Its not the "What" but the "Why" that counts in marketing.

Recently I revisited a rather excellent TEDTalk on How Great Leaders Inspire Action by Simon Sinek. In it he explores why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty?

In studying the leaders who've had the greatest influence in the world, Sinek discovered that they all think, act, and communicate in the exact same way-and it's the complete opposite of what everyone else does. People like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, and the Wright Brothers might have little in common, but they all started with WHY not WHAT.

The principle is simple. Give a vision and a reason for being and you get greater buy in and emotional connection. Tell the WHAT, and you get a 'meh'.

For example, if Apple were like everybody else a marketing message from them might sound like this: "We make great computers. They're beautifully designed and simple to use. Wanna buy one?" Answer : maybe. i.e. like most marketers, they would say WHAT they do, HOW they do it and expect some behaviour.

Instead, they worked the other way round: "Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently (WHY). We challenge the status quo by making products that are beautifully designed and simple to use (HOW). We just happen to make great computers (WHAT). Wanna buy one?" Answer : Hell yeah!

So lets not forget the WHY of what we do and bring that to the fore of our marketing. You might  be sceptical that your business or service has one, but rest assured you do! Your company does stand for something, have a strong point of view on an issue/subject or have a vision for the future. It could be:

• a better way of doing business,
• a desire to rid the world of costs, inefficiencies, inequalities or inadequacies,
• an opportunity to increase access to certain types of services or
• a passion to make people's lives better.

Of course it has to be authentic, but whatever it is, bring it alive in your marketing and start with the WHY not the WHAT.

Why i love B2B Marketing

There’s a great initiative that’s been kicked off by the Business Marketing Collective to challenge marketers in the B2B space to say why they love B2B Marketing.  You can follow the story on Twitter at #iloveb2b.  Here’s my contribution…

I've been doing B2B marketing for a long time. And when i started no-one, but no-one, chose B2B marketing as a career. No-one ever in career classes at school said "You know what,  I have a passion for promoting considered-purchase products & services." No-one went to University with the ambition of being a B2B marketer. No-one even got qualified to be a B2B marketer. 

And lets be honest, most B2B marketers historically fell into B2B marketing. Either by deciding sales wasn't for them or by moving out of general admin roles. But that's all set to change.

I truly believe we are in a golden age for B2B marketing. The old divide between B2C and B2B marketing has gone. The reality is the exciting stuff is in B2B. You get to do all the cool stuff that you envied B2C marketers for: digital marketing, data-driven marketing, content marketing, multi-channel communication, cut-thru creative and more. But you also get to cover multiple decision makers, varying personas and conflicting needs. In short, you have a far more interesting and challenging opportunity.  Forget trying to tug the emotional strings of a mother to buy fabric conditioner. You try instilling confidence in a CFO, a CEO and a CMO that you have a dependable, reliable business service that will drive growth and deliver a customer experience that more than delights their customers.

Now, that's exciting.

Its about logic, emotion, proof, business value, entertainment, ROI, being engaging, forging long-lasting relationships, delivering on promises, exciting customers.

And the best thing? No one has done this before. There's no Madison Avenue playbook, no corporate "way". You're a pioneer. An entrepreneur. An innovator. And you're at the forefront of a new industry. 

And that's why #iloveb2b.

Judging by dmexco, reports of the death of the trade show are greatly exaggerated

Fresh back from attending dmexco (digital marketing exposition and conference) in Cologne I'm once again reminded not to discount the more "traditional" methods of marketing. This particular conference/exhibition has gone from strength to strength. Ten years ago it attracted 200 delegates. This year it was 30,000+. With 800 exhibitors, 60,000 m² of exhibition space, 400 Speakers and 250+ hours of conference program its a beast of an event by any measure.

