The Reports of B2B Marketing’s Demise are Greatly Exaggerated
This post was going to be a direct refutation of the assertion by Rick Segal, President of GyroHSR, that B2B marketing is obsolete. But before rereading the B2B Magazine article, “Is B2B Marketing Really Obsolete?” by Sean Callahan, I did a quick Google search [B2B marketing is dead] to see what others had to say.
The search results made me laugh. Here I thought I was being way cool and timely and following David Meerman Scott’s advice with regard to real time marketing . . . . and dozens of people have already beaten Mr. Segal to the punch.
Judging by the search results, everything is dead, from traditional marketing and white papers to SEO. (Whether Elvis is dead is questionable.)
Here’s the deal: B2B marketing is definitely NOT dead! B2B marketing is alive and well and thriving, thank you very much.
What is dead, however, is the ability for high-overhead agencies and clueless consultants to pass on crappy marketing advice — and then charge mega dollars for it (case in point: an SEO firm charging $4,000 a month for regurgitated Google Analytics reports, cough, cough).
Why is that? Because now everything is measurable. In the old days you could get away with suggesting a huge ad spend in trade journals and then design image ads where you can’t even read the URL and even worse, sending people to the home page versus a (trackable) landing page. Not anymore ducks.
(The above link goes to a great Chasers column in B2B Magazine about print being the doorway to the Web. Be sure to read it.)
What do you think? Is B2B marketing dead or do you agree with me that it’s alive and thriving? Leave your thoughts below.
(Image by Frances Ellen Speaks!)
About the author: Dianna Huff
A B2B web marketing expert, Dianna helps B2B companies grow through SEO, marketing writing, and social media. A frequent speaker, Dianna has been quoted in numerous blogs, books, and articles; her client list includes large and small B2B companies across the U.S. Follow her on Twitter @diannahuff. To receive her e-course on creating great B2B marketing content, subscribe to her newsletter, The MarCom Strategist.
January 27th, 2011 at 7:10 am
The crux of Mr. Segal’s argument seems to be that because it is possible today to reach people as individuals instead of representatives of a company, you should focus on that.
It is true that people are now more than ever “oscillating between their work life and their personal life”, We as marketers and marketing communicators should, however, respect that distinction.
Customized content has been around for some 30 years at least, but what I fear many of the “talk to people” proponents are actually doing is inventing new ways of invading their potential customers’ personal lives with business content. You have to be extremely careful with that. For example, if my local supermarket approaches me with their weekly specials while I’m on holiday abroad, the message will do nothing but irritate me. A simple example, but illustrates the fact that in order to succeed with the new paradigm as suggested by Mr. Segal, marketers will need to know a lot more about their potential than they can today. With the increasing privacy concerns, I don’t think it will be possible in the foreseeable future.
What it boils down to is HOW MUCH and IN WHICH SITUATIONS you as a marketer can interrupt people’s lives without alienating them from you. That’s why there will always be a distinction between marketing to businesses (catching people in their business mode) and marketing to individuals.
In the B2B Magazine article, there’s an excellent comment by Ian G. Heller (4th from top), which I recommend reading before jumping on the Catch People Wherever and Whenever bandwagon.
February 1st, 2011 at 2:25 pm
Bad B2B marketing was always dead.
Good B2B marketing is as alive as it ever was — and I include the person-to-person marketing that is the heart of great B2B.
February 1st, 2011 at 3:19 pm
Thanks, Doug!
February 23rd, 2011 at 10:02 pm
Nice article. I agree with you that B2B marketing is not dead.
I will admit that it has changed radically from outbound marketing (cold calling, direct mail, etc.) towards inbound marketing (internet, SEO, social media) and requires a lot more work than it used to develop new content and stay on top of electronic marketing.
Hugh Duffy
February 24th, 2011 at 1:47 am
Hugh — Thanks for the nice words. I agree marketing has changed but the old ways still work. The problem is that most marketers do them incorrectly.