Where would we be in a world without marketing communications?
If we stop and think about the trends we have seen, and continue to see, in how buyers find, investigate and choose potential suppliers the future isn't too bright for any of us. Marketing agencies and marketing professionals in general could well become extinct unless we adapt and evolve.
The death of marketing communications as we know it may well be a pessimistic view of the future, or there again it could be the beginning of something new and exciting. All the research we see indicates a slow but sure move of budgets from outbound communications to inbound marketing, from shouting about your brand to get your buyers' attention to delivering compelling experiences that create online conservations much more influential than any trade ad campaign. But where could it all lead?
Our role has to change but to become what? I believe we are already evolving, here's how:
| From | To |
| Push | Pull |
| Promotion | Publishing |
| Shouting | Listening |
| Response | Responding |
| Persuasion | Infomration |
| Selling | Helping people buy |
The list goes on, but so what? We are currently retained to ultimately build the sales funnel, to aid conversion of prospects to customers and to retain existing customers. Our role has often summed up in four words - find, get, keep, develop.
Beyond thinking suggests that, in a world without Marketing Communications this will change, our role will be to ensure that buyers come across the brands we represent in The Buyersphere, that what they hear about our brands is distinct and positive and consistent, that they find it easy to investigate and evaluate them and that when they are ready to buy, the response is appropriate, relevant and compelling. Maybe our future role can be summed up in four words also - listen, contribute, converse and satisfy.
You could indeed go further. In the broader sense as a B2B agency our role is help our clients sell more. Turn this around and our role becomes helping our clients' customers to buy more. Rather than being paid by clients and representing our clients' interests perhaps in the future we will be paid by buyers and we will exist to represent the buyers' interests. What effect will that have on our business model? And what then is the role of the marketing department? Perhaps in the future, as we try and encourage now, the role of marketing in B2B should be more internally focused, developing and delivering compelling experiences that buyers just can't resist?
3 Comments
John Bottom
Excellent point – but I think where we will end up, as always, will be a balance between the two approaches: outbound and inbound.
With increased information sharing between buyers, marketers clearly have to put more time, money and effort into inbound marketing. They need to start conversations, they need to add value, share opinions, provide impartial and non-salesy information.
But then there will still be a role for a new kind of outbound comms to help 'close' the deal. But in this case, outbound marketing doesn't mean shouting about your brand to get attention. If you've done the inbound marketing job properly you won't need to shout at all, because your prospects will be much closer to you and ready to listen to what you say.
Noël Ponthieux
Well, I do like the idea that my next incarnation as an advertising professional may be 'trusted content advocate' for customers rather than 'undervalued content provider' for clients...;o)
Overall I think B2B marketing can ease into the Buyersphere model quite naturally. Unlike consumer advertising, B2B has always had to provide more valuable content to inform the considered purchase typical of B2B commerce. It's 'only' the media that have changed - that, and the speed and diversity of comms.
Btw, is it compelling experiences or compelling information we must focus on creating more of...or are these integrated? Is the shorthand 'compelling content'?
Content is king...and queen, and descendants!
Simon Christy
A clients "hat on" I'd say marketing agencies are safe for a long-time yet. Marketing teams are getting smaller all the time and the diffusion of customers across new media and comms channels, makes the challenge of running an effective campaign all the more detailed. So we need you guy's.
I think the biggest challenge for Brands is to be Genuine. This fits with "listen, contribute, converse and satisfy". With internal pressures for sales, and myopia of loving your product, it's not always easy for a client to produce a Genuine marketing message. So our agencies have to listen, converse and satisfy - in a genuine way - both client and customer.
p.s. I stumbled into BaseOne website today, great to see you going great guns. Hello to Richard, John, David and Sarah!
Reply