In this episode of 'The Problem with B2B Marketing,' Kevin Sutherland speaks with Jason Miller, Head of Marketing at Jigsaw, ex-Marketo - and former B2B Marketing evangelist at Linkedin - about a specific and critical challenge affecting the performance of content marketing for so many firms.

The discussion centres on the foundational issues in B2B content today, including the ‘lost art’ of positioning, messaging, and value propositions. They explore how brands often focus more on tactics over strategy, leading to diminishing returns and increased costs.

Jason emphasises the need for a clear messaging framework and outlines the role of creativity and community in building a successful marketing strategy. The episode also touches on the impact of AI - especially on entry-level careers - the importance of passion projects in avoiding burnout, and the necessity of finding innovative ways to connect with audiences.

Over 40-ish minutes we cover:

03:27 The Lost Art of Positioning and Messaging

08:05 The Evolution of B2B Marketing Strategies

11:52 The Importance of Brand and Creativity

21:13 Challenges for Entry-Level Marketers in the AI Era

23:41 The Importance of Short Form Video and AI

24:01 Complaints About Virality and Algorithm Hacks

25:06 Balancing Life and Carving Out Time

30:31 The Role of Community in B2B Marketing

33:15 The Impact of AI on Content and Messaging

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Kevin Sutherland sits down with Elliot Moss, Chief Brand Officer at Mishcon de Reya, to discuss the often-misunderstood concept of "brand" within professional services and B2B marketing.

Elliot argues that “brand” is not a luxury or a logo, but rather the summation of every interaction and service delivered by a business. He emphasises that for service-led organisations, the brand is inextricably linked to the behaviours and culture across the business - and how those translate into client experience.

"If you call something 'brand,' you are immediately putting it into a marketing box, and a lot of people will immediately switch off."

"If you don’t connect brand articulation to actual behaviours, you might as well not bother."

We cover:

• Why "brand" in professional services is fundamentally about the quality of the service delivered, not marketing collateral
• How a Chief Brand Officer's role extends beyond traditional marketing to encompass client retention, acquisition, intermediary relationships, and even product development
• The challenges of building a cohesive brand across a diverse firm with multiple practice areas and different audiences
• The importance of influence and "over-communication" in embedding brand values and consistent client service across an organisation
• How effectively managing client retention, acquisition, intermediary relationships, and product development, alongside traditional marketing, are all essential "buckets" that collectively drive business growth
• Elliot's perspective on how internal behaviors, from timely responses to attention to detail, directly contribute to the external perception of a brand
• How Elliot’s Jazz Shapers show on Jazz FM contributes to the Mishcon de Reya brand, demonstrating the firm's association with innovation and business success with a format that allows for deeper engagement with clients, potential clients and influential voices.

About our guest: Elliot Moss is Partner and Chief Brand Officer at Mishcon de Reya. With a background in advertising, including roles at Leo Burnett and Leagas Delaney, Elliot has extensive experience in brand strategy. He also hosts the "Jazz Shapers" program on JazzFM where he interviews business founders who, like the shapers of jazz soul and blues have defied convention, broken the mould and gone on to achieve great success.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is marketing having an identity crisis? In this episode, Kevin sits down with Dom Hawes, CEO of agency group Selbey Anderson, to ask why so much B2B marketing has become narrowly focused on content and comms, at the expense of strategy, pricing, product, and customer value. Dom argues that we’ve reduced a business-critical discipline to “T-shirts, mugs, and websites” - and it’s time to fix it.

From the untapped power of pricing to the rise of “untitled marketers,” and the problem with even calling it ‘B2B…’ this episode is a thought-provoking take on what business marketing really is, and what we all should be doing instead of ‘looking in the wrong direction…”

We cover:

• Why marketing needs to reclaim its role as a strategic business driver - “There's a generation of ‘untitled marketers’ - they’re in operations, customer success, even product - but they’re doing more real marketing than the marketing department.”
• How brands lose value when marketing is reduced to comms - “If your marketing function isn’t touching price, product, or distribution, you’re not doing marketing.”
• What marketers can learn from DevOps and why AI will reshape agencies - “AI won’t kill agencies, but the ones that can’t shift from outputs to outcomes will struggle.”
• Why being “more human” is too lazy a goal.
• The trouble with orthodoxies like 95/5, and how they mislead - “The 95/5 model is misused. It's become another stick to hit marketers with instead of helping them think.”
• How to stop trying to “do more” and start focusing on impact - “A great marketer starts with three questions: Who is the customer? What do they want? And how do I create more value than the next guy?”
• The ‘pile-on’ culture on LinkedIn, and why it undermines the profession - “People pile in to attack ideas they don’t like. That’s not thought leadership, it’s thought policing.”
• Why ROI is the wrong conversation, and what to measure instead.

About our guest:

Dom Hawes is Group CEO at Selbey Anderson, a marketing group comprising five specialist agencies. A long-time champion for marketing as a strategic business discipline, he also hosts the Unicorny podcast. Dom is a sharp thinker with strong opinions — on brand, growth, AI, and the future of the agency model — and in this episode, he shares them with honesty and impact.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.