Marketer to Marketer | A B2B Marketing Leadership Perspective

I recently had the pleasure of responding to a few questions from an international marketing professional looking for perspective on American marketing leadership.

Most of my experience is in client-side b2b marketing, so I will address mainly that, because that's what I know best.

1. Your career path as a marketer. What skills helped you achieve the goals?

Writing. In the US marketing, especially in b2b, is about great communication and building relationships. Knowing how to write well, for the right audience is - imho - the key to success. I am constantly surprised how many marketers do not write well, and it shows in their results.?

Influence. Marketing is part about education but also part about building trust and credibility and creating a relationship with a potential client by sharing knowledge before they ever talk to sales.

Mix of Analytical and Creative mindset. I feel that creativity is important in marketing but it's nothing without the ability to analyze and make decisions. The best marketers I have met possess the ability to generate creative ideas, execute them, test them, and make strategic decisions based on outcome.

Communication. I have worked in many different companies, in many different marketing roles, and the one thing that is always key and something I am always trying to improve is my communication - with my boss, my employees, my peers, and everyone within the company and outside of it. Great, clear communication alone can move mountains.

Personal branding. I can read all the books and take all the classes in the world, but unless I share and teach what I learn all of that will exist only inside of my head. I've found that through education and mentorship I can strengthen and reinforce my knowledge and also build my reputation and brand as someone who understands marketing and by talking about my results I build my reputation as someone who gets shit done. When appropriate, I ask for recommendations from professionals I respect, because there is nothing I say that will ever have the same power as what is said about me by industry leaders.

2. What challenges do you see working as a marketer?

I see less challenges now that I am in a head of marketing role, because I have the freedom and the trust to do whatever I want basically. But, getting here was not easy. Early in my career I often had to prove my ideas, my suggestions, and my strategies. I did a lot of research and always backed up my ideas with facts. Now my challenges are to continue to learn and improve myself and not get stagnant like many marketers do later in their career. Marketing is dynamic, it's always evolving and those who continue to learn and shift with the tide are the ones that succeed.

3. What skills and maybe characters are you looking for in your team members as the Marketing Director?

This is a constantly shifting and evolving concept for me. I believe in the hiring methodology of "having the right people in the right seats". The seats vary by organization, by current needs, by budget and many other factors.

That said, I do my best to look for people who are passionate, who have a growth mindset, and who are not only able but also willing and hungry to learn and improve.

I also look for balance. I feel attention to detail is important, but not at the cost of inaction and analysis paralysis. I try to hire people who balance me, and balance one another. I look to balance the strengths and weaknesses of my team. So far it's worked out well.

4. What trends do you see in building a future Marketing team - what roles would be most valuable and why?

For both b2b and b2c the future is automated. Right now marketers still struggle with data - gathering data, making sure it's the right data, making sure it's accurate data, making sure the data is up to date, making sure the data is segmented properly. A lot of marketing data right now is simply dirty. Combined with a lack in standards for tech stack integration, understanding data and leveraging it in an actionable way is challenging.

Future marketers will need to not only be integrated with technology, but embody it. The future of marketing optimization relies on the ability of marketers to create, adapt, understand, and teach marketing technology. The amount of data points marketers have access to is increasing exponentially and currently is overwhelming in many organizations. As computing power and machine learning improve our ability to understand the data that's in front of us, technology will help us move beyond forecasting to make accurate, interesting, creative predictions and decisions.

---

Thanks, Alena, for the great questions! https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/alena-arkharova/

---

If you're interested in a lighter perspective of working in marketing, my colleague, Jesse McFarland, and I host a podcast called Brands and Brews - we drink beer and talk about working in marketing. Occasionally we say something that makes sense. It's the unprofessional podcast for marketing professionals.

https://brandsandbrews.com/