Key takeaways from B2B Ignite

Recently, the Gloo team attended the B2B Marketing Ignite 2019 conference in London. There were several themes that kept cropping up during the course of the day. We’ve compiled our key takeaways for B2B marketers.

Find your why

We’re getting a little tired of hearing about Simon Sinek’s infamous Ted Talk, but the notion behind it is valid. Too many B2B companies don’t have a clearly defined sense of purpose. It’s easy to talk about what you offer customers and how you do it — but can you explain why you do it? We’re talking about reasons beyond financial reward. Discovering your bigger purpose means thinking about the impact you want to have on your sector, your community and your world. A clearly defined purpose will strengthen your brand, inspire your customers and galvanize your employees. 

Tell better stories

Another recurring theme was the perceived lack of good stories in B2B marketing. Some speakers argued that B2B marketers lack the rich insights that are everywhere in B2C — it’s not as easy as targeting people on Facebook based on their relationships, interests and values. Relying on bland data points like revenue, job title or office location inevitably leads to boring campaigns. But it’s also easy to forget that B2B buyers are human too. They crave narratives and emotional connection just like everyone else. It’s time to focus on telling better stories — not just selling products and features.

Take bigger risks

The need to experiment and push boundaries was another big theme which got a lot of heads nodding. Too often B2B marketers are driven by metrics, and will only try campaigns that have worked in the past. There can be an element of luck in finding what works, and you’ll never make that piece of viral content if you’re not willing to do something that hasn’t been done before. This also means you need to manage your stakeholders expectations carefully. We’ve all fallen into the trap of creating bland, predictable content because we know that’s what will get signed off by certain clients. But you have to take serious risks to get noticed in our content-saturated world.

Posted by John on 11 July 2019