8-step guide to building a winning B2B marketing strategy

Yes, I’m aware. The title of the article sounds fishy. Well, that’s because it is.

Truth is, there is no ready-to-use secret recipe for creating a good B2B marketing strategy.

You’re not learning it from me, B2B marketing is tough, and you are likely elbow-fighting with strong competitors in a busy space and are having a hard time standing out of the crowd.

If what you’re after is guidance to figure it out, you’re in the right place. Here’s what the guide covers:

Table of contents

• The Basics of a B2B Marketing Strategy
• Step 1. Analyze your current situation and challenges
• Step 2. Figure out your positioning
• Step 3. Figure out or validate your target audience
• Step 4. (re)define your value proposition and Messaging
• Step 5. Build a marketing funnel that makes sense
• Step 6. Identify your main communication channels
• Step 7. Review your marketing tools ecosystem
• Step 8. Set S.M.A.R.T goals and KPIs

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Let’s begin with a few disclaimers.

A marketing strategy isn’t a to-do list

Your marketing strategy is a high-level map that should guide your every marketing action. It helps you answer the WHY you should do things a certain way. Once you know the WHY, you’ll be able to turn your marketing strategy into actionable tactics (that’s right, tactics ≠strategy).

A marketing strategy isn’t set in stone

Situations change. Plans change. 

And so should your marketing strategy. It doesn’t mean you need to redo the whole thing every other year, but you should be able to adjust your direction based on the reality of your market.

That includes things like: 

• New players entering the industry and eating your market shares
• Evolution(s) in your ICP (ideal customer profile)
• Evolution(s) in your offering
• Or change in your messaging.

Of course, if you’re operating a pivot so important it would give Ross FOMO, you may need to consider restarting the process from scratch.

The right strategy can help turn the boat around

Look, marketing isn’t everything (don’t tell my boss I said that), but it has the power to impact every single aspect of any business.

And if growth doesn’t look so hot right now in your company, a solid marketing strategy could significantly help change things, regardless of your existing challenges. 

Yes, even if your product is in shambles (even though it is obviously making things more difficult).

You won’t create a strategy in a few days. Think weeks, at least.

I know you’re probably in a hurry to get it done, but some things can’t be rushed. 

Crafting a solid marketing strategy takes time. There is a lot you need to analyze, aggregate, and interpret. 

What’s more, you’ll need to involve and learn from many people in the process: your marketing team, your sales team, your customer success team, your product team, and your customers.

I want to stress again that you need to take the time to absorb the information at each step of the process so that you don’t make hasty plans.

And you can count on us if you need help to get it done.

Step 1. Analyze your current situation and challenges

The purpose of this step is to help you set realistic goals based on your current situation.

Sure, with enough time and resources, anything’s possible. But if we look at the next couple of years, you need to be realistic and not set yourself up for failure.

Yes, trying to go above and beyond is a good motivational exercise. But aiming too high and systematically missing your targets will eventually affect your team’s morale. So, you want to get this one right.

Here are a couple of crucial questions to ask yourself to better calibrate your expectations.

Understand your current marketing situation

• What did your marketing funnel look like last year? 
• And how is it looking right now?
• How much of your pipeline and revenue was/is marketing generated?
• What’s your current martech ecosystem? And are you planning on updating it?
• How much can you get done with your current team? Are you planning on hiring more talent?

Pinpoint your marketing challenges

• What are the main bottlenecks in your marketing funnel? 
• How are your marketing and sales efforts aligned?
• How are your marketing and customer success efforts aligned?
• How are your marketing efforts and products or services aligned?
• Do you have a clear ideal customer profile (ICP) definition?
• Do you have a clear positioning, value proposition, and messaging?

Always keep your business objectives in mind

Sometimes, there is a disconnect between how marketing operates and where the business is going. 

And that’s a serious issue.

However good your intentions are, efficient marketing is only marketing that supports your company's growth. Anything else is garbage.

So, my question to you is: What are your business goals for this/next year?

This alone should plant some seeds and give you an idea of how marketing can support your business.

Step 2. Figure out your positioning

Positioning is a critical component for B2B tech companies as it affects how prospects and customers perceive you, your products or services.

Your goals and how you’ll achieve them depend highly on your market situation and competitors.

For this reason, you need an air-tight understanding of where you and your most relevant competition currently fit in your market. How else could you convince decision-makers?

