The great and the good from the world of B2B Marketing gathered in London yesterday as B2B Marketing Magazine hosted its <a title="B2B annual conference" href="http://www.b2bm.biz/events/B2B-Marketings-Annual-Conference-A-brave-new-world-Digital-marketing-in-the-21st-century/" target="_blank">annual conference</a>: <strong>'A Brave New World: Digital Marketing in the 21st Century' </strong>'I was also there as part of my relentless quest to seek knowledge, learn a thing or two and enjoy a fancy lunch served in a box. As always there were some excellent presentations and some valuable insights gained into digital marketing and beyond. Here's a few of my favourite nuggets mined from yesterday's event. <strong>Be passionate and curious </strong>Marketing and Creative people should be both. Not one or the other - and if you are neither then you're not reading this anyway.<strong></strong> <strong>Getting better </strong>There are a lot of people in our organisations and amongst clients who want things to get better but not to change. We should be passionate and curious (see above) and encourage experimentation.<strong></strong> <strong>It's not about our products </strong>It's about those people we are targeting. The prospects and the customers - we must have their interests at heart and focus on crafting high quality and relevant communications that offer something of value to them. <strong>Better beats more </strong>Simple but true. Doing more and more average stuff means you're just contributing to the junkyard. So don't. <a title="Do More vs Do Better" href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/11/do-more-vs-do-better.html" target="_blank">Seth Godin recently blogged</a> about this from a management and leadership perspective.<strong> </strong> <strong>Pictures are stupid in an email </strong>Well, they are for some it seems and it's a long-held position of mine too. Isn't good email marketing about compelling and relevant <em>words</em>? Pictures can just get in the way, that's if they are seen at all. Or to look at it another way bad content won't be any better because you added some nice images. <strong>Don't dive in to online communities and start selling</strong> Would you turn up at an event like yesterday's and hand out flyers to people you had never met? Get to know people. Join the conversation and start engaging. <strong>Soon everyone will know everything</strong> Merlin Stone is a Professor. He knows a lot about B2B Marketing. That amount is a heck of a lot more than me. And probably a heck of lot more than those people who know a heck of lot more than me. The Prof is always good value and keeps his fascinating presentations short and sweet. Yesterday he closed the conference with a keynote about<em> 'Brand Transparency'</em> and used the phrase <em>'open book marketing'</em>. He sort of predicted a world in 5 years time where your competitors, channels, customers and business partners---- will know <em><strong>everything</strong></em> about you from your online presence with some judicious use of the right search terms. A Brave New World indeed. We as marketers don't have control and it's not coming back, deal with it. Just so we're all clear on that! <strong>Powerpoint is a bit rubbish</strong> I know this to be true. Well for me anyway. And so does Andrew Buckley of American Express now, whose otherwise fine (and refreshingly candid) presentation was blighted by this accursed product. If you don't want to use a Keynote on a Mac then what about <a title="Sliderocket" href="http://www.sliderocket.com" target="_blank">Sliderocket</a>? A marvellous cloud app for creating and sharing lovely presentations. <strong>You say you want a revolution? </strong>Would you like industrial or digital? The former started <a title="Industrial Revolution Wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution" target="_blank">in about 1760</a>, the latter started...um, when it gets a Wikipedia entry.<strong> </strong> With thanks for their knowledge imparted to Pete Jakob, John Watton, Richard Evans, Gifford Morley-Fletcher, Andrew Buckley, Bryony Thomas, Professor Merlin Stone and others.
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