Turning insight into action: Lessons from The Marketing Pod’s B2B comms event

The world of B2B communications is evolving fast. As customer expectations shift, sales cycles lengthen and digital noise grows louder, energy and utilities marketers face increasing pressure to prove their impact. 

With these challenges in mind, The Marketing Pod hosted an event to tackle some of the biggest questions. From stakeholder engagement to proposition development and leveraging data insights, you can watch some of the talks and get their expert advice on demand. 

Strong propositions are the foundation for growth

Marketing Pod’s Marketing Strategy Consultant, Ellie Smith, made a compelling case for getting the proposition right. Backed by data and real-world examples, she showed how strong value propositions can significantly boost commercial performance. But only if they’re rooted in real customer understanding.

Key takeaways from Ellie’s talk:

• 74% of B2B buyers choose the vendor who best understands their business needs
• A strong proposition is clear, credible, differentiated and urgent
• The best are grounded in both customer pain and gain points
• Propositions can unify brand, product and messaging to drive consistent growth

Ellie urged marketers to move beyond surface-level messaging and invest the time to truly understand their audiences. As she put it: “It’s not just about messaging. A strong proposition brings together the brand, the product and the customer need, and genuinely supports growth”. Watch Ellie's full presentation below.

Stakeholder engagement: making complexity meaningful

Vicki Mustard, Head of Whole Energy Customer Management at the National Energy System Operator (NESO), explored the importance of stakeholder engagement within the energy system, drawing parallels with B2B marketing principles. 

As a sector built on physical infrastructure, regulation and interdependencies, the energy sector presents unique challenges, but also huge opportunities for communications professionals to make an impact.

Vicki shared how she uses persona-building and storytelling to help technical teams see through the eyes of customers. She also underlined the importance of trust, clarity and empathy when engaging diverse stakeholder groups. 

Highlights from Vicki’s presentation:

• The energy landscape is shifting rapidly, and so are stakeholder expectations
• Communicators must simplify complex information to connect meaningfully
• Trust is earned through consistent, clear communication and deep audience insight
• Personas and immersive exercises can help teams understand real-world customer challenges

Vicki's session was a reminder that good B2B communication is about people, not just products. “The whole energy system is so much more than engineering,” she explained. “We created personas for people [with rising energy bills], and the response from industry participants was incredible.”

Looking ahead: creativity, content and credibility in 2025

David Rowlands, Head of Content at B2B Marketing, took a wide-angle view of what B2B marketing leaders need to know now, and in the years ahead.

He addressed the persistent challenge of marketing proving its value, and offered a call to arms for marketers to become more strategic, commercially minded and brand-led. His session combined bold stats with a healthy dose of realism, drawing attention to the gap between perception and performance in many marketing functions.

David’s key takeaways:

• 40% of senior marketers struggle with financial language
• The best B2B marketers are strategic, data driven and commercially focused
• The most successful are moving away from MQLs and looking towards brand investment
• Creativity and useful content are still the best tools to cut through the noise

“Creativity’s never been more important,” he concluded. “You need that deep market knowledge there, you then shape a really powerful commercial strategy, but ultimately you still need to cut through to the buyer. Watch David's full presentation below.

Continuing the conversation

Longer sales cycles, rising expectations, greater complexity: the world of B2B marketing and communications can seem a little scary and unpredictable at the moment. But as we learned in Birmingham, it doesn’t have to be. 

Each expert speaker reinforced a fundamental truth: when B2B communications are grounded in insight and delivered with clarity, creativity and confidence, they drive real impact.

This is a belief that drives our work at the Marketing Pod. Want to see how it could look when applied to your business? Get a Marketing Health Check for data insights on your performance, and expert advice on how to elevate your commercial and creative performance. 

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