instead of focusing on long-term success, they chased quick fixes and vanity metrics to show short-term gains. These efforts might have delivered some minor wins, but they didn’t lead to the kind of enduring, meaningful growth that Ed was looking for. Sometimes, he’d have something positive to report at a monthly board meeting, but the next few months would bring nothing of substance. Eventually, the PE firm brought us in to help. Ed was a great guy, but he was stuck in a short-term mindset. We worked with him to shift his focus and establish a sustainable growth path. We advised him to stop chasing quick wins and instead concentrate on the fundamentals: the product, the brand, partnerships, and internal alignment. His team needed to focus on doing the right things every day, not on chasing the latest quick fix. Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with these tactics—they can be very effective when done correctly. However, they’re not a magic door that will single-handedly drive growth. Significant gains can happen, but ongoing growth only comes from consistently following the right path. 𝗦𝗼, 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵? - Know where you’re going: Establish a growth vision. - Know where you are: Set baselines and targets. - Know what to do: Learn and follow best practices. - Know to stay on the path: Say no to things that aren’t part of the vision. - Know the path: Develop a growth action plan.

Mimi Turner and Jann Martin Schwarz share research on ‘hidden buyers’ within Enterprise buying groups. These are the process experts within an organization, such as those in purchasing, finance, and legal. The research reveals that these hidden buyers hold nearly equal decision-making power as the product expert (or target buyer) on the buying committee. However, unlike the product expert, hidden buyers don’t engage in research and have little interest in the product itself. What do they care about? Brand familiarity and risk. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/real-job-b2b-marketing-give-buyer-group-permission-agree-schwarz-idyke/?trackingId=xXY5cgvTQY%2B3sd%2BFRfjG1w%3D%3D 𝗠𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲: There are two key takeaways for CEOs from this research: - Ensure your marketing team is building brand familiarity. - When involved in the sales process, the CEO doesn't need to be the product expert but should be prepared to assuage concerns around risk. Joe Daniels ✌️ highlights a concept he calls Difference Degradation, which suggests that over time, external pressures cause all SaaS companies to lose differentiation, leading to a scenario where all companies are competing in the same space. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/uptojoegood_b2b-saas-paradox-activity-7231608424520667136-UZ-J?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop 𝗠𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲: When companies lack differentiation, the largest company with the most resources and awareness will ultimately win. We often see our challenger brand clients trying to catch up by reaching feature parity. However, a smarter strategy is to focus on being the best in a specific area. 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆: - If you just reach feature parity, you are now competing directly with a larger competitor who has more resources and awareness. You will lose. - Because they have more resources, your larger competitor likely has better functionality, even if you offer the same features. - The exit strategy for challenger brands is often acquisition by the market leader. Superior functionality in a specific area is much more attractive than subpar functionality across all areas.

The Counterintuitive Way to Build Your B2B Brand When most marketers think about driving growth, they often believe the key steps are to:- Narrowly target prospects- Focus on promoting product features- Gate content to generate leads- Constantly introduce new creative to grab attention- Keep communicating until the prospect convertsThis approach is popular because it feels intuitive. If we believe we know the segment of people most likely to buy our product, the logical next step seems to be finding those ready-to-buy prospects, capturing their information, showcasing how great our product is, and then continuing to communicate with them until they’re convinced.Sounds reasonable.While this approach sounds intuitive, the research shows it’s actually wrong.Here’s the real way to build your brand:- Don’t target too narrowly. Despite the promises of intent data and martech, we often know very little about a prospect’s readiness—whether they’re in-market, familiar with your brand, or past buyers. This makes it largely ineffective to try to target based on readiness. Also, research shows your best audience for outreach is anyone who buys the category; it's not limited to the narrow criteria you define. Instead of hyper-targeting, focus on broad outreach to build awareness. - Build emotional connections. Don’t start with boring creative about what your product does, instead start by creating emotional resonance through storytelling, visuals, and messaging that your audience can connect with.- Offer value upfront—for free. Give potential customers a chance to experience your value with a useful tool, resource, or insight at no cost (including gating). It has to be genuinely valuable, not just interesting, and it must demonstrate your expertise. When you provide value first, you’re not just showing off your expertise—you’re building trust. - Make your brand distinct. Whether through visuals, messaging, or positioning, your brand needs to stand out and be memorable. Find those distinctive elements and stick with them - forever.- Don’t chase uninterested prospects. If your message resonates, your value is clear, and your brand is memorable, you’ve done all you can. If a prospect doesn’t engage, it’s either the wrong time or they don’t see you as the right fit. Don’t waste time chasing them. Focus on continuing to build your brand presence and let it do the work over time.

