Forging relationships with customers old and new will forever be a marketers’ top priority. However, the proliferation of channels has seen them have their work cut out. 

Thankfully, there’s a silver lining. Technology can be the key to unlocking this fragmented landscape, ensuring brands cut through the noise and speak to the audiences that truly matter. 

Redwood BBDO recently attended the B2B Marketing Expo at the ExCel London, an event that focussed on all-things innovation and inspiration in the marketing world. The day was punctuated by a number of talks about powerful tools that, if properly harnessed, can drive long-term growth and engagement. The three sessions that we thought were truly insightful were:

• Unleash Killer Content: Reduce Costs and Increase Engagement
• How to Outperform the Market in 2024
• Social Media - Your biggest channel and your blatant afterthought 

Unleash Killer Content: Reduce Costs and Increase Engagement

Some may argue it’s become a tired cliché, but it’s hard to argue with the facts: content is still king in the marketing world. 

But that doesn’t mean that content alone will carry your advertising activities to success. Andy Johnson, Founder & Head of Client Strategy at HUT 3, believes that it needs to be supported by well-researched data. “Gathering intelligence should be the very centre of your activities. It needs to be considered. By using LinkedIn and other social channels, you can see what your target audience is currently engaging with and the type of content - be it videos, white papers or ebooks - and use that intelligence to create content concepts.” 

Shifting to a data-oriented strategy can deliver greater efficiency and reduce costs, both opportunities too great to pass over in today’s cost-of-living crisis. Staying on this train of thought, Andy advocated that it’s time to stop looking at content as a one-time investment. Rather, it can be the first piece of a larger content puzzle that provides long-term value.

“We create and promote big rock content, and from that we’re breaking messages out to create further outbound and inbound pieces of content. This content is completely ungated, which allows it to drive a lot of engagement. But more importantly, it’s the first chapter.”

Andy rounded his session off by talking about the elephant in the room; the buzzword that can’t be swept under the carpet. “Everyone’s talking about AI, and it definitely has its place - but I’m not suggesting that it should be creating the whole content. Rather, it can shoulder some of the heavy lifting. Ultimately, it can allow us to create content faster and get it to market quicker.”

AI has proven itself to be a nifty tool in the wider marketing playbook; its ability to minimise time-wasting and free-up creatives is well-documented. But shirking all responsibility is a gateway to more errors. Ensuring that your team consistently checks copy remains paramount.

How to Outperform the Market in 2024

Emma Humphrey, Original Genius at Genius Marketing Ltd, used her session to discuss how to drive meaningful change across B2B marketing. Her first point-of-call was to stress the importance of going back to basics. 

“In this tech-fuelled universe, we can forget that we’re selling to humans. Humanity is more valuable than ever before; we want to connect with people and brands. But you can only personalise as far as your data allows. Speak to the person, not the job title.”

Yes, ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools can shoulder the burden of quickly creating marketing comms. However, this is a wasted exercise if it doesn’t capture the target audience’s attention - and this means speaking to their pains and fears. Injecting humour into outreach can also help content feel personalised. 

Emma also identified that during this era of content saturation, cutting through the noise is more important than ever. “There’s hundreds and thousands of pieces of content out there - and in this sea of average, we need to ensure we’re exceptional. But you can’t be exceptional five times a day, five times a week. Rather than caning stuff out the door to look active, identify the piece that is bloody brilliant. Give people a way to be part of the process.” 

Making your brand visible will always be a priority - but the frequency of posting should be balanced. Overstepping the mark can cause your marketing to become lost. Emma rounded her session off by presenting a possible solution to this.“When the world gets shaky, the natural instinct is to play safe. Please, be brave. Make bold choices. We’re all very jaded and bored of seeing the same thing. We need something fresh - and a classic blue sky session could come in handy.”

Social Media - Your biggest channel and your most blatant afterthought

Darryl Praill, CMO at Agorapulse, has dedicated his recent career to driving growth through social. It came as no surprise, then, that he kickstarted his session by spotlighting the channel’s heightened status in the current marketing mix. 

“Demand generation has radically changed. Forms are down - people don’t want to answer phone calls. The question is: how do we respond? Social, digital video and influencer marketing spend are soaring at 53%, 51% and 49% respectively. In contrast, 40% are decreasing their search advertising spend.”

The marketing landscape refuses to stand still, putting the onus on marketers to identify and cater to audiences’ evolving expectations. Talking to them through their preferred channels is crucial to establishing relationships. And if you’re going to persist with more traditional methods, Darryl believes that the very least you can do is shake-up your approach. 

“Here’s the thing when it comes to email marketing. If you’re still sending out “Hi [[insert first name]], we do X, Y & Z…”, you’re going to have the same results you’ve always had. Email marketing is about developing a relationship and rapport. And that means playing the long game.” 

Darryl’s parting words pointed to how marketers can achieve boardroom buy-in for social-first strategies, which starts by laying out the bare facts and stressing the tangible benefits this can provide. 

“When people say social media doesn’t work, you’re going to say social media has the highest ROI. Does it necessarily make the biggest pipeline contribution? No - but I’ve got less people, less budget and have to go where my audience is. And that’s where short form videos such as TikTok come into play.”

Want to find out how Redwood BBDO can create compelling content to cut through the noise for your brand? Reach out to Mark Harrop on email mark.harrop@redwoodlondon.com  to discuss your upcoming campaigns. 

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