---
aliases: ["B2B Marketing"]
Is A: Topic
---
# B2B Marketing

B2B marketing is the discipline of reaching and persuading business buyers — in this context, specifically developers, engineering leaders, and technical decision-makers. It covers positioning, demand generation, content marketing, and the unique dynamics of selling to people who distrust traditional marketing.

## Why this matters

Refactoring's entire business model sits at the intersection of content and B2B marketing. The newsletter is itself a B2B marketing channel for sponsors, and understanding what makes B2B marketing effective (or ineffective) directly informs both the content strategy and the sponsorship pitch. Writing about engineering leadership with credibility is, at its core, a B2B marketing act — one grounded in trust rather than persuasion. The evergreen note [[b2b-content-is-trust-not-traffic]] captures this precisely, and [[why-b2b-newsletters-work]] explains the structural advantage.

## Key resources

- [[b2b-content-is-trust-not-traffic]] — the foundational principle behind Refactoring's approach
- [[why-b2b-newsletters-work]] — why email newsletters outperform most B2B channels
- [[note-good-strategy-bad-strategy]] — strategy frameworks that apply directly to B2B positioning
- April Dunford's "Obviously Awesome" — the best book on positioning for technical products
- Lenny Rachitsky's newsletter — a reference point for how B2B content businesses can scale

## Notes

- The best B2B marketing does not feel like marketing at all — it feels like useful content from a trusted peer
- Most developer marketing fails because it leads with features instead of problems, and with hype instead of honesty
- Sponsorship-funded newsletters work because they align incentives: the reader gets free content, the sponsor gets trusted distribution, the creator gets independence
- The line between editorial and advertising is critical to maintain — once readers sense compromise, trust erodes and open rates follow
- B2B content marketing is a long game; the compounding effects described in [[the-compound-effect-in-knowledge-work]] apply here directly
