How wrong I was, and this was mostly down to the panel (Fabio Torlini, Rob Pierre, Richard Bush and Chris Warwick) who were excellent, made very compelling points and debated with each other in a determined if light-hearted fashion. And praise where it’s due, it’s also down to the IDM, whose event team timed the debate excellently to provide a bit of light-relief before lunch, and dreamed up the ‘Can’t cook, won’t cook’ style voting system, which got everyone going.
But most importantly, the success of the debate was down to the audience, who were clearly thoroughly engaged by the debate and participated wholeheartedly. To my mind, this demonstrated that social media has genuinely captured the imagination of the B2B marketer. Like most things in marketing, it has its origins on the B2C side of the fence, and the best-known examples of social media exploitation are still in this arena. But sites like LinkedIn and Ecademy demonstrate that it can work in B2B, whilst brands like Quark and the FT are experimenting with their niche flavours of social media.
On the day, the audience overwhelmingly came out in favour of social media usurping PPC, which was a surprise to me at least in the strength of feeling. But what does this mean? I don’t think we should get carried away into thinking that social media is the right tool for all B2B brands right here right now, and that brands in all sectors and all sizes will be racing to develop their own platforms. Leveraging the full potential of social media or Web 2.0 is simply out of reach of the vast majority of brands, due to the costs and time commitments involved. If you thought blogging was a bit of a hiding to nothing, social media’s on a whole different level.
What it does demonstrate is that B2B marketers are awake to the possibilities of social media, and will watch how experiments by the pioneers with the big budgets develop and how successful they are. If it’s as powerful as we all think it is, in time opportunities will emerge for brands at all levels, probably on a tactical level first, potentially using other media channels to market.
I think one of the best things about marketing is its ability to get excited about the next big thing, and social media, it seems, is most certainly it.
Recently I had a sales person calling me non-stop, leaving messages everywhere, and all I could think was - I’m too busy to get back to him and wish he wouldn’t waste my time with all these messages, then I left another voicemail for someone I was chasing up.
So my Eureka moment came. In the last two weeks I have been calling people back just to let them know I am not looking at X service and am very happy with my current suppliers.
The result – I don’t have ten email messages and lots of voicemails waiting for me every time I come out of a meeting, and people in my team haven’t left dozens of post-it notes on my screen for someone who has called me five times. This makes me hope and believe that this person is no longer chasing me and can now concentrate on a real and valid prospect.
I have spoken with a few people about this latest phenomenon, there seems to be a consensus that there has been a drop in manners over recent years. When we talk about B2B being about developing and maintaining relationships, it seems we have forgotten how to interact with our fellow man and that technology is leading to these faceless interactions and a degradation of manners across the board. I know we are all busy, but are we actually wasting more time by not calling someone back, even if it is to say, “I can’t look at it right now but let’s talk in six months”.
It has become far too easy to drop someone an email or send a text message and think right that’s the end of that. If someone has spent the time to write a ten-page proposal for us then do they not deserve at least some feedback and constructive comments?
One group of people who suffer more than most is the sales or business development teams. I think we all need to start offering them a little bit more courtesy and respect because they are people too (including recruitment consultants).
I have also noticed this trend for my Relationship Management team. Many of them have been called out to help on an urgent project and invested time on finding a solution and pulling together a team and then, nothing, radio silence, maybe for several weeks. The reasons for the project going on hold are valid, i.e. another project has taken priority, budgets cut etc., but the silence does nothing to develop a proactive can do attitude from your Account Manager, a simple call to on the current status would go a long way to maintaining a good working relationship.
People are now dating on line because they don’t have time to meet people, I just hope we are not getting too busy using these online tools that were meant to make communications easier to actually listen and respond.
I had hoped to write a few words about the IDM B2B Marketing Conference 2008 the day after the event [8 April 2008]. However, my hangover did not permit it – post event drinks are a must! Now it is Monday, I am feeling fresh and ready to share my thoughts…
We are big fans of the IDM. Over the past few years, they have made a great effort to cater for the needs of the B2B marketer. Not only do they run specific B2B marketing courses, but they also run this quality annual B2B Marketing conference.
