How high is marketing on the B2B CEO’s agenda?

Many B2B leaders still remain sceptical and somewhat baffled by social media and new approaches like content and inbound marketing.

With more pressing issues to attend to - such as talent, leadership and risk - there is a danger that marketing is slipping down some boardroom agendas and disappearing altogether. Even the most enlightened business leaders remain baffled and unconvinced. All this 'online marketing' - it's just too confusing and unproven. If you're in the leadership camp, you've no doubt witnessed countless examples of the marketing team pushing the next new thing. Intuitively you know it's different this time, but like many others, you're unsure where to focus. The issue therefore ends up in the 'too-hard box', to be experimented or dealt with later.

Today, the impact of marketing as merely an afterthought is potentially far-reaching. In some organisations marketing is being marginalised and not getting the support it needs to change. But in this situation, it isn’t just the marketing function that suffers. Without an effective, modern marketing operation it’s hard for any organisation to compete and drive predictable growth, especially in a more digital-savvy world. At some point it will need addressing. Pray the competition hasn't raced ahead and made the chasm unbridgeable before you start.

Before providing some thoughts on how to turn the situation around, it’s first important to understand why this might be happening. As far as I have seen, there are three common causes:

1. Emperors new clothes

Here’s a typical scenario. An organisation still relies on traditional approaches for generating new business. The going is getting tougher, so more random acts of marketing occur in search of that elusive silver bullet. Old school referrals and networking are, as they’ve always been, still very much in favour because they work. But on their own, they aren’t enough. And marketing is seen as the traditional ‘marcoms’ function responsible for promoting the company.

In the background, the voices of those serving the marketing industry have been getting louder and louder, hailing digital marketing as the answer. So marcoms is instructed to tinker with social media and other forms of digital marketing, but sadly they deliver no tangible results. The only possible conclusion, rather than being down to poor execution, is that such new-fangled channels are a waste of time. Same old marketing – over-promising and focusing on the shiny new thing, but failing to deliver any measurable returns.

2. Trapped in a downward spiral

Some CEOs and Managing Directors have only ever experienced promotional marketing. Or in other words, the campaign-led approach with un-targeted, ‘batch and blast’ communications extolling the virtues of the company and its offerings. These long-held, deep-rooted beliefs about marketing serve as a mental block, making it difficult to accept the need to change.

But the harsh reality is that buyers are now able to educate themselves about issues and solutions online and on their own terms. So they are far less receptive to seller-focused communications sent to interrupt them. This is because buyers, inundated with thousands of interruptions each day, are finding more ways to block them out. And they no longer need to sacrifice whole days, even weeks at conferences because they can learn so much through the Internet.

Despite diminishing returns from traditional approaches, many business leaders in need of leads quickly, face a dichotomy. Throw good money after bad or reduce marketing investment to a minimum and hire more sales people? But embracing new thinking is not an option because it’s just too alien.

3. The wrong people too comfortable with the status quo

Other related symptoms for the demise of the marketing function are either a lack of internal talent, the marketing department reporting into a different function or a combination of both.

If a non-marketer is representing the function at board level, marketing is unlikely to have a voice or an opportunity to influence key decisions. The other most likely outcome is that nobody is really sure about its future direction. At a time when marketing needs a complete re-think in many companies, there is noone either equipped or respected enough to educate the rest of the management team in modern best practices.

If marketing is seen as a peripheral function, then it is unlikely that the team is given the necessary training and development. In this scenario, it’s also normal for companies to employ ‘journey’ people – those happy with the status quo and void of the skills, passion and initiative to proactively take marketing (and their business) forward.