February.
Our NextGenB2B newsletter has a simple, single purpose: to share each month the things that everyone working in B2B marketing ought to know, but might have missed. This month, Forrester on content intelligence, McKinsey - and everybody - banging on about hyper-personalised content at scale…and the two runaway horses in B2B Marketing right now; AI (“the exoskeleton for work”) and (real, human) influencers.
A LOT of the chatter about AI right now suggests somewhat linear thinking. We’ve written before about how much of the discourse and experimentation with AI in B2B is about increasing efficiency, doing more with less, reducing costs by reducing headcount etc. In short, optimisation?- or even maximisation - from the firm’s point of view, doesn't necessarily deliver a better experience, or outcome, for the audience. That doesn’t feel very ‘Next-Gen’. In fact it feels ‘Older-Gen’ - a throwback to things like direct mail printing tech and then dynamic email marketing which meant you could [INSERT CLIENT NAME] and [INSERT SEGMENTED PARAGRAPH] with often marginal increase in response…?
Time will tell (probably quite quickly) how different it is this time, but it is a reminder that silver bullets are rare and pursuing them often avoids dealing with the real issues.
Helpfully, this month a new report from The AAR and ISBA looks at The Evolution of the Marketing Operating Model (MoM). The report addresses the increasing complexities faced by CMOs today, stressing the need for an integrated approach to a MoM built on four pillars: people, partners, processes, and platforms to drive agility, efficiency, and measurable business impact. It highlights the challenges and opportunities faced including (of course) making the most of AI, but also the fundamentals; balancing in-house and external resources, streamlining processes, and aligning marketing with business objectives. Well worth a read.?
As is the rest of this newsletter…
Content.
Image credit: Sherwood.news
Inevitably, we kick off this month’s Content section by talking about AI… or rather Forrester’s latest report which urges marketers to Get Smart on Content Intelligence. It’s subscriber-only but the blog defines content intelligence as “a data-based framework for marketers to harness predictive and generative AI to uncover buying signals and exchange value with buyers and customers through the differentiated experiences they demand.” It goes on to say?“By doing so, marketers can transition from an often vicious cycle of ineffective content production to a virtuous cycle of continuously improving the customer experience with more personalised engagement.” Makes it sound more like covert surveillance than intelligence TBH but we’ll see…
The point about AI-enabled content personalisation is pretty much everywhere this month, including this longer read from McKinsey* which includes a ‘5D’ framework; essentially a roadmap for marketers to develop personalisation strategies. Perhaps ironically when some were claiming that AI means it’s all over for consultancies like McKinsey, the piece concludes that “successful personalisation requires seamlessly integrated technologies, skilled teams, and a focus on operational efficiency.” *top tip: upload the 10 pages into notebookLM and save yourself a bit of time…
And stepping away from the machines for a moment, this feature on Linkedin, from Sherwood (the owned media brand launched by trading platform RobinHood- very Next-Gen…) is a great summary of the current state of Linkedin (“A weird, workaholic wasteland, the Home of the Humble Brag”) especially recent changes in the content and behaviour on the platform, largely driven by Gen Z moving in. The real insight here is that (for now) it’s people and content created by people - Thinkfluencers, as the piece puts it (although, surely that should be?Linkedinfluencers… no?) - that is driving audience (premium subscribers up 50% in the last 2 years) and revenue growth - up to $16bn annually.
AI.
Image credit: InfluencerMarketingHub.com
Now, back to the robots… A new report from the influencer marketing hub based on a survey of 1,290 marketers finds that 70.6% of marketers believe AI can outperform humans in key marketing tasks, while nearly 60% fear it could replace their roles - NB this % has nearly doubled year on year. This isn’t B2B-specific but the insights are worth a look.?
Entrepreneur.com has a good primer on how AI is redefining content and search strategies?
Emarketer finds that 60% of marketers believe that AI and machine learning will impact digital marketing strategies most in the next 5 years - almost double the next highest (data privacy). And echoing the points made by Forrester and McKinsey above,“personalisation is the most commonly reported use of AI for marketers with 38% saying they used the technology towards that end, according to a January 2024 report from Ascend2. Thirty-four percent of marketers said they used AI for ad optimisation and 33% said they used it for chatbots.”
