Anyone working in tech-oriented B2B marketing will inevitably encounter the weeds. It’s a euphemism for the realm of technical details and complexity that, left unchecked, can overwhelm your message and render your content ineffective. Savvy B2B marketers know that getting lost in the weeds is always a danger. And they’ll instinctively avoid them to keep their story focused and their offer sharp.
But what if the information your prospects need to progress along the pipeline is hiding somewhere in the greenery? Especially in the later stages of the buyer’s journey, the proverbial weeds are where you’ll find the information prospects need to continue moving forward.
That’s why, instead of avoiding the weeds entirely, B2B marketers should embrace the role of landscaper. Your job is to trim back the sprawl, discern what’s an eyesore and what’s not, and clear a path to the meaningful details based on each project’s location in the marketing funnel.
Get Your Hands Dirty for Optimal Results
Each buyer’s journey stage calls for different applications of the weedy parts of your product story. Of course, you’ll want to follow the tried-and-true best practice of leading with customer challenges and how you can solve them. But to better equip your marketing assets for success, you should simultaneously seek to infuse the right technical specifics at the right times.
Let’s look at the role “in the weeds” elements can play in your content across the buyer’s journey:
- Awareness: Establish your identity. While it’s always wise to be wary of acronyms and buzzwords, employing essential technical terms and identifiers helps prospects quickly move from, “What is this?” to, “How can this help me?”
- Consideration: Illuminate how your product can solve the prospect’s challenges. As potential customers compare offerings, they assess how each one works and what’s going on under the hood. Getting a little into the weeds—after taking care to trim them into shape—paints a clearer picture and gives your claims credibility and authenticity.
- Decision: Address the last-mile concerns. As customers deliberate, their questions and objections become more granular. Chances are, at this point, they will want to get in the weeds. Here, B2B marketers should ensure that even the thorniest details come across as clear, sculpted messages.
Additionally, throughout the funnel, you can explore different ways to quickly communicate the finer points of your story. Design elements such as images, charts, and pull quotes can be used to deliver essential information without bogging down the overall flow.
Tips for Determining What to Include
In every stop along the buyer’s journey, you need to be able to identify which technical details are important and which ones will just become noise. To do so, it’s critical to fully understand if a piece of information can contribute to your goals.
You can make this determination by assessing if a piece of information performs any of these essential functions:
- Immediately clarifying your offer: The easiest way to get tuned out is being indecipherable upon introduction. While it’s critical to craft unique messaging, common technology terms and industry descriptors can help quickly establish what you’re selling.
- Making your value proposition feel real: In a crowded marketplace, bold claims grab attention. But without details backing them up, marketing promises can come across as too vague to be meaningful. Tactically employing technical elements helps make your value proposition easier to believe.
- Answering a common objection: Carefully including under-the-hood talking points in your content also helps get ahead of pre-purchase concerns such as integration, compatibility, or adoption.
- Demonstrating the experience of using your product: Experiential details help prospects imagine how your solution can change their day-to-day operations. Concisely presenting this information enables a more tangible sense of your offering’s value.
- Differentiating your solution: Technical information can also be worthy of inclusion if it allows you to stand out from the competition. This could be in the form of proving out a unique capability or simply delivering a more compelling and approachable rationale for choosing your product.
Curate Your Marketing Landscape with Care
Effective B2B marketing requires a careful blend of business and technical messaging. In fact, many highly effective examples blur the lines between the two. Embracing the role of landscaper allows B2B marketing pros to find the ideal balance, include the right insights, and deliver more authentic and understandable marketing.
Whether you’re working on a top-of-funnel explainer video or a deal-closing deep dive, remember that bounding into the weeds with enthusiasm—and perhaps a pair of sharpened pruning shears—can help you unlock better marketing results.
