28 B2B Marketing Insights To Energize & Humanize Your 2021

What will successful B2B marketing look like in a post-pandemic world, and what can we as marketers do today to be as ready as possible? Here are 28 quotes from some of the best in the B2B marketing business, taken from our two seasons of Break Free B2B Marketing video interview episodes, that will help keep your efforts on track, energized, and filled with the subtle humanizing elements sometimes neglected in the B2B landscape. Keep posted for the launch of an all-new season three of Break Free B2B Marketing video interviews, and now let's dig right in with an array of B2B marketing insights to help you prepare for a successful 2021.

1 — Hal Werner of Mitel

Hal Werner Global Manager of Digital Marketing and Strategy Mitel “If you want to create a piece of content about a topic, but you can’t create the best one, why are you creating it? If you don’t truly believe that you can outdo your competitors in the space for that function, then what are you wasting your time on?” “Whether you earn it or whether it’s paid for, you’re going to need more voices putting out there what you’re about so that not only people see you, but you begin to be associated with that thing at a critical mass.” [bctt tweet="“If you want to create a piece of content about a topic, but you can’t create the best one, why are you creating it?” @halwerner" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Hal in "Break Free B2B Series: Hal Werner on the Intersection of Marketing Creativity and Analytics."

2 — Stephanie Stahl of Content Marketing Institute

Stephanie Stahl General Manager Content Marketing Institute “As content creators, sometimes we try to do everything that we possibly can on every channel. I think it’s important for content teams and marketing teams to go back and say, 'What do we need to stop doing? What are we doing that really isn’t giving us the result that we’d like? And how can we then focus more on the things that are working?' So ask yourselves, 'What can we stop doing today, so we have more time to do the things we’re really good at?'” [bctt tweet="“It’s important for content and marketing teams to go back and say, 'What do we need to stop doing? What are we doing that isn’t giving us the result we’d like? How can we then focus more on the things that are working?'” @EditorStahl" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Stephanie in "Break Free B2B Series: CMI’s Stephanie Stahl on Data-Driven Event Planning and Promotion."

3 — Jon Miller of Demandbase

Jon Miller Chief Product Officer Demandbase “The explosion of digital noise means that traditional marketing channels like ads are becoming less and less effective. What marketers need to think about is, how do I orchestrate multiple channels together?” [bctt tweet="“The explosion of digital noise means that traditional marketing channels like ads are becoming less and less effective. What marketers need to think about is, how do I orchestrate multiple channels together?” @jonmiller" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Jon in "Break Free B2B Series: Jon Miller on How ABM Can Help Marketers Keep Their ‘Ship’ Together."

4 — Adi Bachar-Reske of 20x

Adi Bachar-Reske Founder and CMO 20x “These days, the way you build the trust is showing how nimble and flexible you can be. Both in your development and your product, but also it has to be reflected in your marketing and your digital presence.” [bctt tweet="“The way you build the trust is showing how nimble and flexible you can be. Both in your development and your product, but also it has to be reflected in your marketing and digital presence.” @AdiBacharReske" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Adi in "Break Free B2B Series: Adi Bachar-Reske on Taking the Lead in the Evolution of B2B Content Marketing."

5 — Emily Thompson of EST Creative

Emily Thompson Owner EST Creative “When an organization can deliver strong content that helps inform people, it only builds that trust. Ultimately, people just want information that’s helpful to them. Especially with digital, it’s very easy today to try a new type of message, or a new way of communicating to someone. Let’s say you never blogged before, why not try a blog? Let’s say you never did email marketing, why not try it? Or a new type of message? The worst that can happen is you measure it, you learn from it, and you try something new.” [bctt tweet="“When an organization can deliver strong content that helps inform people, it only builds that trust. Ultimately, people just want information that’s helpful to them.” @BosCreativeCopy" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Emily in "Break Free B2B Series: Emily Thompson on the Power of Content Marketing in Health Care."

