Good morning!
I rethought this note for the back end of 2022.
First, the story:
Why should people care about B2B marketing? That’s where all the money is! 💵 💵
Why it matters: B2C marketing has always been the sexy part of marketing. But new data shows that B2B marketing is where it is at.
- Healthcare marketers will spend $1.4B on ads in 2022.
- B2B growth in Asia is estimated to be north of 12%.
- Marketing trade journals have started covering B2B seriously.
How we got here: B2B marketing has been underfunded…for years. In most businesses, the C-suite doesn’t trust their marketing team because marketing has been positioned as:
- The coloring-in department.
- Too tactical.
- The folks that are fun, but you don’t know what their job is.
Change the conversation: B2B marketers can change their perception:
- Focus on strategy: “Where to play? How to win?”
- Talk about profits: A 1% increase in price can grow profits 8%+.
- Emphasize brand power: Show that the choice isn’t sales v. brand, but both.
Strategically speaking: To win in B2B, executives need to:
- Focus on value: Contextual differentiation is where you’ll win.
- Challenge the status quo: B2B doesn’t have to be boring.
- Marketing matters because that is where the money is. So act like it.
What I’m doing? Each morning, I read articles that will help me be better at strategy. I make notes that I might not use ever again.
Instead of doing that and piling up notebooks full of random asides, I challenged myself to analyze one story a day. That’s what this is.
One story, with my analysis and actions: condensed so I force my thinking to be clearer and so that what I share can be digested in 2 minutes or so.
If you enjoy it, let me know. If you really enjoy it, share it.