The most important topics for marketing managers are currently purpose marketing, agile working and influencer marketing. This is evident from the Marketing Survey that DVJ Insights recently conducted in collaboration with Adformatie. The importance of the themes is recognized within the Expert Council, a round table meeting that Smart Profile organizes with marketing managers from a number of leading ICT organizations. Purpose marketing is even considered indispensable. In addition, within the council it is indicated that there is a lot of attention for data-driven work, content marketing and the implementation of the GDPR.

The companies represented within the Expert Council mainly concern B2B organizations. That marketers in this field view their current trends differently in some respects can partly be traced back to that. The research by DVJ Insights and Adformatie shows that, in general, 72% of marketers feel that the company they work for has a purpose and makes a valuable contribution to society. Only 40% think that everyone in the company is aware of the purpose and can spread it.

Purpose marketing is important for your distinctive character

Purpose marketing is not seen as a hype. Only 27% of marketers think this is a temporary phenomenon. The importance of long-term purpose marketing is endorsed by the Expert Council and, according to members, will only increase. What your purpose is also says what you stand for and largely forms your distinctive character. This is not only important to include in your communication to your target groups, but also internally. It provides an insight into where the organization wants to go.

In the field of agile working, the Expert Council seems to go hand in hand with the results of the survey. For example, 24% of Dutch marketers say they are busy implementing agile and 15% have already done so. It is striking that 45% indicate that working agile is a hype.

Working agile as a way of life

The differences between marketers within the Expert Council are also clearly visible: for some, agile is a “way of life”: “Why should a campaign take weeks to months to complete? Why not a campaign in a day? ”, One of those present indicates. Other marketers within the council are not yet working on it or do not even see the added value. This is special, because IT organizations tend to see the benefits of agile working, because this has been used for years in the world of software development.

Different interpretations of influencer marketing

The third topic, influencer marketing, is not yet commonplace for all members of the Expert Council. It is also interpreted differently by a few than usual. For example, some B22B marketers within the council also regard influencing marketing as a collaboration with customers for drawing up a reference story or customer story at an external meeting within the council. For example, it is indicated that maintaining relationships and leveraging your stakeholder community should be a logical part of the marketing mix. A large part of the Expert Council, incidentally, expects the bubble of influencer marketing to burst in B2C. There are simply too many bad examples where authenticity and credibility are hard to find.

Of the respondents from the Big Marketing Survey, 43% say they are influencer marketing. The majority do not actively do anything with it. Influencer marketing, however, is not seen as a hype by more than half of Dutch marketers.

How to become a winning marketeer?

The research of DVJ Insights and Adformatie also provides guidelines for becoming a winning marketer and organization. The first advice is to focus on financial metrics. A logical thought, because this is often the only way you can join the boardroom as a marketer. Furthermore, it is important to be consistent. Dare to keep doing the same. Organizations also need to be in constant contact with their audience. This is in line with the focus of marketers from the council on content and content marketing, both of which play an important role in the marketing strategy. The final tip to win is to focus communication on both the short and long term. So don’t just think in terms of short, one-off marketing campaigns, but ensure that you have a long-term plan in which you can link your campaigns.

In a subsequent meeting of the Smart Profile Expert Council, the themes of data driven working, implementation of the GDPR and content marketing will be discussed further.