How you take your B2B tech company from a few million $ per year to $8-10 mil ARR will be very different in the coming few years, from how it was done even just a couple years ago.
That’s because the environment where marketing and sales happen is changing in a fundamental way.
I’m not talking about demand gen now moving more and more to the dark funnel and PPC costs skyrocketing. These are part of the shift, but they’re mostly consequences of the greater play going on.
So, what is that?
The great shift I’m referring to is about marketers and advertisers losing their ability to target.
You see, ever since the internet has been a thing, marketers have been spoiled with better and better targeting capabilities.
Think keyword-triggered ads, the demographic targeting social platforms (used to) provide, and the intent-data and IP-targeted ads that martech vendors have been spoiling you with.
It’s also SEO: you can’t rely on snatching #1 for a relevant keyword. Because along comes daddy Google and first puts paid results above your hard-earned spot on the top of the podium…
Then, it gives visitors video carousels, shopping results, knowledge panels, instant answers, and other features that will get the visitor to NOT click on your 4000-word cornerstone content, waiting there with a retargeting pixel.
What’s happening to these “old” ways of targeting and digital marketing?
They’re going away.
Remember?
First, it was GDPR spoiling the fun for marketing automation,
. then the banning of 3rd party cookies,
then Zuck having to go on Senate hearings because of the Cambridge Analytica fiasco,
then iOS 14 restrictions…
I don’t know what’s next, but one thing is for sure:
⚠️ if your growth is overly reliant on targeting and martech, then it’s at risk.
So, what is happening!?
People wiser than me are suggesting that losing the ability to laser-target in the digital landscape is making it more and more like mass media.
You can’t target very precisely on TV or in a daily newspaper, right?
So, what can we learn from the way brands advertise in mass media?
This:
⭐️ The best message wins. (Or as Chris Walker puts it, the best creative)
…and…
⭐️ The brand with the strongest impression wins.
…also:
⭐️ She who can instantly get to the heart and mind of the customer, wins.
It’s no longer going to be the most sophisticated trickery and hack that wins the day.
It’s the brand that has the right strategy, the right solution and message for their audience. And can execute GTM.
It’s the company that does fundamentals right and does them cosistently.
In a word: the time has (again) come for the best strategists and the best marketers to steal the show from the best hackers and trickery-people.
Yes, hacks and tricks and tactics will always have their place and importance, but it’s gonna be the best marketers who will win.
