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In B2B marketing, content syndication has long been a staple for reaching decision makers, filling the sales pipeline, and accelerating leads. But in an increasingly fragmented digital landscape, relying solely on a single channel strategy could mean missing out on other high-impact channels. Today’s buyers are consuming content in new and varying waysthey’re tuning in to podcasts during commutes, streaming their favorite shows via connected TV, and gaining business news from social media platforms. To engage prospects effectively, marketers need to test and expand their digital toolkit with a diversified channel mix that can be anchored in tried and true syndication but complemented with a mix to optimize results. Understand the new B2B buyer Heres the harsh reality for B2B organizations today: Engaging prospects is harder than ever. Buying groups are getting larger, buying decisions are taking longer, and buyers typically dont want to engage with sales teams until they are farther down the buying process. How B2B buyers approach purchase decisions has changed as well. Millennials and Gen Z members of the buying committee are remaking B2B buying dynamics. As digital natives, these buying demographics bring a fundamentally different mindset to the decision-making process thats more tech-savvy and focused on efficiency. Instead of relying on the traditional combination of in-person meetings, email exchanges, and/or phone calls, theyre using more media channels to gather information and conducting self-guided digital journeys that mirror the consumer-grade digital interactions they have in their personal lives. Revenue teams must adapt to this new breed of buyer by changing how they engage them. Focusing too heavily on one channel may limit reach and can neglect personalization opportunities. A diversified, multifaceted approach that leverages the unique benefits and strengths of each channel ensures that brands meet prospects where they are, while reinforcing messages across different touchpoints. This holistic engagement nurtures prospects throughout the decision-making process, leading to higher conversion rates, better deals, and stronger brand awareness and trust. Craft the optimal channel mix So, what should the ideal B2B channel mix look like? Diversification is key to reaching buyers and standing out from the competition. Its not about eliminating any one channel entirely but instead focusing on buyer trends and insights to craft a unified, multi-channel strategy that meets them where they already are. Podcast advertising has become a powerful and intimate way for B2B marketers to reach highly engaged audiences. With podcast listenership in the U.S. at an all-time highup 23% since 2021research reveals that of those who listen on their way to or from work, 15% consider this time an essential part of their day, and these listeners are 10% more likely to engage with ads. Whats more, our recent Harris Poll survey revealed that half of B2B marketers surveyed plan to invest more in podcast advertising in 2025. For marketers, podcasts offer a versatile channel to engage decision makers through direct sponsorships or dynamic ad insertion. With listeners already immersed in relevant topics, podcasts provide a distraction-free environment where tailored messages resonate more deeply compared to traditional banner ads, thanks to the more conversational tone of the medium. Connected TV (CTV) presents another growing opportunity for B2B marketers, especially as hybrid work trends increase and decision makers continue to cut the cable cord in favor of streaming platforms. CTV ads offer an immersive, non-skippable format that captures attention in a premium environment. With the ability to target specific demographics, interests, and even industries, CTV is a powerful tool for building brand awareness and reinforcing thought leadership in the early stages of the buyer’s journey. Additionally, social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram are becoming crucial for B2B engagement. LinkedIn remains the go-to for targeted professional campaigns, but these visually-driven channels also allow brands to create authentic, trust-driven relationships with younger, digitally-savvy buyers. The trick with social media is consistency. Marketers should focus on producing value-rich content that fosters dialogue, shares insights, and highlights customer success. By combining organic posts with targeted paid campaigns, social media can generate engagement and build a community around your brand. Finally, display advertising remains an important tool in the B2B marketers arsenal, particularly for retargeting. Though often seen as a legacy tactic, programmatic display ads help bring decision makers back into the funnel with personalized, repeated exposure. Retargeting high-value accounts or visitors who have engaged with specific pages can be a highly effective strategy to nurture leads and encourage conversions. The future of B2B marketing: Stay adaptable to changing dynamics As B2B marketing becomes increasingly complex, marketers must stay ahead of trends, technologies, and best practices to remain competitive. Professionals who prioritize continuous learning through training and certification courses are better prepared to pivot and implement new strategies, ultimately driving better results for their organization. Certification programs from reputable organizations go beyond basic training by ensuring your strategy comes from a more solid understanding of marketing basics. This certification not only serves as tangible proof of expertise, helping build credibility with clients, partners, and stakeholders, but also enables you to make stronger cases for experimental campaigns because you have a deeper understanding of all the steps required to achieve success. While content syndication will always have its place, marketers should embrace a more modern channel mix to thrive in todays competitive B2B environment. The future of B2B engagement requires meeting your audience wherever they are, whether in their earbuds during a podcast, streaming shows after work, or scrolling through social media in search of insights. By combining a more diverse mix of channels, brands can create a comprehensive strategy that engages all decision-makers across multiple touchpoints, fostering deeper connections and driving long-term revenue growth. Keith Turco is the CEO of Madison Logic. The Fast Company Impact Council is a private membership community of influential leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual membership dues for access to peer learning and thought leadership opportunities, events and more.