And (before you say it) its not just students and freelance consultants. Cologne, to be perfectly brutal, is not a town with a large catchment area of business professionals. You have to make some effort to travel there, which means dmexco doesn't suffer from passing trade. Its all pretty well qualified too based on the number of pre-confirmed meetings we had set up before we even set foot in Cologne.

Of course, you have to make the most of the activity. Integrate the event with your existing sales conversations. Set a target for 1:1 meetings and schedule as many as you can before the event. The best events should do the work in getting your target audience in one place.

And don't think you can stand in Aisle 27, Hall 5 and expect to hook in some juicy leads. Get out and about. Walk the floor & get your team to strike up conversations. In fact, if budgets are tight and you can only afford a tabletop & poster, scrap the booth idea and just walk the floor. Or build your presence by some sharp social media activity. Of course, good social media practice applies as ever.  No-one likes, or indeed listens to, "come visit our booth" messages. Opinions, news and views all shared via the event hashtag are an easy start.

So events *can* play a role in the digitally-enabled marketers portfolio. After all the key to great marketing (on- or off- line) is in humanising your brand. People buy from people. And what better way to do that by good old face-to-face communication?

What a PhD student taught me about choosing the right marketing channel

Many of us like to fashionable. I know I do. And when it comes to marketing, many of us don't want to be seen as the dinosaur in the room. So it's easy to get swept along by trends, fashions and the latest shiny things. Whether its a love of the new, or a worry about not being left behind we all feel the peer-pressure to be "contemporary". And no more so than in which communications channel to use. The shift of many to social media makes it seemingly easy to decide that's the right channel for our business and have hurtled into setting up presences on twitter, Facebook, instragram and even woo woo. But hang on, have we really chosen wisely?

When I'm presenting at industry conferences I sometimes share how to best to get hold of me. The example I often give is that when I get a letter at work, I get an email from reception telling me I have something - so infrequent is the post I receive. So my advice to the audience is if you want to get hold of me (a typical middle-aged senior marketing manager in the tech industry living in West London) - send me a letter! Forget email to social media - used good old DM!

So I was delighted to get a letter a few week back from someone who'd heard this speech and sent me something in the post! It was a PhD student called Dave Noble* who was looking for sponsorship. Dave had been a career marketer in the gaming industry but had decided to switch directions do a PhD in forensic psychology with a specialism in cyber bullying.  Kudos to Dave on 3 levels:

1. for being one of the few to actually listen to, & act upon, one of my presentations :)
2. for taking a brave & different career path to most others
3. for researching such an important & under-considered area of our developing online lives.

But what reminded me was how a marketer (Dave) had listened to his potential customer (me) and chosen to communicate with me on my preferred channel. Of course I had been very explicit in him helping understand that fact, but with the marketing platforms available today you can easily understand your customers preferred channels through implicit behaviours (clicks, opens, downloads etc.).

So before diving in and getting fashionable, take some time to listen to your customers and find out where they want to communicated through. You may be surprised.

* If you are someone interested in sponsoring Dave's academic career you can email him at dave.noble37@gmail.com.

What will B2B Marketing Look Like in 2024? #B2Bbirthday

Congratulations to B2B Marketing Magazine, now celebrating its 10 year anniversary.

As part of the birthday celebrations, I was asked to provide my thoughts on what B2B marketing will look like in 10 years from now.

Here they are (more views at b2bmarketing.net/2024).

What do you think?

My dream is that B2B marketing will be a discipline people aspire to build a career in, rather than fall into. And that Cannes Lions will recognize B2B marketing excellence more than B2C.

My hope is that B2B marketers will base more and more decisions on fact not gut-feel, fuelled by greater insights and automation tools to scale out their marketing efforts. We’ll be fully in the land of real time, hyper-personalized marketing based on individual customer behavior. Campaigns and content will be tested on the fly to drive dynamic content at the point of interaction. 80% of marketing budgets will be spent on digital, not events.  And marketing will be seen as driving the business not supporting it.