And this, from CMSWire explores the use of AI to create personas, something the team at VOLUME has been experimenting with. And experiment is the key word here; we’ve found that it’s a great way to get to hypotheses in very fast time which can then be interrogated and refined with experience and other data sources - and most importantly - this enables you to get to real, in-market testing or validating with customer research much, much faster than before. Demand Gen Report explores this kind of approach, adopted by what it calls ‘Growth Gurus’ in more detail here.?
Of course, if you really want to figure out what’s likely to happen in the future, it’s worth at least considering the views of VCs… And in the week that OpenAI’s Sam Altman launched OpenAI’s latest agent which can handle over ‘5% of economic tasks’ this piece from Sequoia Capital makes for interesting reading and paints a more positive picture for the future of us ‘meat machines.’ The Sequoia article calls for humans to adopt a “Stochastic” mindset. In simple terms, the stochastic mindset is about accepting that AI isn't always right, using AI as a tool to help us think and create, and being able to adapt to change and uncertainty. Thinking like a scientist: forming hypotheses and testing them. It urges us to think about AI as an ‘exoskeleton’ for work; helping us to do more, but not doing everything for us, still needing us?to use our own judgment and critical thinking.
Influencers / Creators.
Image credit: MarketingProfs.com
Since the B2B influencer special newsletter we published in October we’re seeing more and more content, commentary and general coverage of the topic. This month, MarketingProfs called Influencer Marketing one of the four pillars of B2B Marketing (alongside content marketing, SEO and Social Media). I could take issue with the taxonomy here… But the point is that influencer marketing in B2B is definitely ‘A Thing.’
This report from late 2024 explores how (US) B2B marketers are doing it, and the biggest challenges CMOs face, namely, finding, measuring and managing influencer activity.?
So, we’re delighted to share with you the latest ep of our podcast, The Problem with B2B…. influencers. We got together with Joel Harrison of B2BMarketing.net and Katy Howell of Immediate Future to discuss the challenges and opportunities for B2B marketers, including working with individual influencers versus traditional media platforms, the tricky topic of risk, the growing importance of long-term collaboration over transactional relationships, and why AI-generated content is making thought leadership harder, not easier.
Community.
Image credit: Sara Wilson
Often the best case studies of successful B2B brand communities involve technology products where users either self-organise or get together with the help of a brand to solve problems, shape future product development etc. And yet there are always learnings that B2B brands in any sector can learn from as this interview with the CPO of Figma demonstrates. These include the potential of community building to provide the most useful client feedback, the impact on internal collaboration and the ability to experiment.?
And as awards-season gets underway, a brilliantly readable piece from Community Guru Sara Wilson on how a24 turned indie movie fans into members.
Team VOLUME.
A successful brand relaunch. A celebrated conference. Smashed targets for content and social with year-on-year growth... and a team that felt confident enough to take the reins on their social channels, implementing learnings from their time spent with VOLUME. See how we focused on adding capability, creativity and capacity as a core part of the strategy we developed for Defaqto.
The Problem with B2B… Influencer Marketing
As the B2B creator economy gains momentum, brands are rethinking how they connect with professional audiences. With LinkedIn becoming more conversational, the traditional “stuffy” approach to thought leadership is shifting toward a more human, expert-driven model. But what does this mean for B2B brand building and marketing comms?
Trust in business communications is at an all-time low, and the explosion of AI-generated content isn’t helping. So, where does that leave B2B brands looking to build credibility? In the latest episode of the podcast we explore the evolution of B2B influencer marketing, why it’s not actually new, and how brands can leverage trusted voices to cut through the noise.
Roundup.
Always Talking to CMOs about Social Media Marketing Success: Focused on Breaking the Social Boring | Also an Author
1 周absolutely loved this chat, walked away buzzing - which was good, because we had hailstones that day and i was freezing!