It’s taken hundreds of years to get there, but we’re finally entering a society in which everyone is equal, regardless of their ethnicity, their gender or their sexual preference. Of course, the gender pay gap and the lack of women in boardrooms both show that there’s still a long way to go, but with millennials taking over the workforce, the push for equality shows no signs of abating.
In the meantime, that leaves today’s female thought-leaders to push ahead and set a shining example for tomorrow’s businesswomen. Luckily, there are plenty of inspirational women out there who are helping to bring B2B marketing and operations into the 21st century. And they’re not just inspirational because they’re women – they’re inspirational because they’re really, really good at what they do.
Here are just two of the women who are helping to level the playing field for B2Bs.
Ann Handley
Handley is the Head of Content at MarketingProfs, as well as a keynote speaker and the bestselling author of Everybody Writes and Content Rules. She’s the perfect example of when an individual brand and a corporate brand come together to everybody’s benefit, and her quirky sense of humour comes across in both her writing and her behind-the-scenes ‘Annstagram’ photos.
MarketingProfs is a genuine industry leader, the kind of company that most people in marketing will have heard of. They’re trusted by over 600,000 marketing professionals to provide webinars, training, tips, tricks, articles, discussion forums and more, and it’s one of the best places you can go if you want to learn about what’s happening in the industry.
One of the interesting things about Handley is that she’s able to balance both blogging on her own site and managing the content that MarketingProfs pumps out on a daily basis. That’s one in the eye for all of the CEOs who say they’re “too busy” to share their expertise by creating content.
Find out more about Ann Handley.
Susanna Gebauer
Susanna is a writer and marketer, which is why she’s also the cofounder of The Social Ms – a content and social media marketing company that she launched with her brother Jonathan. B2B companies have traditionally been slower to adopt social media marketing than their B2C counterparts, but The Social Ms proves that it’s relevant to companies of all sizes and niches.
They do this by using a similar approach to MarketingProfs, providing free ebooks and downloadable resources while maintaining a regular blog on the latest social media marketing news. What’s interesting is their approach to monetisation – they’re so good at what they do that people are willing to pay for it.
Susanna and Jonathan give away most of their content for free, either as a free download or as a public blog article. They make up for it, though, by charging a premium for their most exclusive content, effectively allowing marketers to try before they buy. It’s an approach that seems to be paying off – partly because it focusses on adding value first and then pushing readers to convert into customers when they’re good and ready.
Find out more about Susanna Gebauer.
Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.