There’s a common belief that it’s tougher to
come up with new ideas for B2B marketing than
for consumer products. But most experienced
marketers know that innovation exists within B2B
as much or more as it does with B2C marketing –
just in different ways.
With a better understanding of buyers
through data, B2B marketers are now creating
some of the most innovative and smart
marketing seen since the Oldsmobile stopped
being your dad’s favorite car.
To help you escape the dullsville of old
fashioned B2B marketing, we tapped some of
the top B2B brands and thought leaders for
their best tips on how to bring some modern
innovation to the classic world of business to
business marketing.
To get a head start on the future of B2B
Marketing and the MarketingProfs B2B
Forum, read on for 33 practical and useful
insights that can rocket your business to the
stars.
Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank® Online
Marketing & Author of Optimize
1. Ann Handley heads up all of the content at
MarketingProfs. She's a 13-year veteran of
creating and managing digital content to build
relationships for organizations and individuals, and
the co-author of Content Rules. Previously, Ann
was the co-founder of ClickZ.com and spent 12
years as a business editor and writer for
publications including the Boston Globe.
The key to B2B marketing innovation is
focusing more on the stories of your
customers, and less on your product... oops, I
mean...your "solution." (God I hate that
term.)
Many B2B "solutions" are boring -- something
like technology isn't inherently interesting
when you describe what it does. But it
becoming far more interesting when you talk
about what it means for your customers:
How does it help people? How does it
shoulder their burdens? Ease their pain? The
main character in all of your marketing --
even when you are marketing a technology --
should be a person.
In other words: "Make your customer the hero of your brand's
story.