Hey, listen up. We’ve got a bone to pick with you!
Now, we get it - it’s not anyone's fault. But as B2B marketers, we’ve been getting something wrong, and it’s time to put things right.
The role of a B2B marketer has been confused for a long time. As said by Chris Walker, CEO at RefineLabs, B2B marketers haven’t actually been doing any actual marketing for a while.
Instead, we’ve been acting as a boring, subservient extension of the sales team.
Hell-bent on generating leads and contact data for sales.
Completely restricted to activities that can be 100% tracked and attributed.
Stuck on the merry-go-round of producing e-books, gated content campaigns and list building.
But there’s another way. One that opens up doors to creativity and fun in B2B marketing again. And it doesn’t leave sales in the lurch - no, it helps them too. A real life win-win.
Keep reading to find out how to unboringify (yes, that’s the technical term…) your B2B marketing.
Reject the role of sales support
Unsurprisingly, one of the problems with marketers being pigeonholed into running around after sales is that it’s boring. For everyone!
The marketers who got onto the career path hoping to flex their creative muscles are left unsatisfied and underutilised.
The business is hand-to-mouth, not building long-term plays to benefit the overall health of the funnel, stunting its growth.
Relationships between marketing and sales can become fraught.
Sales aren’t actually getting leads with any real buying intent so sales conversations are a slog.
And buyers are underwhelmed with the same average content download process - slowly chipping away at their faith in B2B companies.
Then of course there’s the reputational damage that could hang like a weight around your neck.
Because you can’t make the impact you know you’re capable of because you’re spending weeks on jobs that don’t actually fall under the ‘marketing’ bracket.
Even if you wanted to leave, that's not much of a legacy to take with you into a new role.
So we ask you.
Are you fed up with being perceived as sales support staff?
Being stuck in the ‘colouring in department’, working on menial aesthetic changes, rather than anything that drives demand or revenue?
Being underestimated, undervalued and disrespected for marketing's true capabilities?
Good news is, there’s no reason you need to be bogged down with boring B2B marketing activities anymore.
You can change your tact, refocus on proper marketing. After all, sales can only talk to so many people… When marketing is done right, it has reach and scale.
Why MQLs anyway?
Thing is, there are so many tools, platforms and technologies to save marketers from the mind-numbing tasks they’ve been stuck doing.
In all honesty, why were marketing collecting leads in the first place?
A decade or so ago, sales didn’t have the contact data they needed ready at hand to outreach.
And marketing had much fewer options for channels to reach potential future customers. Social media certainly wasn’t available yet, and communication with customers was generally a lot more difficult.
At the time, email was king. Inboxes weren’t overloaded like they are now, so collecting email addresses and other contact details for sales and marketing to use was a priority.
So marketing stepped in. In exchange for a gated piece of content, they created a process of collecting email addresses and phone numbers to pass onto sales. Although, this often came without any qualified intent data.
The assumption being that if you brought in a target number of MQLs, they would filter down into revenue further down the line.
But, all too often the person downloading the content had zero intention of actually buying the product.
They only wanted what looked to be a good piece of content, and were willing to share their contact details for it.
Later, when salespeople reach out, they’re faced with a sales conversation they hadn’t bargained for.
Prospects learned if they didn’t want to be contacted in future, not to fill out the form. And so started the beginnings of this process becoming less effective.
Now, we’re in a completely different time, a new world. We have completely different tools at our disposal. Technology has moved on, but B2B marketing hasn't caught up.
It’s a case of continuing to do things the way they’ve always been done, because that’s how it's always been done. Rather than thinking critically about the best way under new circumstances.
There’s no need for tradition here!
Once you free the marketing team from creating e-books, gating content and building lists. The whole realm of marketing activity changes.
Instead, marketers can focus on driving qualified high-intent buyers.
They can make content that educates customers about the problems the company solves. This builds brand awareness and affinity.
By creating a narrative that speaks to the market, they create demand, which in turn makes sales conversations much easier.
Long story short, win rates go up, sales cycles go down, and generally, business gets better.
The role of an unboring B2B marketer in a demand generation era
What’s the beauty of marketing being demand driven and accountable to revenue we hear you ask? It’s simple. They get a genuine seat at the table, and are taken seriously by senior staff.
Most importantly, they get to start doing real marketing.
Because the main role of a marketer is understanding the customer you serve. Being aware of their needs and wants should be priority number one..
The old methods of collecting leads are seller-centric. It doesn’t consider how buyers actually buy.
Proper marketers learn about customer behaviours first. Then you can use this knowledge to create messaging and content that drives demand.
Strive to become a media machine that reaches a wide audience over time. You can do this by providing value upfront and building trust in your company. That way when your buyer is ready, you will be at the front of their mind.
The biggest benefit of being free from the boring lead gen activities is the time it gives you to experiment.
Testing new ideas. New content. New channels. New processes.
Because marketers need to be on the pulse. The market is always changing, so too must your strategies and tactics.
You need to find new ways to get your message out there in the most creative way to stand out from the sea of other people fighting for centre stage.
This isn’t just going to be more interesting work for the marketers themselves. It's also going to be the difference between finding new ways to attract customers or being left in the dust by your competition.
And ultimately, having a real impact on generating revenue and pipeline.
Sounds alright, doesn’t it?
Press play below for more ways to build a Demand Gen B2B marketing machine! ▶️
Become an unboring marketer
Having reliable sources of contact information is still important - don’t get us wrong. But it shouldn’t be down to marketing to generate.
And it certainly shouldn’t be taking time away from the creative people in an organisation who can really pave the way to something better.
Instead, leave the boring stuff to a sales intelligence provider. That’s what they’re there for.
Feel free to take a look at some of the most popular sales intelligence companies here.
Or, head straight for the best. Speak to a Cognism expert today.