CEOs, there is a good chance that your marketing team is going to come to you to discuss the need for your company to focus on brand awareness. Both the data and anecdotal evidence show increasing interest in the topic. Every day there are multiple posts in my LinkedIn feed about the need for brand awareness. It's not just talk - data from Google shows that searches for brand awareness have been growing significantly over the past few years and have surged 27% year-over-year.Why the increasing interest? Three factors:- Marketing teams missing their targets- 'Performance marketing' tactics falling short- Research showing improved mental availability drives growthAs marketers chase the next growth driver, brand awareness becomes the hot new tactic.But here's the catch: without the right approach it won't deliver as expected.Many B2B SaaS marketers who have been focused on ‘performance marketing’ for years will apply short-term 'performance marketing' thinking to brand building. They'll run a few months of ‘brand ads’ via display, YouTube or other limited channels, see minimal impact, and then move on to the next tactic. This approach misses the fundamental shift required.As a CEO, how can you tell if your marketing team is taking the right approach?The strategy should address these components:- 𝗠𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀: Mental availability means that buyers think about your brand in buying situations, not just that they aware of your brand. - 𝗖𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀: Category entry points (CEPs) are the triggers, reasons, or occasions that cause someone to consider buying a product in a specific category.- 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: To build mental availability, it's essential to develop strong, distinct creative that forges emotional connections and creates memorable associations in the minds of prospects. Standard creative often fails in this regard, as research shows a significant percentage of advertising is wasted due to a lack of recall and emotional engagement with prospects.- 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲: Building mental availability requires ongoing, consistent presence and refreshing associations. - 𝗔𝗱𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀: It is likely that you are not seeing any reports that are measuring awareness, reports that measure changes will have to be developed. If your marketing team is not addressing these components, their 'brand awareness' efforts are likely to fail. The correct approach may seem complicated, but like all marketing, success lies in thinking about your prospects and treating them like people.

Mert Bürian breaks down Hoka’s growth and provides some great insights for all challenger brands. https://lnkd.in/e5-Z-QUu𝗠𝘆 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲: - It isn’t Differentiation vs. Distinctiveness; Both are Critical for GrowthDifferentiation helps you stand out in the market, while distinctiveness makes your brand memorable. Successful brands leverage both to create a strong market presence.- Start by Owning a NicheBegin with a specific target audience and become the go-to brand within that niche. This focused approach can create a loyal customer base and drive word-of-mouth marketing.- Find Evangelists to Promote You Within That Niche Identify and nurture brand advocates who are passionate about your product. These evangelists can significantly amplify your reach and credibility within the niche.Lenny Rachitsky interviews Mike Maples, Jr, who shares three things successful founders do differently. https://lnkd.in/eHhqKXgUMike’s Three Things Successful Founders Do Differently- Movements- Storytelling- Disagreeableness𝗠𝘆 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲: 𝗘𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻Have a compelling vision centered on your customers' success, not just your company's success. Inspire your team and your customers with this vision.𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴Effective storytelling builds emotional connections and makes your brand memorable. Develop and share stories that resonate with your audience across all channels.𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗘𝗻𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗲𝘀Take a stand against challenges that hinder your customers' success. This creates a clear opposition and strengthens your brand’s identity and mission.Martí Gou, CEO of Gretel, announces they are shutting down and shares some valuable lessons from the experience. https://lnkd.in/edRTt5Eu𝗠𝘆 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗙𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘂𝗿𝗲I hate stories like this. Martí and his team worked hard, had a passion, and tried to create a product that would improve people's lives, but they couldn't make it work. Martí offers many terrific insights, especially around MVPs:The concept of MVP, as many people understand it, is flawed. If you don't solve a pain point for users exceptionally well and seamlessly, it's going to be tough.Capturing a user's time and attention is one of the hardest things to do in business. If you manage to do that, you must provide immediate value, not use the user's time to improve your product.

After receiving investment, B2B SaaS companies are in a challenging position as they need to grow 3X to 5X over the next 3 to 5 years.  To achieve this transformational growth there are four fundamental challenges that must be overcome:- Lack of a growth vision- Lack of strong reporting - Lack of a growth culture- Lack of alignmentIn this episode, Neeti Patel provides insights on the challenges and how companies need to address them to drive transformational growth. Neeti also provides a few tips on how to make the transition smoother:- Investors should start having conversations around performance goals and reporting expectations with leadership, pre-investment- Identify some quick wins to help build momentum and excitement early on- The investors and company leadership need to be aligned on the growth vision

There are endless posts and articles telling us what we should do, but the problem is that almost all of them address the outside.We need to address the inside first.𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲?The answers to these questions form the inside:- Who am I doing this for?- What problems are they having?- How can I fix the problem?- Why am I doing this?- How do I measure success?- How do I treat people?𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲?The tactics. The list of what is on the outside is long, but in marketing, some items include: SEO, social media, paid advertising, writing, content, messaging, design, conversion rate optimization, testing, etc.𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵𝘀 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲-𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗜𝗳 𝘄𝗲 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁, 𝘄𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁. If we are driven by the fundamentals, it will cause us to execute the tactics in a way that drives value for our users. 𝗪𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲. Working from the inside will make our tactics better, but the reverse will not be true. Being great at the tactics will never answer who we are doing this for, what problems they have, and how we can fix the problem.𝗜𝘁 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘃𝘀. 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲; 𝘄𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝗵. Sometimes the relationship between inside and outside is presented as one or the other, but they are not at odds, inside drives outside. 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝘄𝗲 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝗳 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲-𝗼𝘂𝘁?Below are three indicators that you are working from the inside-out.𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗯𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 - Do we implement tactics in response to the way we answered the inside questions, or are we simply chasing metrics? If we are driven by the inside, we will know our audience and utilize tactics to help them with their challenges.𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 - If you are working from the inside, you will want to go beyond just tactics and begin to learn more about your users and engage with them. What does that look like? It could be listening to sales and customer support calls, looking at customer feedback surveys, participating in events and communities or something as simple as commenting on LinkedIn.𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 - If you are driven by the inside, your tactics (and metrics) will improve. If you are producing value, users should engage with you, give you feedback, and want to do business with you.

