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If you try to climb a mountain in the dark, with no map, no compass and no idea where the top is, you’re bound to find yourself in a tough spot, right? That’s how many marketing teams operate: full of good intentions, but without a clear vision of the path forward. That’s where Business Model Canvas — a visual, simple and powerful tool that works as a true strategic map for any business that wants to sell more, spend less and generate more ROI.
What is the Business Model Canvas and what is it for?
The Business Model Canvas is a strategic planning tool created by Alexander Osterwalder. It helps you design, visualize, and adjust a company's business model on a single page.
It consists of nine essential blocks that show how the company creates, delivers and captures value. Thus, it works as a “map” that guides all important marketing, sales, product and operations decisions.
The model was first presented in the book Business Model Generation, and has since become a global standard used by startups, established companies, agencies and even NGOs. Precisely because of its simplicity and depth at the same time, Canvas has gained space even in marketing departments, where it helps to give meaning to campaigns that were previously carried out on autopilot.
“The Business Model Canvas is a visual strategic planning tool that describes how a company creates, delivers and captures value by breaking down its business model into nine interdependent building blocks.”
The 9 blocks of the Business Model Canvas explained one by one
Customer segments
First, who are your customers? This is perhaps the most critical question. In this section, you map out the different customer profiles that your company serves. This can include personas, niches, segments by behavior or even strategic accounts (in the case of ABM – Account-Based Marketing strategies).
Value propositions
This is where the heart of your business lies. What problem do you solve? What benefit do you deliver? value proposition must be clear, direct and different from what competitors offer. Therefore, this block will guide all marketing messages.
Distribution and communication channels
How does the customer engage with your company? How do they consume your content, learn about your solution, purchase, and receive the product or service? This part of the Canvas helps you identify where to focus your media, traffic, and content efforts.
Customer relationship
Does your marketing go beyond conversion? This block addresses how the company relates to customers before, during and after the sale. In this sense, this includes nurturing, support, loyalty and even enchantment strategies.
Revenue sources
How much does the customer pay, when and how? This defines the monetization model. In other words, it can be direct sales, subscriptions, upsells, consulting — and this directly affects the journey that marketing must build.
Key Features
What do you need to have or master to deliver the value proposition? Above all, it could be a technology, a specialized team, a strong brand or an exclusive channel.
Key activities
What are the essential activities for a business to function? For marketing, this can include lead generation, as well as content production, social media management, among others.
Main partnerships
No one grows alone. Therefore, in this block, the strategic partnerships that help the company to function are mapped. This can include agencies, suppliers, platforms, influencers, etc.
Cost structure
Finally, how much does it cost to keep all this running? First of all, identifying fixed and variable costs is essential to calculate the ROI of marketing actions more accurately.
“The 9 blocks of the Business Model Canvas are: Customer Segments, Value Proposition, Channels, Customer Relationship, Revenue Streams, Key Resources, Key Activities, Key Partnerships and Cost Structure.”
The 4 strategic pillars of the Business Model Canvas
Have you ever heard that the Business Model Canvas can be divided into 4 main pillars? Yes — the nine blocks of the Canvas can be organized into four areas that represent the foundations of any business model.
Infrastructure – How we deliver value
It encompasses everything necessary for the value proposition to be delivered:
- Key Features
- Key Activities
- Main Partnerships
Offer – What we deliver
It deals with what makes your product or service valuable to the customer:
- Value Propositions
Clients – Who we deliver value to
It shows who the business exists for and how it relates to those people:
- Customer Segments
- Customer Relationship
- Channels
Financial – How the business is sustained
Represents the financial inputs and outputs of the model:
- Cost Structure
- Revenue Sources
This division is very useful for quick analyses, presentations to the board and alignment between areas. In addition, it helps to identify imbalances — such as, for example, a promising value proposition supported by insufficient resources, or channels that do not communicate well with customer segments.
“The 4 pillars of the Business Model Canvas are: Infrastructure, Offering, Customers and Financial. They group the 9 blocks of the model into strategic areas that represent how the business creates, delivers and captures value.”
Why BMC is an essential tool for marketing
Strategic alignment between marketing, sales and product
When marketing and sales They don't talk, the customer feels it. The Canvas is a bridge between areas, ensuring that everyone is on the same page about what they are selling, to whom and how.
Quick view for decision making
One of the biggest advantages of the BMC is its ability to simplify. Instead of long, difficult-to-understand reports, the Canvas visually shows where the bottlenecks and opportunities are.
