Top 3 Challenges for B2B Marketers in 2013 via David Meerman Scott

B2B Marketing Hiring, Measuring and Messaging

In a recent Backbone Media webcast, “Top B2B Marketing Trends of 2013,” author, speaker and Hubspot advisor David Meerman Scott highlights three major challenges affecting marketers this year: finding analytics talent, lead-based measurement and “gobbledygook” messaging.

Let’s look a little deeper.

Hire Chess Champions & Wire Service Reporters

Scott says that B2B marketing departments are unprepared for big data and will go through a similar technology phenomenon to the bond traders of the 1980s.

“We have access to incredible amounts of data and we have access to analyze that data in amazing ways,” he says. “But we still have people with creative backgrounds running marketing departments.”

He recommends hiring bond traders and chess champions to meet the challenges of data analytics in marketing.

To address the needs of the growing emphasis on real-time content marketing in B2B, Scott recommends hiring wire service journalists and on-air or production talent to create videos.

Today’s Biggest Marketing Mistake

Scott says “I would ban the use of leads as my measurement of success.”

His reasoning is that it “leads to a lot of wrong choices in marketing departments – how they structure, the way the measure and the way they implement ideas.”

Get Rid of “Gobbledygook”

During the webcast, the panelists discuss major “screw-ups” from 2012 that marketers can learn from and Scott has two recommendations for 2013:

• Although a powerful media coverage strategy, “newsjacking” should be avoided in situations that involve loss of life and devastation, such as Hurricane Sandy.
• Eliminate gobbledygook or useless business jargon. He gives the example of describing technology with words that mean nothing and says it’s a struggle for bloggers and journalists to cover “gobbledygook.”

Next Steps

• Email or call us at 781-704-3121 to discuss adding low-cost video blogging and content marketing to your marketing operations.