Have you seen the Jerry Seinfeld bit on Life cereal?  He says…

Too much arrogance.

Everywhere.

Even the food industry.

Where in the world do you get your balls to call a breakfast cereal LIFE?

What do they see in their little square oat cereal that makes them think that it should be named after our very existence?

“How about Oaties, Squaries, Brownies?”

“Oh no, this is much bigger than that.

This is LIFE, I tell you.

It’s LIFE.”

Many B2B marketers (including me) can be the same.

We could choose any relationship to describe the B2B buying process, but instead it goes like this….

Buying B2B software is like buying a pack of gum

No, that is not meaningful enough.  

OK, buying B2B software is like buying a car.  

We need something bigger.

OK, how about buying life insurance?

No, this is more important than that!

I know…buying B2B software is like finding a spouse

We have all heard this punchline to the analogy, (I have used it) “You don’t ask someone to marry you on a first date.”  

Marketers could choose any relationship for their analogy, but many choose the most important relationship in peoples’ lives,, the one that impacts your entire life, emotionally and  financially,  for 50 years (if we are lucky) and usually involves caring for and raising kids, extending its impact.  

If B2B software is like marriage,  it must be pretty powerful software we are selling.  

I guess if you really worked at it you could stretch it to make it work…

The first date is like a demo 

Your friends and family are the buying committee

Your mom is a decision maker

Your date is qualified for a long-term commitment  if they show up the first time

Looking at your LinkedIn profile is a signal that they are ready to get married

Apart from cute one-liners like not asking people to marry you on a first date or poorly written cold emails are like cheezy pick up lines,  dating and the B2B  buying process are really not alike. 

There is one area that should be the same, be open and honest in your communication.  Building trust is the key to a good relationship and will serve as a foundation into the future.  

Anthony Pierri says the one of the most common problems he sees on homepages is that companies don’t say what problem they are solving.  

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anthonypierri_productmarketing-startups-b2b-activity-7209185183743238147-ccDP?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

My take: There are very few brand new categories, so companies are going to grow by taking customers from a competitor.  How do you do this?  Defining a problem based on insights from your competitors’ customers is a big opportunity to differentiate your company.  

Oren Greenberg says companies are investing too much in content and should be investing in social proof instead.  

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/orengreenberg_marketers-are-over-investing-in-content-activity-7209565661000282112-Hel1?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

My take:  Word of mouth is the primary driver of growth, so companies need to find ways to make it easier for customers to share.  

Pete Blackshaw shares a clip of Elon Must saying that AI is going to replace search as we know it today.  

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/consumergeneratedmedia_advertising-search-futureofsearch-ugcPost-7209521374313279488-Wfmf?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

My take: Search engines (primarily Google) are the primary content economy of the Internet today.  People create content in order to be ‘paid’ in traffic from search engines.  We need to think about how content creators will get ‘paid’ in a world of AI or people will stop creating new content.   

Work is just that, work, but that doesn’t mean it should be joyless and lack meaning. Being fulfilled and inspired is important not just for you, but for the company as well because this is one of the foundational components of growth.  Research from Gallup shows companies with highly engaged employees had 18% higher productivity and 23% greater profitability.

What is joy?  Joy isn't just being happy which is a short-term emotion, it is finding satisfaction in contributing meaningfully 

 Here are three things you can do to find more joy in your work:

1. 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗕𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁

Being frustrated and wanting change are not the opposite of joy; these feelings mean you still care. What will keep you from finding joy in your work is indifference. Indifference means accepting the current situation as it is and not striving to make it better. Your response to broken processes, poor customer experiences, low performance etc…  shouldn’t be, “That is just the way it is.”

2. 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀

Choose to tackle the big challenges rather than just working on small items. It is easy to just cross off the small items from your to-do list, but the potential to accomplish great and meaningful things in your job comes from taking on the big challenges.  

3. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘀 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗕𝗲 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗼𝘄𝘀

Every job has challenges and aspects you dislike, and sometimes those things are significant. There’s no way around that. But when you win, when you succeed, that feeling should be greater than the negatives.

These points can help you understand if you are in the right role.  If you aren’t given the opportunity to fix broken process or take on bigger challenges or the company doesn’t celebrate the wins, you are likely not in the right place.  