Clarity in value proposition and positioning
Have you ever stopped to think about whether your communication really reflects what sets your business apart? BMC forces you to reflect on this — and that changes everything. After all, clear positioning = more efficient campaigns.
How to use the Business Model Canvas to generate more ROI in marketing
Mapping the customer journey within the Canvas
Aligning the Canvas blocks with each stage of the marketing funnel helps you identify where more investment is needed. Maybe you have a strong value proposition but under-exploited channels. However, you have a good relationship with your customer, but no well-defined revenue streams.
Adjusting messages based on the value proposition
Each campaign, post or ad should accurately reflect what is in the value proposition block. Above all, when there is alignment, the customer feels trust — and this directly impacts ROI.
Integration with sales funnel and inbound marketing
The BMC does not replace the funnel, but complements. From now on, use the Canvas to understand the business, and the funnel to guide your actions. Primarily, the secret is to use the Canvas as a map and inbound as the journey.
“The Business Model Canvas helps increase the ROI of marketing campaigns because it allows you to identify strategic flaws, align communication with the value proposition and adjust the most effective channels for conversion.”
Applying the Business Model Canvas in practice: an example of a B2B company
Fictional case of a technology company
Imagine a company that offers a CRM platform for small businesses. In the Canvas, it defines its customers as small business owners with low digital maturity. So, what would be the value proposition? “Make your sales team more productive with a simple and accessible tool.” And the channels? Organic traffic, email, and partners. However, when creating this Canvas, the team realizes that the acquisition channels were misaligned with the customer segments — and decides to change the focus from paid traffic to content marketing.
How Canvas helps identify bottlenecks and opportunities
Just by viewing the Canvas, questions arise such as: “Are we relating to the customer in the right way?”, “Is our revenue compatible with the value we deliver?” or “Do we have the right partnerships to grow?”
These answers help you focus on actions that bring real returns.
“To apply the Business Model Canvas in marketing, it is necessary to align the Value Proposition, Customer Segments and Channels blocks with the purchasing journey, ensuring that each marketing action is connected to the business strategy.”
When BMC Doesn't Work: Causes and Fixes
Static Canvas
The Canvas is a living organism. In other words, companies that fill it out once and never review it again are missing out on one of the greatest opportunities for continuous learning.
Lack of involvement from the marketing team
Often, the Canvas is created only by the board of directors. But those on the front lines — marketing and sales — need to participate. After all, these are the areas that feel the problems and opportunities most closely.
Misalignment between blocks
There’s no point in having an incredible value proposition if the channels don’t communicate it well. Or having an efficient channel but without a clear customer segment. ROI definitely drops when the Canvas is misaligned.
Tools to create and share your Business Model Canvas
Free and paid options (Miro, Canva, Strategyzer)
Want to set up your Canvas? Miro has collaborative templates. Canva offers ready-made templates with professional design. Strategyzer is the official platform, with advanced analysis features.
Collaborative digital versions for remote teams
For remote teams, use Notion or FigJam to co-create the Canvas in real time with the team, ensuring greater engagement and collective clarity.
Conclusion: Canvas as an indispensable map for high-performance teams
The Business Model Canvas is not just a pretty tool for workshops. It is, in fact, a practical and powerful strategic map that can transform the way your marketing team thinks, plans and executes. Above all, it brings focus, aligns communication, reveals bottlenecks and even makes it easier to present results to the board. And the best part: all of this on a single page. So, if you want to generate more ROI, this is the starting point.
FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions about Business Model Canvas
1. What is Business Model Canvas?
It is a visual tool made up of nine blocks that help map, visualize and adjust a company's business model.
2. What are the nine blocks of the Business Model Canvas?
Customer segments, value proposition, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnerships, and cost structure.
3. How to apply the Business Model Canvas in digital marketing?
Use Canvas to align value proposition, channels, and customer segments. Then integrate with sales funnel, inbound, and content.
4. Why does BMC increase the ROI of marketing campaigns?
Because it brings clarity about the audience, channels and what should be communicated — avoiding waste and increasing the effectiveness of actions.
5. Which tool should I use to create a Business Model Canvas?
The most popular ones are Miro, Canva, Strategyzer, Google Jamboard and Notion. All of them allow you to create, collaborate and share your Canvas with your team.
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Image: Freepik
Marcel Castilho is a specialist in digital marketing, neuromarketing, neuroscience, mindfulness and positive psychology. In addition to being an advertiser, he also has a Master's degree in Neurolinguistic Programming. He is the founder, owner and CEO of Vero Contentes and the offline agency VeroCom.