6 — Margaret Magnarelli of Morgan Stanley

Margaret Magnarelli Executive Director of Digital Product Evolution and Growth Marketing Morgan Stanley “We have to be able to give our customers as much information as we can, and take them as close to the line of purchase — to the experience of purchase — as we can.” “People can see through fake attempts to build trust. It’s hard for consumers to just believe a brand when they say they can do a thing. So if you have other people who say you can do a thing and you can do it well, and they can be your advocates, that’s really powerful.” [bctt tweet="“It’s hard for consumers to just believe a brand when they say they can do a thing. So if you have other people who say you can do a thing and you can do it well, and they can be your advocates, that’s really powerful.” @mmagnarelli" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Margaret in "Break Free B2B Series: Margaret Magnarelli on the Psychology of Trust for Better Content Marketing."

7 — Gary Gerber of nClouds

Gary Gerber Head of Product Marketing nClouds “It’s about building a relationship that’s built on trust, not on hype. If you’ve built that trust and you’re adding that value to them that they trust you’re interested in their success, and you’re providing information and content and messaging and whatever it is, that will help them be successful.” [bctt tweet="“It’s about building a relationship that’s built on trust, not on hype.” @Gary_Gerber" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Gary in "Break Free B2B Marketing: Gary Gerber on Scaling ABM without Losing Focus."

8 — Kelvin Gee of Oracle

Kelvin Gee Senior Director, Modern Marketing Business Transformation Oracle* “We believe that data is the future of B2B marketing. If the goal is to deliver a better customer experience, you’ve got to break down those data silos.” “Once you consolidate all your data silos onto one bed, so to speak — in this case a customer intelligence platform or customer data platform or whatever you want to use — once you combine all that data, that’s when you start to see all the insights of your customers. All marketers should have empathy. What drives customer-centricity is empathy.” [bctt tweet="“We believe that data is the future of B2B marketing. If the goal is to deliver a better customer experience, you’ve got to break down those data silos.” @kgee" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Kelvin in "Break Free B2B Marketing: Oracle’s Kelvin Gee on Winning with Enterprise ABM."

9 — Danny Nail of Microsoft

Danny Nail Account Based Engagement Microsoft “Historically, marketing and sales have kind of been at odds a bit, which is unfortunate, but ABM brings the two together. The key to that is understanding the sales cycle, and understanding how sellers think and what they’re up against. The continuum should be from target account marketing, to ABM, to one-to-one ABM, all the way across that scale.” “You have to let go of templatized, old ideas. You have to break free of thinking about things the way we’ve always thought about them, and start really digging into how you can change what you’re doing and make it more efficient, more effective, but be creative about that.” [bctt tweet="“You have to let go of templatized old ideas to break free of thinking about things the way we’ve always thought about them and start digging into how you can change what you’re doing and make it more efficient and effective.” @DannyNail" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Danny in "Break Free B2B Marketing: Danny Nail of SAP on Creating a Global ABM Platform."

10 — Julie Brown of Johnson Controls

Julie Brown Institutional Market Leader Johnson Controls “It really starts with understanding what customer needs are — where are their pain points — are there new and creative ways that we can help address those needs and pain points?” [bctt tweet="“It really starts with understanding what customer needs are — where are their pain points — are there new and creative ways that we can help address those needs and pain points?” — Julie Brown" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Julie in "Break Free B2B Marketing: Julie Brown of Johnson Controls on Proving the EBIT of Your Marketing."

11 — Andre Ortolon of Dell Outlet

Andre Ortolon eCommerce and Marketing Manager Dell Outlet* “There’s so much data out there. We’re so busy with emails and meetings that you can really get stuck in a rut and forget to take the time to step back and look at the bigger picture.” “You also have to take stock sometimes and really look at your overall process, you can’t always be in the execution mode, you have to look at end to end, the processes and making sure that you’re developing kind of a holistic approach and not just selling a unit. You’ve got to think about your strategy and make sure you’re still aligned with that in what you’re doing day to day.” [bctt tweet="“There’s so much data out there. We’re so busy with emails and meetings that you can really get stuck in a rut and forget to take the time to step back and look at the bigger picture.” — Andre Ortolon" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Andre in "Break Free B2B Marketing: Dell Outlet’s Andre Ortolon on Microinfluencers for Hyper-Relevant Content."