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 Leaders 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗗𝗼

There are many layers to driving growth but one of the key components of the foundation are engaged and inspired employees. If you are a leader within a company, you should ask yourself

- Have we given employees the opportunity to fix broken processes?

- Have we given employees real challenges to accomplish?

- Have we taken the time to enjoy the wins as an organization and recognize strong contributions?

No matter our role, we need to understand work isn’t always fun, but we should be able to find joy and meaning in the work we do. 

Mark Evans says brand building isn’t a priority for most B2B SaaS companies.and offers a few theories why.  

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/markev_brandstrategy-brand-b2bmarketing-activity-7208459050957639681-Zunz/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

My thoughts:

1. Marketers do a terrible job selling brand awareness because they keep positioning the decision using terms like “brand marketing” vs “performance marketing”

2. A lot of marketing leaders came up as digital marketers so awareness of the power of brand is often low

Research shows that less than 40% of CEOs have confidence in their team's ability to execute the organization's 2024 growth strategy.  Neeti Patel asks “​​What percentage of go-to-market professionals have confidence that their CEOs and executive leadership are aligned around a clearly defined and well-articulated growth strategy? “

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/neeti-patel-1486614_ceos-activity-7208543578682200064-APo_/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

My thoughts: This highlights the reasons some companies are struggling with growth. If a CEO thinks growth just comes from checking off a list of marketing tactics, that company is not going to achieve significant, sustainable growth. Growth comes from addressing foundational issues, brand, strategy and then last (and least) tactics. 

Andrew Ansley dives into the Google Algorithm leak and has some interesting insights.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7201322482815913985/

My take:

Some people have given Google a hard time, but at least these main points are primarily focused on benefiting the user (apart from the overreliance on brand size).   

1. It is critical to build a strong brand 

2. Be an authority in a specific area 

3. Focus on the user experience 

Liam Moroney Says that Advertising in B2B SaaS Does Not Equal PPC

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/liammoroney_the-term-ppc-became-synonymous-with-ads-in-activity-7206400934854148096-hBmH?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

My thoughts:

- Most PPC is not advertising instead it is about physical availability

- Brands need to use PPC to be easy to find and easy to buy

- It has limited impact on mental availability

Byron Sharp makes the point that paid search isn’t really advertising, it is more life shelf-space in a store.  What does this mean?  

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-paid-search-like-shelf-space-byron-sharp/

His takeaways:

- Paid search should always be on

- Its impact should be measurable 

- Physical and mental availability are both needed

If you are having trouble wrapping your mind around physical availability, take a look at Dollar General, this discount chain shows exactly what physical availability looks like.

 https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7204122389754884096/

My insights:

- Physical availability is a powerful factor in driving growth

- Does physical availability apply to B2B SaaS?

- How can we take the lessons from Dollar General and apply them to B2B SaaS?

6/11/24: 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘀𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝘀 𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝗮𝘀 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 Dan Cremons stresses the importance of doing due diligence on a company’s organization https://lnkd.in/ewyP-PRTQuite a few people have written about the need to retire demand generation but it is also time to retire the term brand marketing because the term diminishes the importance of brand and potential performancehttps://lnkd.in/ePm56yPqJason M. Lemkin highlights the pain of switching vendors which makes me think about the need for companies to develop a strategy to make switching easier https://lnkd.in/eMtGk5Uv

Four years ago, we conducted a marketing assessment for a B2B SaaS company. As always, we started with a competitive analysis. The results were predictable—big brands were dominating the market. But one smaller brand that was a competitor to our client stood out. Founded by industry veterans, they had built a brand and product that resonated deeply with their niche audience. They used their expertise to solve real problems, and it worked. They were growing and taking on industry leaders.Fast forward to today. We were brought back for another assessment. Once again, the big brands were growing. But that smaller brand that had been growing? They were now in decline.What changed?Since our last assessment, they had received private equity funding and they likely felt pressure to grow. Reading their press releases and looking at their marketing it is apparent they chose to dramatically expand the audience they were selling to and rebranded to appeal to that wider audience. In the process, they lost the things that made them differentiated and distinct.The results? Since their pivot and brand update, their share of search has fallen by 47% and they had to lay off almost 20% of their employees. The key takeaways?1. Brand “refreshes” can go terribly wrong - It is always tempting to pull the rebrand lever to drive growth, but is it really necessary?  Building a distinctive brand takes years and you can wipe out your investment in an instant by rebranding. 2. As a B2B challenger brand, it is better to be loved by a smaller audience than just liked by many - When you are a big brand, you can offer an OK product and still grow. But as a smaller brand, you need to realize that buyers are risk averse and won't choose you unless they have a very compelling reason.  Trying to appeal to many can cause a company to lose the aspects of their brand and product that provided that compelling reason to switch.3. Don’t change who you are to open new markets - Opening new markets can drive growth, but not at the expense of your identity. Growth strategies should build on your brand's strengths, not dilute them.

