NO MORE dross! Bring on the UK thought leaders in B2B Marketing!

By Elaine Ball

This is not a plug at anyone!  BUT…. I’m now long enough in the tooth to release I know quite a bit about marketing!  I’ve grown up through the sales and marketing pipeline and headed up a laser manufacturing business that exported 95% of its products.  I’ve tested the water in lots of areas and continue to read, train and understand points of view.  I know my gurus in my industry but now I’m a consultant I find it hard to know who the real thought leaders are in the marketing industry.  Yes we all know of the Porters and Welch’s but who are the UKs kings & Queens of B2B Marketing think?

Take what is being talked about at the moment “content marketing” – come on people!  We all know we need to focus our content specifically to our target audience.  Why is it new?  It isn’t!

We need to be thinking differently!  Challenging our own thought and testing it!  If we don’t we continue following the winding path that everyone else is following.

In my eyes it’s the USA that is way ahead compared to the UK in marketing thought.  Joel Harrison of B2B Marketing has highlighted some good points in the latest B2B Marketing Mag!  Check out July’s edition.

What I want to know is who is challenging peoples content in the UK?  Who is ‘poking’ them with a stick and testing out what they say?  I don’t see it?

Let me give you an example.  My father and retired Chairman of Measurement Devices Ltd is known as a thought leader within the surveying Industry.  Steve would come up with an idea ‘way’ before it was ready and ‘way’ before the market would accept it. He knew how the market would change.  It was almost a six sense!  Slowly, as everyone else catches up… the ideas and talk years early are being adopted.  This to me is real thought leadership.  BUT who is challenging marketing in the same way?

To me the key insights for the next few years are:

  1. Websites will disappear, social media will expand significantly and you will only have a door portal to let people in (this will be your website!  A door!)
  2. B2Bers, techy savvy people, entrepreneurs and others will HAVE to change their mindsets in order to change the game!  You can’t keep doing the same thing!
  3. Everyone is sales… we hear this… but we don’t accept it.  Your people talk; if its bad, it reflects your company and the perception of it!  But companies are not doing anything about it at the moment! You will have to.
  4. Test!  Get out there and test things!  Also, let your marketing people be marketers.  Don’t let your ‘stuffy’ culture effect their creatively.  Why did you hire them?
  5. Mobile and videos.  These are growing significantly.  Just look at the number of people on the phone constantly!  We must take advantage now!

Challenge me back!  I want to hear your thoughts!