B2B marketing strategy

Strategy is the bet, tactics are the week

If your "strategy" is a list of channels, you have a calendar. A strategy answers four questions in writing: which companies, which buyers inside them, why they would change now, and how you will reach them without copying a competitor's last campaign. Harvard Business Review has decades of pieces on competitive choice. The useful idea for marketers is the same: a strategy that tries to be every motion is not a strategy.

Tactics still matter. They just inherit the bet. A webinar for an ICP you have not named will fill a Zoom with polite strangers. A case study for a segment you do not sell to will confuse sales.

ICP, and the people you refuse

An ideal customer profile is a description of the firm: industry, size, tech stack, trigger, and the pain you can actually fix. A persona is the human inside that firm. You need both. You also need a negative ICP: companies that look like a fit in a database and then stall because they cannot buy, cannot implement, or will never pay your price. Strategy is as much about who you will not chase.

Pick a motion on purpose

Inbound works when search demand exists and you can win the comparison. Outbound works when the category is new, the account list is short, or buyers will not search until someone names the problem. Product-led works when a user can get value before procurement. Partner works when another vendor already owns the relationship. Mixing two motions is normal. Pretending you run all four with a three-person team is how plans die in Q2.

How you know the bet is wrong

Qualified pipeline stays flat while activity rises. Sales keeps discounting into a segment you called "ideal." Win stories all come from a different industry than the one in the deck. When that happens, change the ICP or the offer. Do not add another tactic on top of a bad bet and call it iteration.