Guillaume Moubeche Founder of lemlist, says that not niching down was the biggest mistake he made as a founder and lays out a roadmap for challenger brand growthhttps://lnkd.in/eyXebPqvShabahat Ali goes on a much-needed rant about brand and marketinghttps://lnkd.in/eZxRn4-eNeeti Patel, Co-Founder of Mosaic Growth Solutions, shares a SaaStr podcast that highlights that profitability alone is not enough, companies need to growhttps://lnkd.in/eCih6drN

May 23, 2024: Opening new markets is a growth accelerator, but how do you do it?, There are fundamentals in marketing that don’t need to be based in data and The tide is turning in marketing

Patrick Cumming says B2B marketers have become so obessed with data they have lost their ability to think and that there are some fundamental marketing principles that really make the difference:

- You solved an urgent problem

- You were discoverable on a relevant channel

- You were top of mind from repeated touchpoints

- You had an obvious point of differentiation that made you the superior choice

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/patrick-james-cumming_sad-reality-b2b-marketers-are-so-obsessed-activity-7199291426210226177-BTWy?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

A few days ago I shared Kantar’s Blueprint for Brand Growth and one of the growth accelerators was “Find new space”, but how do we actually do that? Luckily Dave Kellogg recently gave a presentation on how to open new markets and shares the five potential dimensions:

● New products

● New use-cases

● New industries

● New geographies

● New channels

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kelloggdave_slides-from-balderton-webinar-on-entering-activity-7176252191148503043-TGsN?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Carol Howley writes that the tide is turning in marketing and the hyper-focus on lead gen tactics has not met expectations and has led to buyer indifference. 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/carolhowley_marketingstrategy-demandgeneration-brandbuilding-activity-7192931252478373888-TdZ8?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

In a terrific article, Professor Koen Pauwels reviews Kantar’s Blueprint for Brand Growth and shares related data from his own research. He provides so much great information on core components of brand growth, I only had time to cover this one post in the video. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/prof-dr-koen-pauwels-0789713_brandgrowth-cmos-activity-7198054373309001728-_i2d/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

Peep Laja lays out a playbook for winning and it starts by finding a niche and being the best in that niche.  A few of the key points from the playbook:1. Find a niche2. Know your ICP3. Solve a specific problem better than anyone else4. Differentiate strongly and build mental availabilityhttps://lnkd.in/e5f7UUg4Kantar’s Blueprint for Growth has data that shows how small companies can quickly figure out how to accomplish the playbook steps that Peep lays out. Small brands get their customers from the market leaders, so:- Defining your initial ICP starts with the customers of market leaders- The problem you need to solve is whatever is causing the market leaders’ customers to churn- You aggressively differentiate- Building mental availability can be very expensive for small brands, but by focusing on your competitors' customers, your target audience just got a lot smaller- Don’t waste resources on building category awarenesshttps://lnkd.in/e8K8Y4iNThe Ehrenberg-Bass Institute (EBI) has produced some very interesting research that describes growth, but their research can be light on practical advice.  I consider what a company’s organizational structure could look like if we truly followed their research. https://lnkd.in/eKbsBTj8

Tom Morton looks at the new Gartner CMO survey and  has a couple of key takeaways:

1. Marketing budgets are falling with internal talent, agencies and martech taking the biggest hit

2. Marketing leaders aren’t seeing the ROI on their digital investments and that trust in digital channels and services has been falling and engagement is low

3. Maybe it is time to take those resources and invest in customer experience instead

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tommortonnarratorycapital_gartner-cmo-survey-reveals-marketing-budgets-activity-7197625173469003776-iYHX/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

Adam Holmgren says that GetAccept has a new revenue driver and it is interactive demos.  Key data points:

1. 90% complete the entire interactive demo

2. 30% of those completions turn into an ICP booked deal

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/adam-holmgren_demandgeneration-interactivedemo-activity-7198591601022001152-wna9?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Mike Taylor shows how you can train AI to do so much more than just write a blog post. In his article, he follows five steps to train AI to be increasingly effective in identifying spam comments.  

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mjt145_great-to-publish-with-reforge-again-this-ugcPost-7198623376020512768-is3K?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

John James says the #1 mistake small brands make is emulating big brands https://lnkd.in/e4yXw4k5 Data shows it is a tough time to be a startup from Peter Walker of Carta https://lnkd.in/ewia3ywh Rick Bradberry from Forrester says the buying process has changed, so you can’t force your funnel on buyers https://lnkd.in/eZkdD--3

Taylor Udell, Head of Growth at Champify shows how they doubled their homepage conversion rateshttps://lnkd.in/eMMy3TSvEmilia Korczynska, Head of Marketing at Userpilot, does a great job summarizing what she learned from Kevin Indig about SEO in 2024https://lnkd.in/eqvN93njDharmesh Shah from HubSpot looks into the future and sees AI enabling millions of small businesseshttps://lnkd.in/eMXV2sDj

Google’s SGE has gone live… Bart Goralewicz shares some data on the impact on search results 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/goralewicz_google-sge-just-went-live-ive-got-activity-7196200965505519616-dSlQ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Search Engine Journal explains what you should do to optimize your site for SGE

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-rolls-out-sge-ai-powered-overviews/516279/

Conor Begley posts about some very interesting data tying influencer marketing to growth 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/conormbegley_the-problem-one-of-the-most-common-activity-7194121562768175105-3kI2?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Kacyn Goranson says she hates lead scoring….

