You’d think the tech would be able to do it all by now. Some job openings seem to think so. Hubspot, Pardot, Marketo. Fantastic pieces of kit – there’s almost nothing you can’t set out to be found by the right person at the right time on their buying journey, and measure it, and tweak it and start again or send the next thing. Knowing your way around the subtleties of these martech toolkits is a given for the modern day B2B marketer.

But, someone, somewhere, somehow, still has to nail the dream, share the story and articulate the journey that the unwitting or even unwilling prospect finds themself connect with and join. That’s the hard work but the crux of the matter – what are you going to tell them via these amazing digital magimixes? What’s the ultimate destination for your customer, where do they stop along the way, and how do they travel? Coming up with the words and images that convince a prospect, whether static or mobile, spoken or mute (or with some dippy muzak), digital or physical, that takes head scratching, chatting to colleagues and customers, nosing around a fair bit and some doodling too. Lots of ‘so what?’ moments are inevitable, but it will take root and you’ll start to build the stories that will articulate your brand. Then you can feed them into the machine.

Tools require craftspeople too.