Being creative in B2B marketing is the best skill to have right now… Every other skill set is going to be secondary to creativity;

What is creativity

Creativity is usually something we associate with artists or inventors. Let’s start by clarifying what creativity is and how it relates to Marketing. Especially  roles not seen as needing creativity, like Product Marketing and Product Management.

Creativity is the ability to make or otherwise bring into existence something new. The Miriam-Webster definition of creative is on point. They define creative as “having the quality of something created rather than imitated”.

Not imitating is especially important in B2B Marketing. Because everything (products, websites, content etc…) often looks and sounds the same to buyers. Marketing is now the most effective, and sometimes the only, way to stand out in the digital age. In this era, competitors can imitate your features and prices. But replicating your marketing and go-to-market strategy is not as easy. Here is an example of weak differentiation. 

Creativity is now the most essential soft skill. Artificial Intelligence can do many things. But it is bad at creativity. AI faces challenges being creative. Because it lacks the capacity to understand unrelated concepts like humans can.

Artificial Intelligence will take over jobs that involve routine tasks or transactions. But roles which demand creativity will continue to depend on humans. B2B marketing roles for complex products fall in this category. However, the people who are in these marketing roles must be creative. The level of creativity required is much more than designing a new logo. 

Wrap it up – get creative in B2B Marketing

Companies would do well to hire marketing people who are creative. Test for creativity. Train your existing marketers to be more creative. Being creative in B2B marketing is the new meta skill.  Creativity in marketing is one of the few ways to differentiate in B2B. Jack Trout said it best – “differentiate or die“.