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kacyngoranson_unpopular-opinion-here-i-hate-lead-scoring-activity-7196162847914016768-0lQm?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Critical update from Pasha Irshad on how to maintain your email health 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/pashairshad_hubspot-email-marketing-activity-7193634901676494848-qe9w?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Nathan Thompson Head of Content Strategy at Copy.ai says AI is going to require a different approach to content

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nathan-likes-writing_thoughtleadership-contentmarketing-contentautomation-activity-7195886250950631424-2vH-?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Shane O Leary shares growth lessons from a pub in London that is one of hottest spots in the world

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/shane-o-leary-1660_how-does-a-new-pub-go-from-launch-to-being-activity-7195763650471542784-_o2E?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Ehrenberg-Bass Institute’s Professor Jenni Romaniuk says customer acquisition is the only way to grow and an introduction to the Law of Double Jeopardy

https://www.marketingweek.com/customer-acquisition-growth-strategy-b2b/

Jason M. Lemkin talks about the importance of trust and how some brands have lost ithttps://lnkd.in/etGrTdhC​​ Devin Reed, Head of Content for Clari says his content mission is trusthttps://lnkd.in/er2NhWHwCan B2B SaaS Companies Use A/B Testing to Determine If Their Marketing Efforts Are Driving Incremental Revenue?https://lnkd.in/eNmCdZbKSamantha McKenna provides terrific LinkedIn algorithm hacks https://lnkd.in/e2c9jRWM

Here’s a story that should be a wake-up call for B2B SaaS CEOs. Even when you think you’re doing everything right, your data might be leading you toward decisions that could undermine your growth.You’re the CEO of a B2B SaaS company focused on driving growth. Your CMO proposes shifting from your traditional inbound sales motion to a product-led growth (PLG) strategy. Being cautious, you decide to run a test rather than jump straight in.Here’s what happened:Q1 Results:Inbound: 582 opportunities, 183 deals, CVR = 31.44%PLG: 140 opportunities, 45 deals, CVR = 32.14%Encouraged by the results, you expand the PLG test in Q2.Q2 Results:Inbound: 48 opportunities, 12 deals, CVR = 25%PLG: 411 opportunities, 104 deals, CVR = 25.30%After two quarters, it seems like a no-brainer: PLG is outperforming inbound. The higher conversion rates suggest PLG is the future, right?Not so fast.When you combine the results from both quarters, the data tells a different story:Combined Results:Inbound (Q1 + Q2): 630 opportunities, 195 deals, CVR = 31%PLG (Q1 + Q2): 551 opportunities, 149 deals, CVR = 27%Suddenly, your traditional inbound motion is performing 15% better than PLG. How can that be?This is Simpson’s Paradox—a statistical phenomenon where trends that appear in separate data sets reverse when you combine them. Though I used a test of PLG to highlight the challenge, Simpson’s Paradox can occur in many areas:- College admissions- Medical treatments- Income distributions- Sports- A/B testing- And many more...In fact, in this example, the data comes from a real-life instance from baseball. In 1995 and 1996, David Justice had a higher batting average than Derek Jeter. But when you combine the two years, Jeter comes out on top. The data flips when looked at holistically.I’ve been hearing lately about how easy it is to use data to guide marketing decisions, but the truth is, even simple tests can lead you astray if you’re not careful. This example might seem straightforward, but that’s the point—even the simplest decisions can be wrong for reasons most people would overlook.The Lesson: What looks like straightforward data can be deceptively misleading. Before making any decisions, ask yourself:- Are we analyzing the data in the right way?- Are we weighing results properly across different cohorts and time periods?- Are we sure that short-term trends won’t reverse when looked at over time?Making the wrong call based on faulty interpretation of data can be costly. Making the right decision might not be easy. Always dig deeper—your growth depends on it.

Forrester asks Are B2B Buyers Cowards?

https://www.forrester.com/blogs/are-b2b-buyers-cowards/?utm_source=newsroom&utm_medium=pr&utm_campaign=b2bm

Retently looks into the causes of customer churn 

https://www.retently.com/blog/three-leading-causes-churn/

Dickie Bush - Starbuck’s major brand failure

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dickiebush_sorry-were-out-of-cups-this-was-my-activity-7194312712766509056-CBbo?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

Danny Asling discusses the dangers of listening too much to customer requests…

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dannyasling_marketing-saas-activity-7194653378411397121-XGqY?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Jason Widup Talks About a Failurehttps://lnkd.in/eQtNbx4wJohn Bonini urges us to share the process not just the final resulthttps://lnkd.in/eC87q9mkHow to start assessing your marketing maturity from Mosaic Growth Solutionshttps://lnkd.in/eeYrEH-JPaul Stringer, PhD shares some data about what marketing is responsible forhttps://lnkd.in/etCwg-jF

