Alex Clarke, digital content executive at B2B Marketing, presents a news roundup for the week
Been hiding under a rock all week? Or just been too busy to check up on the latest B2B news? Worry not, here at B2B Marketing we’ve condensed our top stories of the week into an easily digestible slice of informative goodness.
Anyone else thinking of pies all of a sudden?
Senior management has ‘negative impact’ on content quality
Research from Sticky Content has threatened to set c-suite hearts racing, by claiming senior managers are most detrimental to quality of content.
A third of respondents (anonymously, we hope) revealed that senior managers are most guilty of denting content quality, while the marketers, designers and the SEO team were least culpable.
Twitter reacted, with @AndrewCarrier stating, “In an ideal world [senior management] should also be one of your best sources.”
Only 38% of marketers describe themselves as ‘very customer centric’
Coming off the back of ‘customer service week’ last week, Tomorrow People and B2B Marketing released figures suggesting marketers need to focus their content more on the customer.
Marketers recognise there is much room for improvement, with 81 per cent of respondents stating their content efforts should be more customer-centric.
Are marketers doing enough? As our editor-in-chief Joel Harrison puts it: ‘Being customer-centric just isn’t good enough, marketers need to become ‘customer champions.’
Marketers among most likely to risk health at work
You heard it here. Next time your boss is questioning your work ethic, direct them to MedExpress’ findings that marketing and media professionals are most prone to sacrificing their health for work commitments.
Of all UK professionals surveyed, three-quarters of respondents admitted to regularly missing doctor’s appointments and failing to pick up prescriptions, with marketers (and media professionals) making up 14 per cent of guilty workers.
At least now you have an excuse to stay at home next time you have one too many pints on a Thursday evening.
Marketing leaders failing to inspire employees
It’s not been an ideal week for the c-suite, has it? Firstly, they’re having a negative effect on content quality, and now they’re falling short when it comes to inspiring employees, according to B2B Marketing’s Leaders Report 2015.
When asked, respondents cited the two most critical traits of an effective leader as being ‘the ability to inspire those around them’ and having ‘a clear, well articulated vision.’
And marketers did not hold back when grading their employers, giving them a distinctly underwhelming average of 6.4 out of 10 in terms of inspiration, and 6.3 in how well their leaders could provide a clear vision to work towards.
Worry not marketing leaders, it’s not all doom and gloom. There was generally positive feedback for leaders’ commitment to success (average 8.2), having a passion for what they do (average 7.9) and drive to reach their goals (average 7.7).
UK professionals reveal their biggest workplace fears
Every week has a theme nowadays, doesn’t it? This week was the turn of the ‘face your fears’ campaign and, to celebrate, Forward Role conducted a survey to unearth the most pressing concerns among British professionals.
Forty per cent of respondents admitted public speaking was their biggest fear in the workplace. Interestingly, interviews tended to terrify 44-54 year-olds (21 per cent) more than 18-24 year-olds (17 per cent).