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B2B Marketing Best Practices Guide

The principles, frameworks, and checklists Agni Consulting applies across every B2B SaaS and Fintech engagement. Built from 7+ years of operator-level work across 3 continents.

SECTION 1 — ICP & POSITIONING

Define the customer before defining the campaign

Pull closed-won data to build ICP from reality, not assumptions
Agree ICP definition in writing across marketing and sales before any campaign goes live
Document trigger events that indicate buying readiness (funding, hiring, tech changes)
Validate positioning with 5–10 customer interviews per quarter — not surveys
Lead with the outcome the buyer wants, not the feature that delivers it

SECTION 2 — DEMAND GENERATION

Build a system, not a campaign

Run a maximum of 3 primary channels at any one time — go deep before going wide
Every campaign needs a hypothesis, a success metric, and a minimum run period (90 days minimum)
Always test creative before scaling budget — $500 test budget before $5,000 scale budget
Content without distribution is not demand gen — every piece needs an amplification plan
MQL definition must be agreed in writing before the first MQL is counted
CAC by channel reviewed monthly — not annually

SECTION 3 — MARKETING OPERATIONS

Systems that compound over time

One CRM as single source of truth — never run two CRMs simultaneously
UTM governance: document the taxonomy, train everyone, audit monthly
Lifecycle stages defined and agreed before any automation is built
Marketing attribution reviewed at every board meeting — not just revenue numbers
Stack audit every 6 months — cut tools not driving measurable outcomes
Every workflow has an owner and a review cadence

SECTION 4 — REPORTING & ACCOUNTABILITY

Report on outcomes, not activity

Weekly marketing dashboard: pipeline generated, MQL→SQL rate, CAC trend, channel performance
Monthly board report: marketing-sourced revenue, payback period, cohort analysis
Never present vanity metrics (impressions, followers, open rates) as primary KPIs to leadership
A/B test results documented and shared — not just wins, losses too
Quarterly retrospective: what did we learn, what are we stopping, what are we doubling down on

SECTION 5 — TEAM & PROCESS

Hire in the right order

First marketing hire should be demand gen + ops, not brand or content
Don’t hire a CMO before you have a repeatable pipeline motion — hire execution first
Agency or fractional support fills gaps faster than a bad full-time hire
Marketing and sales weekly sync is non-negotiable — not optional
Document everything: ICPs, MQL definitions, campaign playbooks, tool configurations