What Skills do B2B Marketers Need to be Truly Effective in 2014?

What Skills do B2B Marketers Need to be Truly Effective in 2014?

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  Andy Bargery Klaxon March 2014
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  Question: How doyou build an effective marketer? Answer: get the model marketer kit…
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  1. Measurement The daysof marketing being known as the ‘spending department’ are behind us. Marketers are increasingly required to prove the real return or value of their output in pounds and pence. [insert your local currency here] What does this mean for marketers? • Be able to report in financial terms and impact to bottom line. • Ensure you understand what happens to the leads you generate. • Learn how your campaigns support the buying journey. • Identify highest performing sales channels and sales reps to optimise your campaign performance.
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  2. Partnerships If weare to be measured by revenues then it’s imperative we build relationships with the transactional end of the business. If that’s a sales team, how do we get closer to and align with sales? What leads are they really looking for and how do we provide them? What really constitutes a qualified lead? What about other internal and external partnerships? What does this mean for marketers? • Get better at understanding and working with your colleagues in sales. • Sharpen your channel, alliance and JV strategy. • Learn bow to manage your agencies better: get closer to them and they will love you for it.
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  3. Data Data. It’sthe lifeblood of b2b marketing. And equally as important, data protection. The rules in this space are on the move which is no bad thing given the volume of data we now have access to. With the advances in technology and ‘Big Data’ we are all privy to huge volumes of data on our customers. But how are we using this to our advantage? What does this mean for marketers? • We must get better at using data to segment, target and personalise campaigns. • Understand how to use ‘Big Data’ (or medium data) to target on behaviors. • We must get up to speed with the European Data Protection Regulations.
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  4. Digital The effectof new technologies on marketing has been transformational. Changing what we do and how we do it. Social media has flipped the traditional idea of paid, earned and owned media and how they are managed. As social has evolved so have the tools and techniques available to manage it. Don’t forget about advances in web development, analytics, email marketing, automation, SEO and mobile too. What does this mean for marketers? • You should arm yourself with a little knowledge of the basics: HTML, analytics, social platforms, no matter how senior you are. • Learn how to automate manual systems based on behaviors. • Improve how you attribute digital activities to lead generation.
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  5. Content Content marketingcame into it’s own in 2013. The response of b2b marketers was to ramp up the volume, but of course this did not always led to increased results, more often than not simply adding to the noise and diluting the message. Social media platforms count for many tens of outlets for broadcasting and sharing content, but sometimes with the result being little or no audience. What does this mean for marketers? • Marketers must get better at understanding what content their audiences are looking for and engaging with. • Be creative in the content, but equally creative in the channels. • Tie all your content together and tell a coherent brand story.
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  6. Interaction You willhave heard the adage ‘people buy from people’. Relationships pay a crucial role in B2B marketing, proven by the consistent and growing spend on events. But the landscape for events is evolving too. New tech creates more opportunity for interaction before, during and after an event. Not only that, but entirely new formats too. What does this mean for marketers? • Learn how to get the most out of new event platforms. • Engage your audiences more using technology before, during and after an event. • Understand where events sit in the buying cycle and tailor accordingly.
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  7. Integration How dowe make sure with the proliferation of new channels that we deliver a consistent brand experience for our target audience. How do we tie together not only the channels, but the message and the creative too? And that’s just communications. What about channel strategy and selection too? How about integrating within our agency network. What does this mean for marketers? • Understand the channels available and how they work together to deliver a message. • Consider the creative communication but also channels too. • Improve how specialist agencies work together to deliver seamless execution.
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  8. Emotion Typically inb2b we have steered clear of emotion. Messaging is often built around product attributes: faster, cheaper, smaller, lighter. But what about the emotional connection attached to a purchase. Can we use behavioral economics to better understand our customers. After all humans are emotional creatures and we use emotions in our purchase decision making. What does this mean for marketers? • Think about your messaging and brand stories. Are you hoping for an emotional reaction to a provocative message, or focusing on product attributes? • Consider the bigger issues that impact emotion: company vision and values, how easy your company is to work with and work for, how your employees behave in response to enquires and so on.
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  Andy Bargery +44 (0)203691 0599 www.klaxonmarketing.co.uk andybargery@klaxonmarketing.co.uk @andybargery