Last year I finished up my fifth full year as a B2B marketer. A lot has changed in that half decade. When I started, there was a growing movement: “B2B marketing doesn’t have to be boring.” Now we’ve finally moved on to, “B2B marketing can’t afford to be boring.” We’ve finally acknowledged that B2B buyers are people — they want useful information, they want to be entertained, and they’re just as bored by corporate-speak-laden white papers as everyone else.
Over the past few weeks my unread messages in my email account have been piling up. Between the hourly pleas for my help in fundraising for the upcoming election to the endless newsletters from companies that want my business, there is simply no time to read all of this information. Even worse, I am intentionally avoiding the majority of this communication because frankly, it’s irritating.