Diary #1 - Pivot from Cool B2B Tech to Boring SMB Marketing Agency

I've decided to do my best to document this pivot, hoping it might help someone else considering a similar change. So, here it goes.

I have run a B2B marketing agency for the past 5 years now. We specialize in technology startups. Not really by choice, more by that's who we attract.

We have made a number of iterations to our positioning and targeting over the last 5 years. I will give you a timeline below to help paint a picture:

Year 1: A marketing agency for any company. B2B tech, B2C tech, apps, services, products, anything really. But we were drawn to tech, partly due to my background in tech startups and that seemed like where the money was.

Year 2: SaaS and Apps. This was 2020-2021. Tech funding was FLOWING. We wanted to ride that wave, and ride that wave we did.

Year 3: SaaS and Apps. 2021-2022. Again tech money coming in and we were an early adopter of automated cold outreach with Linkedin and cold email. At scale these methods of outreach were still newish and were effective. Nonetheless, we weren't drowning in leads, just slowly building.

Year 4: B2B tech only. 2022-2023. Turns out apps suck. Extremely hard to market, extremely complex with attribution. All in on B2B SaaS because we understand sales cycles and demos. VC Winter is coming.

Year 5: MRR refusing to break 50k. Stuck in a cycle of losing a client and gaining one. Trying to find ways to separate ourselves from the market. New offers. New positioning. Cold outreach is disgustingly saturated.

We have come to the conclusion that we need to find a competitive advantage to win this game. Realization is maybe we are playing the wrong game?

So here we are. Thinking about pivoting positioning again but it feels almost manic. Another website? Another tiny pivot to see if it sticks? No true strategy to become a market leader in B2B SaaS.

We know it's possible, we aren't fools. Someone out there is going to come from similar backgrounds and whether it be tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year, they will create the next 8 figure B2B marketing agency.

We had to be honest with ourselves and consider we might not be that company. We just don’t possess the specific strengths to truly create a competitive edge in this market.

So we take a step back and analyze our client roster for the past 5 years. At this point our roster was about 80% B2B SaaS, 15% B2C Apps, 5% High-Ticket SMBs.

We break it down by:

1. Contract Value (Total $$ received from client)
2. Hours worked on each client (On a scale of 1-5, indicating the time dedication)
3. Client results (On a scale of 1-5, evaluating the success of our marketing efforts)

As we looked at the analysis, one thing became apparent. High-ticket SMBs were not only the easiest projects, but were in the top percentile of paying clients.

Not only that, but we had never really marketed toward SMBs. They all came in through referral and we said why not. Marketing a home improvement company is a hell of a lot easier than marketing AI robotics software or hyper-converged infrastructure for cloud computing.

So the question arises again. Can we win at this game? Do we have a better chance of success here?

Well let's look at reasons we could win.

• My business partner and I come from sales backgrounds. Cold calling backgrounds at believe it or not....an SMB marketing agency. 5 (what feels like 10) years ago. A better distribution strategy, check. You might be thinking well why not call SaaS companies? We have tried. Simply isn't the same. It's now how those buyers buy. Someone might figure it out, but again I don't think its us.

• Our five-year experience in technology product marketing, while not necessarily "harder," is undoubtedly more complex. You're working with a different kind of customer. Not smarter necessarily, but more advanced in understanding how marketing works. We believe we can bring a lot of innovative tactics to SMBs most local agencies just aren't providing.

• The market opportunity. Maybe the most persuasive argument. The great retirement is upon us. 10,000 boomers retiring / day. 8-10% own SMBs. So it begs the question, who's taking over? Younger millennial bosses who appreciate sophisticated branding, creative, and marketing. Younger millennial consumers who expect the same buying experience from a local business that they do from their favorite consumer brands.

Reason we might not win:

• The grass isn't greener. Who knows.

So now here we are at the end of 2024.

After a lot of conversation and an ego death of sorts, I think we are all in on becoming SMB marketing kings.

We want to abandon the "cool" world of tech and into the "boring" world of SMBs.

We simply feel like we have a better competitive advantage in this vertical and our chances of winning in this game, this arena, is higher.

So over the next year my plan is to document this pivot and hopefully, connect, engage, and help others who may be thinking or have done a pivot like this.

Stay tuned if you want to ride along with me.