B2B professionals reveal their most-wanted content

07 Jun 2019

How do B2B professionals like to engage with corporate content?

 

According to a study by content and demand marketing platform BrightTALK, 91% of professionals prefer engaging with webinars over other types of content.

 

These engaging, interactive, real-time presentations were found to help B2B professionals stay up to date with what’s happening in their industries and better solve specific organisational problems.

 

The study also revealed that B2B marketers are keen to engage with industry articles (60%), whitepapers (48%), and blog posts (42%). Food for thought, then, if you’re still trying to work out where to direct your content marketing efforts for the rest of the year.

 

B2B Marketing is becoming more and more like consumer marketing

 

There has long been an assumption that B2B marketing is less creative, innovative, and fun than its B2C counterpart. But research like the BrightTALK survey increasingly suggests otherwise.

 

Everyone knows that creativity drives effectiveness and that emotion in advertising is the key to success. So why would we want to treat B2B and B2C marketing differently?

 

Things are starting to change.

 

Sarah Windsor is a senior consultant at Stopgap and has seen a shift in B2B marketing. She explains: “In our current culture, B2B has become more informal. The tone of voice isn’t dry – instead, it’s becoming more and more like consumer marketing.”

 

Sarah often hears candidates describe B2B as ‘intellectually challenging’ and ‘strategic’. She describes the process of understanding how different businesses work and what drives them to invest in a product or service as both a learning curve and an exciting challenge.

 

“With so many different industries and decision makers in B2B, marketers need to be innovative,” she adds.

 

They also need to bring a different skillset to the table.

 

Caroline Simmonds, a senior consultant at Stopgap, explains: “There are a number of skills that are transferable across professional services, such as building and nurturing long-term relationships, focusing on client engagement, account-based marketing (ABM) and thought-leadership.”

 

Of course, the skills marketers require will depend on the type of organisation. “While some B2B marketing will be very transactional, other B2B campaigns focus more on long-term investment and loyalty,” explains Sarah.

 

In terms of how this translates into what businesses are looking for in candidates, she offers some advice: “Retention-based, customer-focused marketing is becoming a greater priority for some, but the majority of roles still have a focus on lead generation and acquisition.”

 

Would the B2B sector work for you?

 

So, what are the benefits of a marketing career in the B2B sector over B2C? Caroline points out that many B2B marketing teams are smaller than you’d get in B2C – and sometimes more varied. “A marketing manager will be hands on across a huge variety of channels, so quick learning and progression are common.

 

“Also, the salaries on offer are often significantly higher, especially across property, professional services, finance and tech.”

 

A career that offers the chance to be creative and innovative, has rapid progression options and pays well. What’s not to like?

 

Are you looking to take your marketing career to the next level? If you have what it takes to build authentic connections through engaging, informative content and use your skills to inject more fun into B2B marketing, we want to hear from you.

 

Speak with the Stopgap team today to find out how a career in B2B marketing could work for you.