This is our 7 part guide with everything you need to understand the basics of go-to-market (GTM) and increase revenue globally. You’ll also find links to useful content from our blog throughout, so you can forge your own path to GTM mastery. Here are the chapters:
Personalisation at scale (You are here)
Revenue operations (coming soon)
Continuous improvement in go-to-market (coming soon)
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In today's competitive business landscape, building strong relationships with clients and partners is the way to cut through the noise, drive sales, and increase customer satisfaction.
This guide aims to provide a comprehensive overview of B2B messaging, channels, and personalisation, as well as practical strategies for improving your communication efforts.
Unlike many other guides that are designed for individual sales reps, this guide helps you the team leader to enable teams of 2-100 sales reps to all create targeted, engaging, and results-driven B2B outreach.
Let’s get started!
What is a good B2B messaging strategy?
B2B messaging encompasses the content and language businesses use to convey their value proposition, products, or services to other businesses.
Speak the customers language
Speaking the customer's language is like using a common recipe for a favorite dish. By using familiar ingredients and instructions, everyone can easily understand and follow the process, resulting in a satisfying meal.
In business, clear communication builds trust, strengthens relationships, and drives successful outcomes.
For example, when targeting fitness enthusiasts, replace "our wearable device features cutting-edge biometric monitoring" with "our fitness tracker accurately measures your heart rate, steps, and sleep, helping you stay healthy and active."
Here are some actionable tips to train your team to speak the customer’s language:
Research: Encourage your team to spend time understanding customer needs and preferences.
Simplify concepts: Break down complex ideas into relatable terms.
Role-playing: Practice empathetic listening and addressing concerns using clear language.
Guide building: Offer a reference guide with audience-tailored vocabulary and examples.
Workshops: Arrange training sessions on effective communication and adapting language.
Peer to peer learning: Encourage collaboration to help juniors adopt experienced colleagues' language usage.
Write clearly
Ensure your messaging is clear, concise, and easily understood.
To prevent confusion and enhance engagement, it's important to avoid jargon and overly complex language. In his book "Thinking, Fast and Slow," Daniel Kahneman distinguishes between two types of thinking: fast thinking (System 1), which is intuitive, and slow thinking (System 2), which is analytical.
In B2B copywriting, it's essential to engage System 1 by avoiding jargon and using clear, concise language. This ensures easy comprehension and relatability, encouraging quick understanding and decision-making in business interactions.
For example, replace "leverage our state-of-the-art CRM platform for enhanced customer engagement" with "use our advanced CRM to better connect with clients."
Change "optimize your brand's omnichannel presence with our bespoke marketing strategies" to "improve your brand's online and offline visibility with our tailored marketing plans."
Grammarly, Writer.com and ChatGPT are great tools that helps with this, but nothing beats specific enablement to your teams to do better writing.
Writing is hard.
How do you develop a strong B2B messaging strategy?
To build the right foundation, you would want to make sure you have a crisp understanding of your target audience, so that you can speak the (right) customers’ language.
Then you would need to write clear value propositions that showcases the benefits your offering, addressing the pain points of your target audience.
Now for some more advanced tactics.
Align messaging with business goals. Ensure your messaging supports your overall objectives and drives desired actions and outcomes.
Are you trying to win more logos, improve conversion rates, or increase open rates? According to the Content Marketing Institute, 75% of the most successful B2B marketers have a documented strategy.
Use narratives to make complex concepts relatable, foster emotional connections, and help your message stick. As the human brain processes stories 22 times more effectively than facts alone, storytelling is like the glue that binds your message to your audience's memory.
For example, when we first started scaling Tactic, we were pitching a 'customisable data platform'. That's great, but conversion rates from first meeting to demo increased 5x when we moved into telling the story of how Rudy founded Tactic.
Optimize for multiple channels. Adapt your messaging for various platforms, considering each channel's strengths, limitations, and audience preferences.
With 51% of B2B marketers prioritizing content for multi-channel campaigns, this approach is like tailoring clothes to fit different body types, ensuring maximum appeal and effectiveness.
What are the common B2B channels and how do you personalise for them?
Choosing the right ways to talk to others is very important when you want to make your business-to-business messages have a big effect.
There are many different places where you can talk to people, but some work better than others depending on who you are trying to reach and what you want to achieve.
Here are five main ways to talk to other businesses that you should think about:
Email marketing
Email is a highly effective B2B marketing channel that enables targeted, personalized, and cost-effective communication. It's ideal for lead nurturing, customer retention, and driving conversions. Leverage segmentation and dynamic content to send targeted emails that address recipients' specific needs, preferences, or pain points. Personalize subject lines, greetings, and content to increase open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.
