Meaning, metrics and mojo: the 3 keys to B2B marketing today

We’ve been navel-gazing lately.

Trying to boil down the whole B2B Enchilada into three nouns.

Asking ourselves what three things matters most in B2B marketing right now.

What three things a CMO in a B2B company should make sure her teams are mastering.

Which also happen to be the three things Velocity works hard to combine in new ways for each of our clients.

Here’s what we came up with. (The alliteration was a happy bonus.) (That’s a lie, it was in the brief.) (God, how to spoil a drum roll, Kessler). (No YOU shut up).

Here goes: the three nouns. Right…. here:

Meaning, Metrics and Mojo.

The first two are hard to do well. The third is so rare you’d think it was hard (in truth, it’s just ignored).

Let’s look at each one, staccato-style:

Meaning

This is about relevance.

The tricky thing is, Relevance is defined by your target audience. Not by you.

Our jobs as Very Important Strategic Marketers (and/or unpaid interns) is to discover and leverage this relevance—to build a bridge between what your ideal prospects already care about and what your products actually do.

This bridge can only be built backwards, from their perspective back to your product. And that’s why it always starts with Meaning.

We think this Meaning—this relevance—comes from your Galvanizing Story (if you don’t have one, this mini-series can help).

If you haven’t nailed your Meaning—haven’t absolutely slam-dunked it—don’t worry about the other two Ms. They won’t matter.

Metrics

This is about measuring everything that moves, then swimming naked in the data every morning before breakfast.

Because it turns out, if you look hard enough, data isn’t actually data at all: it’s your prospects and customers silently screaming to you about everything they’re into right now.

With well-tuned analytics (and cool tricks like sessionized, instrumented content), you’ll dial up the volume of these silent screams so they become loud, clear signals to your whole marketing and sales team.

Used properly, Metrics make you better at everything you do (including how you use Metrics). (Inception or what?).

Mojo

This is the one far too many B2B brands (and, T.B. brutally H., most B2B agencies) leave out of the equation.

Which is a big shame, because Mojo is a force multiplier. A budget multiplier. Not metaphorically or hyperbolically but literally.

Mojo is confidence, attitude, energy, and passion.

It’s your voice and your stance and the banner you wave as your team marches down Revenue Street towards the Mall of Fame.

Mojo is the thing that the best, smartest people in your company bring to work every day—but that somehow gets lost before you can get it to market.

Mojo turns a company into a crusade and a mission statement into an actual mission.

Mojo sends the most important signals you can ever send to your prospects and customers: that you love what you’re doing. That you’re really, really good at it. And that they’ll love working with you, too.

Think about your favorite marketing. It has Mojo.

Now think about 98% of the marketing you see: a Mojo-free Milkshake of Meh with added So What™.

From where we’re sitting, this Mojo Gap is the biggest, juiciest, B2B opportunity facing every B2B brand. (And every B2B marketer). (Don’t make me spell this out: For You.).

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If your team can master the first two of the three Ms, you’ll be doing some of the best B2B marketing out there.

But if you aim higher and add Mojo to that?

Unstoppable.