B2B is the new B2C
I'm pretty sure I am about to offend someone here but hands up if you can remember when B2B marketing was a backwater, a life made up of conference stands, pop-up banners and trade ads?
And keep those hands up if you think that's still the case.
Those of you with hands still aloft, you couldn’t be more wrong.
Just as B2B sales organisations have undergone a stunning and rapid transition from old world to new world, so too have their marketing colleagues finally come of age.
To be fair, it’s taken a while.
Those of us above a certain age will remember when the middle-aged white employee who - nearing the end of their career - gently came to rest in the B2B marketing slot. Dropped into that role by the CEO ("they’re a safe pair of hands and know our business backwards"), truth be told, their brief largely revolved around extended lunches and dinners, an on-off relationship with a trade press contact, and an annual jamboree at a trade show. It wasn’t especially taxing and was rarely especially effective.
Today, if you look closely at the new generation who occupy these B2B marketing roles, they have a very different profile. Smart, ambitious marketers are taking on these tasks with a real fervour, and there a couple of good reasons why.
Firstly, B2C marketing has morphed into an unwieldy beast encompassing brand, digital, social, e-commerce, advertising, research, PR and almost anything else that has no natural home.
It's hard to get your arms round all that, even for a more seasoned marketing veteran. Where's the fun in being a clever aspirant marketer, running one slice of a pie co-dependent on the rest of the team that runs the rest? Better to move to B2B and have the whole span, albeit at a more civilised pace and a realistic scale. Smart marketing talent is flocking to B2B.
That decision is only made possible by reason number two: the coming of age of an exciting array of tools and techniques that makes B2B marketing as response-driven and accountable at B2C once was.
With B2B you can segment, identify, engage and persuade an audience with the right message tailored for them. You can build frameworks that target real people by name, and craft a message that reflects the environment in which they find themselves. When the message lands, and a Marketing Qualified Lead graduates to become a Sales Qualified Lead, the impact on your business can be dramatic.
All hail digital, social and ABM. Take the same techniques and standards from B2C marketing and apply them to B2B. What's not to like?
And don’t let anyone tell you that a lucrative B2B contract cannot start life as a cheese-pairing online experience. Our biggest client win of 2022 started out as a Google AdWords campaign. It may be counterintuitive to chase hundreds of thousands of pounds of revenue with clicks measured in pence, but if you have spent any time standing around draughty trade shows in the West Midlands, you'll know there has to be a better way.
Not for nothing do we say that B2B marketing is the new B2C marketing, and it's only just beginning.
Will Harris, Founder, Bridge F61
A lot of the work we do is B2B marketing, head to our homepage to find out more about us.