Category:
E-Commerce
In today’s fast-paced world, it’s easy to feel that external circumstances dictate our existence. We attribute success and failure to factors beyond our controlthe economy, the government, societal expectations, or unforeseen events. But heres the thing: Blaming externalities diminishes our sense of agency and hinders our growth and fulfillment. The opposite is also true. Choosing personal sovereigntyclaiming our power as the ultimate architects of our life experienceleads to a more empowered and authentic existence. The illusion of control From a young age, we are conditioned to seek validation and direction from external sources. Society’s norms, cultural expectations, and even well-meaning parents and leaders teach us to relinquish personal agency. Over time, this reinforces the myth that our locus of control is external. We learn to attribute our outcomes to others, creating a cycle of dependency and disempowerment. Psychologically, we create a self-serving bias. We attribute our successes to personal efforts while blaming our failures on others or external circumstances. The bias serves as a defense mechanism to protect self-esteem, but it also impedes our self-awareness and growth. The consequences of externalization When we habitually blame external circumstances for our unhappiness or failures, we surrender our power to create change. This leads to feelings of helplessness, anxiety, and resentment. It also stifles personal development, as we fail to recognize our role in shaping our experiences. For example, continually attributing a stagnant career to a difficult market or unsupportive colleagues prevents us from examining our own actions, decisions, and attitudes that contribute to the situation. By not acknowledging our part, we miss our opportunities for learning and growth. And we miss the chance to initiate change. What is personal sovereignty? Personal sovereignty is the recognition that we hold the ultimate authority over our lives. It involves taking full responsibility for our actions and outcomes. Yes, external factors influence us, but we hold the power to choose our responses. As psychologists often note, Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Embracing personal sovereignty requires a shift from external validation to internal guidance. It means trusting our inner voices and aligning our actions with our core values and beliefs. This alignment promotes authenticity and empowers us to navigate life’s challenges with resilience and purpose. Lets explore how to do this. The 6 steps to personal sovereignty Self-reflection: Regularly engage in introspection to understand your motivations, desires, and fears. Journaling or meditation can aid in this process, helping you to connect with your inner self. Accept responsibility: Acknowledge your role in your life’s circumstances. Recognize that while you can’t control external events, you do control your reactions and decisions. Challenge limiting beliefs: Identify and confront beliefs that constrain your potential. Replace them with empowering narratives that reflect your true capabilities. Set boundaries: Establish clear boundaries to protect your energy and focus. This includes saying no to commitments that don’t align with your values or drain your resources. Cultivate self-trust: Build confidence in your decision-making abilities. Start with small choices and gradually take on more significant decisions as your self-trust strengthens. Seek growth opportunities: View challenges as opportunities for learning. Embrace discomfort as a natural part of the growth process. We, alone, hold the power to choose. At the heart of personal sovereignty is the power of choice. Every moment presents an opportunity to choose our thoughts, attitudes, and actions. By consciously making choices that align with our best and most authentic selves, we reclaim our power and transform our life experiences.For example, my own background as a Soviet refugee could easily have made me angry or bitter, with ample reasons to justify a lackluster existence in the U.S. Instead, I chose to earn an advanced education that I continue today. I created a career path spanning decades that allows me to offer a better life for many communities in the U.S. and throughout the world.Kellan Fluckiger, my coauthor, can tell similar tales about choosing growth after decades of struggle with depression and self-sabotage. Well into his adult life he created a path of recovery and growth even after a near-death illness, to inspire millions, first through an award-winning choir and currently as a business coach who has written 12 No. 1 best-selling books, with more to come. These outcomes would not occur without the choice to take full responsibility for our own outcomes, regardless of the unexpected hurdles beyond our control. It’s also important for all of us to recognize that embracing personal sovereignty is a continuous journey, not a destination. It requires ongoing commitment, self-compassion, and courage. As we navigate this path, we not only enrich our own lives but also inspire others to reclaim their power and live authentically. Final thoughts In a world rife with uncertainties and external pressures, embracing personal sovereignty offers a pathway to empowerment and fulfillment. By recognizing our role as the architects of our life experiences, we move from a state of passive existence to active engagement. This shift enables us to live more authentically, make meaningful contributions, and experience deeper satisfaction. As we embark on this journey, let us remember that true power lies not in controlling external circumstances but in mastering ourselves. By reclaiming our personal sovereignty, we unlock the potential to create a life that truly reflects who we are and what we value. Gene Eidelman is the cofounder of Azure Printed Homes. Kellan Fluckiger is the founder of Kellan Fluckiger International, and the creator of Your Ultimate Life. The Fast Company Impact Council is a private membership community of influential leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual membership dues for access to peer learning and thought leadership opportunities, events and more.
