5 Innovative Marketing Ideas Every B2B Can Use To Grow
Patrick McFadden • April 21, 2014
Recently I attended a local business-to-business networking group with members from throughout the Greater Richmond Virginia area.
During this event we had a guest speaker, Dr. Kenneth B. Kahn, Director of the VCU Da Vinci Center visit to talk about innovation.
He clearly defined innovation as: the creation of new or improved products, ideas, processes, or services, which are developed and marketed. Innovation differs from invention in that invention focuses on the manufacturing of a product whereas innovation is based around new ideas and creativity.
When it comes to innovative marketing ideas, we’re usually trying to come up with high-tech things that will bring us more attention and customers.
Let’s take a look at five innovative marketing ideas for connecting with your market and growing your B2B:
- Invent a New Market Segment – It’s all about— planting seeds of perception —positioning your product or service at the “logical extreme” of your product or service category. For example, B2B companies creating disruptive technologies are heavily funded for Research & Development, but those that position themselves to be TOP (top-of-mind) in that market segment will win.
- Create a Sales Network to Replace Your Sales Funnel. – There are thousands of ways out of the B2B Sales Funnel, and today’s market clutter makes it expensive to locate new prospects. So create products and services that are so remarkable that existing customers can’t wait to talk about them. And if you back up your great products and services with great content, they will talk, share, and link to it.
- Market to the Laggards or the Early Adopters. – B2B marketing involves diverse buyers, long sales cycles, and many touch points and impressions to eventually lead to sales. If your marketing confidently educates uninformed prospects (the laggards) or comfortably persuades smart prospects (the early adopters) that you have what they need, they will trust you. For example, “no one ever got fired for buying Cisco.”
- Create a Story That Shows How You’re Different – This may sound fairy tellish in the B2B space, but storytelling is paramount for B2B companies to stand out in today’s marketing clutter. A compelling story that demonstrates how your offer is different and better from the rest of the market provides your brand a platform to “earn” the right to sell. Have peek at SAP.com. They do a fantastic job of creating engaging business stories.
- Sell the Story Rather Than the Service – Business people tend to believe they make “logical” decisions. That’s only partly true because business people are also human. When a story is so compelling, we buy in to it whole-heartedly. Intel, for example, doesn’t sell to consumers, yet their brand story is so compelling that consumers seek out computers with Intel Inside .
Companies like Google, Apple, Cisco and IBM have been doing this kind of marketing, I’m mentioning above for many years now. Study them.
They are not only participating in the conversations, they are also leading them in an industry where thought leadership is so important and where differentiation is difficult, these 5 marketing ideas provide an avenue for B2B companies to stand out from the competition, educate and inform prospects and clients.
About the Author: Patrick McFadden is the marketing consultant to call when you want GROWTH and SALES … not just words.. He is also an advisor and featured marketing contributor to American Express Open Forum and has been named a marketing thought leader for small businesses.
Everyone is scaling outputs. Almost no one is scaling judgment.
Ask anyone in tech where AI is headed, and they’ll tell you: “The next leap is reasoning.” “AI needs judgment.” “We need assistants that think, not just answer.” They’re right. But while everyone’s talking about it, almost no one is actually shipping it. So we did. We built Thinking OS™ —a system that doesn’t just help AI answer questions… It helps AI think like a strategist. It helps AI decide like an operator. It helps teams and platforms scale judgment, n ot just generate output. The Theory Isn’t New. The Implementation Is. The idea of layering strategic thinking and judgment into AI isn’t new in theory. The problem is, no one’s been able to implement it effectively at scale. Let’s look at the current landscape. 1. Big Tech Has the Muscle—But Not the Mind OpenAI / ChatGPT ✅ Strength: Best-in-class language generation ❌ Limitation: No built-in judgment or reasoning. You must provide the structure. Otherwise, it follows instructions, not strategy. Google DeepMind / Gemini ✅ Known for advanced decision-making (e.g., AlphaGo) ❌ But only in structured environments like games—not messy, real-world business scenarios. Anthropic (Claude), Meta (LLaMA), Microsoft Copilot ✅ Great at answering questions and following commands ❌ But they’re assistants, not advisors. They won’t reprioritize. They won’t challenge your assumptions. They don’t ask: “Is this the right move?” These tools are powerful—but they don’t think for outcomes the way a strategist or operator would. 