The toughest chapter to put in writing within the Huge, Stunning B2B Blueprint was about inventive platforms.
And the reason being quite simple: Creativity is a fucker.
What’s a inventive platform?
A inventive platform is a foundational concept that evokes every part you want for a marketing campaign — messaging, advertisements and content material that grabs your ICP by the lapels and evokes them to behave.
It’s greater than a slick phrase or a intelligent line — it’s a brand new perception into your viewers’s world that solves an issue or creates worth for them ultimately.
Growing an authentic concept that makes particular individuals cease scrolling (and perhaps even take motion) is likely one of the hardest elements of promoting.
It’s not one thing you may templatize or farm out to giant language fashions. GenAI is perhaps nice to broaden your analysis horizons and remix extant stuff. However mine it for authentic pondering and also you are likely to hit slop fairly quick.
Probably the most charming concepts are A) contemporary, B) particular and C) typically grounded in issues solely (just like the values, wishes, pains and style of your viewers).
So whereas we are able to’t fill within the blanks for you (at the very least not with out speaking to you) we can take you thru a easy brainstorming train we use to develop inventive platforms for GTM blueprints.
(We discuss this course of in far more element in part 6 of the Big, Beautiful B2B Blueprint. Take a look. We don’t even want your email address for it.)
We’ve had a whole lot of success with this framework. We hope you do too.
Prepared? Let’s do it.
Inventive platforms begin with inventive territories
Generally you get a fortunate bolt of inspiration and the right concept for a inventive platform leaps out at you from the ether.
That is for the opposite 95% of the time, when it’s simply you and the yawning tundra of a clean web page.
It’s a easy brainstorming train that helps you get to particular concepts, by beginning with broad themes and extrapolating them into totally different end-points.
Mainly, it’s one large sport of that-makes-me-think-of.
We’re going to have a look at some themes that apply to a whole lot of totally different B2B contexts (and have a look at some examples of how we’ve used them for shoppers). There are 5 of them:
- Attack your bad guy
- Make a hero of your users
- Empathize with an obstacle
- Name an aspiration
- Evangelize a new capability
It goes with out saying these aren’t exhaustive. Perhaps they’re instantly relevant to your market. However the purpose right here is to tickle your that-makes-me-think-of muscle sufficient that you simply begin exploring totally different themes which can be extra particular to your viewers.
Right here’s the primary one.
Territory 1 – Assault your dangerous man
Like we stated in this post, each good story has a foul man. Scaredy-cat entrepreneurs are frightened of negativity. However most corporations exist as a result of they remedy an issue or serve an unmet want.
You’re not doing all of your viewers any favors by pretending ache doesn’t exist. You already know what is doing them a favor? Articulating it on their behalf.
It’s particularly worthwhile in B2B as a result of the issues will be laborious to articulate. Attacking your dangerous man is about giving a reputation to a ache that your viewers feels however may not have a time period for. It may be a method to say “hey, all these separate points are literally a part of one larger problem — and we remedy that.”
MooSoft™ (the definitely-not-made-up agritech firm in our B2B Blueprint) have been promoting to agriculture corporations battling disparate methods, which led to all types of downsides: guide administration, inefficiencies, downtime, poor information high quality and so forth.
So MooSoft™ aggregated all these micropains into one macropain — spiraling tech spawl — and gave that macropain a reputation: Farmstack Fragmentation.
Most corporations model options. However branding the dangerous man is a basically extra empathetic transfer. It’s a sign to your clients that you simply perceive their issues, and that you simply’ve solved them many instances earlier than.
The place we’ve used this earlier than:
We used this territory to steer into our inventive platform for Hubspot. From our analysis that clients have been uninterested in advanced, inefficient CRMs, we created HubSpot’s “dangerous man” as “Kludgy,” the ache of utilizing cobbled-together, ineffective tech options.
Territory 2 – Make a hero of your customers
Each dangerous man wants a hero. However most entrepreneurs instinctively wish to make their model or product the hero.
However your clients are the principle characters of their very own lives. Displaying them the way you’ll assist them develop into the perfect model of themselves is far more highly effective than doing jazz fingers round your software program.
That is particularly highly effective in B2B as a result of we have now the luxurious of substance — we make individuals higher at their job. Credibility is far more brittle in B2C — go too far and you find yourself with Women Laughing Alone With Salad.
Your hero ought to be your preferrred buyer, residing a greater life due to your product.
The important thing right here is to go slim and particular quite than broad and aspirational. Assume in moments.
- What small, personal victories do you allow daily to your clients?
- How have their relationships and interactions modified? Who do they impress?
- What do they have a good time? What’s a goofy supply of pleasure they didn’t really feel earlier than you?
Don’t confect these things from skinny air. Ask your gross sales groups — and ideally, your clients. Chase anecdotes over information — you’re attempting to get to floor emotions quite than chilly, laborious info.
The place we’ve used this earlier than:
For Calm for Enterprise, their uniquely stunning psychological health hub wanted to prime the worker wellness market quick.
We created a brand new story for them that made HR leaders the hero of the story — that positioned them as enablers of larger productiveness, tradition and concord at scale.
