Hello and welcome to the Exit Five Weekly Newsletter - read by 20,000 B2B marketing professionals around the world. Exit Five is a membership site designed to help you build a successful career in B2B marketing. Join 4,000 other members at exitfive.com.

🥅 It’s 27% harder to get an MQL in 2024

As marketers – we know it’s getting harder to generate results.

But it’s always good to have the data to back it up – especially if you’re a demand gen leader.

HockeyStack labs just released their latest report on B2B Customer Journey Touchpoints and it’s essential reading for any marketing leader right now.

Here’s what you need to know for planning your Q4 campaigns or 2025 ad budget:

• Deals under 10k need 52% more impressions to close compared to 2023
• 71 total touchpoints to generate an MQL - 27% increase compared to 2023
• A $100K+ deal requires 1893 impressions until a WEBSITE VISIT and THOUSANDS of more touchpoints to win the deal

TL;DR? A B2B SaaS company needed 2,627 impressions and 222 touchpoints to close a deal in 2023, they now need 2,879 impressions and 266 touchpoints in 2024.

See where you stack up against the benchmarks and grab a copy of the report here.

✍️How to actually niche down your messaging in 6 steps

If you just read about the Hockeystack labs report above (pausing so you can scroll back up 😉)...

You know how much harder it is to get attention right now – and it’s only getting harder.

Having crystal clear messaging in B2B is freakin’ hard. We usually need buy in from multiple personas, have several ICPs we’re selling to, and that’s just a few of the challenges.

If you feel this pain, here’s a framework for you from Anthony Pierri – he specializes in hard-to-market products. I loved the advice he gave in a recent interview with Dave:

Step 1: Narrow down your audience (yes, even further)

Don’t just target “SaaS companies” – focus on a specific segment, like “early-stage healthcare SaaS companies under $5M in revenue.” Know exactly who you're speaking to, and don’t stop there. Clarify who within those companies you’re trying to reach. Is it the Head of Marketing? Sales? Knowing the role helps you speak their language.

Step 2: Know their pain and how they speak about it

Don’t stop at “they need more efficiency.” Identify concrete issues like, “sales reps spend hours coordinating meeting times with prospects.” Knowing the specific workflow they struggle with gives you a foundation to position your product as the perfect solution.

Step 3: Show them when, not just what

Here’s where many go wrong—don’t just explain what your product does; tell them when it’s useful.

If your product solves scheduling headaches, say “use our tool when your reps are stuck in back-and-forth emails with clients.” Contextualizing when your solution is needed connects with their current struggles.

Step 4: Highlight Features as Capabilities

The magic happens here: translate your features into capabilities and benefits. Don’t just say “automated scheduling.” Instead, show them how it helps: “let clients book meetings directly on your calendar, so you spend less time coordinating.”

The benefit is clear—time saved, friction reduced.

Step 5: Update the website (yes, for real)

Your website should be a direct reflection of your niche positioning. Write copy that’s crystal clear, focusing on the exact problems your target audience faces. And don’t forget the call-to-action—make it specific.

Instead of the generic “Get Started,” try something like “Book Client Meetings in Seconds.”

Step 6: Update, update, update

Positioning isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it deal. As you get more feedback from your customers, refine your messaging. Adjust. Evolve. Just like your product, your positioning should grow with your customer base.

P.S. Any other tips for hard-to-market products? I’d love to hear them! How do you approach messaging?

Just reply to this email – I read (and cherish) every one :)

📺UPCOMING EVENTS

“What’s working to drive pipeline?” is probably the toughest question you have to answer as a B2B Marketer.

How do you briefly explain the 200 touchpoints between a discovery meeting and contract signature?

How do you tell if something was truly inbound or outbound sourced?

How do you actually do attribution in a way the rest of the company will understand?

Our next Exit Five Live session will teach you exactly how to answer those questions. We’ll be joined by expert Emir Atli from HockeyStack, who will break down how to change the narrative on what’s working so you have the freedom to run marketing the right way.

We’ll cover:

• Why the founder of an attribution company believes attribution is dead (and how we got here)
• Reporting tactics that identify causation so you can cut the things that aren’t working and do more of the good stuff
• What “Good” attribution actually looks like, with real examples you can use to model your own reporting

Save Your Spot

The Ultimate Roast of B2B Websites

ICYMI: Yesterday we announced our first ever virtual event.

It's one day all about one topic - the most important asset to any B2B marketer:

The website.

We put together a group of absolute PROS to help you improve your website (by *politely* roasting your website, of course) and we'll focus on:

1. SEO
2. Homepage
3. Product Pages
4. Landing Pages
5. Pricing Pages

🎁 Plus we're giving away some serious prizes to attendees, including $5,000 in Fiverr credits, a $60,000 website redesign from NoBoringDesign and 3 months free for an SEMRush subscription (plus, we're adding a few more so stay tuned).

Register now for October 15th.

🏢 OPEN ROLES

Who's Hiring Right Now?

HOT JOB OF THE WEEK: Circle is hiring a Head of Marketing and it's what I'd define as a dream role. If you're a member of Exit Five, you already know the product – we use it to manage our community. You'd be joining a killer team and taking on the challenge of brand building as they go multi-product.

Interested? Apply here.

Other open roles on the Exit Five job board this week:

• CourseStorm is hiring a Growth Marketing Manager
• Freshpaint is hiring a Product Marketing Manager
• Close is hiring a Marketing Operations Manager. USA Only, 100% Remote. 
• Brainlabs is hiring a Global CMO/EVP of Social.
• Culture Partners is hiring a Business Illustrator and an Instructional Designer & Map Developer

See All Open Roles >>

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