12 — Amanda Todorovich of Cleveland Clinic

Amanda Todorovich Senior Director of Digital Marketing Health Content Cleveland Clinic. “I think it’s really important content marketing is not a campaign, it’s not a project, it’s not a one-off. We like to talk about our content channels and process like products, you know, you really need to invest in them. It’s a long-term strategy. It’s something that you really have to think about how you build a long-term committed relationship with that user – it’s not a one-and-done. There’s never really an end to it. It’s continuous and iterative.” [bctt tweet="“You really have to think about how you build a long-term committed relationship with the user – it’s not a one-and-done. There’s never really an end to it. It’s continuous and iterative.” @amandatodo" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Amanda in "Break Free B2B Series: Amanda Todorovich on Creating Content that Pays Off."

13 — Amisha Gandhi of SAP Ariba

Amisha Gandhi Vice President of Influencer Marketing and Communications SAP Ariba* “Do not just start calling influencers and say, 'I’m doing this campaign, do you want to be a part of it?' and be very prescriptive. You want to invite people to be in your program first and then do some brainstorming with them and see what they like, how they like to interact or what they like to do for companies.” [bctt tweet="“You want to invite people to be in your program first and then do some brainstorming with them and see what they like, how they like to interact or what they like to do for companies.” @AmishaGandhi" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Amisha in "Break Free B2B Series: Amisha Gandhi on Global B2B Influencer Marketing."

14 — Brody Dorland of DivvyHQ

Brody Dorland Co-Founder DivvyHQ “The holistic content marketing world, which is non-campaign focused, continues to proliferate. It’s going to get better, but most agencies out there are still so campaign focused — that’s what they’ve been doing for decades. Getting out of that mindset, even from a logistics standpoint, is harder for an agency to do. Not to say that agencies can’t continually be involved in longer-term content marketing engagements, but it’s just it’s a different beast, a different animal than the typical world that they’ve been in for decades.” [bctt tweet="“Most agencies out there are still so campaign focused —that’s what they’ve been doing for decades. Getting out of that mindset, even from a logistics standpoint, is harder for an agency to do.” @brodydorland" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Brody in "Break Free B2B Series: Brody Dorland on Creating Long-Lasting Content Marketing Strategy."

15 — Clare Carr of Chief

Clare Carr Vice President of Marketing Chief “It takes a human element that cannot be taken out of this equation. If you can make data something that people associate with you, they trust you more, you can connect with them more, and you can tell better stories. All those things you want as a content marketer, as a B2B marketer, data can actually do for you. It’s not just good writing, good storytelling, and good creative anymore.” [bctt tweet="“All those things you want as a content marketer, as a B2B marketer, data can actually do for you. It’s not just good writing, good storytelling, and good creative anymore.” @clareondrey" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Clare in "Break Free B2B Series: Clare Carr on Using Data to Drive Content Marketing Success."

16 — Janine Wegner of Dell Technologies

Janine Wegner Global Thought Leadership Program and Activation Manager Dell Technologies* “What’s the customer journey? And what are the content pieces we want to develop? And what are the voices we want to have in each of them, and how to then activate and amplify those?” [bctt tweet="“What are the content pieces we want to develop? What are the voices we want to have in each of them, and how to then activate and amplify those?” @JanineWegner" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Janine in "Break Free B2B Series: Janine Wegner on Building Brand Thought Leadership With the Help of Influencers," and in our Inside Influence series with "Inside Influence: Janine Wegner from Dell on Thought Leadership and Influencer Relations."

17 — John Joyce of Brennan Industries

John Joyce Global Marketing Director Brennan Industries “We try to do mainly two things: build trust and also provide value. We want them to trust this and to think of us as the place to go that provides value from the very beginning of the relationship, from the first time they go to the website – oh yeah, this is really good. It’s providing me the answers to my questions and knowledge I need, it’s saving me money” [bctt tweet="“We try to do mainly two things: build trust and also provide value. It’s providing me the answers to my questions and the knowledge I need, and saving me money.” @mrjohnjoyce" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with John in "Break Free B2B Series: John Joyce on Taking B2B Content Marketing Back 2 Basics."

