If you’re a fan, like me, of Matthew Syed’s podcast series, Sideways, then you may have heard about the power of “recombinant innovation”. If you’re not in the know then here’s a swift introduction. Recombinant innovation says that dramatic innovation (breakthroughs or leaps forward) comes from combining previously discrete ideas. Not from incremental improvements within a niche. In the episode “Top of the Pops” we learn that scientific or technical teams are three or four times more likely to drive significant innovation than individuals working by themselves. Since the 50s, the number of pro ..read more

This is the sixth in a series we’re running about the new B2B GTM playbook. You can find the other five blogs in the series here. The other day, I had the privilege of sitting down with Jon Miller, founder CEO of Marketo and Engagio and most recently CMO at B2B Go-to-Market powerhouse Demandbase. Tens of thousands of marketers in B2B tech firms have based their go-to-market strategy (and careers) on his principles. His ideas and the tech platforms he designed made marketing accountable for the first time, turning us from snowflakes into data dynamos with a seat at the top table. (As a disclaim ..read more

At most B2B companies, the marketing/sales relationship has taken a wrong turn.  Sellers are taking marketing into their own hands.  They’re emailing prospects, investing heavily in third-party intent platforms like 6Sense, and generally doing their own messaging and outreach.  And they’re not using Marketing’s expensively produced content.  The fact that they’re ignoring most MQLs while sourcing their own leads should tell you something is drastically wrong.  And something is drastically wrong. We saw a client absolutely crush its marketing goals — increasing traffic ..read more

I don’t want to hear about spear-fishing ever again. I’m Charlie, the head of ABM at Velocity. And I have a bone to pick with tired ABM metaphors. Good ABM isn’t about hunting targets and herding them into a funnel. Those strong-arm tactics may deliver a few metrics but they’re not how you win revenue. All the power is in buyers’ hands and they’ll come to you when they’re good and ready. Which leads us (excuse the pun) to what ABM should do, which is apply modern tools and processes to an old strategy: find your friends and nurture those relationships. Do this and selling will be easier, becau ..read more

Even before AI and Google SGE came gunning for everyone’s search traffic, B2B was struggling with SEO. Despite endless effort, lots of pages languish in SERPs while the cost of paid search keeps growing. It’s a problem. Even the pages that get that sweet search love aren’t doing brands a lot of good — often because they’re not optimized for terms that matter to qualified buyers. (So what if you win big on “What is data architecture?” when you’re trying to sell to experienced IT leaders?)  In perhaps the saddest cases, the pages that “win” SEO by effectively playing the system fail to elic ..read more

This is the fourth blog in a series about the new B2B GTM playbook. This week we focus on the role of SEO and content in the playbook. Read the other blogs in our series about the evolution of B2B marketing here. Why teamwork solves the B2B SEO malaise A lot of B2B tech firms struggle with SEO.  Everyone recognises that it should be a key weapon in the arsenal, but most tech firms’ organic SEO performance – despite lots of effort and investment – is plummeting (and very few get even a proportionate share of relevant traffic let alone the lion’s share).  There are two main reasons, ea ..read more

Jon Miller recently said that the B2B go-to-market playbook is kaput. That’s the same Jon Miller who practically invented that playbook at the dawn of inbound marketing. You know, Marketo and Engagio founder and CMO at Demandbase (and, it just so happens, serial Velocity client). That Jon Miller. I agree with Jon that most (not all) B2B tech businesses are struggling to meet the pipeline needs of the business and the main reason is that they’ve either neglected performance brand strategy altogether or just found it too hard to mesh with their performance marketing efforts. Data driven branding ..read more

When I recently stumbled upon John Miller’s insights on his new B2B Growth Playbook, I found myself nodding in agreement. If you haven’t come across it yet, it’s an insightful framework that challenges the outdated strategies we B2B marketers have relied on to spur growth over the last decade. John’s views struck a chord with me. Not only because his proposed methodology mirrors almost perfectly our approach at Velocity when crafting digital marketing audits and blueprints (more on this later) but also because it echoed a feeling we’ve had for a while with our own clients. Coincidentally, we r ..read more

Dear B2B, Has it been five years already? How time flies. I’m going to start with a bit of a confession… Five years ago I fancied your cousin. (Stay with me, I promise I’ll bring it around). In truth, B2C has been eyeing me my whole life. I still can’t turn a corner without seeing them. On every building, down every supermarket aisle, in-between reruns of Friends, after every swipe of my phone… They were flashy, exciting, vibrant, hopeful, beautiful, clever, funny, happy and burst into my life (even when I didn’t want them to). It was all I knew. But then I met you. And I’ll admit, it wasn’t t ..read more

This is the first of a series of blogs about the modern B2B marketing malaise and what to do about it. Subsequent articles will be about setting up demand gen blueprints, the relationship between strategy and performance and SEO. 15 years ago, just after Doug and I founded Velocity, we wrote a piece called the B2B Marketing Manifesto.  It was written when B2B tech was still dominated by direct sales. But B2B marketing was actually on the cusp of becoming a key part of every company’s revenue engine, of becoming accountable to the rest of the business for the first time. (Before, its job w ..read more