Social media
LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook are popular B2B marketing platforms for content sharing, networking, and engagement. Social media can raise brand awareness, generate leads, and foster relationships. Choose platforms that align with your target audience and business goals, and develop a balanced content calendar. Engage with your audience on a personal level by responding to comments, sharing user-generated content, and addressing their concerns or questions. Use audience insights and targeting features to deliver tailored ads and content to specific segments.
Content marketing
High-quality content, such as blog posts, whitepapers, and case studies, can demonstrate industry expertise, educate your audience, and drive website traffic. To create a successful content marketing strategy, identify topics and formats that resonate with your audience, optimize your content for search engines, and promote your content across multiple channels. Create a variety of content formats and topics that cater to different audience segments and stages of the buyer's journey. Use dynamic content and personalization tools to deliver customized experiences, such as recommended articles or resources, based on user behavior or preferences.
Webinars and virtual events
These interactive formats enable you to showcase your products, engage with your audience, and generate leads. Host successful webinars or virtual events by choosing relevant topics, planning the event format carefully, promoting the event, and following up with attendees. Tailor your events and webinars to your audience's interests by selecting relevant topics, speakers, and formats. Offer personalized follow-up communications, such as session recordings or additional resources, based on attendee behavior or feedback.
Direct mail
Despite the digital focus of many B2B marketers, direct mail remains an effective channel for targeted, personalized communication. Segment your audience, develop personalized messaging, and design visually appealing materials to implement successful direct mail campaigns.
Evaluate the effectiveness of each channel by considering factors such as reach, engagement, conversion rates, ROI, and cost-effectiveness.
Monitoring and analyzing performance metrics will help you determine which channels are most suitable for your target audience and business goals.
How to personalise at scale?
Personalisation is critical as it shows an understanding of your audience's needs and preferences, resulting in stronger connections and higher engagement.
Implementing personalisation across channels can significantly improve marketing outcomes.
Of course, no mention of outreach at scale (whether its inbound, outbound, or partnerships etc) is complete with talking about the modern sales engagement tools.
Sales engagement is the process of interacting with prospects through various channels (email, calls, social media) to build relationships, provide value, and drive sales.
The core of all sales enagement platforms is a cadence, although they go by different names depending on vendor. Hubspot and Outreach calls them sequences. Salesloft calls them cadences. Groove calls them flows.
Simply, a cadence is a structured sequence of touchpoints, including personalized messaging and timing, designed to optimize and automate sales engagement for maximum results.
Here’s a few different strategies I have seen that heavily uses sales engagement platforms:
Segmentation based cadences
Segmentation-based sales outreach cadences are tailored strategies for contacting potential customers based on their specific characteristics or needs.
In simpler terms, it's about organizing your sales outreach activities by grouping your prospects into categories and adjusting your approach for each category.
For example, imagine you're selling software to both small businesses and large enterprises. You might create one cadence for small businesses, focusing on cost-effectiveness and ease of use, while designing another cadence for large enterprises, emphasizing scalability and advanced features.
This way, you target the unique needs of each segment more effectively.
Essential ways of segmenting like this include:
Pain points: Identify the unique challenges or problems that different groups of prospects face and tailor your outreach to address these pain points.
Customer journey stage: Segment prospects based on where they are in the buying process, such as awareness, consideration, or decision stages, and tailor your outreach accordingly.
Engagement history: Group prospects based on their previous interactions with your brand, like website visits, content downloads, or event attendance.
If you are more creative, try these ideas
Target audience: Identify the specific groups or industries your prospects sell to.
Products or services: Determine what types of products or services your prospects offer.
Integration partnerships: Identify the partners your prospects work with for integrations.
Cloud platforms: Understand which cloud platform (AWS, GCP, or Azure) your prospects use.
Team sizes: Consider the size of your prospects' marketing teams to gauge their capacity and needs.
Campaign recency: Assess the time elapsed since your prospects' last marketing campaigns to identify potential opportunities.
Technographic segmentation: Analyze the technology stack and tools used by your prospects, and tailor your outreach to emphasize compatibility or integrations.
Industry trends and news: Segment prospects based on recent events, emerging trends, or regulatory changes in their industries, and leverage this information to create relevant outreach.
