Where Are Your Buyers Hiding? Reaching the Right Customers Without Wasting Budget

One of the most common frustrations I hear from B2B leaders is this:

“We’re marketing consistently - but it feels like we’re still not reaching the right people.”

You’re not imagining it.

In fact, for many growth-stage businesses, the problem isn’t visibility or brand awareness - it’s misalignment. Your team is producing content. Your ads are running. Your website is active. But it’s not converting in the way it should.

Why?

Because your marketing might be showing up everywhere … except where it actually counts.

This isn’t a content problem.

It’s a strategic reach problem.

And solving it starts with stepping back and asking one critical question:

Are we showing up in the places and spaces that influence our real buyers?

Visibility ≠ Relevance

You don’t have a noise problem. You have a precision problem.

It’s easy to fall into the “activity trap” in marketing - posting regularly, producing collateral, attending events - without first validating who we’re actually trying to reach.

But here’s the reality: Your ICP isn’t “business owners” or “decision-makers.” That’s not specific enough.

Your real buyers:

• Have defined roles within a business

• Operate in industry-specific contexts

• Rely on trusted channels for insight, validation, and comparison

If you’re trying to grow revenue, your marketing function must evolve from being a content producer to being a channel strategist - someone who understands the real-world pathways that buyers take on the way to making decisions.

This means identifying:

• Where they seek information

• Who they listen to

• What influences them in the early, middle, and late stages of their journey

Otherwise, you're simply broadcasting into the void.

Start With Buyer Pathways - Not Marketing Channels

The default approach in most businesses is:

“We need to be on LinkedIn.”

“Let’s run some Google Ads.”

“Can we send another EDM this week?”

But channels don’t drive results on their own. Buyer behaviour does.

A more strategic question to ask is:

“What sequence of touchpoints does our buyer typically go through before they’re ready to engage?”

You may find:

• Strategic decision-makers rely heavily on referrals, peer validation, and LinkedIn thought leadership

• Operational leads are influenced by case studies, product demos, and performance benchmarks

• Procurement teams are focused on commercial models, risk mitigation, and ROI documentation

Each persona follows a slightly different path.

That path should dictate your channel mix - not the other way around.

A Smarter Framework for Mapping Reach to Revenue

Here’s a practical model I use with clients when building strategic marketing reach plans:

Buyer Stage	Objective	Recommended Channels
Awareness	Build visibility & curiosity	LinkedIn (organic), Search, Events
Consideration	Establish credibility & trust	Website, Email, Sales Collateral
Evaluation	Enable decision-making	Case studies, ROI tools, Demos

Now add another layer:

• Who are the internal influencers?

• Who are the final signatories?

• Are they getting the right information at the right time, in a way that suits how they work?

For example:

• C-suite buyers may prefer insights via curated email content or direct peer referrals

• Project managers may engage more readily with how-to content or cost calculators

• Technical evaluators often rely on demos and spec sheets

When marketing is designed to support how people actually buy, your demand creation becomes much more efficient - and your sales team gets warmer, more informed leads.

Paid Media Has a Role - But Only If It’s Supporting the Strategy

Many B2B companies fall into the trap of over-investing in paid reach without a solid foundation.

Here’s my position:

Don’t fund inefficiency.

If your message isn’t working organically, throwing budget behind it won’t fix the problem—it will just amplify the noise.

Use organic performance as your validation tool:

• Is your audience engaging with your insights?

• Are key decision-makers following, commenting, or downloading?

• Is there clear resonance in your analytics?

Once you’ve validated the message and format, then layer in paid promotion strategically:

• Retarget based on funnel stage

• Run targeted LinkedIn campaigns by job title or account

• Boost content that’s already converting

Paid media should amplify clarity, not compensate for its absence.

Reaching the Right People Requires Cross-Functional Thinking

Here’s what great marketing leaders know—and what I help my clients implement:

✅ Reach is not marketing’s responsibility alone. Sales, product, and customer success teams all hold valuable data on buyer preferences, industry context, and decision dynamics.

✅ The best insights come from real conversations. When marketing and sales collaborate to map the buying journey, influence grows. So does pipeline velocity.

✅ Reach is a strategy, not a sprint. The goal isn’t to be louder. It’s to be more aligned. Show up in the right rooms, with the right message, at the right time.

And the best part?

If you’re finding that your marketing team is doing “all the things,” but revenue growth still feels hard-won and unpredictable …

It’s time to rethink how and where you reach your buyers.

You don’t need more tools - you just need a better plan.

Whenever you're ready, there are many ways I can help you:

At Peez & Co, we help ambitious B2B businesses build brand-to-revenue marketing strategies that connect with the right people.

1. Fractional Marketing Leadership: Bring me in as your Fractional Marketing Director as part of your leadership team. All without the costs associated with a high salary, super, benefits and recruitment.

2. One-off, short-term marketing: We can work together on key initiatives on a project-basis.

Contact us