Category:
E-Commerce
Within three months of becoming CEO of the Honest Company in 2023, Carla Vernón slashed 25% of its eco-friendly goods. That seems tame in comparison to what happened when Brad Charron joined Aloha as CEO in 2017: He killed off every product category. Now on the other side of major rebrands and company pivots, these CEOs say there wasnt necessarily a playbook to follow when they joined their respective companies as outsiders. While assuming the role of turnaround CEO proved difficultand not one either would like to undertake againthere are many lessons learned, which they shared during a discussion at the Fast Company Grill at SXSW. When Charron was initially approached about becoming chief marketing officer of Aloha, he was unimpressed with the product lineup and after about an hour meeting with the team, he concluded the organic, plant-based food company wouldnt be in business a year from then. He ultimately decided to join Aloha as CEO, giving himself a made-up title of re-founder, and initiated a company re-start, killing off all of existing products like trail mix and chocolates and launching the current lineup of protein bars, powders and drinks. It was a complete destruction because that was what was needed, Charron told the SXSW audience. You couldn’t step-change your way to fixing all that illed it. While Vernóns changes at Honest were less drastic, she had the added pressure of overseeing a publicly-traded companyWall Street gave me no grace. Honest had gone public less than two years before she arrived and while private, it had experimented with launching products in a wide variety of categories, she said. One of her first tasks as CEO was to evaluate the wide range of Honest items, from the core or hero products beloved by consumers to those with varying success by financial metricsand everything in-between. In the end, 25% of the products were slashed. People think that that’s risky, but our company grew revenues for the first time in two years when we had less variety in our portfolio because we could focus on what mattered and what was good, she said. Product quality is your number one focus. EMPOWERING EMPLOYEES Empowering employees to have a sense of ownership at both Honest and Aloha was also key to these turnaround success stories, the CEOs said. There is more scrutiny and skepticism of the outsider, both from the employee base and from the investor base, who has to figure out whether they can trust you managing their money, Vernón said. One of the things I introduced is that every single full time employeeI don’t care if that is the office mom or if that is the CFOthey are all shareholders, and so they are all invested in us figuring out how to be aligned with our retail partners and with our investors. Charron likewise focused on ensuring employees felt a sense of ownership in Aloha. The most precious thing we have in the world is our time, and there’s nothing worse than wasting your energy and your heart and your soul on something that’s not symmetrically set up for a future success, he said. I had to find people who would be willing to kind of put their skin on the line a little bit and be an employee-owner mentality. NAVIGATING DIFFICULTY Even though he came into a situation he knew would be difficultand proved to be difficultand Charron said it was important to recognize that fixing so much that was broken wouldnt happen quickly. Everything across the entire ecosystem of the company needed to be questioned and we needed to have patience that eventually we were going to build something that was going to work, he said. That’s really kind-of the core discipline that has gotten Aloha to where it is today. Vernón had more time pressure to enact a pivother first earnings call was eight weeks after she became CEOand she needed the buy-in of the board of directors and investors. While she said working at Honest has been the thrill and adventure of a lifetime, there were some tough days early on and thats when she leaned on her support network. It was a very, I think fragile moment for us as a company and I am so proud that we’ve come through actually stronger.
Category:
E-Commerce
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