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#004: Every B2B marketer should do this to start the year

It’s 2023, but I’m starting the year the same way as 2022.

And I’m not referring to the personal and professional goal setting that I’ll stick to for a few months until the excuses take over… 🙄

(This is obviously George here writing this – Kevin is unrelatable-y consistent when it comes to goal setting)

… I’m talking about an exercise I do at the start of every year to make my life easier as a B2B marketer. One that answers questions like: 

– where should I spend my marketing efforts?

– where should I spend our marketing $$$?

– who should we be collaborating with?

I share this in tip 3 of our 3 B2B Strategy tips below (so scroll down to check it out)

You should be able to read today’s issue in 5 minutes or less.

If you don’t want this newsletter, you can unsubscribe

💡 3 B2B Strategy Tips

1) Stop saying ‘let’s test it’: When I worked at an agency, my response to anything I didn’t know the answer to was: “hmm, let’s test it!”. Sounds smart, right? With enough tests and iterations based on data, we’ll hit the hammer on the head eventually. And look – it kinda works in a world where you have a huge potential customer base and massive $$$ to spend.

But unfortunately, this response is now widely adopted by many marketers as a substitute to deep customer research. Even worse – it’s adopted by B2B marketers who don’t have big budgets or a huge customer pool to burn through. The fastest, cheapest, and easiest way to create something that resonates with your Dream Customers is to interview them and ask them. Want to know what topics they care about? Ask them. Want to know when the right time is to introduce them to sales? Ask them. Want to know what channels and groups they hang out in? Ask them

Check out our episode on How To Conduct Customer Research Interviews Like A Pro on The B2B Playbook podcast.

2) Motivate your subject matter experts to help you make content: The best content comes from experts. And Marketers – unless you’re working in a martech business, that’s probably not you. It’s probably other people in your company. But getting them to help you make content is notoriously hard… because after all – “that’s marketing’s job!”.

But you can get them to do it, you just need to know how to get their buy in. We give you 7 Practical Tips on Getting Experts To Help You Make Content here on episode 29. 

3) How marketers should start every year: Every B2B marketer should start by identifying who their best customers are, and updating their positioning and messaging accordingly. I do this in 3 steps:

(a) I pull a list of customers in the last year and run 80/20 analysis to see which fit us best

(b) I look for attributes to see what makes them such great customers. For example: company size, industry, location, tech stack, stage of growth, organisational structure etc.

(c) When I find customers with a bunch of overlapping attributes, I then define that as a ‘segment’. This then becomes my ideal customer profile, and a guide of where to spend all of my resources.

We show you how to Segment Your Market for Maximum Impact here.


✏️ Doodle of the Week

That feeling when the boss says in 2023 marketing needs “more leads” 
You don’t need more leads. You need more opportunities.

📖 3 Articles and Resources

1) Why your Google Ads isn’t scaling profitably: Google Ads can be tough to scale profitably. This is why (and how you can fix it).

2) Level up your content & creative with CRO & A/B testing: Is it worth your time to do CRO and A/B testing? If it is, how can you do it and where should you start? Kevin and I answer these questions in Episode 68.

3) Get better at storytelling: I just finished this book on storytelling, and absolutely loved it. If you want to get better at telling stories at the dinner table, bar, or in your marketing – give ‘Storyworthy’ by Matthew Dicks a read.


Thanks for reading!

P.S. Don’t forget to subscribe to The B2B Playbook podcast

Strategy, Templates & Tools To Drive More Revenue With Marketing

Our 5 BEs Framework teaches b2b marketers exactly how to drive more revenue with your marketing.

We share our Framework step-by-step every week on The B2B Playbook.


There’s 3 ways you can learn and implement it in your own business:

  1. Listen to The B2B Playbook Podcast
  2. Subscribe to our Newsletter
  3. Apply for The B2B Incubator

(P.S. The B2B Incubator gives you strategy, templates and tools you need to implement this in your business over 12 weeks. Click here to find out more or apply now).


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I was listening to your podcast. It's amazing. The 5 BEs framework, the way you diagnose educational content strategy... 💥🚀

I'm George, and I'm an embarrassingly passionate B2B marketer.

But it wasn't always that way. When I first got into B2B marketing, I actually found it so confusing. There was conflicting advice - and I kept pursuing the promise of "the one thing" that would work - with varying success.

With my own agency and working in-house, I tested different strategies and tactics to see:
(a) which ones could be done by a small marketing team
(b) which ones actually resulted in REVENUE for the business

We then turned the stuff that works into one cohesive strategy that I follow when I consult with B2B clients.

It's called our 5 BEs Framework.

And now we're dedicated to sharing it, right here, on The B2B Playbook.

We're giving away our 5 BEs Framework step-by-step, and creating the resource I wish I had when I first fell in love with B2B marketing.

When I say step-by-step - I mean it! Start the podcast at Episode 1, and work your way through.

If that sounds like too much, we give you the strategy, templates & tools in our 12 week program - The B2B Incubator.

Check it out here: https://theb2bincubator.com/

I'm also extremely active and share much of our framework on LinkedIn - so please feel free to connect with me there and say hi!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/b2b-marketing-expert/

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