Life as a B2B Marketer – Charlie Bestall

Have you ever wondered what marketing within B2B is really like? What does it take to become a B2B marketer and to stay on top of the game?

As part of our “life as a” content series, we caught up with Charlie Bestall, Marketing Manager at Stephenson Law. If you are considering a career within this sector or are planning on adding an expert marketer to your team – you can find some first-hand insights right here.

ADLIB: How did you get into B2B marketing? What has been the career path that led you to it?

Charlie: I studied marketing at university so it was the logical next step career-wise. Although I didn’t enter the world of B2B marketing until a year after graduation.

During my career, I’ve worked in a number of roles across a variety of industries. Including several years in-house at an events company, a stint at a PR agency and time working as a freelance consultant.

Although my career hasn’t followed a typical path, I’d confidently say that the experiences I’ve had to date have all contributed to the B2B marketing skillset I have today.

ADLIB: What is it about your role that inspires you to get out of bed in the morning?

Charlie: It has to be the variety of things I work on. From writing content to building websites, event planning and liaising with journalists I enjoy that two days are rarely the same.

One piece of advice?

Don’t get sucked into the shiny new marketing thingamajig. Understand the objectives and goals of the business, get clarity on your budget and develop a strategy from there. Your plan, tactics and KPIs will fall out of this.

There may be a place for the newest social platform or latest analytics solution, but you don’t want to be flip-flopping between tools and tactics on the whim of the latest blog you’ve read.

What does a typical day look like for you?

Charlie: I try to start each morning by going back through my to-do list and prioritising tasks for the day, week and month ahead. After that, it’s the LinkedIn, Microsoft Teams and email rounds before getting stuck into the biggest thing I have on that day.

Typically this will be writing a long-form piece of content, completing a major update on our website, or in the next couple of weeks mapping out how we’re going to use more video in our marketing.

With something big under my belt before lunch, I tend to use the afternoon for smaller tasks, meetings and any calls I have scheduled.

ADLIB: What are 3 key things you consider when choosing an employer?

Charlie:

• Strong leadership – Somebody with a vision of what they want from their business and an idea of how they’re going to get there.
• Culture – it’s important to know that the environment you’re going to be working in and the employees you’ll be working alongside are a good fit for your personality.
• Package – is there an option to work from home, Is there flexibility around start/finish times, how much holiday will you get…

ADLIB: And finally, from your perspective, what are the top 3 skills it takes to become a Marketing Manager?

Charlie:

• Adaptability – you need to be receptive to change and open to learning new skills. If you’re not you’ll quickly become irrelevant and obsolete (IMO).
• Creativity – copy and apply to …with budget …with campaigns, …with copy, …with design briefs, …with email subjects lines, etc.
• To be a People Person – whether you’re trying to win over internal stakeholders, negotiate with suppliers or brief creative teams you need to be comfortable communicating with others.

Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom, Charlie!

More about a career path in Marketing this way.