I’ve yet to talk to anyone who disagrees with the statement that, for a B2B tech bootstrapped entrepreneur, making that first successful sales hire is extremely difficult. Heck, I’ve spoken to people who say they’re on to sales hire number 7 and have yet to find anyone who can “do the job”. In which case, those companies are lucky to … Read More
How Much Per Click?
One of the fundamentals of effective marketing for an emerging B2B tech company is knowing your target market. Why is this important? Because by definition you have a limited marketing budget. Then, accepting that the only function of marketing (in an emerging B2B tech company) is to generate qualified leads, you have to apply that limited budget as effectively as … Read More
Raising Money in a Downturn
Do you need to raise money for your tech business? Note the emphasis on ‘need’. Note also that our target market is emerging B2B tech companies thinking big, who are likely pre-Series-A and the commentary here reflects that. Despite the US bounce back in May (adding 2.5M jobs), I think it’s beyond doubt that we’re in a downturn, if not … Read More
Your Target Market – 2 Months into the Covid-19 Lockdown
In our last post (March 31st) we looked at how emerging high tech B2B companies should adjust their marketing in light of the Covid-19 lockdown. That seems like a long time ago. 6 weeks on and the challenges facing businesses seem a lot more existential. Not necessarily your business (small high tech B2B) but across the board. Your entrepreneurial spirit … Read More
Covid-19 – Should You Change Your Marketing?
Every emerging B2B tech company will no doubt be working hard to fully understand the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the resultant lockdowns. Aside from the potential personal health risks, what does coronavirus really mean for your business? There are probably three broad categories you could fall into: is it an existential threat? Were you engaged in a business … Read More
The Science of Persuasion – How to Use Scarcity
We’ve previously covered The Science of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini and specifically discussed how 2 of his 6 principles of persuasion (Consensus and Consistency) can be applied by our target market – emerging B2B tech companies thinking BIG. This post looks in more detail at how we might apply the principle of Scarcity – particularly from the point of view … Read More
Let’s Clarify Inbound/Outbound Marketing
We’ve recently seen several, varying definitions for inbound/outbound marketing which, given our assertion that outbound marketing doesn’t work for our target market (emerging B2B tech companies), suggests some clarification is required – at least of what we mean by inbound marketing and outbound marketing. For us, outbound marketing means cold-calling or e-mailing cold contacts from a list you’ve acquired (you … Read More
A Salute to the Brave – Why Storytelling is Critical in B2B Tech
I first saw this painting (Salute to the Brave) at the Battle of Britain Air Show at Duxford in September 2019. Wandering around some of the tented stalls during a rain delay, I walked into an exhibition of WWII art and the painting, one of artist Anthony Saunders’ latest, demanded attention among the hundreds of other works. I was attracted … Read More
Hiring for Culture Fit or Core Values?
Culture fit, or culture match have been terms used widely in hiring processes across the globe over the past few years. “We have a great culture, it’s important we find a good match,” or “we need to find someone who fits in with our culture, not just someone who ticks all the skills/experience boxes.” But what does that mean? What … Read More
The B2B Content Marketing Marathon
If lead generation is a challenge for your B2B tech business then you have a number of options open to you across the broad spectrum of outbound and inbound marketing. For our target market where outbound doesn’t really work, then inbound marketing is the best option with paid ads and organic search the two main categories to consider. Paid ads … Read More
Is There a Budget for This?
Most B2B technology companies who are closer to start-up than mainstream maturity will likely have a product/solution that is innovative in some way with the aim of disrupting their target market. If it isn’t innovative/disruptive then why bother? What that then means is that it is highly unlikely that a budget will exist within companies you’re targeting. By ‘budget’ I … Read More
Where Does Your Audience Live?
We recently wrote a post about using paid ads to generate B2B leads en lieu of a longer term lead generation strategy based on content marketing. We coined the phrase (or at least borrowed it from agile development) of a marketing sprint as a short term, rapid way of lead generation versus the marathon that is content marketing. It’s worth … Read More