Olivia Kory Lays out 3 Points about Being More Scientific With Our Marketing

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/olivia-kory-50230812_paid-media-is-often-the-largest-expense-on-activity-7193292485647872000-KC3e?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Omar Akhtar Founder of Benchmarker finds that  B2B SaaS Companies Who Met Their Growth Goals Invested More in Brand Awareness

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/omarbilalakhtar_new-research-i-surveyed-200-b2b-saas-companies-activity-7171134949280927745-xknC?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

A Hubspot Guide on Go To Market Ignores the Most Important Factors in Growth

https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/gtm-strategy

Clare Schmitt Writes About Storytelling and Leadership

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/power-storytelling-leadership-communication-clare-schmitt-s5gxe/?trackingId=0m71LvnNR9ywT5p8v1S0wg%3D%3D

5/7/24: We need to reclaim marketing, What is Marketing Science?, Is Your Price Too High? and generating emotionMats Georgson, Ph.D. says we need to reclaim marketing for what it really ishttps://lnkd.in/eBYkAsFqStephen Shaw interviews Prof. dr. Koen Pauwels about Marketing Science,  hat tip to Peter Wagner for highlighting this interviewhttps://lnkd.in/e-68V6tJSharon McCarthy (she/her/hers) shares that it might not be your price, but that you aren’t showing value https://lnkd.in/e98T9fqnAndrew Tindall demonstrates how to generate emotion in your advertisinghttps://lnkd.in/e9KYE996

Jill Rowley talks about how companies win by focusing on the customer and how HubSpot is doing that through AIhttps://lnkd.in/esafNgAsPieter Kemps shares that AI will usher in a new era of one to one softwarehttps://lnkd.in/eYs45PG9Kamil Rextin on one of my biggest pet peeves, mixing Lead Source vs Conversion Eventshttps://lnkd.in/eFCG8f8uHow Prevalent is Founder-Led Growth? Research shows is may not be as popular as it appears on LinkedIn.https://lnkd.in/erignX69Share comments below and follow for daily updates.

Adam Cartlidge reminds us that share of search impacts share of market

https://lnkd.in/enPmAQxHLes Binet explains Share of Search and how it predicts growth

https://lnkd.in/e--HFhgc

Neil Krikul addresses Scott Galloway’s controversial comments on companies Investing in product vs advertising

https://lnkd.in/e_Kjmt5D

Chris Toy shares an update on his post on CMOs who said “Data-driven marketing is a false god”https://lnkd.in/euie-_Zc

Jeremy Connell-Waite Shares His 9 Principles of Great Storytelling (and a lot more)

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jeremypaulwaite_9-principles-of-better-stories-betterstoriesorg-activity-7147905333754044416-GFa2?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Challenger Brands Unite

Neal OGrady’s post highlighting that 52% of Fortune 500 companies from 2002 no longer exist

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nealogrady_52-of-the-fortune-500-companies-in-2000-activity-7181668900256854016-90d2?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

How the most popular websites have changed since 1993

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/most-popular-websites-by-web-traffic/

A Bright Spot in SaaS? - Sofia Faustino from ChartMogul shares some data

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sofia-simarro-faustino_saas-startups-chartmogul-activity-7191386228145930240-moeh?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Lessons to learn from founders who didn’t quite make it

David Walsh on what he is doing this time to succeed

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dw1232_heres-how-i-wasted-12-months-building-a-activity-7190718985636622336-MR_A?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Raymond Kim shares what he will do differently next time

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7191784626137231360/

​​  

Clay Ostrom takes a look at brand differentiation and finds that companies are playing it too safe

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/clayostrom_positioning-messaging-differentiation-activity-7191102768714022913-4W71?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Natalie Marcotullio lays out exactly how Navattic was able to drive a 6.3x increase in MQLs from a personalized interactive demo

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/natalie-marcotullio_when-i-go-to-a-saas-website-i-try-to-figure-activity-7191105035508854784-PDHl?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Andy Mewborn shares his founder-led playbook

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/amewborn_ive-been-building-b2b-saas-since-i-was-18-activity-7191040019212500993-5y2G?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

David Tiltman says data shows that it is time to retire the performance vs brand ad model

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/david-tiltman-5a2a6614_is-it-time-to-retire-brand-vs-performance-activity-7191179268905730048--EL4?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

4/30/24: Word of Mouth Means Revenue, NPS and Word of Mouth, a project to help drive WOM and why some companies struggle to grow post-investmentA HockeyStack report highlights the impact WOM can have on revenuehttps://lnkd.in/ed-J4baKTwo studies that show NPS does impact online word of mouthhttps://lnkd.in/e8cC49kdhttps://lnkd.in/eRRNPjGJ Pete Crowley of RB2B outlines their new project to drive WOMhttps://lnkd.in/etahrN5fNeeti Patel from Mosaic Growth Solutions writes about why some companies struggle to grow post-investmenthttps://lnkd.in/ejz5z35F

