The pressure is on. Your boss doesn’t care about the complexities involved with marketing to other businesses, how much technical jargon you need to wade through or how quickly the marketing landscape is evolving. Your company needs to attract the next generation of customers and employees. You’ve been tasked to make the brand modern. Adopt business-to-consumer marketing practices. Become more like Apple. Nevermind that you’ve had no training in interpreting analytics or managing new digital platforms, you have a job to do.
Don’t panic
These challenges are real (in some shape or form). Feeling overwhelmed by what seems like insurmountable hurdles? Discontent over personal skill sets? Don’t worry. You aren’t alone. We see it almost every day. Adopting new proficiencies develop over time, with experience (as you plot your strategy to achieve your company’s goals). You just need to be willing to begin. In fact, the journey can be down right energizing and fun for your entire team. You may be surprised at how much you fall back in love with your career again.
Where do agencies go to stay current?
We go to the Business Marketing Association (BMA) – if you are a B2B marketer, that is. Minnesota has a strong local chapter that collaborates around how to manage all of the latest challenges. I like to stay hands on, by volunteering on a committee.
I also make a habit of attending the national conference held in Chicago. It helps me stay smart and keeps me at the forefront of how some of the biggest brands in B2B are advancing their marketing programs. Minnesota always has a large delegation that attends so it’s another great way to extend the collaboration and explore new ideas and resources with people locally. The BMA 15 theme for this year’s conference is “be more.” (No surprise where I received the inspiration for this post.) We’ll explore the question of what’s a marketer to do with more expected of us all the time and how to adapt quickly to changes in order to succeed.
BMA 15
May 27-29, 2015
Chicago, IL
BMA15.com
I always find this conference energizing and come home with a notebook of new ideas. If you can’t attend, at least tune in to the conversation using #BMA15.
