B2B MARKETING - STRATEGY

Set your own agenda

It’s fair to say that B2B marketing has changed more in the past five years than in the previous 50. New channels, media and technology have opened up all manner of exciting opportunities to engage and gain insight into your audiences.

There is enough momentum behind even the most niche of niches in any marketing channel, media or technology to fuel the fire and encourage B2B marketers to believe it’s a “must have” or that they’re failing if they do not embrace the “latest and greatest” channel or technology.  This has created a degree of chaos as these marketers struggle to stay on top of all the new developments with a budget that is being stretched, often beyond breaking point.

Marketers should tread warily. A myriad of marketing department service providers have been quick to adopt the power of social and content marketing to publicise what at first seem to be answers to the questions on the minds of marketers, but which, upon further scrutiny, often reveal a self-serving agenda.

Some of these providers have a vested interest in increasing the dimensions and complexities as in doing so they can generate increased demand for automation, monitoring, and measuring technologies. Others may fail to recognise the need for an approach that integrates multiple media or channels to appeal and engage with the widest possible audience.

The reality is that few can do everything across all channels. And if you try, your efforts will fail to achieve their full potential because they will be compromised by budget limitations, or by lack of reach and/or relevance. Judging success will also be impossible and could result in your dismissing a channel or media that in fact, with the right content and approach, could actually work well for you.

Your agenda should embrace that of your audience, not that of the service provider. Set your own course – do less, do it well and achieve more.