Business-ready B2B Marketing Advice

The rise of the internet and mobile has led to significant changes in the marketing world. In this new era, the marketing department now requires an evolved set of skills, often rooted in technology, to take advantage of this transformation. We’ve blogged previously about what to look for in a marketing employee, citing the DARC criteria (digital, analytical, reach, content). But while this is a useful guide for determining the qualities of the person you should have in your marketing team, it doesn’t offer much in the way of skills. So, let’s get down to the specifics. Here’s a list of skills that B2B marketers – and marketing departments – need to posses in order to thrive now and in the future.

When you create a call-to-action (CTA) you want your prospects to click. In an ideal world your CTA would be so irresistable that your leads just can't help themeselves but hit that "action" button with force. But how do you create such a CTA, and more importantly, what does a truly seductive CTA look like? In her recent story on the Content Marketing Institute blog, Julie Wingerter has compliled a list of interactive CTAs every B2B marketer should draw some inspiration from. Here are our two favourites:

You’re a marketer, not a designer, so your strengths are strategy, facing clients and staying on top of your campaigns' KPIs. Design and creativity are usually pushed to the bottom of your list of things to do. But you know that good marketing is far more than just following a plan, it’s just as much about pleasing the eye and drawing in your targets with great graphics. Sadly, you just don’t have the time or the right tools to make the most of your content, so you leave it to the design team and hope for the best. Luckily, Kevin Beaudry offers help for time-strapped marketers with his fantastic article, 7 Awesome Design Resources to Add to Your Arsenal.

How is your marketing performing? Not many marketers are actually able to answer this truthfully, not because they don’t want to, but because they lack the right data, facts and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure against. KPIs are vital to any business in order to analyse what is and what isn’t working. But how do you find out what your KPIs should be? In a recent article on the HubSpot blog, Jesse Mawhinney discusses How to Choose the Right KPIs for Your Business.

Thanks to marketing automation software, B2B marketers no longer have to devote huge chunks of time to doing mind-numblingly dull manual tasks such as uploading a single tweet at precisely 7:35am (because that is the best time), or remembering to send a thank you email to people who have downloaded content off your website (because, whoops, you've left that poor lead high and dry for about three weeks).Thankfully, marketing automation software helps to eliminate human error and gives us more time to be more productive in tasks that require creativity and brain power. Cheers to those helpful little robots!

Relationships between brands and their prospects isn't much different from real life dating. People want to do business with people, so the way businesses build trust with them should be the same process as any other relationship. 

It is surprising how many marketers are either blissfully unaware or choose to ignore how their performance can affect their organisation's revenue, profits and margins. Decisions are often made based on instincts and hunches and this greatly irritates the sales teams who in turn struggle to meet monthly targets. CEOs and CFOs allocate the marketing budget as a cost centre and roll their eyes at the idea of a marketer taking a seat at the boardroom table. But, all this is about to change.