18 — Judy Tian of LinkedIn

Judy Tian Marketing Manager LinkedIn* “Relevancy and engagement are what’s important. Are the influencers actually experts in the areas you want to talk about? And are they going to have credibility with their end users? And then are they going to shed credibility onto your brand as a result?” [bctt tweet="“Relevancy and engagement are what’s important. Are the influencers actually experts in the areas you want to talk about? And are they going to have credibility with their end users?” @judytian07" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Judy in "Break Free B2B Series: Judy Tian on Humanizing B2B Through Influencer Marketing."

19 — Maliha Aqeel of Fix Network World

Maliha Aqeel Director of Global Communications Fix Network World “Focus on culture. There’s still a misconception that culture is about only HR. But culture is something that’s pervasive throughout the organization, and why we choose to work somewhere, why we choose to engage with the brand.” [bctt tweet="“There’s still a misconception that culture is about only HR. Culture is something that’s pervasive throughout the organization, and why we choose to work somewhere, why we choose to engage with a brand.” @MalihaQ" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Maliha in "Break Free B2B Series: Maliha Aqeel on How to Ace B2B Company Culture."

20 — Tom Treanor of Arm Treasure Data

Tom Treanor CMO Arm Treasure Data* “You can’t solve personalization before you solve customer understanding. At the top of the funnel, keep it very basic and personalize at a high level.” [bctt tweet="“You can’t solve personalization before you solve customer understanding. At the top of the funnel, keep it very basic and personalize at a high level.” @RtMixMktg" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Tom in "Break Free B2B Series: Tom Treanor on Perfecting B2B Marketing Personalization."

21 — Zari Venhaus of Eaton

Zari Venhaus Director of Corporate Marketing Communications Eaton “I see the IT space and the marketing space are starting to come together so much more — particularly when you think about martech. We learned that it wasn't enough to just be marketing coming to IT with an answer. We really needed to involve our IT partners upfront in the process.” [bctt tweet="“The IT space and the marketing space are starting to come together so much more — particularly when you think about martech.” @zvenhaus" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Zari in "Break Free B2B Series: Zari Venhaus on How to Scoot Your Way to Martech Transformation Through Storytelling."

22 — Adam Dunn, Oscar-Winning VFX Editor

Adam Dunn Oscar-winning VFX Editor Evil Ice Cream Productions “Video marketing is intriguing, because it brings in real-life storytelling. The biggest factor in successful video content is cohesiveness of vision.” [bctt tweet="“Video marketing is intriguing, because it brings in real-life storytelling. The biggest factor in successful video content is cohesiveness of vision.” @adamjdunn" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Adam in "Break Free B2B Series: Adam Dunn on Creating Blockbuster Video Content in B2B."

23 — Carol-Lyn Jardine of Alteryx

Carol-Lyn Jardine Vice President of Marketing Operations and Productivity Alteryx “Assume good intent from the people around you as you’re going through change behaviors.” [bctt tweet="“Assume good intent from the people around you as you’re going through change behaviors.” @cljardine" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Carol-Lyn in "Break Free B2B Series: Carol-Lyn Jardine and Heather Hurst on Effectively Managing Change in B2B Marketing."

24 — Sruthi Kumar of Sendoso

Sruthi Kumar Associate Director of Field and Partner Marketing Sendoso “It’s about bringing all the channels together to create that seamless experience for the end user, and that person who you want to book a meeting with or have a signed contract with or whatever else you need from them. I think it’s just about being okay with being yourself and incorporating that into your whole corporate brand.” [bctt tweet="“It’s about bringing all the channels together to create that seamless experience for the end user, and that person who you want to book a meeting with or have a signed contract with or whatever else you need from them.” @sruthikkumar" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Sruthi in "Break Free B2B Marketing: Sruthi Kumar on Creating Memorable Experiences."

