B2B Marketing: Stop With The Tricks Already

You know what really grinds my gears? This whole B2B marketing charade we've been playing for years. It's preposterous! You've got these tech companies thinking they're so clever with their "I'll give you this PDF if you give me your contact information" routine. And then what happens? Some poor kid with the title "Business Development Representative" calls you seventeen times. Seventeen! Who needs this aggravation?

THE OLD GAME NOBODY WANTS TO PLAY ANYMORE

Let me tell you something about this approach. Years ago, I heard this CMO (with all the confidence of a guy who just discovered hair gel) proudly announce to his marketing team, "Get these people to see our software in action and they'll throw their wallets at us!" Fascinating strategy, really groundbreaking stuff there. The entire marketing department is practically doing somersaults to get prospects on the phone with sales.

Everything—and I mean EVERYTHING—was designed to make people trade their contact information for content. It's like those sample stations at Costco, except after you take the tiny cup of orange juice, someone follows you around the store for six months asking if you want to buy a truckload of oranges.

Sure, it worked back then. That company checked all the boxes: venture capital, IPO, eventually sold as a public company. The founder probably has a mansion with those automatic toilet seats that know when you're coming. But does that make it right? I don't think so!

WHY ARE WE STILL DOING THIS? SERIOUSLY, WHY?

This approach is the equivalent of wearing socks with sandals. It might have been acceptable at some point, but now it's just embarrassing. People don't want to play this game anymore. It's basically a trick, and because most of the content these businesses create is about as interesting as watching paint dry, there's no payoff.

No wonder trust in business is at an all-time low. I'm surprised it's not lower! Have you seen some of this content? I've read cereal boxes with more insight.

We're living in a time where buyers want to do their own research independently and actively avoid sales calls until they're ready. Can you blame them? I avoid calls from people I actually like!

THE EDUCATION APPROACH: A CONCEPT SO SIMPLE IT'S BAFFLING

Have you seen the research on this stuff? It's ridiculous! People download your precious whitepaper and don't even look at it for days. DAYS! What are they doing with it? Are they preparing mentally? Meditating? Creating a special folder on their desktop called "PDFs I'll Never Read But Felt Pressured To Download"? It's absurd!

And get this - most of these people aren't even in buying mode. They're just... researching. Information gathering. You know, being reasonable humans who don't make snap decisions about enterprise software! Yet there's some poor sales rep sending "just checking in" emails for months on end. If someone checked in with me that many times, I'd file a restraining order.

The entire approach to B2B marketing needs to change. Am I the only one seeing this?

EDUCATION: NOT JUST FOR SCHOOLS ANYMORE

Marketing has to be about education. Pretty simple concept, right? Apparently not, because most companies still don't get it.

It has to help prospective customers see the problem your product or service solves. You know, like how my neighbor's dog barking at 6 AM solves my problem of wondering if I should get up early.

It has to give them reason to believe that you have the industry expertise to analyze the problem. And no, a stock photo of people pointing at a whiteboard doesn't count as expertise.

Finally, it has to give them the confidence that your solution will solve their problem according to their expectations. Not YOUR expectations—THEIRS. There's a difference!

FIRST-PARTY DATA: STILL IMPORTANT, JUST DON'T BE CREEPY ABOUT IT

None of this means that gated content or contact information isn't useful. First-party data is more important than ever with all these privacy regulations popping up like mushrooms after rain.

You need it for nurturing, remarketing, and, of course, attribution. What I'm saying is that how we use those tools needs to change, and that change means leading with education.

Think of it this way: if you're at a party, you don't walk up to someone and immediately ask for their phone number and address. Well, maybe YOU do, but normal people don't. You have a conversation first. You establish trust. You find out if you even like each other before exchanging information.

A NEW APPROACH THAT'S ACTUALLY PRETTY OLD

So here's a crazy idea: what if B2B marketing focused on being actually helpful? What if instead of tricking people into giving you their contact information, you earned their trust by providing valuable insights without asking for anything in return?

According to pretty much every credible study on B2B marketing I've seen, companies that focus on being helpful rather than trapping people in their sales funnel see better results. Better engagement, shorter sales cycles, higher close rates - the whole enchilada! Even a skeptic like me can see that makes sense. When you're not annoying people, they tend to like you more. Revolutionary concept, I know!

The bottom line is this: stop with the tricks already. Nobody's falling for them anymore. If your content is good enough, people will seek you out when they're ready. And if it's not good enough, well, no amount of pestering is going to change that.