Trigger based cadences
Trigger-based cadences involve identifying specific triggers or events that indicate a prospect is ready for the next step in the sales process. Common triggers include:
Lead score threshold
Engagement with content (e.g., downloading a whitepaper)
Job title or role change
Company news or events (e.g., funding, product launch)
Inactivity or dormant accounts
Once you've identified the triggers, design a series of touchpoints for each trigger, including emails, calls, and social media interactions.
To find triggers, you should:
Collect and analyze data on your audience's online behavior, such as website visits, content engagement, and email interactions. Use these insights to create targeted campaigns that resonate with their preferences and needs.
Identify compelling events. Determine which internal events lead companies to use your software. If you have a dataset of inbound customers, analyze what triggers them to come to you (consider making this part of your sales process and asking about it during initial sales calls).
Here are some example starting steps for different triggers:
Content engagement trigger
Thank them for downloading the whitepaper and provide additional resources related to the topic.
Competitor's product announcement trigger
Share your company's unique value proposition or a relevant feature comparison that highlights the advantages of your product.
Send an informative email discussing your product's differentiators and advantages over the competitor's new product. Include case studies or testimonials that support your claims.
Industry event or conference trigger
Share your company's participation in the event, along with any presentations, workshops, or panels your team members will be part of. Encourage your followers to attend or connect with your team during the event.
Send an email to your prospect list, inviting them to attend the event and meet with your team. Provide a discount code for event registration if applicable.
Reach out to high-value prospects to discuss their attendance at the event and arrange a face-to-face meeting or demo during the conference.
Build a messaging matrix
A messaging matrix is a tool used in marketing and communication to organize and align messaging across different channels, audiences, and goals. It is a visual representation that maps out key messages, target audiences, communication channels, and desired outcomes.
To create a messaging matrix, start by identifying your key messages and target audiences. Next, identify the channels you plan to use to deliver these messages, such as email, social media, or events. Finally, map out how each message will be tailored and delivered to each audience segment through each communication channel.
The messaging matrix is a dynamic tool that should be regularly updated and refined based on feedback and data analysis. By using a messaging matrix, organizations can ensure their messaging is clear, consistent, and tailored to their target audiences, ultimately resulting in better engagement and conversions.
Example messaging matrix: Stripe
Target Audience | Pain Points | Value Propositions | Example Customer Quotes |
|---|---|---|---|
CFO | - High transaction costs | - Lower transaction fees, saving money | "Stripe helped us reduce transaction costs significantly, contributing to our bottom line." |
- Inefficient payment processes | - Streamlined and automated payment processing | "Our payment processing efficiency has improved tremendously since we switched to Stripe." | |
- Compliance and security risks | - Strong security measures and compliance tools | "Stripe's security features give me peace of mind that our financial data is protected." | |
- Limited global payment options | - Support for multiple currencies and payment methods | "Stripe allows us to easily accept payments from customers worldwide, fueling our global expansion." | |
Head of Finance | - Difficulty managing multiple systems | - Unified platform for managing all financial operations | "Having one platform to manage all our financial operations has simplified our workflow and increased efficiency." |
- Inaccurate revenue forecasting | - Real-time reporting and analytics | "Stripe's reporting and analytics tools have made our revenue forecasting more accurate and reliable." | |
- Time-consuming manual reconciliations | - Automated reconciliation features | "Stripe's automated reconciliation features have saved our finance team countless hours." | |
Finance Manager | - Slow onboarding of new payment methods | - Rapid integration of new payment methods | "Adding new payment methods has never been easier since we started using Stripe." |
- Complex billing and subscription setups | - Flexible billing and subscription management tools | "Stripe's billing and subscription tools have made managing our clients' accounts a breeze." | |
- Troubleshooting payment issues | - 24/7 customer support and extensive knowledge base | "Stripe's support team has been incredibly helpful in resolving any payment issues we've encountered." |
Tip: Personalisation and privacy
Balancing personalisation and privacy concerns is essential in today's data-driven marketing landscape.
Ensure that you collect, store, and use customer data responsibly and transparently, adhering to relevant data protection regulations and best practices.
Communicate your data usage policies clearly to your audience, and offer them options to manage their preferences or opt out of personalized marketing efforts.
Key takeaways
Key elements of successful B2B messaging: clarity, conciseness, value proposition, consistency, and target audience.
To develop a strong B2B messaging strategy, identify your target audience, craft a compelling value proposition, create a consistent brand voice, and align messaging with business goals.
Different B2B marketing channels include email marketing, social media, content marketing, webinars and virtual events, and direct mail.
Personalization techniques and strategies include segmentation, behavioral data and analytics, dynamic content, and account-based marketing.