25 years on from graduation : career reflections from an old alumni

I was flattered to have my old University (Manchester) reach out to me to share my career experiences since graduation for their latest intakes.

On reflection a degree in computer science, a stint in sales and a curiosity about new channels to market continue to serve me well as a B2B marketer in the digital age. And I'm eternally grateful for the time I spent in Manchester, as being scientist at heart is now more than ever the foundation for a career in marketing.

Here's what i said:

What is your current job title, organisation and your main responsibilities?  

I'm currently European Marketing Director for Adobe, the creative & marketing software technology company. I lead the marketing team responsible for raising awareness and driving demand for Adobe's Digital Marketing business in Europe. Our products help marketers in brands such as ASOS, Aviva, BT, Marks & Spencer, Nestle Sky & Sony build compelling & engaging digital experiences for their customers. 

I studied Computer Science at the University and since graduation have worked exclusively in the software industry. I've thought hard about my career and have tried to progressively build it through promotions and moves. The technology space is fast paced and quite fluid, so its not uncommon to move relatively often either through mergers, acquisitions or redundancy. You learn to be quite resilient - the change and dynamism is what I love about the industry 

My first job was for a small financial services software company in London, who I found through one of the "jobs on offer" directories that made the rounds in my final year. It was a Business Analyst role and attracted me as I knew I wanted to be involved with software technology, but at a more business than technical level. They were a small business, but had a graduate intake programme, and after several interviews I was one of two graduates they took into their business.

My next step was to move into sales, then into some of the leaders in software, and then into marketing. I've worked at Oracle, SAP & Microsoft and throughly enjoyed the opportunities given to me at each. I've expanded my remit from UK to European to Worldwide, and also gained invaluable experience at smaller technology businesses in CMO-type roles. 

Recently I've majored at working in digital marketing technology - its an area I can relate to and get passionate about. Adobe lets me bring all of these experiences together - and as I always say, marketing marketing technology to marketing people is a dream job for a marketer! 

How has your degree helped you in your career?  

Invariably software companies have complex, technical products that need explaining to both IT and business folk alike. My degree has stood me in great stead, as my role as a marketer is to understand our products' capabilities and simplify them for our customers. 

Also, marketing is more analytical than ever - so having a science background is a great boost to being able to deal with large amounts of data analysis. It also gives me a natural curiosity around tech - the geek inside me just loves to try out new technology and ideas. 

What is your greatest achievement to date?  

Being awarded "Marketer of the Year" by B2B Marketing magazine. It was in recognition of the work I'd done introducing a marketing automation platform at a start-up I was working for at the time. It was the project itself that I am particularly proud of, as it transformed the ability of a very small business to reach a wider audience than they'd ever dreamt of before. It started my interest in digital marketing technology and changed my career path to one that ended up with my joining Adobe. 

What advice would you give to someone thinking of pursuing a similar career route and what skills/experience do you consider to be necessary?  

The opportunities in marketing are so far ranging - from deeply technical (e.g. SEO, analytics, web development) to project management to highly creative (e.g. brand, design, UX) - so sometimes I need people with very specific technical skills or at least adjacent technical skills. I would advise anyone interested in technical roles to take an online course in internet/digital marketing as a good first step. 

More generally though, I look for people that are strong in three main areas - Change, Curiosity & Risk. I need employees that can respond rapidly to fast moving markets (Change), can help us stand out from our competitors (have the Curiosity to try out something new or different) and are not afraid to fail & learn (are willing to take a Risk). If you demonstrate these three strengths in your experiences then you're off to a good start. 

What did you most enjoy about your time at Manchester?  

I applied to Manchester as I knew it was one of the best for the subject I studied. And I wasn't let down by the quality of the teaching and the platform it gave me to build my career and travel the world. It was also great socially - being a music fanatic I was spoilt for choice in terms of gigs and clubs.

