B2School - Why September is the most critical time of year for B2B marketers

20 (eh hem...) years after leaving the classroom, I still feel that familiar jolt at this time of year - a mixture of ‘new start’ enthusiasm, relief to be back in a rhythm, and honestly, just a touch of Sunday night dread. September always brings a specific kind of chaos for B2B comms and marketing teams. It’s the gateway to Q4 and the start of a sprint to the finish line, while simultaneously a time to plan and strategise for the year ahead, battle for budget and robustly defend every penny spent to date. 

So, how can we navigate these frantic ‘new term’ demands without drowning in reactive firefighting? Here’s my take on the best way to tackle September, protect your sanity, and get yourself into the best place for the new year to come.

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Protect your calendar at all costs

This time of year can trigger an avalanche of requests from colleagues. Suddenly, you’re expected to create new sales material for a last minute push, launch an unexpected campaign, and a host of other ‘emergency’ tasks that all pile up and can leave you grappling for time. So, get strict on the definitions of ‘urgent’ and ‘an emergency’. Block out non-negotiable time for deep thinking, budgeting, planning and positioning work. It isn’t selfish, it’s essential. 

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Agree on measurement metrics early (and ditch the vanity MQLs)

As important as agreeing on a budget for next year, agree on your markers of success early doors. This is an ongoing challenge for marketing teams, particularly when boards have become used to accepting MQLs and other vanity metrics as indicators of good performance. However, the reality is that they mean relatively little and normally relate to top-of-funnel activity. 

Your meaningful metrics should ladder directly to the business priorities. For example, if a business goal is to front load deals into Q1, your metric for success could be deal velocity. If a goal is 50% organic growth, then your metrics need to relate to account expansion. You get the picture.

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Lock in your resourcing - not in January

If you are pitching ambitious, brave growth plans for next year, you need the team behind you to execute them. We’ve all fallen into the trap of selling the dream to the board, only to be told to deliver that dream with a skeleton team and a vague commitment to increase it as necessary. Agreeing to this will leave you on the back foot, massively. Recruitment and resourcing can take months, so get your team sorted from the off. 

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Revisit your messaging

When pressure mounts, the competition is already sounding the battle cry, or maybe new products come to market, it can be tempting to fall back into the old ways of listing great new product features, technical specifications and joining the general hubbub of industry ‘noise’. You know this already, but this won’t convince your buyer that you’re better than the rest. And crucially, the algorithms will also punish you for lack of distinctiveness. 

If your messaging looks, sounds, and feels like everyone else in your category, you’re basically invisible, to both humans and machines. If you want to read a bit more about this particular issue, dig into our recent blog on how GEO has changed the B2B marketing landscape.

Dedicate some time to putting your messaging through a vigorous stress test. Ask yourself: “if I swapped out our brand logo, would anyone be able to notice?”.  If the answer is no, there’s some work to do. Run a comprehensive audit of your competitors, find the whitespace and lean in.

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Do more of what worked

Sounds super simple but it’s valid. The back-to-school mindset often makes us feel like we need to reinvent the wheel. As the saying goes: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Chances are your team has actually delivered some great results across the year. If you’re not yet linking your results to meaningful metrics, that could be a great place to start looking.

So, double down on proven activations, allocate budget to expand and grow these areas and consider other ways to replicate these pockets of success across your organisation. 

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While it often is, September doesn't have to mean four weeks of chaos. By setting clear boundaries, locking down meaningful metrics, securing your resources early, and daring to stand out from the noise, you can harness some of that ‘new term’ anxiety and turn it into your end of year advantage.

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