B2B marketers: Please, stop pretending to know what you’re doing

Ever since childhood, I’ve always assumed that the adults around me have it all figured out and know exactly what to do at any given moment. But now that I'm one of those adults, it’s clear that no one has a bloody clue. We’re all just winging it – doing the best we can with the tools at our disposal.

It’s the same in B2B marketing. We’re all making it up as we go along. Marketers pretending to be marketers. Most of the time, winging it works out. We can just nod along, agree to whatever the heck in the meeting, and then figure it out (ferociously Google what to do) after the fact.

Now, this seat-of-your-pants approach may feel a bit dangerous, but it’s actually a skill in itself. To get to the right solution, you have to do the research, draw from similar experiences and trust your instincts – all crucial skills.

Let’s face it, B2B marketing can be pretty technical – and slightly terrifying – at times. One day you might be planning a creative branding strategy, and the next you’re cleansing your email database. No two days are the same – and it’s not just internal challenges you have to keep up with. The outside world can feel like a scary place.

AI is impacting all our jobs. Digital channels are slammed. New platforms are emerging every day. And lead targets are going up (even though, in the UK at least, we’ve just entered a recession). It’s all a bit much really, isn’t it?

Just imagine trying to stay up to date with all these evolving trends and technologies. You’d lose your mind. It’s impossible to know everything, so we need to collectively agree to stop pretending that we do.

There’s no such thing as a marketing expert

Sometimes saying ‘I have no idea what I’m doing’ is the bravest thing to do.

It’s a powerful display of vulnerability that can shift the mood in any office from individual insecurity to collective camaraderie – a sense that we’re all in this together, figuring it out as we go along.

Admitting you don’t know something isn’t half as shameful today as it used to be. Marketing moves so quickly that no one’s really a ‘technical expert’ anymore. Digital marketing skills are becoming obsolete quicker than ever before – so even if you’re an expert in your field one day, the technology could operate in a completely different way in a matter of weeks. No role is shielded from the ebbs and flows of technological advancement, so we all need to stay agile and adaptable to our ever-changing environments.

In other words, we really are all in this together. So why are we still insisting that we know what we’re doing?

Imposter syndrome plays a big part in this. People overestimate how much other people know and underestimate their own knowledge, so constantly blagging and bluffing with colleagues is only feeding into the problem. Marketers need to be honest with each other, work together, and ask for help.

Answerable to everyone, but too afraid to ask for help

The problem is, asking for help is not something marketers are particularly good at. Despite being seemingly answerable to everyone, we hold ourselves to a higher standard. We’re expected to know the answers, but aren’t really allowed to ask the questions.

My first strategy-planning meeting at Don’t be Shy is a good example of this. I was confronted with a series of alien acronyms and, in the moment, couldn’t remember what ToFu, MoFu and BoFu stood for (‘top of funnel’, ‘middle of funnel’ and ‘bottom of funnel’, by the way). But did I ask someone to explain them to me? I certainly did not.

It’s not the same in other professions. Plumbers watch YouTube explainer videos. Developers Google code functionality. And even doctors seek peer support. But marketers? We avoid seeking advice, to maintain the facade of all-encompassing knowledge – and because we’re afraid of appearing ignorant or incompetent.

We don’t ask for help – but equally, we don’t freely share advice. Marketing agencies in particular tend to closely guard their IP because they think that sharing it could lessen the value of their practice.

But there should be no shame in asking how to do something – especially in a field that’s evolving faster than ever. We shouldn’t be shy about sharing our expertise. That’s why we’ve created the How-to Hub: a safe place for marketers to seek advice from agency experts.

The How-to Hub aims to demystify the B2B marketing trends, tech, and tactics you need to know – and explains how to do them. Like a WikiHow for B2B marketers; a central place to find instructional information about how to master marketing tasks – from how to stress-test a new product positioning to how to build B2B engagement on Reddit.

We don’t have all the answers – and we’re not going to pretend that we do. We’re just here to help where we can by sharing practical advice about what we know most about.