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Purestone
Breakfast Briefing 1:
13th February 2013.

Digest of Discussions.

This was the first in a series of Breakfast Briefing's Purestone will be hosting @ Shoreditch House throughout 2013. The idea behind these sessions are to bring together senior B2B marketers to discuss a range of different topics in a relaxed and open environment. This first session welcomed brands such as Google, Rackspace, Saleforce.com, Hay Group, LV, Norton Rose and Sodexo as well as members of the editorial team from B2B Marketing Magazine.

Q1: Is the B2B landscape more challenging than it's ever been?

a. 100% Yes

Some of the reasons why?

• Longer sales cycles
• Measuring leads rather than revenue
• B2B marketers are struggling to justify marketing spend, so the metrics for measurement are wrong

Q2: My current outlook for ROI from B2B marketing is more positive than for 2012?

a. 66.7% Yes

a. 33.3% No

Question - 'Is marketing represented on the Board of clients businesses?' Most said yes.

• By observation, we are starting to see an increased involvement of IT based roles in marketing projects and strategies
• James Smee (Purestone) said that when the agency is pitching for new business, the mix of people on the client side is evolving with the 'creative technologist' becoming more common

B2B marketers are more challenged than they've ever been. Do more, with less. However, this is offset though through an increasing confidence in being able to deliver and demonstrate ROMI and in general a greater appreciation of marketing's role within the organisation.

Q3: Does the board appreciate and understand the importance of marketing?

a. 75% Yes

b. 25% No

Q4: My Board are realistic in their expectations of what I can deliver for my marketing budget?

a. 65% Yes

b. 35% No

• "Our business does have realistic expectations"
• "Xxxx are a sales led organisation. We work on a cost per sale model and have a monthly revenue growth target"
• "Xxxx are targeted on growth. Budgets change based on projected revenue meaning budgets change every quarter and marketing budgets are likely to be pulled or needed to be ramped at short notice"
• Simon Butler (Purestone) observed that, for both, this moving target requires a tactical management of marketing campaigns – and a risk of a disjointed strategy
• "The challenge of getting brand name out there – whilst most businesses don't understand the methods of marketing that necessitate budget"
• "We were built on lead gen traditionally, now moving towards self-service where no sales people are involved. Sales people are targeted on sales but CPA is lower for self service, so how to motivate / target traditional sales model?"

B2B marketing is still continually challenged to demonstrate both short term tactical wins around demand generation as well as build bigger picture, longer term strategies such as brand awareness.

Q5: I have accurate, current profiles for my key customer & prospect audiences?

a. 16.7% Yes

b. 83.3% No

Q6: I have rich data sets on customers and prospects?

a. 100% Yes

• "Xxxx have good data on customers but not on prospects"
• "It's easy to lose sight of looking after current customers whilst in pursuit of new prospects"

James Smee ran through a reference piece of profiling & persona journey definition

• "That 'classical marketing' point of view is dangerous – we look at segments of 1 – unique, individual customers. Marketers should be targeting users in this way, through personalisation, etc."
• "I think that B2B marketers need to sift to this point of view quickly"
• Alex ( B2B Marketing) asked if any B2B brands were currently doing this well – the consensus was no
• "Technology is progressing faster than marketers and they we need to catch up"

Good quality customer and prospect data remains a thorn in the side of the B2B marketer. This is prohibitive when looking to embrace some of the more sophisticated technologies and techniques that utilise personalisation effectively.

Q7: Do social media and consumer experiences change audience expectations of B2B brands?

a. 100% Yes

• James Smee described blur between work and personal life and how in 'work mode' users expect a seamless experience between consumer and B2B comms
• Comment "I have been targeted on my personal Twitter account for business events, in fact such as #purestonebb1
• James Smee ran through the case study of '1 of a kind' for JC Decaux

B2B marketers are starting to realise that the combination of social media and advancements in technology are influencing B2B audience expectations. As a result strategies and campaign techniques used in the B2C space can potentially be adapted to deliver game changing results

Q8: Content marketing will make up a considerable amount of your 2013 budget?

a. 66.7% Yes

b. 33.3% No

Q9: I plan to or will increase my budget for 'content marketing' in 2013

a. 100% Yes

• "The observation that content isn't just digital , but covers offline too & the re-purposing of content both on & offline is crucial"

Content marketing remains a central focus for B2B brands in 2013 with an increasing amount of budget being aligned to it. There is a widespread appreciation that content needs to be relevant and targeted to meet the needs of audiences if it's to prove truly effective.