Saas Marketer - Finally, Some Good B2B Marketing News

Finally, Some Good B2B Marketing News

It’s about damn time

June 14

I met a friend the other day. I hadn’t seen this friend for over a year, not since we lived together in an awful, chaotic house in London (which was also how we met). I won’t explain why it was awful, but trust me, it was not a fun place to be. My friend – let’s call him Andrew – and myself were essentially each other’s lifeline at the time; throughout all of the craziness, we had each other.

Andrew was an eccentric character, very talkative and, for some people, a bit much. There were even times when he was a bit much for me too, but living in that house made it all seem normal, or at least bearable. It wasn’t until last week, when I’d met him in Birmingham (where I am now) that I came to some realisations.

We stood outside by the canal, having a cigarette as various boats and wild gaggles swam past, bobbing their heads adorably along. Knowing that we had a lot to catch up on, Andrew asked, ‘So, what is your job now?’

‘I’m a Senior Writer for a B2B podcasting agency, and the Lead Writer for a SaaS weekly email newsletter,’ I explained. I soon realised he might not have known what either of those acronyms meant. ‘Do you know what B2B is?’ I asked.

‘No,’ he said.

‘It means business-to-business, so—’

‘So it doesn’t mean anything?’

I looked at him, perplexed with an awkward smile, ‘Well, no, it does. It means businesses working with other—’

‘Oh woopty-doo, businesses talking to other businesses! It doesn’t mean anything!’

He was pissing me off, but I brushed it off. ‘There’s also B2C which means—’

‘Again, it doesn’t mean anything,’

‘No! Andrew, B2C is business-to-consumer. Amazon is B2C. You use it!’ I took a deep breath, ‘SaaS means software-as-a-service, so like—’

He looked at me through his stupidly thick lenses, ‘Again it doesn’t mean anything!’

At this point, I had succumbed to anger. I shouted, ‘Andrew, come on, this is my fucking job! It literally does mean something. Just because you don’t like it, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist or is completely meaningless. We both have similar political points of view, but that doesn’t mean—’

I was interrupted again, but this time not by Andrew, but by five geese, all of which I live next to on the canal. They rose from the water, flew over and lifted him by his shoulders, carrying him farther and farther into the air, the sun creating a gorgeous silhouette until I could no longer see him.

After a few minutes of me panicking, not knowing what to do, one of the geese returned and stood in front of me. It said, ‘Don’t worry about him, he’s talking shit.’ The goose then pointed its wing towards my cigarette and asked, ‘Can I have one?’

‘My g,’ I smirked.

The last few articles we’ve published have felt rather doom and gloom when it comes to B2B marketing budgets. It seems as though every time we bring it up, it’s always followed by some caveat of bad news or disappointment; it’s like every B2B marketer on the face of the Earth is having problems with the budgets they’ve been given, along with the constantly added pressure of proven results and ROI.

But hold on a wee second, because we’ve got some good bloody news for a change! In spite of the currently challenging economic climate, the future of B2B marketing is starting to look optimistic.

After surveying nearly two thousand marketing and finance leaders, LinkedIn has discovered that two thirds of B2B marketers actually expect budgets to grow within the next 12 months! It’s about time, isn’t it? No more scrounging for results anymore (hopefully).

📈 What the Report Actually Said…

Well apparently sixty percent of the CFOs surveyed said they were rather positive and optimistic about their marketing teams’ ability to drive revenue (which makes for a nice change of pace; it’s felt like a lot of businesses have lost trust in us recently). But why? What’s changed? Why are they suddenly switching up on us?

Fear not, because Tom Pepper, Senior Director of EMEA and LATAM at LinkedIn Marketing Solutions (not to be confused with Tom Salt… I’m sorry, that was really quite bad and a massive cheapshot. What was I meant to do? Ignore it like a mature-ass adult? Mr Pepper, if you’re reading this, please find it in your heart to forgive me) has taken it upon himself to explain a few things.

‘In a period where conditions are harder and people are looking at the bottom line and looking for profitable growth, often marketing is a place that organisations will go to make savings,’ he quite rightly says. ‘One of the biggest challenges for any marketer is to demonstrate the value of marketing to business outcomes.’

More specifically, the report says that eighty percent of B2B CMOs feel that they have ‘learned the language of finance’, making it easier for them to really explain and outline to their CFOs why they need more of a budget and why their value to the business cannot be understated, and eighty-four percent said that strengthening these skills has helped CEOs and CFOs to understand their value.

😏 Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking?

I don’t want to jinx it, but the future does look very, very bright for B2B marketing now. There was a moment there, I’ll admit, where it was looking as miserable as Gotham City, but things are looking up!

Tom Pepper also says “Brand is going to be critical for B2B,” he says. ‘In the last year or so, we’re starting to see marketers make the case for the importance of brand and how it drives value for an organisation.”

Branding is so, so important no matter who you are, because it’s just like Pepper says: you’re actually marketing to humans, not businesses. Sometimes we can get so caught up in the process of it all that we forget that behind every faceless consumer and business, there is a person behind it; there is a person driving the decisions and, whilst they may have their business and brand as a priority, it’s our humanity that responds to branding and marketing. The best interest of a person’s business doesn’t mean a whole lot if you can’t communicate to them in an interesting and personable way.

So marketers: get hyped all over again, because big things are coming! If you’ve lost hope these last few months, find it again and market the shit out of whatever your business is. If you’re going to trust anyone, trust Tom Salt… Pepper. I mean Tom Pepper.

Sorry.

Read on the web >>

A Thing of the Week:

I don’t really feel like doing a Copy of the Week today. Sue me. So, here’s something I came across on LinkedIn by Dylan Hey. Here, he lays out a solid structure for your B2B SaaS ad campaign - it’s so useful!

Cheers Dylan, you legend.

Meme of the Week:

Well, there you have it. That’s another SaaS Marketer Weekly all done and dusted. I suppose I’ll see you next week?

Keep growing,
SaaS Marketer

P.S.

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