Territory 3 – Empathize with an impediment
Empathizing with an impediment is totally different from attacking a foul man. You’re not discovering a ache your viewers feels however doesn’t have a reputation for — you’re specializing in the ache of change itself.
It’s an excellent territory to discover for those who’re competing in a mature, crowded or undifferentiated market.
If the issue is properly understood, or if the capabilities you present are commodified, attempt breaking down (and overcoming) the causes of inertia — the issues stopping your prospects from taking motion. Take a stance in areas like:
- Evangelize a mannequin of non-disruptive change
- Advocate for brand spanking new priorities within the funds
- Advise on managing stakeholders and dealing with objections
- Enchantment to a decrease barrier to entry you allow (expertise, value, time, dedication)
- Establish a cycle you may break
One of many obstacles MooSoft™ explored in our B2B Blueprint was the ache of replatforming — the neverending treadmill of updating core methods piecemeal.
“The final agritech replatform you’ll ever want to purchase” doesn’t begin with MooSoft™’s capabilities, or perhaps a ache level that clients would really feel day-to-day. As a substitute, it acknowledges the short-term discomfort of change whereas romancing the long-term advantages of flexibility.
It’s notably suited to prospects nearing a expertise refresh, and modifications the dialog from a laundry record of options or value comparisons to a longer-term and extra strategic shift.
The place we’ve used this earlier than:
BlueCat Networks present core companies (like DNS, DHCP and IP Tackle Administration) for enterprise networks. The problem was to place this deeply advanced subject material as an enabler of (or obstacle to) bigger community modernization initiatives that delivered a aggressive edge.
One of many key strains we landed on was “The community that obtained you right here received’t take you there.” As a substitute of getting misplaced in a characteristic battle, we located BlueCat’s providing as an enabler of larger transformational change.
Territory 4 – Title the form of enterprise your greatest clients develop into
A good way to encourage your viewers is to indicate them a transparent imaginative and prescient of what their enterprise may appear like together with your resolution, and provides that future state a memorable identify.
A variety of corporations get caught up in attempting to (re)outline the class that they play in. The issue is that this may simply end in a bunch of terminology your clients have by no means heard of and don’t care about.
As a substitute of promoting a brand new class to the market, promote a brand new form of enterprise to your prospects. What sort of group may you assist them develop into?
Put the digital camera again on them they usually’re approach extra prone to see themselves in your advertising and marketing. Have a look at your greatest clients:
- How are they successful in ways in which others aren’t?
- Why have been they profitable earlier than you (and why would they nonetheless win with out you)?
- What factor do you do greatest that helps them do what they do greatest?
The hot button is to make it really feel like the following evolution of their enterprise. With this, your viewers can see themselves in a future they wish to obtain, positioning your model because the bridge to that transformation.
It’s greater than advertising and marketing—it’s an invite to develop into the perfect model of themselves together with your resolution because the catalyst.
The place we’ve used this earlier than:
In 2018 Celonis wanted a narrative to vary the market’s notion of “course of mining” from a technical and esoteric functionality to one thing with large strategic potential.
Reasonably than romance a brand new model of course of mining, we developed a narrative about “The Superfluid Enterprise” — the form of firm refined customers of course of mining develop into.
Territory 5 – Evangelize a brand new functionality you allow
Evangelizing a functionality you allow is totally different from selling merchandise, advantages or options. It’s in regards to the factor that your clients can do this they couldn’t earlier than.
This could possibly be a brand new technique of doing one thing that already exists, or a brand new exercise or self-discipline altogether. Stuff like:
- An outcome-focused strategy to analytics that’s solely potential with the pace of perception you present
- A brand new form of buyer relationship that’s solely potential due to the way in which you empower brokers
- A brand new form of effectivity metric that’s solely potential due to the diploma of automation you present
This territory is nice to reveal your pores and skin within the sport. You’re not simply offering services and products — you’re growing new methods of working that make the entire business higher.
The place we’ve used this earlier than:
We developed a narrative for a listing administration software program supplier about why they helped product sellers evolve from “stock administration” to “Related Stock Efficiency.” and utilized a customized metric known as Return On Stock Administration, to quantify how the efficiencies of Related Stock Efficiency impacted backside line income — by way of dynamics like common basket measurement and better buyer lifetime worth.
What to do subsequent
And there we have now it. These are 5 instance territories value exploring as you consider the inventive platforms that’ll assist your advertising and marketing in 2025.
We explored all of those by way of the lens of MooSoft™, with instance follow-up concepts, on web page 31 of the Big, Beautiful B2B Blueprint Workbook — test it out:
It’s not terribly refined, however the perfect concepts seldom come from stuffy frameworks and templatized pondering. Territory mapping is a straightforward and dependable brainstorming train that gives simply sufficient construction to maintain you in a inventive and productive associative pondering candy spot.
Do this out for a future marketing campaign — you’ll nearly actually discover that there are different territory themes value exploring which can be much more dialed in to the particular wants of your consumers and dynamics of your market.
Begin planning now
The Big Beautiful B2B Blueprint comes with a companion template you should utilize to begin planning right now. The train for inventive platforms is on slide 14.
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