Messaging That Converts the C-Suite: The Executive Resonance B2B Marketing Strategy

Your Product Speaks in Features. The C-Suite Speaks in Outcomes.

What we’re seeing in many enterprise marketing programs is simple but costly: product teams speak in capabilities, while the executives listen for business outcomes. In an era where every buying decision is driven by business impact, that misalignment kills momentum and silently drains millions in potential pipeline.

When we built Somebody Digital, one of the first things we noticed working across 16 markets was how often strong products fail to resonate with executive buyers. Marketers were doing everything “right”: ABM programmes, refined personas, polished decks, yet deals stalled because the story stopped short of executive altitude.

“Executive marketing isn’t about selling technology,” says Stephanie Walters, Head of Business Development at Somebody Digital. “It’s about selling transformation.”

The Translation Failure in B2B Marketing Strategy

If your B2B marketing strategy still focuses on technical capability (faster processing, smarter automation, scalable deployment), you’re missing the audience that matters most. Executives want translation: how this investment accelerates revenue, strengthens margins, protects reputation, or unlocks market advantage.

What we see consistently with enterprise tech clients is a pattern of what we call translation failure. Marketing communicates functional strength, but the boardroom wants strategic significance. That gap makes even world-class campaigns invisible to decision-makers.

“Executive resonance is about elevating your message,” says John Wilkes, Founder at Somebody Digital. “You have to contextualize it for business impact.”

The Pattern: What Global Clients Are Teaching Us

Across enterprise SaaS, cybersecurity, and fintech, we’ve seen the same issue repeat: Technically strong narratives that don’t scale to the executive level.

In cybersecurity, teams lead with AI-driven detection or anomaly monitoring. But executives buy risk reduction and operational continuity. In fintech, marketers showcase compliance automation. Executives care about reduced audit risk, faster market access, and capital efficiency.

Our data shows that when enterprise campaigns reframe feature messaging through the lens of executive impact, engagement rates from C-suite audiences on platforms like LinkedIn increase by 47%, and average deal velocity improves by 21%.

“Executives respond to consequence, not capability,” adds John Wilkes from Somebody Digital. “Every effective enterprise marketing message starts with business impact.”

Elevating Enterprise Marketing With the Executive Resonance Framework

Somebody Digital’s Executive Resonance Framework transforms feature-heavy messaging into boardroom-relevant narratives through four repeatable steps:

• Deconstruct your product offering – Map every feature and capability.

   

• Identify functional outcomes – Translate features into what they enable operationally.

   

• Connect outcomes to executive priorities – Tie each outcome to business drivers like revenue, efficiency, or risk.

   

• Craft executive-centric messaging – Speak in business language: ROI, advantage, continuity, and market impact.
  

Realigning Executive Marketing for the AI Era

When we applied this executive marketing framework for a global SaaS client, their existing value proposition emphasised “AI-based process optimization.” We reframed it to: “Accelerate revenue recognition by reducing operational bottlenecks through AI-driven workflows.”

Within six weeks, their executive engagement rates increased by 3.4x.

That’s what commercial alignment can do.

“What wins attention in the C-suite is leverage,” notes John. “If your words don’t move a business lever, they won’t move an executive.”

Future-Proofing Enterprise Marketing for Executives

In the AI era, executives don’t wait for sales decks to form opinions. They’re already using AI-powered tools to summarise your website, review analyst commentary, and benchmark competitors. Your messaging either resonates instantly or it never enters the decision loop.

This is why the Executive Resonance Framework is a strategic foundation for AI-era marketing. It ensures your narrative scales with how executive buyers actually evaluate vendors today.