Modern B2B Marketing wrote an interesting article recently that I wanted to share with you all. Something to bookmark and keep at hand for those days when you need some inspiration to the marketing senses! We all need it from time to time and B2B Marketers are certainly not immune from it!

Here goes:

1. Seth Godin: The only way to consistently grow in B2B is to be better than very good.

2. Dianna Huff: Engagement versus page views is a new way of thinking about marketing, one that requires a complete mind shift. But I really believe that if you want to bring value to your clients or your company, it’s a shift you have to make — like now.

B2B Marketers are all about their numbers, metrics, ROI’s, HR’s… you name it we measure it! The ‘engagement’ mind shift is definitely happening but all stakeholders need to be educated with this new wave of thinking and equally need to make the shift.

3. Valeria Maltoni: Your writing doesn’t have to be boring just because it’s for other businesses. Businesses have people who read stuff.

Copy writing has come a long, long way and now with the social media explosion, B2B Marketing has been humanised through the blogasphere and the likes of Twitter, by using more personal tone and language. I saw a great talk at Internet World this year from the Marketing Director of British Gas. He illustrated how communicating to their customers through Twitter gave them fantastic insights into what the customers actually wanted. British Gas implemented the ‘phone call before arrival’ as a result, which led to a huge uplift in customer satisfaction. All achieved through speaking to their audience as ‘people.’

4. Jackie Huba: B2B companies may not necessarily create the next iPod or TiVo, but with the right amount of focus and dedication, they can still create word of mouth that gives them an edge over competitors.

5. Chris Brogan: Often, B2B content is written to represent the company. Swell. Except your audience is most likely your customer base and prospects. To that end, write your posts with your customer’s usage in mind. Think about what they will want to know, and how you can be useful.

6. Amber Naslund: In the world of B2B, your professional network is everything. Because your business is about business, the potential of who you know and who they know is where powerful connections happen.

This nicely sums up the power of Linkedin. From our experiences here at Bright Bull, the power of the network has become an essential platform for marketing campaigns – having access to contacts, conversations, discussions, groups, companies. Definitely build these tools into your strategy and campaigns.

7. Brian Solis: Perhaps one of the more understated benefits of social media in B2B is the ability to establish and foster expertise within a given industry or niche. The same tools and services that new influencers leverage to construct prominence and demonstrate awareness are also readily available to anyone with wisdom and vision to share.

8. Dave Jung: While an awareness of the customer’s use of your product is important, repeating what they already know obscures the real information they want. And that’s what B2B marketing thrives on … information.

9. Ardath Albee: You’ve likely heard a lot about creating buyer personas. A persona is definitely a key component in helping you to create successful content marketing programs. This said, with this information you should also be able to recognize who is not a potential customer for your company – regardless of whether or not they downloaded your white paper or attended your latest webinar. What we forget is that personas not only define who our customers are, but they also serve as a reminder of who is not our customer.

10. Thomas Schmitz: Will B2B buyers find your company if they put your industry’s frequent search queries into a search engine? Your website only works when it is seen by potential prospects and leads. Most people find websites by using search engines.

11. Maureen Hall: Business-to-business work is about building a brand from the inside out. The brand message that we communicate to our clients’ business constituents is often the same message that is carried through to the consumers in the marketplace.

12. David Meerman Scott: It’s fascinating how the fundamentals of business-to-business marketing are the same today as they were 50 years ago. It’s still about relationships although today we have new tools and techniques at our disposal.

I would agree to an extent – yes fundamentally B2B Marketing is about relationships, but what about them? Aren’t we much more focused on the ‘quality’ of those relationships now as opposed to the ‘quantity’. Remember the statistically proven rule in business – 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers! We’ve learnt to look after our existing relationships and that’s what the shift has been over the past 50 years.

13. Mac Mcintosh: Of course branding and awareness are also roles that can be played effectively by B2B marketing, but from my point of view these are only supporting roles—secondary to the primary objective of helping drive sales.

14. Jason Stewart: The word “metrics” is almost a mantra when talking to B2B marketers about best practices.

In my early days as a marketing professional, metrics was drummed into my head! I used to wake up in cold sweats thinking of marketing ROIs! Yep it’s all about the numbers… So I have to agree with this one.

15. Mitch Joel: Whether you’re in the B2B or B2C sales side and whether or not your product is a cheap impulse buy or a multi-million dollar long term sales cycle, your business is now – without a doubt – a media company as well.

I’m not sure I’d go as far as saying that! I see the point he’s trying to make. I have to say though that many small businesses have been ‘feared’ into thinking they must jump on the ‘Social Media’ wagon otherwise they’ll be left behind! In my opinion Social Media isn’t for all and doesn’t engage as effectively for some industries/target markets. There are businesses out there that are continuing to thrive without twittering or blogging!

So that’s Marketco’s top 15 quotes. Here are some extra inspirational quotes, courtesy of Bright Bull. Ones that I think should have taken a place in the list:

Kevin Roberts, CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi: is right when he says we should forget B2C and B2B and focus on people to people marketing.

John Scully, President, Pepsico: No great marketing decisions have ever been made on qualitative data.

Some great quotes and food for thought. Enjoy!