Dave  Gerhardt drops the mic sharing what your company needs to do now to grow

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/davegerhardt_b2b-buying-happens-through-word-of-mouth-activity-7190062917579419648-sD7n?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Rob Snyder shares a way to cut through the confusion to find Product Market Fit

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rsnyder1_b2b-product-market-fit-playbook-for-0-1m-activity-7169325649604657152-QmHz/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

A scientific way to drive brand growth with Ty Heath, Jon Lombardo, and Peter Weinberg from The B2B Institute experts 

https://partnerships.nature.com/blog/the-scientific-approach-to-brand-growth/

As a B2B SaaS CEO, just acquiring a few more customers is not the goal —you’re building something that solves a pain so well that it drives its own growth. That’s where product-market fit to scale comes into play.

So, what is product-market fit really?Product-market fit (PMF) occurs when a company's product successfully satisfies a strong market demand. Marc Andreessen, who coined the term, describes it as "being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market."

But here’s the next level:

Product-market fit to scale means your product is so strong that growth starts to happen organically.

This is the inflection point where customer acquisition costs (CAC) drop, word of mouth accelerates, and the business grows without an over-reliance on aggressive marketing.

We always hear about scaling stories from giants like Apple, Amazon, or Tesla, but product-market fit to scale often happens much earlier.

• Notion: It started out as a tool for small teams and startups. As users saw how flexible it was and how it could transform their workflows, Notion’s growth took off through word of mouth. They didn’t need to pour money into advertising early on—users did that for them by sharing how useful it was.

• Loom: This video messaging platform was initially used by teams looking for quicker ways to communicate. Once they nailed down product-market fit, it spread organically within organizations. Users themselves helped Loom grow from the bottom up, driving adoption into larger enterprises without needing big ad campaigns.

• Airtable: Airtable didn’t just sell a product—it gave users the power to create custom applications that solved their own business problems. Once people experienced its flexibility, they naturally shared it with others, fueling organic growth that scaled the company.

Here’s how to evaluate your readiness to scale:

1. Measure engagement: Are your top customers increasing their usage of key features? If people aren’t using your product they aren’t going to be talking about it. You want to have heavy users, those are the ones who are finding the real value.  

2. Track word of mouth: Audit the acquisition paths on your deals. What percentage of new customers are arriving through referrals and word of mouth? 

3. Look for evangelists: Look to see if you have people writing about your product on social media, speaking about it at events and including it in articles.  Having evangelists is a key indicator that you have found PMF to scale.

The key to product-market to scale is maintaining customer focus. Understand their needs, why they love your product, focus on those use cases, and give them reasons to talk about it.

Start small, nail the solution for a targeted audience, and let their love for your product drive organic growth. Scaling without excessive spend on customer acquisition? That’s the goal.

April 26, 2024

Justin Rowe does the math on increasing your LinkedIn presence

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/justin-rowe-4043339b_entrepreneurship-linkedin-activity-7189197864529514497-ByjJ/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

Ray Rike lays out what great reporting looks like and why it matters

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7189247071051235328/

Peep Laja says Wynter removed their self-service sign up to increase demos, it didn't work

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/peeplaja_we-ran-an-experiment-at-wynter-we-turned-activity-7189578992935448577-b8v3?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Kyle Poyar shares his tips on finding quick wins in the first 90 days

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kyle-poyar_growth-quickwins-marketing-activity-7189591547330408449-XA0j?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Alon Even’s posts about the way B2B buyers really buy vs.  how it has been traditionally viewed

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alon-even_gtm-b2bmarketing-marketingstrategy-activity-7188854533597347842-uqmv?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

Wynter shares data on how B2B SaaS marketing leaders buy software in 2024

https://wynter.com/2024-b2b-saas-buyer-journey-report

Google’s March Algorithm update did crush one type of site, Jake Ward discusses the impact

Reid Hoffman is interviewed by an AI version of himself and it is pretty amazing

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/me-myself-ai-qa-my-avatar-reid-hoffman-71unf/

MarTech entrepreneur Jon Miller investigates the 95-5 rule and his findings might surprise you
https://lnkd.in/ewURqkqQ
Jonathan Bland, Co-Founder of Omni Lab covers common issues with reporting
https://lnkd.in/e-Rr2X26
Databox, with ActiveCampaign and Duct Tape Marketing looks into the state of Fractional CMOs and it makes wonder if Fractional CMOs are being set up for success
https://lnkd.in/eE9Yx84E

On First Round, Wade Foster, founder and CEO of Zapier, shares his contrarian takes on growing a business

https://review.firstround.com/the-not-so-cookie-cutter-approach-to-company-building-8-lessons-from-zapier/

CEO of Hook, Firaas Rashid writes there is a better way than NPS/Cust Sat scores to understand and manage retention

https://medium.com/hook-blog/why-i-started-hook-f1f39e9b04f6

Thomas McKinlay of Ariyh provides data-based research on how to increase button click through rates up to 55% 

https://tips.ariyh.com/p/make-cta-buttons-curvy