[Video] What keeps me up at night? Change, Curiosity & Risk! #digitalmarketing

From a recent interview with BrightTalk, providing answers to the following questions :

• What keeps me up at night/what are my main marketing challenges?
• How I am tackling them?
• What new technologies can marketers get excited about and why?

It's all about change, curiosity and risk!

Before you get to BIG data, don't forget the LITTLE data in marketing

I was privileged enough to participate in two panel discussions this week - one for Ad Week Europe and the other for BrightTalk*.

Both were for slightly different marketing audiences but both came round to some common topics. Namely what are the big things going on in marketing, what's being over-hyped and what can add value. And specifically, what are those things in digital marketing.

[Side note : I have to say, the concept of "digital" marketing as a standalone thing is now an anachronism. Just face it, such a thing no longer exists. We're just marketing in the digital age. But I'll leave that for another post.]

Naturally the conversation soon came around to Big Data and what that means for marketers. With the rise of huge varieties of data sources (online, offline, location/telematics, quantified self etc.), real-time behavioural information and always-on marketing, its tempting to get blinded by the science.

My point at both sessions was this : we've got enough trouble dealing with the "little data" without worrying about "big data". Too many marketers have yet to get the basics right. As my fellow panellist Adam Sharp nicely put it, there are just four pieces of data a B2B marketer needs to understand/measure to build credibility and success in their business. These are:

• Revenue target
• Average deal size
• Win:Loss ratio
• Average length of sales cycle

From these you can calculate how many deals your business needs, and therefore the number of leads you need to generate. By month or quarter. You can also focus on improvement - increasing deal sizes or reducing the sales cycle.

Get it right and you'll be a hero. You'll also earn the right to flex those creative tendencies and expand your marketing footprint. It's all about getting numbers on the table and proving the business impact of marketing. Get it wrong, and you'll never get anywhere near to iBeacons, leveraging digital "body language" and the whole world of Big Data. 

So, sweat the small stuff first!

Of course, if you want to get some best practice on marketing in the digital age you can attend our Digital Marketing Summit in May in London. 2 days packed with 200 of the finest  speakers you'd care to meet, 3,000 marketers to network with and a kick-ass party to top it all off (Jessie J was the headline act last year). It's going to be a great event.

*By the way these were two of the most enjoyable panels I've taken part in for a long while. Particular kudos to the respective facilitators - Mark Earls and Lindley Gooden. Top guys.

Image : Courtesy of Scriberia Ltd

Personalisation : going back to school

A lot is being talked about personalisation in marketing right now. The need to get relevant. To stand out from the crowd. To target. To nurture. To relate.

For many marketers, with busy days and pressing deadlines, it can all seem too overwhelming. Customer journeys, persona development and CRM strategies just seem too big a mountain to climb. But it doesn't have to be a massive overhaul. You can start small.

Recently my eldest (10 year old) son has been going through the process of sitting entrance exams for a number of schools in the area, for entrance at aged 11. Now for any of you with kids who've been through something similar you'll know what a testing, stressful and painful time this can be. Not only does your child have to be well schooled in achieving the necessary academic qualifications but they also have to perform well in an interview. Yes, that right. An interview.

Furthermore, competition is fierce. At one school, 1,200 children sat the exam for just 120 spaces. At another nearly 200 were going after just 12 spaces. So every parent is looking at ways to excel, and the focus is intensely on doing well, effectively making the case (through performance) that your child is the 1 in 10 the school should take.

But this is not a one-sided transaction. The schools are also doing their best at trying to attract you. Most have an impressive prospectus, a compelling set of historical results and a well-oiled series of open days. Its just as competitive on their side. Its a buyer-seller transaction and they want the best talent to come to their school. So whilst your focus is on "selling", its also difficult to know where to choose (or, in effect, "buy").

Which is why I was impressed by one school that took the opportunity to write to every single child sitting an exam, with a personal hand-written note from the Headmaster wishing them all the best. Not to the kids that made it. Nor to the ones on some shortlist. But to the ENTIRE entrance pool. Which, on a rough calculation, i'm guessing to be at least 1,000 notes. Handwritten in ink. Personalised with each child's name.

