CorpComms Magazine

(1) Know your audience

Do your research. Ask questions. Listen. It's impossible to tailor your messages unless you know exactly whom you're speaking to. Business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers have been better at this historically than those in business-to-business (B2B), but having a 360-degree understanding of the people using your products and services benefits everyone. Consider what your audience has asked for, not what you think is best for them. Craft your message to fit their needs. A 'one size fits all' approach is no longer viable as competition and access to information increases exponentially. Consumers are savvier than ever before, and if you cannot give them what they need, they will find it elsewhere.

(2) Know your competition

Know your competitors as well as you know your customers. Take every opportunity to understand why and how your competitors do things in a different way, and analyse the outcomes of their actions. Competition pushes all of us to be more focused, better define our brands and create additional value for stakeholders.

(3) Set clear goals and have sound measurement tools

Goals are a must. Make them realistic, clear and easy to measure. Your team wants to know what they are accountable for. If they don't know what they are aiming toward, chances are they won't get there. Increasingly, budgets and expenditure are under scrutiny so more than ever you must be able to produce and explain the return on investment.

(4) Don't be afraid to try new things. Be creative

B2B marketing does not preclude creativity. Arguably, there are more opportunities to think outside the box because B2B has historically struggled with marketing innovation. Borrow a page from the B2C playbook and investigate other mediums, such as art installations or pop-up retail stores. Explore popular culture, current affairs and history for tie-ins, and don't be afraid to look into your customers' lives to find out what resonates. Push boundaries and experiment with traditional methods of working. Bring external advisers in to suggest new ways of doing things. Create a personality. Be innovative with ideas. Understand that creativity is not inherently wacky: it can be simple, fun and unexpected - but stay focused on your objectives and deliverables to ensure time, money or effort are not wasted. Your business goals provide the foundations. The moment you create campaigns that help your customers look at you differently, they'll start to look at themselves differently.

(5) Being ahead of the curve is not always the safest place to be

It's not always easy to be ahead of the curve. People will criticise, question or even say 'No'. Remember that the people in a position to approve your campaign are often not its target audience. Your primary goal is to tailor the way you market to your audience: the end user - the person purchasing your products. You may have to fight for a new way of marketing, a wacky website idea or an event series that puts your company on the map, but industry leaders have a strong point of view and a willingness to try new things. Following the crowd doesn't help you stand out. To effect real change and be a true leader in your industry, you must be brave. Early on, we recognised that awareness remained a barrier to entry with our brand, and, as such, designed the launch of Thomson Reuters Eikon, our new financial desktop platform, around increasing awareness of Thomson Reuters not just among our customers, but among the wider global community. People need to know who you are before they know they need you.

(6) Create off-line experiences

The B2B audience is inundated with copy-heavy advertising and one-page information sheets. The space lacks meaningful experiences that truly engage and inspire. Now is the time to break the mould. As part of the Eikon launch, we created immersive, interactive experiences (from launch events to street team activity; pop-up demo stations to art-like digital installations) to bring the product directly to our customers and help them understand exactly why what we had created was so different from anything else in the industry.

(7) Create online experiences

Give your customers an interactive platform from which they can engage, share and discuss. The digital era has revolutionised the way in which we do business; we're able to start and engage in conversations that were previously not possible. Listen to the conversations already happening about your brand, and then identify which conversations and digital platforms will be most effective for you and your audience. Incorporate digital into your marketing strategy and use it as a force multiplier for your brand and your products. The Internet creates the perfect interface to experiment, learn, measure and change in real time - all at a lower cost than traditional publishing tools. For the launch of Eikon, we were keenly aware that our customers are increasingly digital natives, born into technology, so we created a campaign that allowed for just as many touch points online as off, from Facebook pages to a comprehensive launch campaign site.

(8) Reduce, re-use, recycle

Start with a simple, clear message and invest in high-quality production values. By creating a strong, focused foundation, you'll be able to reuse and recycle your creative and content for greater effect. There's no need to recreate the wheel if you start with something that works well in the first place. For the launches of our three new platforms last year, we employed a strap line New Era. New Tools which described the innovation and unprecedented change in our industry and unified all of our messaging (from advertising copy to online games) under one umbrella. Simple messages and clear concepts resonate more than a bunch of words used in a vacuum.

(9) Seek feedback

Without feedback and evaluation, you miss out on opportunities to establish best practices and move your business forward. Identify and use a variety of methods and forums to capture honest feedback (ideally in real time while the insights are still fresh). Every interaction presents an opportunity that can ultimately improve the business. Our launch events for Eikon provided an incredible forum to gauge our customers' reactions and garner feedback which will contribute to the platform's continued development. Sometimes all you have to do is start the conversation.

(10) Re-invest and evolve

Do something with the information captured. Invest time to understand it, making subtle or large changes in your approach based on what you learn. Develop and understand ways to act quickly on opportunities and mitigate the risks. Stay open and receptive to the lessons learned along the way.

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