{"id":509,"date":"2010-03-25T15:56:47","date_gmt":"2010-03-25T15:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=509"},"modified":"2010-04-25T16:18:34","modified_gmt":"2010-04-25T16:18:34","slug":"the-b2b-marketers-dilemma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/the-b2b-marketers-dilemma\/","title":{"rendered":"The B2B Marketers Dilemma"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A couple of weeks ago, I identified three recurring b2b marketing trends and I shared them with you in this post, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/three-b2b-marketing-trends-to-avoid\/\">Three B2B Marketing Trends (To Avoid)<\/a>. Today, I introduce you to something you are more than likely already intimately familiar with, I am calling it, <strong>The B2B Marketers Dilemma<\/strong>. Here it is.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.b2bbloggers.com\/files\/2010\/03\/TheB2BMarketersDilemma.png\" alt=\"dilemma\" width=\"420\" height=\"180\" \/><br \/>\nAm I right? Pretty close I bet. Quite frankly, if you are a B2B marketer, I think you have the most difficult job in the organization right now. You are likely championing your company\u2019s B2B social marketing media efforts, while at the same time thinking the best approach would be for the entire organization to be asking itself, \u201chow do we become a social business?\u201d Not just, \u201chow do we set up a Facebook Fan page?\u201d If the former were the case, you could spend your time in a more meaningful way than convincing everyone a negative comment on a blog won\u2019t kill you.<\/p>\n<p>The reality is though, you are having to fight that fight, and to me that is just one of the reasons why your job as a B2B marketer is so challenging. But moving beyond those discussions, your most important work is in solving this dilemma for your organization. It\u2019s vital to your success not only as a company, but also as a B2B social media and content marketing professional.<\/p>\n<p>So how do you do it? Here are a few suggestions to get you started.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Reassess all your spending from a buyer persona perspective versus \u201ctarget audience\u201d<\/strong> \u2013 When you have well developed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/humanize-your-marketing-with-buyer-personas\/\">buyer personas<\/a> for the people involved in your buying process (notice I am not saying sales cycle), you know them intimately. You know their online habits, their daily struggles, their education level and much more. Once you get this close to your buyers, you find an entirely different point of view to assess where and how you are spending your marketing and advertising budgets to reach them.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Evaluate the structure and roles of your marketing department<\/strong> \u2013 When marketing is changing as rapidly and radically as it is today, new thinking in required. Now, I\u2019m not talking about \u201cnew thinking\u201d in the sense that you need to come up with some new breakthrough, magical formula. I simply mean looking at the old way of doing things with a 2010 mindset. Apply critical thinking and develop better methods to serve your needs now and in the future. This covers not only evaluating the skill sets of the people working for you, but also their job descriptions and operational responsibilities. Build your department to support ongoing content creation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Talent matters, it\u2019s time to evaluate yours <\/strong>\u2013 Gone are the days when you leave someone on your team, \u201cbecause they have been with the company for so long,\u201d or whatever other reason you may be making for an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.b2bbloggers.com\/blog\/leadership-minute-how-to-spot-a-slacker\/\">under performer<\/a>. In the new world of B2B social media and content marketing, each and every person on your team needs to contribute, every day. If they have the talent, but not the skills, invest in training and help them grow professionally.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Outsource<\/strong> \u2013 I\u2019ve long been a proponent of outsourcing because of its ability to allow an organization to stay focused on it core competency. The same benefits hold true for b2b social media and content marketing. So whether it be outsourcing the creation of a video, white paper, or hiring a writer or editor for your blog, these are sound business decisions and one you should consider if you are understaffed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There you have it, a few suggestions to get you started solving the B2B marketers dilemma. Ultimately though, what lies ahead in solving this dilemma is transformation, renewal, and hard work (lots of it).  But don\u2019t let that prevent you from pressing on. Rome wasn\u2019t built in a day, nor will your b2b social media and content marketing strategy and execution.<\/p>\n<p>Kindly share some of your ideas in the comments on how we can help each other solve The B2B Marketers Dilemma.<\/p>\n<p>Jeremy Victor<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.b2bbloggers.com\/\">B2Bbloggers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A couple of weeks ago, I identified three recurring b2b marketing trends and I shared them with you in this post, Three B2B Marketing Trends (To Avoid). Today, I introduce you to something you are more than likely already intimately familiar with, I am calling it, The B2B Marketers Dilemma. Here it is. Am I &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/the-b2b-marketers-dilemma\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,173],"tags":[22,321,57,322],"class_list":["post-509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-jeremyvictor","tag-b2b","tag-b2b-marketer","tag-b2b-marketing","tag-buyer-personas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":517,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509\/revisions\/517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}