How to Think About Strategy in B2B Marketing: B2B Marketing Micro-Lesson - The Dave Gerhardt Show (from Exit Five)

Summary of "How to Think About Strategy in B2B Marketing: B2B Marketing Micro-Lesson"

Podcast Title: B2B Marketing with Dave Gerhardt
Episode Title: How to Think About Strategy in B2B Marketing: B2B Marketing Micro-Lesson
Release Date: November 20, 2024
Host: Dave Gerhardt

Introduction

In this episode of B2B Marketing with Dave Gerhardt, host Dave Gerhardt delves into the critical topic of strategy in B2B marketing. He clarifies the often-confused concepts of strategy and planning, emphasizing their distinct roles in achieving marketing goals. This micro-lesson is essential for marketing professionals aiming to refine their approach and ensure alignment within their teams.

Defining Strategy vs. Plan

Dave begins by addressing a common misconception: the interchangeable use of "strategy" and "plan" in marketing discussions. He underscores the importance of distinguishing between the two to foster clarity and effectiveness in marketing initiatives.

Strategy is defined as the underlying principles that guide how goals are achieved. It answers the question, "How will we approach our goals?"
Plan refers to the overarching framework that maps out the path to reach those goals. It encompasses the strategy and the specific actions (tactics) needed.

“A plan is the overarching thing that you'll follow to get to your goal. And the strategy lives within the plan.” [01:50]

The Strategic Pyramid

Dave introduces a pyramid model to illustrate the relationship between goals, strategy, and tactics:

Goal: The desired outcome (e.g., "Increase website conversions by 20%").
Strategy: The guiding principle for achieving the goal (e.g., "Employ experts to make site upgrades, optimize existing content, and constantly run tests across the site").
Tactics: Specific actions taken to implement the strategy (e.g., "Improve all of our book a demo forms on the website").

“The strategy, as I said first, was to employ experts like a freelancer consultant to do the work for us.” [03:40]

Aligning Strategy with Tactics

A key emphasis of the episode is ensuring that tactics are in harmony with the overarching strategy. Dave provides examples to illustrate how misaligned tactics can derail efforts to meet goals.

Aligned Tactics: Actions that directly support the strategy.
- Example: If the strategy is to optimize existing content, a tactic might be to enhance the "book a demo" forms on the website.
Misaligned Tactics: Actions that, while potentially effective, do not support the established strategy.
- Example: Introducing a new blog post every week may help improve conversions but does not align with a strategy focused on optimizing existing content.

“Improving all of the book a demo forms on a site would make sense because we're improving the existing site content.” [04:30]

Strategy in Practice: Curation vs. Creation

Dave shares a practical example from Exit Five to illustrate a well-defined strategy. The company adopts a "curation, not creation" approach, focusing on curating expert insights rather than producing content in-house.

Strategy Statement: "Curation, not creation."
- Goal: To provide high-quality content without being the primary creators.
- Tactics: Bringing in industry experts to share their perspectives, rather than relying solely on the internal team.

“Our goal is not to be the creators of great content, but to curate the best experts in the industry and give them a platform to share their point of view.” [05:10]

This approach ensures that all marketing tactics revolve around selecting and showcasing external expertise, maintaining consistency and focus within the strategy.

Importance of Strategic Alignment

Dave concludes by reiterating the significance of aligning tactics with strategy. A well-defined strategy acts as a "guardrail," guiding actions and preventing the team from deviating into ineffective or unrelated activities.

“Strategy overall is the guiding principle to your plan. It guides your actions and almost acts as a guardrail in terms of what not to do.” [05:45]

He encourages listeners to thoughtfully consider their strategic frameworks to enhance planning and execution in their marketing efforts.

Conclusion

This episode serves as a valuable micro-lesson on differentiating strategy from planning in B2B marketing. Dave Gerhardt effectively articulates how a clear and aligned strategy can drive meaningful results by ensuring that every tactic supports the overarching goals. Marketing professionals are encouraged to adopt strategic thinking to streamline their efforts and achieve sustained success.

Notable Quotes

“A plan is the overarching thing that you'll follow to get to your goal. And the strategy lives within the plan.” [01:50]
“Improving all of the book a demo forms on a site would make sense because we're improving the existing site content.” [04:30]
“Our goal is not to be the creators of great content, but to curate the best experts in the industry and give them a platform to share their point of view.” [05:10]
“Strategy overall is the guiding principle to your plan. It guides your actions and almost acts as a guardrail in terms of what not to do.” [05:45]

Final Thoughts

Understanding the distinction between strategy and plan is crucial for effective B2B marketing. By focusing on strategic alignment, marketing teams can ensure that their tactics are purpose-driven and contribute directly to their goals. Dave Gerhardt's insights provide a clear roadmap for marketers seeking to enhance their strategic approach in 2025 and beyond.

