How We Deliver: Marketing Strategy
How We Deliver: Marketing Strategy
This is the second article in our How We Deliver series. If you missed the first one - Marketing 101: Why B2B Companies Need Marketing That Delivers - start there. It sets the scene for what comes next: why marketing isn’t a bolt-on, but the infrastructure that makes growth possible.
Here, we go a step further: strategy. Because tactics without strategy are like football without a game plan. You can have the best players and the flashiest kit - but if no one knows the formation, you’re just chasing the ball.
In most B2B companies, marketing starts mid-pitch: a new website, a campaign, a LinkedIn push. But without a clear strategy - without knowing where you’re playing, who you’re up against, and what ‘winning’ actually looks like - every tactic becomes a guessing game.
There’s perhaps plenty of motion, but no momentum.
Strategy sets the formation. Tactics move the ball up the pitch. Without both working together, you don’t score.
So, before we get tactical, here’s how - and why - we build marketing strategy first.
Step One: Get Real About Where You Are
Strategy starts with truth. Not the internal PowerPoint version - the real-world view from customers, competitors and the market you’re operating in.
- Who are we really for?
- Why should they care?
- What’s stopping them from acting?
Mark Schaefer put it bluntly in Marketing Rebellion:
“The customer is the marketer.”
Meaning, effectively, that the customer owns the brand.
At Wildtribe, we use workshops and research to dig into what your market actually thinks: not what you hope they think. Where are you strong? Where are you generic? What do people believe about you that isn’t true (and vice versa)?
That clarity gives every marketing pound a purpose and a source of truth even as the market moves around you. Public sentiment, policy swings, investor confidence - they can all shift the ground beneath you overnight. Without strategy, you’re reacting to these changes, not steering confidently through them.
Step Two: Position your Messaging
“Who cares?” might sound flippant, but it’s the most important question in your business.
You can have the smartest technology on the planet, but if no one connects it to their needs, it won’t scale.
Positioning is about owning a space in your audience’s mind. Messaging is how you hold it. When you get it right, it creates pull. When you get it wrong, you spend your days pushing.
We help companies speak human again - to turn what they do into why it matters.
Step Three: Looks Matter (But So Does Substance)
Visual identity is strategy made visible.
If your brand looks like every other consultancy, that’s what people will assume you are. If your website is over-engineered and joyless, expect that perception to follow your sales calls.
You don’t need to be flashy - you need to be consistent, confident, and recognisable to the people who matter most. And we build that on insight, not instinct. Because ‘looking good’ is easy; ‘looking like you’ requires foundational strategy work.
Step Four: Content That Cares
Content is the bridge between your expertise and your audience’s trust.
Schaefer calls this “the end of control”: customers choose when, where, and how they engage. Your job is to meet them there with honesty and value, not volume or vapid placeholder content.
We create content ecosystems that serve customers rather than overtly sell to them. Thought leadership that educates. Stories that humanise complex technology and make it memorable.
Chaotic, cold content makes people cross the street. Cohesive, dare we say caring content, builds communities.
Step Five: Strategy in Action
Let’s be clear: when we say ‘strategy’ we don’t mean a slide deck - we mean building a way of operating your marketing ecosystem. That’s why we make it collaborative, hands-on, and rooted in real conversations.
Whether it’s a workshop in Cornwall or an online roundtable with global teams, we guide people through the strategic thinking. The goal isn’t a “Wildtribe plan.” It’s a plan your team believes in, owns, and can act on.
And once your story is clear, everything else - from campaigns to creative - has somewhere to go.
Explore our work overhauling this brand’s global marketing strategy.
Why It Matters Now
The companies that win aren’t just the ones shouting loudest - they’re the ones that sound like people.
That’s the rebellion Schaefer was talking about. And it’s the reason we start every project with strategy.
Because when you know who you are, who you serve, and how you’ll show up - marketing isn’t packaging anymore. It’s the playbook that keeps you in the game.
Next in the series: Creative Services - storytelling that cuts through.
Or, if you’re ready to get strategic about your own brand, get in touch and we’ll help you build the game plan you need.