My colleague Otto Antikainen wrote a 5-step guide to help B2B marketers get their positioning right. 

Here’s the short version (the link to the whole guide is just below):

• Step 1: Get to know the ones who love your product
• Step 2: Connect the dots between features and value
• Step 3: Make your differentiated value strategic
• Step 4: Turn your positioning into something real
• Step 5: Adapt & iterate as the market (and/or your product) evolves

More on positioning: Everything for Everybody vs. Something for Somebody

Step 3. Conduct customer research to validate your target audience

This is probably the most important bit of this guide. You need to figure out who your ideal target audience is. We call it ICP (for ideal customer profile).

But before that, you must say goodbye to the idea of the buyer persona.

Ditch buyer persona. Think Jobs-to-be-done

You’re probably well-acquainted with the concept of "buyer personas."

Although the first marketing personas were developed in the 1990s, demographic and psychographic segmentation had already been extensively applied in B2C mass marketing long before that, often yielding significant results.

Traditionally, buyer personas have been heavily reliant on demographic details (like job titles and roles in the B2B context) and psychographic factors, rather than focusing on contextual (problem-specific) motives. 

If you’re having a hard time letting go of the buyer persona framework, ask yourself this: how does the fact that a buyer is business-savvy or likes House of Dragons help you in selling your product or service?

Simple: it doesn’t (unless you’re selling dragon merch).

Learn more: What’s wrong with traditional buyer personas?

Unlike traditional personas, which often rely on superficial attributes, the jobs-to-be-done framework focuses on the reason to buy. To pinpoint your customers’ "job to be done", you need to understand the problem(s) they are trying to solve and figure out exactly how you help them.

Learn more: How to use the jobs-to-be-done framework

(re)define your ICP through customer research

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in marketing is talk to your customers. Your customers are the reason your business exists. They hold a LOT of the answers you need to nail your marketing strategy.

At this stage, you should list 5 to 10 of your current ideal customers (based on your current perception of your ICP) and conduct interviews to pick their brains and understand why they chose you in the first place.

For context, your ideal customers:

• are easy to sell to

• intuitively understand the benefits and see the value of your product
• don't ask for a lower price
• don’t churn easily (or buy regularly)
• are profitable
• often recommend your product/service to their peers

Each conversation with selected ideal customers should give you essential information you need to build or refine your ideal customer profile.

Run your own customer research: Download our customer research template.

Step 4. (re)define your value proposition and Messaging

Remember that your brand is your strongest asset. Not your products or services. 

With enough time and resources, anyone can mimic a product and offer a similar experience to yours. A brand, however, is more difficult to copy. It can be imitated, but not stolen. 

The journey you give your prospects, users, and customers is tied to your brand. 

And so your messaging and value proposition are paramount to differentiating what you bring to the table and why you are the best option for your target audience.

Validate or challenge your value proposition

Your value proposition is essentially a clear statement that: 

• Explains how your product or service meets your ICP’s pain points, 
• Delivers specific benefits, 
• Says why your ICP should choose you over competitors.

If you followed steps 1, 2, and 3, you should have a clearer idea of your value proposition. Again, I can’t tell you what it should be, as I don’t know your situation, and, sadly, value proposition generators aren’t a thing.

Consider a message map

A message map outlines the core messages you want to communicate about your brand, product, or service.

It ensures:

• consistency and alignment across channels
• clarity and focus
• targeted messaging

It is typically a visual representation that organizes and aligns your key messages and consists of three main components:

1. Core message: The central idea or primary value proposition you want to communicate.
2. Supporting messages: Key supporting points that bolster the core message. These are often organized around specific benefits, features, or aspects of your product or service.
3. Proof points and evidence: Concrete examples, data, case studies, testimonials, and any other evidence that supports your core and supporting messages.

It serves as a framework that ensures consistency and clarity in all your communications. 

Create your own message map: Download our message map template.

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Step 5. Build a marketing funnel that makes sense

Your marketing funnel is the backbone of your marketing operations. It should help you 

1. Understand your performance
2. Identify key bottlenecks slowing your growth

Here at Advance B2B, we like the AAARRR (or pirate) funnel: it is comprehensive, it is clear and it is quite flexible depending on how your business operates.

