Contribute to B2B Marketing magazine and B2BM.biz
There are a variety of ways you can contribute to B2B Marketing, including features, case studies and best practice or how to guides.
Below you can find all the briefs you need to share your or your products' B2B marketing expertise with our readers. Selected articles can appear in both the magazine and online.
| Brand makeover | Guest blogs |
| Features | Jargon buster |
| Book reviews | Case studies |
| How To/Best practice | Speaker opportunities |
| Submit a press release | Submit content |
| Download 2010 features list |
Brand makeover
Word count: 400 - 500
The ‘rebrand of the month' is a case study illustrating the rebranding process that a B2B brand has undertaken, and demonstrating the visible, graphical incarnations of the new brand.
The article should be attributed to a marketing decision maker working directly for the organisation in question. They don't need to be the marketing director, but do need to have had some direct involvement with the project from a decision making perspective. It must be provided with a photo of the individual who it is attributed to.
The article should be relatively conversational in style, and the following questions must be addressed in this order.
- Who or what are you? What is the company behind the brand? What products/services does it offer? Who does it target?
- What's the problem? Why rebrand? What was the problem with the old brand and how is the rebrand trying to address this?
- What's the ‘big idea'? How does this project relate and tie in with the broader strategic objectives of the organisation? Where did the inspiration come from
- When and how? How was the rebrand actually put into practice? Who did you speak to and through what mediums? What timescales were involved, from planning to ongoing communication? What kind of budgets were involved?
- Did it work? How are you measuring or understanding success? What measurements are being used? Can you prove ROI?
Notes:
The bold questions will appear in the final articles - the standard text appearing afterwards is a guide to help you explain what to write in this section. You don't have to follow this to the letter.
Only ‘clients-side' brands are relevant for this column - brands belonging to agencies or marketing services firms will not be used.
Images: hi-res jpg (at least 300dpi) of the new and old logo and of the person the article should be attributed to.
Features
Scheduled features are largely written by freelancers. To contribute, please check out the synopsis in the forward features section of this site, and email a proposed contribution to the editor Joel Harrison. If this is of relevance, it will be forwarded to the appropriate writer, and an interview will be arranged. Please note: names of authors will not be made available.
Suggestions for forward features are also welcome to Joel Harrison.
Book reviews
Word count: 300 max
All book reviews are approved by the editor and one will be chosen each month to also go in the printed magazine. See an example here.
Reviews should be:
- Written in the first person
- Submitted within two weeks of receipt of the book (exact dates will be issued when the book is allocated and dispatched to a reviewer).
- Submitted with a high res image of the reviewer (at least 300dpi)
- Written in good English with opinions expressed in a balanced, unbiased way - the language style adopted can be fairly informal due to the nature of review writing, but standard English spelling and grammar must always be used (no slang or colloquialisms).
- Please keep in mind that you are reviewing this book for a B2B marketing audience, and to consider your review from this angle.
Reviewers do not need to return the books to B2B Marketing after the review has been written.
Submit a book review or nominate yourself as a reviewer to joel.harrison[@]b2bm.biz
B2B Marketing is always keen to hear about the latest opinions and water-cooler topics affecting the world of B2B marketers. If you, or someone you know, wants to contribute a guest blog you just have to follow these simple guidelines:
- Make it full of personality, your views and your perspective. You don't have to be controversial for the sake of it, but you must believe in what you're writing about
- Think about asking rhetorical questions to stimulate debate
- Don't use it as a platform on which to plug your product or services
- It shouldn't be too long, too technical, too detailed or too impersonal
- Try taking inspiration from recent events, news or topics in B2B marketing
- It sould be 100-400 words, broken up into digestible chunks
Jargon buster
Word count: 250
Click here for an example.
This column is designed to highlight new or emerging ideas or concepts in B2B marketing, broadening readers' horizons in a gently humorous way. It is attributed to one individual, and should be supplied with an email address and pic.
Contributors must suggest their own topic to the editorial team for approval, the more unusual or quirky (but genuine!) the better.
Required:
- [heading - ie. what the name of this is]
eg. Influencer marketing - What does that mean?
- And in English?
- Where does it come from?
[or]
Who invented it? - What does it mean for my business?
- What do I need to do about it?
- How or where do I find out more?
- Jargon rating: [star rating out of five]
- Is it a paradigm shift or just another TLA?
Case studies
Word count: 800
Click here for an example.
These following areas of discussion are essential. Using each point as the basis of a paragraph or at least section is required.
- Who is the client company? What products/services do they offer? To what target audience? Any other pertinent information - please keep this brief, less is definitely more.
- What was their marketing problem?
- Why did they chose to work with the agency/service provider?
- What solution was devised? How did it work and how did address the business issue.
- This section should make up the bulk of the article. It should explain the approach that was adopted, and why this was chosen, and look at any problems encountered and how they were resolved.
- What results were achieved?
- Quote from the client - this must be attributed to a marketing decision maker within the client company.
- Activity going forward - how is the success being carried forward?
Submit a case study
How To/Best Practice
Word count: 900
Click here for an example
These articles are designed to provide marketers with practical tips and guidance on how to achieve a specific marketing objective or business need. This would be made clear in the title. For example: ‘How to... refresh your marketing database'.
They must NOT be a general discussion around the issue with no specific actionable advice - the must deliver clear guidance which is easily accessible.
Structure and style
In terms of structure, to meet the objective of the article, they should be broken down into clearly identified steps or bullet points to help the reader navigate the content quickly and draw out relevant information in the quickest possible manner. This could even be drawn through into the title; for example: ‘Six golden rules for refreshing your marketing database'.
The number of points used could vary between three or six, depending on the subject and the advice on the author's perspective. Obviously the fewer points specified, the more detail will be required.
The article must start with an introduction, briefly explaining the dynamics of the business objective or issue. It is suggested this should be no more than 250 words. The remainder of the article should be devoted to the advice and practical guidance.
It must be written in the first person, and supplied with a print quality (300 dpi) jpg of the person that the article should be attributed to.
Submit How To/Best practice article
Speaker opportunities
If you would like to be a speaker at one of B2B Marketing's regular training workshops and seminars please email events organiser Alexia Maycock.