For more insights and to join a community of over 4,400 B2B marketing professionals, visit exitfive.com.

Transcript

A (0:02)

This episode is brought to you by Revenue Hero. Our friends at Revenue Hero recently did a lead response test of over a thousand B2B sales teams. And this is crazy to me still. I did a study like this seven, eight years ago when I was working at Drift. It's taking too long still to this day to follow up with leads. On average, it took one day, five hours and 17 minutes to hear back from those companies on the website. It's 2024. Look, your buyer has probably already moved on to an alternative. A few minutes of not hearing from you, let alone 29 hours. What those companies need is automated scheduling for qualified leads. And that's where Revenue Hero comes in. Their platform is the fastest way for qualified leads to schedule a meeting with your sales team. Plus, they have the most sophisticated matching algorithm, so all of your leads get booked with the right rep. Whether they're a new account or already a customer, hundreds of businesses automate their request A demo workflow today with revenue hero, including Freshworks, Nooks, Sendoso, Seamless AI and and Customer IO. If you're in B2B marketing with an inbound sales motion, Revenue Hero is a must have tool. You can check out this full lead response report, the latest version of it, which has plenty of other takeaways you should really know about so you can help your team drive more revenue with the people that are already visiting your website, the most valuable audience that you have. Go check it out. It's RevenueHero IO Exit 5. You can find the report and learn more about Revenue Hero there. It's RevenueHero IO exit 5.

B (1:37)

All right, so today we're going to talk about strategy. What strategy means in marketing can sometimes be confusing. So I'm going to break down how we define it here at exit 5. So first off, I think it's important to call out the difference between a plan and a strategy, because often, you know, we'll mix up those terms or use them interchangeably. I know, I'm super guilty of it, but a plan is the overarching thing that you'll follow to get to your goal. And the strategy lives within the plan. And the plan itself usually consists of three things. And you can think about this like a pyramid. At the top of the pyramid is the goal, beneath the goal is the strategy, and beneath the strategy are the tactics. So starting back at the top, the goal is where you want to get to. So an example might be we want to increase website conversions by 20%. That's an example of a goal, the tactics, which is at the bottom of the pyramid are these specific things that you'll do to get there. For example, we're going to improve all of our book a demo forms on the website. But the strategy is the underlying principle that guides how you'll approach the tactics. It's not what you'll do, but how you'll do it. It's a set of principles that keep a team aligned and focused. So in the example that I just used on website, the strategy might be we'll employ experts to make site upgrades for us, optimize existing content, and constantly run tests across the site. Remember the strategy. What I just mentioned informs the tactics, the things you'll do. So if a tactic that I came up with after listing out that strategy was to add a new blog post to the website every week to improve conversions, that actually wouldn't be in line with the strategy. Even though that might help us get to the goal of improving conversions, that's not in line with the strategy. Because the strategy, like I just mentioned, is to improve existing content, which implies that it's not about adding new content. Whereas a tactic like, you know, improving all of the book of demo forms on a site, that would make sense because we're improving the existing site content. Or if the tactic that I came up with was for the marketing team to make a site change and analyze it every week to see if it worked, that would also be out of line because the strategy, as I said first, was to employ experts like a freelancer consultant to do the work for us. Right? So you can see how strategy informs the tactics and how the wrong tactics actually go against the strategy. So it's important for those two things to be aligned. Now, an example of a strategy statement that we use all the time here at Exit 5 is curation, not creation. Meaning our goal is not to be the creators of great content, but to curate the best experts in the industry and give them a platform to share their point of view. So all the tactics that we come up with when planning involve us curating B2B marketing expertise and not creating it within Exit 5 team. Or else you would just hear myself, Danielle and Dave, the only ones on the podcast. Whereas that's not the case. We bring in experts to talk about stuff. So strategy overall is the guiding principle to your plan. It guides your actions and almost acts as a guardrail in terms of what not to do. Okay, cool. I hope this helps you think about planning and strategy for 2025. If you like this, I don't know, make a post about it on LinkedIn or something. Send me a DM, let me know that you like these. Quite a few of you who have already let me know, so I'm wondering how the rest of you think as well. All right, peace out.