Here’s how we interpret it:

• Awareness: This is the top of your marketing funnel. Though the metric itself can vary, this is usually tied to traffic or impressions of your content and pages.
• Acquisition: The acquisition stage refers to lead generation, or your ability to turn your visitors into contacts (ideally, relevant contacts). In most cases, the acquisition stage focuses on leads or MQLs (marketing qualified leads).
• Activation: The activation stage refers to the moment your prospect understand the value of your products/services and is ready to take the conversation further with your sales team. In most cases, this stage focuses on SQLs (Sales qualified leads).
• Retention: Retention can have different meanings for different organizations. 
  • In some cases, the retention stage refers to the moment the prospect is convinced you are a serious option to solve their issue and is ready to receive an offer. A typical KPI for this stage is pipeline and deal generation.
  • In most cases, the retention stage refers to your ability to retain your existing customers and, therefore, comes after the revenue stage.
• Revenue: Self-explanatory, this stage refers to how much revenue your marketing funnel generates over a specific period.
• Referral: Finally, the referral stage refers to your ability to turn your customers into happy customers and brand ambassadors. Though different in nature from the previous steps (as the prospect is not a customer), your ability to master the referral stage is paramount to establishing your authority and increasing your overall awareness. It is a virtuous circle.

Now, it is possible that the detailed KPIs displayed above won’t work for you. Take a look at what you’re currently tracking, and how your sales and customer success teams are working, and you should be able to (re)order the stages in a way that makes sense for your organization and assign the right KPIs to those.

Read more: Deep dive into the pirate funnel

Step 6. Identify your main communication channels

Let’s make one thing clear; If you don’t share your news and content, no one will. 

This is why you need to understand and consider all media channels available to you for creating a comprehensive and effective marketing strategy. 

The comms mix is traditionally split into: 

• Owned media
• Paid media
• Earned media

Owned Media

Owned media refers to the channels and content that your company controls and manages. This includes assets you can fully control, such as:

• Your company website
• Your blog posts
• Your accounts on social media platforms
• Your newsletters
• etc.

Why you should care

• Build authority and position your company as an industry leader by sharing expert insights and educational content.
• Use it to generate demand and bring contacts to maturity by providing valuable information to nurture leads through their buyer’s journey.
• Take control of your own narrative: There is so much you cannot control. Investing in what you can actually control is essential for you to somewhat control the narrative of your brand story.

Paid Media

Paid media refers to … exposure you pay for (duh). That includes:

• Search Engine Ads
• Social Media Ads
• Display Advertising (such as banner ads on websites and relevant publications in your industry).
• Paid Content Sponsorships
• Retargeting Campaigns (those are ads shown to users who have previously visited your website to encourage them to return and convert).

Why you should care

• Reach your ICP: strategic advertising is your chance to place your messages in front of relevant decision-makers, influencers, and other stakeholders within your industry.
• Scale as you go: quickly scale your campaigns to reach a broader yet focused audience, increasing brand visibility and lead generation.
• Measure and iterate: detailed analytics and reporting enable you to measure performance and ROI, allowing for data-driven optimizations to your campaigns.

In many cases, advertising is misunderstood as a simple awareness generator or a safe way to generate leads.

Advertising plays such a larger role than that. We like to say that there is no B2B growth without strategic advertising.

More on paid media: No Paid Advertising, no Growth Marketing

Earned Media

Earned media refers to the exposure and attention your company gains through organic means, often through people outside of your bubble sharing or talking about your brand (without having to pay for it). That means stuff like: 

• Media Coverage: Articles, mentions, or features in industry publications, tech blogs, and mainstream media.
• Social Shares and Mentions: When users share or mention your content or brand on social media organically.
• Customer Reviews and Testimonials: Positive reviews, ratings, and case studies shared by satisfied clients.
• Word of Mouth: Organic referrals and endorsements from clients or partners within the tech industry.

Why you should care

Earned media is the most difficult part of the job, but it is also the most rewarding one. 

Think about it.

You shouting everywhere that you are the best solution sure is important, but you are also biased.

On the other hand, someone — say a customer of yours — openly praises your product on LinkedIn will give you so much more.

You should care because it:

• Supports your brand awareness (the flip side of the coin is that you have no control over it)
• Builds credibility and trust
• Can provide SEO juice (if you receive high-quality organic backlinks)

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To make a long story short, you can maximize your reach, build authority, and drive sustained growth in the competitive B2B tech space by strategically balancing owned, paid, and earned media.

