Creating value for professional audiences
A field guide for value creation in B2B.
B2B marketing is at an inflection point — caught somewhere between serious and boring. Organizations are looking to the same best practices, adding to the soup of bland-ness, and caught in revolving conversations of AI and personalization. Meanwhile, as consumers, we’re bored and unmoved by the ads and promotional messages.
How to break out of this tactical rut?
Well, for starters, we need to admit to ourselves what reality we are creating for our consumers and customers — and ourselves.
Second, we need new inspiration and ideas that are pragmatic but effective.
This report is 34 pages of condensed research, interviews, conversations, survey insights and expertise designed to inspire, explore, experiment, and adapt.
WHAT TO EXPECT
A snapshot of the status quo, and how we’re contributing to it, before we begin uncovering and exploring how to create “real” value for audiences.
Personalization, AI-generated content, changing organizational roles — a perspective on the trends and shifts set against the reality of organizational readiness.
The brand is instrumental in this, and we’ll explore its role in the overly tactical B2B marketing playbook.
Creating value looks different for different products. The report outlines the B2B value progression and includes ideas to inspire action.
This report began with my personal dissatisfaction at what we were producing as an industry. I increasingly felt like we were all perpetuating the blandness that is most of B2B marketing today (no shade on anyone, just critical reflection). The same content, same formats, same approaches — for an industry that thinks so highly of itself, we sure are missing the mark onthe most basic things.
Does what we consider added-value really “add value”? How might we rethink our content offering? Are there other ways to engage?
I strongly believe that, as marketers, we have the potential, if not down-right responsibility, to shape our industry for the better. Marketing is creative, innovative, imaginative, fascinating work. Let’s show B2C that serious does not need to be boring.
Good things take time — especially those that involve extensive research, and the development of ideas and frameworks. I decided against publishing a paid version because I want this to be a contribution to our industry.
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