2. Who’s Actually Building the Thinking Layer™? This is where it gets interesting—and thin. Startups and Indie Builders Some small teams are quietly: Creating custom GPTs that mimic how experts reason Layering in business context, priorities, and tradeoffs Embedding decision logic so AI can guide, not just execute But these efforts are: Highly manual Difficult to scale Fragmented and experimental Enterprise Experiments A few companies (Salesforce, HubSpot, and others) are exploring more “judgment-aware” AI copilots. These systems can: Flag inconsistencies Recommend next actions Occasionally surface priorities based on internal logic But most of it is still: In early R&D Custom-coded Unproven beyond narrow use cases That’s Why Thinking OS™ Is Different Instead of waiting for a lab to crack it, we built a modular thinking system that installs like infrastructure. Thinking OS™: Captures how real experts reason Embeds judgment into layers AI can use Deploys into tools like ChatGPT or enterprise systems Helps teams think together, consistently, at scale It’s not another assistant. It’s the missing layer that turns outputs into outcomes. So… Is This a New Innovation? Yes—in practice. Everyone says AI needs judgment. But judgment isn’t an idea. It’s a system. It requires: Persistent memory Contextual awareness Tradeoff evaluation Value-based decisions Strategy that evolves with goals Thinking OS™ delivers that. And unlike the R&D experiments in Big Tech, it’s built for: Operators Consultants Platform founders Growth-stage teams that need to scale decision quality, not just content creation If Someone Told You They’ve Built a Thinking + Judgment Layer™… They’ve built something only a handful of people in the world are even attempting. Because this isn’t just AI that speaks fluently. It’s AI that reasons, reflects , and chooses. And in a world that’s drowning in tools, judgment becomes the differentiator. That’s the OS We Built Thinking OS™ is not a prompt pack. It’s not a dashboard. It’s not a glorified chatbot. It’s a decision architecture you can license, embed, or deploy— To help your team, your platform, or your clients think better at scale. We’ve moved past content. We’re building cognition. Let’s talk.
In every era of innovation, there’s a silent bottleneck—something obvious in hindsight, but elusive until the moment it clicks. In today’s AI-driven world, that bottleneck is clear: AI has speed. It has scale. But it doesn’t have judgment . It doesn’t really think . What’s Actually Missing From AI? When experts talk about the “thinking and judgment layer” as the next leap for AI, they’re calling out a hard truth: Modern AI systems are powerful pattern machines. But they’re missing the human layer—the one that reasons, weighs tradeoffs, and makes strategic decisions in context. Let’s break that down: 1. The Thinking Layer = Reasoning with Purpose This layer doesn’t just process inputs— it structures logic. It’s the ability to: Ask the right questions before acting Break down complexity into solvable parts Adjust direction mid-course when reality changes Think beyond “what was asked” to uncover “what really matters” Today’s AI responds. But it rarely reflects. Unless told exactly what to do, it won’t work through problems the way a strategist or operator would. 2. The Judgment Layer = Decision-Making in the Gray Judgment is the ability to: Prioritize what matters most Choose between imperfect options Make decisions when there’s no clear answer Apply values, experience, and vision—not just data It’s why a founder might not pursue a lucrative deal. Why a marketer might ignore the click-through rate. Why a strategist knows when the timing isn’t right. AI doesn’t do this well. Not yet. Because judgment requires more than data—it requires discernment . Why This Is the Bottleneck Holding Back AI AI can write. It can summarize. It can automate. But it still can’t: Diagnose the real problem behind the question Evaluate tradeoffs like a founder or operator would Recommend a path based on context, constraints, and conviction AI today is still reactive. It follows instructions. But it doesn’t lead. It doesn’t guide. It doesn’t own the outcome. And for those building serious systems—whether you’re running a company, launching a platform, or leading a team—this is the wall you eventually hit. That’s Why We Built Thinking OS™ We stopped waiting for AI to learn judgment on its own. Instead, we created a system that embeds it—by design. Thinking OS™ is an installable decision layer that captures how top founders, strategists, and operators think… …and makes that thinking repeatable , scalable , and usable inside teams, tools, and platforms. It’s not a framework. It’s not a chatbot. It’s not another playbook. It’s the layer that knows how to: Think through complex decisions Apply judgment when rules don’t help Guide others —human or AI—toward strategic outcomes This Is the Missing Infrastructure Thinking OS™ isn’t just about better answers. It’s about better thinking—made operational. And that’s what’s been missing in AI, consulting, leadership development, and platform design. If you’re trying to scale expertise, install judgment, or move from tactical to strategic… You don’t need a faster AI. You need a thinking layer that knows what to do—and why. We built it. Let’s talk.
