The 9th IDM Business Marketing Conference: New world, new values, new customer rules

The role of marketing in driving the business, and the need to have nailed down a robust and well thought out business strategy to underpin your marketing, has never been greater. To achieve results and demonstrate their impact on the bottom line, business marketers need to embrace new and innovative strategies and tactics to engage with their customers (and stakeholders) and integrate them into their existing approaches.

Technological developments and economic challenges have fundamentally changed the way business marketers do business and the shift in power to the consumer has had a profound impact on moving from a push to listen/nurture/respond approach.

Nick Hague, Managing Director of B2B International has been confirmed as a speaker to talk about “Taking account of global cultural differences and understanding the complexities of international expansion”. On the day, Nick will be joined with other speakers including:

• Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mubaloo

• Chief Marketing Officer, Psion

• Marketing Director, Reed Business Information

• Head of B2B Marketing, KLM

• UK and Ireland Brand Manager, IBM

• Head of SME Business Marketing, 02UK

To understand what the new b2b world looks like in 2012, the new values that hold true and the new customer rules in b2b marketing come along on the 24th May 2012 at the Commonwealth Club in London.

For more information visit: http://www.theidm.com/marketing-events/b2b-conference/

Always on the lookout for interesting articles about b2b marketing, we recently came across CeeKue.com, which contains some interesting blog posts.

And a great piece to start off the year is, of course, one that considers how B2B marketing will develop and change over the course of 2011, and how these changes should impact the way we work. So, without further ado, here are the 10 Dos and Don’ts for 2011 B2B Marketing:

1. Do make yourself visible on Social Media and don’t spend all your money on advertising.

2. Do talk about benefits for your customers and don’t talk about your business or your products.

3. Do let your customers decide how to communicate with you and don’t think you are able to educate your customers.

4. Do start building lists and don’t rely on your existing CRM database.

5. Do measure your existence on Social Media and don’t measure website visitors, pageviews and time spend on your website.

6. Do produce as much content as possible and don’t think your work is done once your website is finished.

7. Do make your content sharable and don’t be afraid if people use your content.

8. Do use standard solutions and platforms and don’t stick to your propriate solutions that none of your customers are using.

9. Do listen to your customer and don’t be the only one that is talking.

10. Do forget (most of) what you have done in the past and don’t be afraid to change.

And don’t be afraid if these changes do cost you a lot of money. It is mainly your mindset and the way you think about your customers, market, products and your business that needs to change.

China Business Review

 
The China Business Review, the well-respected magazine of the US-China Business Council, recently published an issue focused on the subject of sales and distribution. B2B International’s Matthew Harrison and Mark Hedley contributed an article on the subject of Marketing and Selling to Chinese Businesses, which covered topics such as:

• Chinese attitudes towards marketing and sales;
• How Chinese companies want to be approached; and
• What Western suppliers should communicate to Chinese customers

This article can be found on the China Business Review website at the following link.

Alternatively, the B2B International white paper Marketing and Selling to Chinese Businesses can be accessed by clicking here.

Figures from the B2B Barometer¹ show that the economic situation for B2B marketers looks optimistic for the future:

Business optimism gradually returning amongst B2B marketers

On the client side:

• Three fifths (60%) anticipate economic recovery within the next 12 months
• Two thirds (66%) expect their own organisation to grow in the next 12 months (up from 50%)
• Three quarters (73%) expect marketing spend to increase; up from one half (48%) last wave.

Agencies are more optimistic, with four fifths (79%) anticipating that they will grow over the next 12 months. For many agencies this represents a significant turnaround in their fortunes; 45% report that revenues have declined in the last 12 months. For others it represents a continuation of an existing trend; 34% report growth in the last 12 months.

Newer media continue to increase share of wallet

Client-side marketers continue to allocate a significant proportion of their budgets to three channels; trade shows (16%), direct mail (13%) and email marketing (16%). ‘Newer’ media channels continue their rise and now account for 41% of total marketing spend (up from 39% last wave).

Increased focus on measuring ROMI

There is a noticeable trend towards measuring the Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI)
from this spend. Two thirds of client-side marketers (65%) now measure return compared
with one half (49%) last wave. Unsurprisingly given this focus on accountability, two fifths
(39%) of agencies report that some or all of their clients measure agency performance using
ROMI measures.

Social media relevant …but B2B marketers lack understanding

Two trends have received extensive coverage in the B2B press in recent months:

• The alignment of marketing with sales
• Social media in a B2B context.

The B2B Barometer sought to explore each area in some depth and has brought fact to an
area where opinion dominated:

• Sales and marketing are becoming more closely aligned. Although 50% of client side and agency side marketers believe marketing still plays a secondary role to sales in B2B organisations, three quarters (70%) of clients report that the two functions are actually effectively aligned. Marketing may play second fiddle but it supports sales well
• Social media is perceived to be relevant in a B2B context. Three fifths (60%) of client-side marketers feel it is relevant to them and two thirds (66%) of agencies feel it is relevant to their clients. And social media is not a fad. Approximately three quarters of both clients and agencies disagree that social media in a B2B context is a passing phase
• However social media is still an area which puzzles many marketers. Two thirds of client-side marketers (63%) have no social media strategy in place; two fifths (41%) cite ‘insufficient understanding’ as the reason for this

For more information visit http://www.abba.co.uk/

 
 
¹The B2B Barometer is compiled by the Institute of Direct Marketing (IDM), the Association of B2B Agencies (ABBA) and Circle Research