It's strategic-planning season again - the time of year most B2B marketers dread. All the extra work to build, justify and present a marketing strategy, only to have it ripped apart in review meetings and completely ignored after that. Why bother?
Your B2B Marketing Strategy is an Opportunity - Don't Blow It
Your strategic plan is often your only chance to make an impression on senior leadership, not to mention get the resources and funding you need. Unfortunately, the typical marketing strategy can reinforce leadership's perception that marketing "strategy" is really a list of tactics, and marketing is a team that doesn't understand the bottom line.
This year, change that perception by shifting your own perspective from marketing leader to Market Strategist. What's the difference?
Step Up from Marketing Leader to Market Strategist
While marketing leaders create solid plans to drive customer awareness, acquisition, and retention, many don't communicate why they're doing what they're doing. As a result, by the middle of Q1 they're pushing back on constant requests for one-off projects. That's because the person asking for those one-offs doesn't see any reason why what they want isn't more important than whatever marketing is doing. Everyone is frustrated and time spent "planning" was wasted.
In contrast, a Market Strategist builds a bridge - a strategy - from the overall corporate vision to marketing's day-to-day actions. This bridge delivers the "why" marketing is doing webinars and not videos for customers in healthcare but not manufacturing, for example, by creating that direct link from vision to action. Through the year, they use this bridge as a tollgate to select the right programs, markets and messages to focus on - and to filter out those that don't make any sense to achieve their goals. They build this bridge with a 360-degree understanding of the market, the company and their own spere of responsibility.
A Market Strategist builds a bridge - a strategy - which acts as a tollgate to select the right programs, markets and messages to deliver on the corporate vision.
Whatever your actual title, thinking like a Market Strategist is the way to build an amazing B2B marketing strategic plan.
In the coming weeks I'll expand on these topics, but begin by considering the following high-level guidelines to jumpstart your work as a market strategist:
Differentiate between a Marketing Strategy and a Marketing Plan
Most marketing strategies are really marketing plans. What's a quick way to tell the difference? If your "strategy" looks like a calendar, a list or a bunch of numbers, it's really a plan. Strategy is what that plan is based on: it sits between the corporate vision and the marketing plan. Without the strategy, the "plan" is just a list of stuff you hope will work.
Without a marketing strategy, the marketing plan is just a list of stuff you hope will work.
Add Context and Rationale to Your Strategic Plan
Most marketing strategies share two things: goals of the team and a list of actions they'll take. But why webinars and not round tables? Why this market and not that? Context based on the Market Strategist's knowledge of buyers and how they buy delivers the rationale you need to sell your plan to leaders and the broader team.
Gain Buy-In Before the Meeting
An amazing plan is one your key constituents - sales, finance and product - already love. Have those tough discussions before you're in front of the people who decide what your next raise will be.
As I said, more on this topic as we move through the strategic-planning season. Meanwhile good luck as you prepare to innovate on purpose in 2025!
About the Author
Diane Pierson is the Founder and Chief Market Strategist of Innovate on Purpose, a consultancy enabling successful product commercialization for B2B tech companies. Order her book, How to Innovate on Purpose or contact Diane at dpierson@innovateonpurpose.com.
Comments