Step 7. Review your marketing tools ecosystem

In the extremely competitive landscape most B2B companies find themselves in, building a coherent martech ecosystem can be game-changing.

In other words, you need to put your money where your mouth ambition is.

Martech is a big word, but essentially, I mean that you should take a good look at: 

• Your website and your CMS (Content Management System)
• Your CRM
• Your email and marketing automation tools
• Your sales tools
• Your social media tools
• Your analytics tools

And the list goes on for as many tools you’re using. You likely know best, but know that HubSpot pretty much covers it all for most B2B businesses.

And if you’re thinking about your next website, here’s a good read: HubSpot CMS vs. WordPress vs. Webflow: a comprehensive comparison

Step 8. Set S.M.A.R.T goals and KPIs

We started this guide thinking about goals. 

Here we are. 

Now is the time to set goals based on everything you learned previously, from your business situation, to what your customers want and your (existing and prospective) martech ecosystem.

This is where things from my end will get a bit hazy. I can’t tell you what your goals, priorities and KPIs should be, because I don’t know what your situation is. 

However, I can share a couple of examples to help set the frame for your goals and priority definition.

I believe that the easiest way to miss your goals is to fudge up your goal definition. To get it right, you need knowledge (that's basically all previous steps) and a solid frame.

A common frame to adopt is called S.M.A.R.T, for: 

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

Here’s my attempt to give you more context:

Specific goals

A goal must be clear and well-defined, answering the “what,” “why,” and “how.”

• Example: Increase brand awareness among ICP mid-market tech companies with a targeted content marketing campaign.
• Bad example: Improve brand visibility.

By specifying the target market and elaborating on the plan, this goal provides a clearer direction than going for “improving brand visibility”.

Measurable goals

You need to quantify your goals to track progress and know when you've achieved them.

• Example: Generate 100 ICP leads from mid-market companies within the next quarter through a series of targeted webinar campaigns.
• Bad example: Generate more leads.

By including a specific number (100 ICP leads), the goal becomes measurable. Also note that this measurable goal involves a qualifying factor: ICP Leads (because no, you don’t want more leads, you want ICP leads).

Achievable goals

As mentioned in the introduction of this guide, your goals should be realistic, given your company's resources and constraints.

• Example: Given our current content production capabilities and budget, we should aim at publishing a high-quality gated ebook and hosting a webinar for mid-market tech companies each month for the next quarter.
• Bad example: Publish daily industry reports without additional resources.

Keep in mind that goals should be challenging. But know that there is a fine line between challenging yet feasible and challenging and likely impossible.

Relevant goals

The goal must align with broader business objectives such as revenue targets, market penetration, and brand positioning.

• Example: Aligning with our primary business objective to establish our authority in the mid-market tech sector, attract 100 new ICP leads which we can nurture.
• Bad example: Increase social media followers.

Remember: whatever isn’t aligned with your overall business goals is garbage. Relevance ensures the goal supports the company’s strategic priorities.

Time-Bound goals

Deadlines are stressful, but they also provide structure. What’s more, deadlines create a sense of urgency and help in prioritizing tasks. 

• Example: Generate 100 new ICP leads from mid-market tech companies within the next quarter.
• Bad example: Generate leads.

A specific timeframe allows for structured planning and timely execution.

SMART goals, in short

A full SMART goal incorporating all elements of a B2B tech company's marketing campaign might look like this:

• Specific: Increase brand awareness among mid-market tech companies.
• Measurable: Generate 100 new ICP leads.
• Achievable: Publish a gated ebook and host a monthly webinar.
• Relevant: Support entry into the mid-market tech sector.
• Time-Bound: Within the next quarter.

Sounds about right, right?

Applying the SMART framework ensures that goals are well-defined and aligned with your B2B company’s strategic objectives.

This approach facilitates better planning, execution, and achievement, ultimately driving growth and success.

That’s it, you’re ready to go!

There you have it. An 8-step guide to building your marketing strategy.

Again, there is no such thing as copying and pasting what another business has already done. Of course, you can be inspired by those, but each business is unique, and so should its marketing planning.

My last piece of advice: don’t go into this lightly, it is an important task (and you should take the time to celebrate when you get it done). 

And if you’d like some help to get this done, book a chat with us!