Watching what’s happened to some well-funded “big ideas”, I’ve been thinking about how this illuminates our own tech GTM experiences. Debacles like crypto’s $2T decline over 2022 or Softbank’s irrational exuberance resulting in a $27B loss for investors there seem avoidable in retrospect. So how about the continued growth of low-cost programmatic advertising despite negative brand impacts (and remarkable rates of outright fraud). Or the fact that, in markets of essentially fixed sizes, marketers seek ever increasing volumes of “leads” at lower and lower cost. How about the continuous rise in high-velocity cold calling by poorly enabled SDRs? And what will happen to inboxes when Chat GPT really gets rolling? So why do people chase things that aren’t working? Why do we spend good energy after bad?
Nobel prize-winning behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman says it’s because our brains are essentially “lazy”. That means we’re prone to follow orders even when they’re uninformed, join in on trends when they’re counter to our real interests, and so on. B2B Marketing is no exception to this pattern, but you can certainly do better.
This could well be happening within your GTM teams
Trained GTM professionals usually understand the conceptual linkages between ROI and core concepts like segmentation, targeting, market proximity or context, and buyer relevance – yet they’re still prone to prefer short cuts. Over and over, teams are inspired to chase the latest executional trends while neglecting basic blocking and tackling. And while building a more effective GTM engine isn’t rocket science, it does require consistent work, focus and executive support. Unfortunately, in a world of pressure to do everything faster and cheaper, going with the flow seems easier than doing the right work correctly.
As B2B GTM leaders, at a time where ML automation and AI large language models promise greater and greater efficiency, it behooves all of us to make sure we don’t forget what we know about key drivers of business-building effectiveness. As managers, we need to support our teams in working smarter instead of just faster and cheaper. I’m writing this now because there’s a lot already happening out there that can be easily improved!
The almost guaranteed failure of “out of context” marketing
Interruptions really bother us when we’re trying to work. Our minds struggle to process two very different things at once. With their “Invisible Gorilla” research, Scientists Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons proved that out-of-context inputs simply get tuned out. So, while they may be alluringly cheap, it doesn’t really make sense that things like out-of-context programmatic ads, cold calls at odd hours of the day, and so on should be expected to work particularly well. Conversely, here at TechTarget, we have abundant proof that when buyers are engaged in a buyer’s journey, they literally welcome the interjection of relevant content. To get more from your marketing investments faster, think hard about how to take better advantage of buyer and buying context.
The power of “in context” for better business outcomes
For more specifics about how “context” thinking can really work to your advantage, I reached out to some of the TechTarget professionals who help our clients with this every day. Because they’re closer to your markets and the buyers within them, they’re able to help you better contextualize your offerings and find more deals faster. Proper context significantly improves content uptake. For your prospects, it reduces decision making complexity. It’s even been shown to help you achieve better pricing.
Kelley Damore, Chief Content Officer
“I think a good example of context and proximity comes from how our coverage of the AI space is evolving on TechTarget | Enterprise AI. We’ve done 15% more stories on this exploding area in the first four months than in all of 2022.”
“I think a good example of context and proximity comes from how our coverage of the AI space is evolving on John McKnight, EVP, Research & Strategy, Enterprise Strategy Group
“At TechTarget’s Enterprise Strategy Group, our analysts are not only steeped in their category, they’re steeped in buyers’ needs and clients’ businesses. That’s how we’re able to help them fine tune their positioning so well. We understand where the needs of the customer and the capabilities of the client intersect and align.”
“At TechTarget’s Enterprise Strategy Group, our analysts are not only steeped in their category, they’re steeped in buyers’ needs and clients’ businesses. That’s how we’re able to help them fine tune their positioning so well. We understand where the needs of the customer and the capabilities of the client intersect and align.”Adam Davis, Sr. Director, Advertising Solutions
“When clients grasp the clear logic behind how advertising on the TechTarget network actually works, it becomes an entirely different conversation than they’re used to having with their digital display suppliers that only focus on low CPM-driven concepts.”
“When clients grasp the clear logic behind how advertising on the TechTarget network actually works, it becomes an entirely different conversation than they’re used to having with their digital display suppliers that only focus on low CPM-driven concepts.”Andy Briney, Chief Product Officer
“Every time we do the analysis, I’m amazed what a difference knowing who to target and what to say makes to the success of both marketing and sales outreach. The term ‘personalization’ really doesn’t do justice to the difference between guessing and knowing.”
“Every time we do the analysis, I’m amazed what a difference knowing who to target and what to say makes to the success of both marketing and sales outreach. The term ‘personalization’ really doesn’t do justice to the difference between guessing and knowing.”David Edwards, Sr. Director, Product Management
“BrightTALK by TechTarget is all about context. Of course we’re in the video format that more and more buyers prefer, but unlike a generic webinar platform – a software platform without fuel — BrightTALK creates more context for its clients with bespoke virtual events on critical topics relevant to what their buyers want and what they have to sell.”
“BrightTALK by TechTarget is all about context. Of course we’re in the video format that more and more buyers prefer, but unlike a generic webinar platform – a software platform without fuel — BrightTALK creates more context for its clients with bespoke virtual events on critical topics relevant to what their buyers want and what they have to sell.”Creating the decision-support buying context – the buyer and buying proximity – that is TechTarget
TechTarget’s entire business model depends on supplying the information that enterprise technology buyers crave when they need help making expensive and potentially risky purchase decisions. More than 30 million of these professionals subscribe to our trusted editorial material because it helps them and their companies succeed – especially in highly competitive business conditions. It’s their willingness to opt-in to receive relevant information from us that then enables us – by studying their interests and actions – to better serve our members with more and more relevant and useful information. And because these members have willingly entered into this opt-in value exchange, we’re able to provide the contextually rich purchase intent data our tech vendor clients depend on to out-compete rivals. Simply put, more enterprise tech buyers come to TechTarget to research solutions than anywhere else. They do more of their buying research on our 150 hyper-specific websites and 1,100+ B2B video channels than anywhere else. In its scale and precision across hundreds of tech categories, the data in our Priority Engine Prospect-Level Intent™ data platform provides an incredible illustration of this context.
Ping an expert here, to get an in-depth look at how better context can work to accelerate your objectives.
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