In legacy industries, like construction, roofing, and manufacturing, modern marketing is harder than it looks. Tactics that once worked—print ads, trade shows, or generalized email blasts—no longer land.
Buyers today are digital-first, and internal teams expect more from marketing than surface-level branding.
For many marketing leaders, the pressure isn’t just to “do more.” It’s to explain complex offerings clearly, without overwhelming their team or confusing their audience.
This is a classic case of what we call a “Explain Complexity Now” moment. This is when high-stakes communication can’t afford to get ignored.
For lean teams facing modernization fatigue, clarity isn’t a nice-to-have. Instead, it’s how you protect momentum.
In this episode of Keep It Pirsonal, I sat down with Marianna Bryce, VP of Marketing at Nations Roof, to unpack the real-world complexity of modernizing marketing in traditional industries.
This is tactical wisdom from someone doing the work inside a complex B2B environment and with a solid track record.
She’s an award-winning marketer that has built modern marketing engines in some of the most traditional and complex industries out there. She knows what it takes to rebuild a marketing function from zero, lead small teams, support field reps, and create communication customers actually pay attention to.
Watch the episode below, then keep reading for actionable takeaways:
Why Complex B2B Messaging Fails (and What Modern Marketing Teams Need Instead)
Most marketing teams in complex B2B environments still rely on legacy tactics: trade shows, brochures, general email campaigns. But modern buyers expect more.
Take construction, for instance. In this industry, 72% of firms cite digital transformation as a top priority. B2B buyers now spend just 17% of their time with vendors. This means they do most of their research on their own.
Quote by Marianna Bryce, VP of Marketing at Nations Roof
Therefore, lean marketing teams need to make fewer, more effective moves that reach buyers early and with greater clarity. It also means marketing teams are often the ones who must translate complexity into action—quickly and clearly.
Citing Marianna, it is about meeting people where they are. Internal and external customers. And, in this AI-cluttered world, this is where the biggest opportunity is.
What Happens When Your Team Doesn’t Understand the Message
Quote by Marianna Bryce, VP of Marketing at Nations Roof
Marianna shared a critical insight that every marketing leader should remember:
“If your internal team doesn’t understand it, your customer definitely won’t.”
When teams are misaligned or confused, campaigns fail quietly. Sales doesn’t use what marketing built. Operations dismisses it. Customers never see the message at all.
This internal communication gap is especially painful for lean marketing teams. You only get one or two chances to get it right. And if you miss the mark, the message vanishes.
Internal Enablement Is a Marketing KPI
One of the most important reframes from this conversation was this: internal teams are marketing’s first audience.
Your sales reps, field crews, and ops partners are the ones who decide whether your messaging sees the light of day. If they don’t understand it (or trust it), they won’t use it.
From this perspective, internal enablement isn’t just an operational checkbox anymore. Instead, it has become a high-value marketing deliverable.
One of the core takeaways from this conversation: “If your internal team doesn’t understand it, your customer definitely won’t.”
How Small Marketing Teams Can Simplify Without Adding Noise
Too often, “modernizing” gets confused with “doing more.” Marianna reframed it this way (in my words):
“It’s not about more emails or channels. It’s about doing the right things (for your internal and external customers).”
She emphasized:
- Prioritizing content your internal teams will actually use
- Aligning early with sales and operations before launch
- Repurposing evergreen assets instead of starting from scratch
- Being realistic about bandwidth and choosing clarity over scale
And perhaps most importantly (in my words):
“Useful isn’t the goal. Used is.”
This mindset helps lean marketing teams move quickly without losing trust or momentum.
When Personalized Video Becomes the Simplest Way to Explain Complexity
This episode wasn’t about tools or tactics. But the patterns are clear: great marketing leaders simplify complexity, cut through noise, and help people feel something real, especially when their teams are stretched.
That’s the throughline of this conversation with Marianna: clarity, usefulness, emotional resonance.
Not just externally, but internally, too.
One example: FMC, a global agricultural sciences company, has used Pirsonal-powered personalized video for years to strengthen loyalty and drive reorders.
Each year, they send customized videos that celebrate each customer’s past activity and show how to maximize their next purchase cycle. The result? Greater clarity, stronger relationships, and repeat engagement, all without adding pressure to their lean team and supporting marketing agency.
And if your team wants to do this at scale—without burning out—Pirsonal helps you turn ignored communication into on-brand, personalized videos people care about. Without adding more work.
At Pirsonal, we believe that people act when they feel something. That’s exactly the gap Pirsonal was built to help small marketing teams with:
Helping the right message reach the right person in a way that feels personal, relevant, and actually useful—without overwhelming your team.
With Pirsonal’s personalized video platform, teams can easily:
- Turn internal announcements or product launches into on-brand video messages
- Automatically personalize the content by role, location, or segment
- Trigger content through their existing CRM, spreadsheets, or workflow tools
And always with expert support so that your tiny but mighty team doesn’t have to figure it out alone.
Whether it’s onboarding new partners, aligning sales teams, or simplifying a technical product rollout, personalized video creates moments that move people.
Key Takeaways for B2B Marketing Leaders Under Pressure to Simplify
- Traditional tactics alone don’t work in complex B2B environments
- Internal misalignment often blocks engagement before it starts
- Simplicity doesn’t mean dumbing it down—it means making it usable
- Internal enablement is a marketing deliverable
- “Used” matters more than “useful”
- Video is often the clearest medium for explaining layered information
Relevant FAQ: Clarifying Complex Marketing Messages in 2026
What’s the first step to simplify a complex B2B message?
Start internally. If your sales and operations teams can’t explain it in one sentence, your customers won’t either.
Why don’t legacy tactics work anymore in B2B?
Because your buyers do most of their research alone. They need clarity, not noise—and they’ll skip what feels irrelevant.
How can personalized video help lean teams?
It lets you scale human communication without extra headcount. You can speak to each segment personally—without reinventing content every time. Always on-brand.
What’s one thing to stop doing this quarter?
Stop launching content that no one internally understands or uses. Focus on what drives clarity and trust first.
Ready to Engage Without Adding Noise?
If your team is:
- Struggling to align sales and marketing
- Tired of content no one uses
- Unsure how to modernize your B2B marketing without burning out
Let us show you how your team can stop creating content no one uses—and start delivering personalized, on-brand video campaigns that feel human, clear, and impossible to ignore. Even with a lean team, you can scale high-impact communication without adding to your workload. Powered by Pirsonal’s personalized video software and service. Talk to an Expert Today.