It is hard work putting together an event programme, which is relevant to the wider B2B marketing audience – as the profession is huge and demands and needs vary massively. This year, the IDM managed to arrange an appealing and diverse mix of material, from covering an award winning campaign from the B2B Marketing Awards to Web 2.0 tactics and social media. The content was very well selected, with each area being current and poignant.
The highlight for me was the panel debate on Social media. They were a strangely attractive panel this year, not that that had any impact on how engaging the material was, but it was noted at how B2B is glaming up!
There is one thing though… there are at least 150,000 B2B marketers out there in the UK alone, yet this annual event only attracts 200 people. What is that all about? The event is really well run, well promoted and the IDM have a trusted brand in the market. I do not think the numbers reflect badly on the IDM nor the marketer, but the question I pose is where were the rest of you?
Is it that the B2B marketer is not motivated to go to conferences, per say, or he/she is looking for a different approach, maybe something more focused, or maybe companies are not supporting the marketer [financially] to attend? My money is on the latter.
Continual professional development within B2B marketing is essential, as times are changing rapidly. Understanding and harnessing new techniques and technologies are essential for continual growth – just knowing your 4 P’s is history. Marketers are not cheap to employ, so getting the most out of them/us can only be achieved by further ‘intellectual’ investment. Sales teams, lawyers, doctors, engineers etc all go to regular conferences to make sure de-skilling is avoided. OK, some professions have to go to events, due to legislative enforcement via CPD points, but the principle is the same. In short, an informed marketer will bring more to your business than one locked away in a cupboard.
In short, great event IDM and B2B Marketing is very proud to be a media partner and we look forward to watching its success in the future.
What is the B2B buzz word or phrase of 2008? The other day, I read that just as Web 2.0 was the hot topic of 2007, this will be the year of Web TV. True – lots of business brands are latching on to the medium – Deloitte, HP and Tenon all immediately spring to mind – but it got me thinking about what else might end up emerging as the B2B ‘toy’ of choice for 2008.
Now I’m not a marketing expert so I don’t know the answer – but I am a journalist so I’m interested to find out. So I thought I’d put the question to you experts out there; tell me what you think will be big this year. Since everybody seems to love i-Pod’s, is podcasting the new best way to do direct mail? Or are you all planning virtual events? (Personally, the idea of attending an exhibition where the speaker is a ‘not really there’ 3D hologram scares the hell out of me but all the same, I’d be interested to see how it works). Maybe this is the year that Bluetooth will have its moment in the spotlight, now that it’s been removed from the ICO’s list of regulated opt-in media.
Personally, my money is on mobile marketing taking off in the B2B space in some way, whether its through Bluetooth or otherwise. I can’t give you any stats for it, but I’d be willing to bet that most people – especially the business types you see glued to their high-tech Blackberry’s on the train, bus or street, spend more time looking at their phones in an average day than they do a newspaper or the TV. Plus, your phone is with you all the time. I bet anybody reading this is closer to their phone right now than they are their copy of the morning paper, radio or TV.
I don’t think the opportunities for B2B will be as obvious as beaming ads in return for free calls, like is all the rage in B2C land. What I think will be interesting for business brands is the ability to network using their phones, conference style. Look at LinkedIn’s new launch of a mobile service – they obviously think they’re onto a trick there.
Which reminds me of another trend that I definitely think the B2B space will start to own this year; social networking. We all seem to be getting a bit Facebook fatigued, but business networking sites are rising steadily in popularity, and the trend seems to be to set up a site aimed at a specific niche. It makes sense as far as I can see – I’ve thought for a while now that in the consumer space, Bebo will soon overtake Facebook because Bebo is aimed at more of a niche – i.e. the teen market, whereas Facebook tries a bit too hard to be all things to all people. In the B2B space, the likes of the FT and Adobe who are setting up social networking sites to target certain industry sectors are in with a good chance of making something sustainable that might well be around long after everyone has grown tired of sending each other boozemails or imaginary fish on FB.
Anyway enough about my predictions – what are yours?