How to Win in B2B

Yes, it is that time of year again. Your most important marketing campaign of the year. The one that has to be a success. All eyes are on you. The goal? To win an marketing award. No seriously, this is important stuff. And awards are little bit like a London buses. You wait around for ages and then they all turn up at once.

We have recently seen the announcement of the shortlist from the eponymously named B2B Marketing Awards and from the recently launched B2B Brave Awards. However, front of my mind is the fast approaching closing date for the DMA Awards.

I don’t know about you but entering awards is a really stressful process. Which of my campaigns should I enter (OK I might be exaggerating here)? What is the best way to communicate the impact of the campaign? Do I add lots of performance statistics or focus on the story and creative? What are the judges looking for? Will I lose out (again) to a far less innovative campaign with poorer performance results just because their entry was slicker than mine? I’m not bitter, honestly. But I am becoming stressed just writing this.

However, don’t despair. There is new advice out there. No it is not advice from a battle-hardened, highly experience awards judge, it’s from a machine. Albeit, a pretty impressive machine. Check out @Pragmatik, of IBM Watson fame, recent blog, data driven direction for award winning submissions, which uncovers the mystery of what makes the difference between an award entry also ran and a happening hipster of an award winner.

On the theme of winning, here are 5 examples of b2b brands winning web site. Is it me or do all websites look the same these days? Oh how I long to find one last remaining completely unnavigable site with pop-ups popping up all over the place. If you can recommend any, please do.

But winning means different things to different people. It appears that our marketing leaders of the future are taking a different route to the top.

Which poses the often highlighted topic of what skills we should be looking for in our marketers. Here are five new skills to look for when hiring your next marketing superstar . The very best of luck trying to find that unicorn!

As I am on a theme of lists, here are a few more:

5 questions every content marketer needs to ask.

6 ways boring B2B brands stole a social video from B2C Now, the right kind of stealing is not a bad thing in my book. In one of my former companies we used to frequently use the phrase ‘steal with pride’.

10 everyday uses of the Internet of Things (IoT). I’ve added this simply because of number 10. Who’d have thought?

10 tips for an effective marketing blueprint to build your small business. It’s not all about you big companies.

And finally in my list of lists this week. 11 books every CMO should read. I will cheekily plug another one for your B2Bers out there check our Innovation in B2B authored https://goo.gl/3cZmT7 by Simon Hall.

Whatever you say, marketing today is reliant upon, or empowered by depending on your view, technology. So what is the state of B2B marketing automation in 2017? This article will help you find out.

With technology comes data. But is all data good? How do you know when data is obscuring the truth about your customers. All data, no intelligence. Sound familiar? A slightly different take on this can be found in Data, data everywhere, but not a drop of insight to drink.

Surely, it’s not all just about digital, data and modern marketing though. This article tells us why traditional marketing is still relevant. Interesting perspective . . .

Right, I’m off to do some traditional marketing at a good old fashioned expo. Remember those? Yes, I will be walking the halls at dmexco over the next couple of days. If you are attending and would like to meet up, give me a shout. Alternatively you can check out my panel discussion all about Psychographics targeting in Marketing,

Happy #winning