Just think of the effort that took. Even if you don't believe the Headmaster wrote the note. Or that he just signed it. Thats still an impressive feat that took days(?) and says a lot about the school's "brand".

And now think about the all the times you couldn't be bothered to write a note on a DM, stuff an envelope, send a personal thank you note to a valued customer or even personalise an email.

Sometimes getting personal is not about big ideas. Its about being smart and thinking about the small things that make the difference. I'm sure you have many just staring you right in the face.

John

PS : Of course, we chose the school :)

The "Manchester United problem" in marketing

Like many football fans I'm currently enjoying a bit of healthy schadenfreude at the situation at Manchester United in the English Premier League.

Here's a team that for over two decades has dominated their sport winning an eye-watering 38 trophies, including 13 Premier League and two UEFA Champions League titles. All under the management of their long serving manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, arguably one of the best ever coaches in any sport. His departure at the end of last season has exposed shortcomings in a team that was clearly held together by management guile and skill. All of which means the club is "languishing" in 7th in the League, with fans calling for major changes, not least the sacking of their current manager just four months into the job.

But perhaps its time to reset expectations? It might be heresy for ardent fans to say so, but maybe Man Utd just won't be the dominant force they once were? The game has changed. Competition is different. It'll never be what it once was.

How many times I have sat in a marketing meeting where we set out the goal to be "Number 1", "the pre-eminent supplier" or "the leading company" in a market, irrelevant of our, or the competitors', capabilities. Who ever says "we aim to be in the Top 5" or "get to Number 2". Like fans of Man Utd, its just not in our DNA.

But sometimes we need that refresh. Why? Because a company needs its employees bought into its future. And if that future is unachievable (like beating Google in Search in 2014, or being the largest social media network in 6 months) then you're going to demotivate staff and ultimately fail.

Don't get me wrong. Its Ok to dream. But employees need to experience success.

And of course ultimately no company (or sports team) dominates a market forever. In technology, who could have seen the fall from top spot in 1980 of IBM, in 1990 of SAP,  in 1995 of Microsoft, in 2000 of Cisco and in 2008 of Blackberry? None of these are the disruptive, thought-leading forces they once were. But, with the exception of perhaps Blackberry, all are still formidable companies.

Marketers have to understand where their brand is in its development cycle and build a vision linked to reality, Only one company can be Number 1. And not every company deserves to get there. The art is having a strategy that's right for the company NOW. Not 5 years ago.

And be careful what you wish for. As a Chelsea fan of many years, I've seen the backlash of success. The photo above shows one of my matchday programmes from the mid-90s, when its fair to say my team was a comical affair. Inconsistent, underachievers, bubbling around in the second tier and woefully without trophies. That season (1995-96) we finished 11th for the third time in four years.

So after decades of frustration the club eventually turned to the deep pockets of a Russian billionaire and in 2003 began a spending spree that ushered in the most successful period in the club's history, dominating the league for three seasons and bringing many trophies to the club for the first time. Money (buying your way to success) and ruthless execution (shutting down games as soon as you get 1-0 up) were not admired. And accordingly Chelsea has enjoyed a love/hate relationship with fandom ever since. Only of course to be superseded by Manchester City who have taken a similar course.

And with a delicious irony, one of the ways Man Utd can now get out of their current troubles is to spend heavily (£200m+) and buy more players. Pot meet kettle.

Finally, here's a prediction. Google, Facebook and twitter will all fall from their Number 1 spots by 2020. If that seems unlikely, I'll give you the same odds as Fernando Torres scoring the first goal in the next Chelsea match away against Hull. Which for many non-Chelsea fans is just as unlikely. Strangely its 9-2. Making both events near certainties :) 

Not easy building a brand is it?