Content Minimalism: A Guide To Recession-Proof B2B Marketing | B2Breakout 🚀

This week, we are doubling down on B2B marketing efficiency following on from a client conversation based on how to do as much as possible with as little personal involvement as possible.

Also - exciting news - we are now looking for exciting B2B businesses or marketing champions who would be happy to talk about their approach to B2B.

If you know someone who may be interested in having their work or business highlighted, please let me know by responding to this email.

Now - let’s get started with Content Minimalism.

It’s 4pm on the last Friday of the month.

Everyone’s about to leave for the weekend, chatting among themselves about the parties and day trips they have planned.

Not you, though. You’re still sitting at your desk pondering what you need to do to get your next sale in.

If you could just crack that, you wouldn’t have to worry about everything else.

“What if I create this? What if I write this? Maybe if I post that…”

So you keep throwing resources at it.

You create another ebook, more connections, more posts, a carousel.

More resources used.

The response is always the same.

Even though your impressions are up, it just doesn’t seem to be hitting the right note.

It feels like you’re banging your head against a brick wall.

And honestly?

You probably are.

The Creation Curse

The key problem with B2B marketing on social media is that it’s often seen to have a simple solution:

Create more stuff.

It’s relatively easy to do. And everyone on the internet wants you to do it.

But what if that was bad advice, albeit from people with good intentions?

I mean - why would a marketer not tell you that the answer is more marketing?

Well, let's play with that idea a bit…

Recessions Require A Different Approach

Most B2B businesses are essentially “good time businesses”.

That means their model is based on people having capital to be able to spend.

But as inflation and interest rates increase, capital gets squeezed and purse strings get tightened.

Companies become less willing to spend on non-core items.

Decision times become longer.

Sales become harder to close.

Within this context you’re probably thinking of one of two solutions:

1. Spend more on marketing to get the people who are still in the market.

2. Cut your marketing right back, so you’re only doing what is required.

But these are ultimately two sides of the same coin.

What if there’s another way of approaching it?

Content Minimalism

“Okay… what does that mean?”

Doing enough marketing to still hit your goals, but doing it in a way that’s stripped back and de-risked.

The idea is to do as much as possible with as few resources as possible.

It is done at two levels:

• You

• Your team

And the smaller your team is, the more important it becomes.

The point is to curb the temptation to do more just because you can.

That in turn forces you and your team to focus on what you know works, rather than what could potentially work.

You’re designing your marketing to be light on resources, but still heavy on impact.

In other words - you’ll still have 80% of your marketing, but done with 20% of the effort.

The key to content minimalism is to strip back to what’s important - creating value, relationships and consistency.

You then have to apply it in a way which doesn’t break the bank, is not resource-intensive and can be stacked alongside other lead generation tasks - such as networking events, which may be a more effective use of your time.

It is also crucial that all decisions are made from that base perspective - i.e.

“Do I need another LinkedIn carousel?”
No, a text post will do fine.

“Do I need to create fresh LinkedIn content ideas?”
No, start with the article you wrote earlier and align a few posts around that!

“This person is doing this - do I need to do that too?”
Well, not right now, as you don’t even know if it’s working. How can you find out if it is, and what would you need to do to test it with the least possible effort?

“How can I align my marketing to my networking in a more cohesive way?”
Treat them as the logical sequence they are, rather than two separate approaches.

“Do I need full time staff to do this?”
No - only take on the people you need to do the work required, for the hours required to do it.

Striking a Balance

Ultimately - it is easy to create more. Your team enjoys it and it feels productive and rewarding.

BUT - and it’s a big “but” - there’s no guarantee that it will actually help you achieve your goals.

With that said, though, marketing is still a necessary investment if you want to thrive.

That means cutting everything isn’t the right strategy either.

In a downturn, efficiency is the key factor.

It brings down costs and focuses the mind.

I suggest following the Rule of 4: reduce the time you spend on marketing down to 1 day a week, and let your team work on it for the remaining 4 days of the week.

Run from a lower cost base, make the most of the resources and content you already have, and most importantly, take fewer risks.

Making less risky decisions now not only provides more predictability in the short term - it also means less vulnerability when times get hard.

If you need support or advice around turning your content marketing into an efficiency machine designed to survive and thrive in a recession-type economy, I’m here to help.

Otherwise, I’ll see you all next time!

Murray

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It can be a long process to get this all in place, but I’d love to hear if these insights work for you. Reply to this email with your thoughts or any questions you might have. Always happy to chat.