Written by Annette Fernandes-Poyser – BBN Central
The BBN Hall of Fame award is our highest accolade that is given in recognition of an individual’s long and outstanding commitment to BBN and B2B Marketing. This year we gave this award to the most significant individual in our history, BBN’s founder, Tim Hazlehurst.
As part of our 30 year celebrations, we were very honoured to welcome Tim to our annual Academy and have him present BBN’s Golden Bees awards, which recognize the high standards of work our BBN Partners deliver on behalf of clients.
He also took the time to share his top seven personal rules of B2B Marketing, so here they are:
- Process efficiency– The more efficient your process the more chance of success, which seems blindingly obvious but in the early stages of any technological advance, clients and agencies often take the technology development as the answer itself, rather than the delivery mechanism. This in turn means that differentiation; the brand and sincere relationship building; are often neglected at the alter of the technology wizardry. Objectives tend to become quantitative in the early stages of these new technologies, especially in the clients eyes, and it is very easy to see the technology as the solution rather than the enabler.
- Brand Strength – Often unappreciated and sometimes neglected during those quantitative periods always remember… “Your ability to attract and convert enquiries/leads is directly proportional to your brand strength, so measure it and prove it!”
- The 4 Cs – in the 1980’s, Phil Cottler’s 4 Ps of Marketing were translated for the B2B world by Bob Lauterborn, into the 4 Cs of B2B. The 4 Ps were from the FMCG world of the 1960’s, and needed translating for the B2B process with its complex DMUs and lengthy timescales:
- Product = Clients wants and needs
- Place = Convenience to buy
- Price = Cost to satisfy
- Promotion = Communicating with
- Relevance – The Brand that knows you the best is most likely to succeed and don’t rely on quantitative data, get personal, get those focus groups going again!
- Relationship Timeline – Perhaps translated now as the buyer journey but moving the target audience and DMU from “unaware – aware – interested – trialling – customer – advocate”. I get e-mails everyday that have me on the wrong point of their timeline, so marketing automation hasn’t solved it all yet!
- Creativity – Most campaigns operate with average creativity; excellent creativity will shorten the relationship timeline considerably. Creativity based on rules 3/4/5 (4Cs; Relevance; Timeline)
- Sales/Marketing disconnect – Very rarely does it not exist! Beware the pitfalls it can bring, and remember, your client’s brand is the sum of its contact – that means all touch points!
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