Dear ,

Fall is here!

Temperatures surged to the 90s last Wednesday only to plunge to the 50s the next day.

Even my neighborhood changed! A dancing hippo appeared in the middle of Broadway and 22nd Street. 

And one of my favorite fall marketing events
is MarketingProfs B2B (#MPB2B) conference.

Why?
Because Ann Handley is "The Hostess with
the Mostest!"

Ann imbues MPB2B with unexpected “shenanigans”. (BTW—it’s her word not mine!) 

During past conferences, Ann has surprised attendees at least once on the big stage. One year, she accompanied a gospel choir with an accordion almost half her size.

So you can expect Ann to pull off at least one surprise at the conference.

This year I got lucky and received my “Ann Handley surprise” early. 

Because Ann asked me to discuss Marketing ROI. 
Translation: Create a totally new presentation.

To put this in context, most conference planners develop a set of tracks and key topics they believe are critical for their audience. Then they select speakers who’s area of expertise falls into one of these slots. 

This approach is aligned with the advice of speaking experts like Michael and Amy Port. They recommend creating a core talk and modifying it slightly to make it relevant to a specific audience. As a result, the speaker doesn’t create an entirely new presentation every time.

My colleague, Andrew Davis follows this approach. He tests a new talk at the beginning of his professional year. Then he continually refines and tests new elements each time he presents it. 

Similarly, my colleague, Lee Odden, focuses his thought leadership for an entire year. His MPB2B presentation, entitled "Content Marketing Fitness – 10 Exercises To Build Your Marketing Beach Body" aligns with his having gotten into prime condition.

At first I didn’t realize that this presentation would be scary because I had developed and taught a related course at NYU. And, former students tell me that my course did the most to prepare them for their current jobs. I’m not surprised since owning your numbers is a business super power. 

But as a speaker, the reality is that marketers hate numbers and find them boring so it doesn’t make for a stellar presentation. 

How do I know? 
Because one of my students routinely fell asleep in class (and, even worse, snored loudly!) 

But, after creating a numbers-focused presentation on Marketing ROI, I decided that it lacked the excitement and insights conference attendees actively seek. I rethought my approach. 

While I strongly believe marketing creates business value, it can be difficult to make the case to a management team that views sales as the sole revenue generator. 

Therefore, B2B marketers must change how they deploy their skills across the organization to build consensus, develop strong customer relationships, and shift how marketing resources are used to face these 3 core challenges. 

• Seismic Marketing Shift including the combined impact of voice-first, marketing AI and content saturation. Result: Marketers face major disruptions to findability and discovery. They need quality data across their organization and analysts to support AI. Also, they face increased competition for audience attention at higher costs.
   
• Changing B2B business dynamics, most importantly the shift to subscription pricing. Result: Requires distributing marketing budget across the customer lifecycle—both pre and post sale—to maximize revenues and augment product with services, community and content. (BTW, read Jon Miller’s Next Marketing Prediction!)
   
• Uncertain political and trade environment. Without pointing to any specific leader or country, the business environment has gotten increasingly difficult. Result: More and more the public turns to business for leadership lacking elsewhere and more limited opportunities. 

Together, these challenges require B2B marketers to reassess how they add value to their business. 

The key to marketing success is breaking down organizational silos and working together to make everyone look great!

• Improve existing content, information and data. The good news is that this is a marketing strong point! There are significant opportunities to eliminate redundancies while developing the basis for better data.
   
• Build cross-functional customer-focused teams. This enables Marketing to work with Sales, Customer Success and Customer Service teams to support customers along the journey while providing the information and services each account needs. In the process you reduce redundant client contacts.
   
• Redistribute marketing budget across the entire customer life cycle to yield greater results and build measurable business value.

To meet me IRL or hear my presentation, Marketing ROI: How To Stop Justifying Your Job, Build Business Value, and Grow Your Budget (No Math Required!), please join me at MarketingProfs B2B Forum, October 16 – 18.

Save $100 when you register with my code: B2BFriend19. (This is not an affiliate link.)

If you’re running an event that you would like me to speak at, please let me know. (Just hit reply to reach me.)
 

Shout out to new readers: Sandeep, Rafa, Susan, David, Srinivasan, Carlos, Sameer, Victoria, Tamako, Anjali and John. Welcome and thank you for joining our community.

Happy Marketing,
Heidi

PS: Do you have a friend or colleague who would benefit from reading the Actionable Marketing Guide newsletter? If so would you please forward this email to them?
   

FEATURED ARTICLE: Sales Forecasting

As budget season sets in, here’s the help you need to develop your sales forecast.

Even better, this article arms you with the full list of questions and considerations you need to ensure that your projections are on track to succeed.

FEATURED ARTICLE: Sustainable Content

To keep your road-tested content visible and viable over time, transform it into sustainable content for today’s post-Seismic Marketing Shift landscape.

Here’s your How To Guide on Sustainable Content. (It’s based on the UN’s 4 Pillars of Sustainability.)

FEATURED ARTICLE: Co-Marketing Partnership

Looking for ways to stretch your marketing budget? 

Who isn’t?

This article will explain how to create new marketing options beyond paid advertising.

    

Heidi Cohen Around The Internet

• I love how Veronica Jarski transformed her visit to the Cleveland Museum of Art’s ArtLens Gallery into a story about social media. By contrast, when I visited the museum, I was blown away by its use of AI. Get the full scoop on the AgoraPulse blog: What Social Media Managers Can Learn From the Cleveland Museum of Art’s ArtLens.
  
        
   
• Want to increase your traffic from Instagram? Susan Moeller of Tailwind gives you a roadmap in this Content Marketing Institute post.
   
• Big tip of my hat to George Stenitzer of Crystal Clear Communications for his must-read summary of the Content Marketing World highlights appropriately called: 4 Looming Questions

 Click here to get this and previous AMG newsletters on the Web.

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