25 — Latané Conant of 6sense

Latane Conant Chief Market Officer 6sense “You look at the tools that we have at our disposal as CMOs, and it’s sort of like we are a Model T trying to get to the moon. I think the challenge that we have is only 13 percent of sales and marketing teams have any confidence in their data.” [bctt tweet="“You look at the tools that we have at our disposal as CMOs, and it’s sort of like we are a Model T trying to get to the moon.” @LataneConant" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Latane in "Break Free B2B Marketing: Latane Conant of 6sense on Reinventing the CMO Role."

26 — Mark Bornstein of ON24

Mark Bornstein Vice President of Marketing ON24 “It’s the experience you give, it’s the way you’re able to connect and interact with audiences that matters. Because that’s where you’re going to get the real data. That’s where you’re going to learn a lot about them. You want to create an environment where people are doing stuff, and it’s a multi-touch content experience.” “We need to find ways to get people who want our marketing to opt into our marketing. At a time when all of this digital noise is scaring them away. We need to bring them back in through more authentic, more human, more experiential marketing.” [bctt tweet="“We need to find ways to get people who want our marketing to opt in. At a time when all of this digital noise is scaring them away,  we need to bring them back in through more authentic, human, and experiential marketing.” @4markb" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Mark in "Break Free B2B Marketing: “Webinerd” Mark Bornstein of ON24 on Dialing In Digital Experiences."

27 — Sofia O’Malley of Dell Technologies

Sofia O’Malley Global Marketing Director Dell Technologies* “You really have to be cognizant of what is unique to each market. What’s the consumer behavior? Or what’s the consumer expectation within a given market or appetite for a type of execution. Be very much aware of the environment and the key nuances that are needed to effectively drive marketing in a region.” [bctt tweet="“You really have to be cognizant of what is unique to each market. What’s the consumer behavior? Or what’s the consumer expectation within a given market or appetite for a type of execution.” — Sofia O’Malley" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Sofia in "Break Free B2B Marketing: Sofia O’Malley of Dell Outlet on Creating a Global B2B & B2C Marketing Team."

28 — Sean Crowley of Dun & Bradstreet

Sean Crowley Leader of Integrated Marketing and Sales and Marketing Solutions Dun & Bradstreet “When you look at being able to bring people together, it’s about creating a common message, a common purpose, and a common effort with everything that you do and how you go to market. Ensure that you have consistency of messaging to a target persona and target audience, regardless of what channel they’re choosing to interact with you on.” “The balance of power of information has shifted from the vendors to the consumers, to the buyers, and they can now go and search for information much more readily — much more freely — and they want that choice of how and when they choose to interact with you.” [bctt tweet="“When you look at being able to bring people together, it’s about creating a common message, a common purpose, and a common effort with everything that you do and how you go to market.” @seantcrowley" username="toprank"] Watch our full interview with Sean in "Break Free B2B Marketing: Sean Crowley of Dun & Bradstreet on Cracking the Alignment Code."

Embrace An Energized 2021 B2B Marketing Landscape

via GIPHY Use the energizing advice we’ve highlighted here from 28 B2B marketing innovators to spark your own marketing ideas that will take you to electrifying new heights in 2021 and beyond. One powerful way to combine many of these energizing marketing elements is by harnessing the power of B2B influencer marketing, as we outline in our groundbreaking 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report, featuring insights from hundreds of marketers surveyed as well as expert analysis by the TopRank Marketing team and contributions from top B2B influencer marketing professionals from SAP, LinkedIn, AT&T Business, Adobe, Traackr, IBM, Dell, Cherwell Software, monday.com and more. Contact us to find out why TopRank Marketing is the only B2B marketing agency offering influencer marketing as a top capability in Forrester’s “B2B Marketing Agencies, North America” report, and discover how we can help create award-winning marketing for you. * Oracle, Dell Outlet, SAP Ariba, Dell Technologies, LinkedIn, Arm Treasure Data, are TopRank Marketing clients.

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