Five common product branding myths

Branding is one of the aspects of running a business that people just can’t seem to get right. Here are a few nuggets of information that are not facts, but product branding myths.

There is a lot of information out there on the subject, but most of it is sadly incorrect. This has made it somewhat impossible for many businesses to properly exploit branding.

Myth 01 - Branding is all about the logo and colors

Technically speaking, if all you needed to make an excellent brand was a good logo and a perfect color palette, then brand designers would have become obsolete a long time ago.

[si_guide_block id="57881" title="Access Business Member resource – Digital Branding Guide" description=" 7 Steps to a Digital Communications Strategy"/]

Branding is more than a combination of logos and colors. It is the…

Chart of the Day: A review of the content types that engage B2B audiences

How to best engage audiences is a challenge in all sectors, but particularly in B2B marketing where there are so many potential formats that can be selected as suggested by our content marketing matrix. This new research considers the 5 most popular content types only, but is interesting since it goes beyond reviewing the content that supports B2B buying decisions, but also considers general content consumption by professionals: This chart shows that if you want to engage your audiences, publishing other types of industry content could be popular. Covering industry trends is significantly more popular with content around to approach business challenges less popular, but still worthwhile. This shows the value in creating an digital value proposition as part of your content marketing strategy. As the visual shows you should…

Real world examples of a range of platforms that help land & expand

‘Social’ is an absolute phenomenon. Apparently, if Facebook was a nation, it would have more people than China. Serious scale to say the least. In today’s world, it’s not whether your ideal audiences are on social media, but a question of where they are. When we see life through an account-based marketing (ABM) lens, we want to work with as many of our target accounts as possible. That’s what it’s all about. So if organisations you want to onboard are there - you need to be there. If you don’t grab the opportunity, you can bet your bottom dollar your competition will - so get to it!

[si_guide_block id="118739" title="Download our Premium Resource – Account-Based Marketing best practices guide " description="Learn practical techniques, using relevant tools, to launch or improve an ABM programme."/]

Hello account-based social

Account-based social can be defined…

Here are some of the most effective strategies for social media lead generation for B2B businesses...

When most think of social media lead generation for B2B businesses, they think LinkedIn. However, as great as LinkedIn is at B2B lead generation, it’s not the only social platform that can get you great results. In this blog post, we’re going to be covering tips for how to improve social media lead generation for B2B business.

Why use social media for lead generation?

Lead generation is an essential part of a healthy, thriving B2B business. And social media presents an amazing opportunity to find leads; with around 2.62 billion social media users worldwide in 2018 and that number expected to grow up to 3.02 billion in 3 years, it’s the biggest directory of potential leads that exists. But it’s not just the sheer number of users that makes social media an attractive lead generation solution. Social media…

Find out the most effective steps that will help you grow your company and generate leads

With software development setting records every year, it is easy to see why SaaS presents a lucrative opportunity for entrepreneurs. But like in every other business, you need to have a sound plan if you want to grow. Luckily, new technologies allow for the creation of new software and enable companies in this niche to grow more rapidly. So, what are the marketing strategies that can help your SaaS business get the most out of its lead generation efforts? Take a look at our tips below. [si_guide_block id="5676" title="Download FREE Resource – Digital marketing plan template" description="Our popular marketing planning template built on the Smart Insights RACE planning system."/]

Content marketing

Everybody knows that content is the king. If that is so, why wouldn’t you use his majesty to attract more visitors to your website? The thing with content…

The pain of finding B2B survey and user research respondents is real. Here are 6 solutions including free and paid services.

Finding relevant survey respondents for market research projects can be hard and the cost can be eye watering too, particularly if you're in a specialist B2B niche or you need senior respondents. We all know that one of the hardest parts of doing any B2B research is often something which is undervalued- “getting respondents” and more importantly “getting the right respondents”. So you’re running a survey and it’s pretty niche, say you’re looking for B2B respondents purely for research rather than lead generation – where do you start? Where do you actually go for respondents? We’ve scoured the web and even given some of these a try, for our 6 ways to find B2B survey respondents.

Option 1: Google Consumer Surveys

It might be branded “consumer surveys” but they have lots of B2B publishers…

How email automation can create better results for your email marketing strategy

At Communicator, we are trusted partners in email marketing. We work in partnership with our customers, which are all ambitious brands to make sure that they are achieving breakthrough results using our software suite. As part of our focus to help you to achieve email sophistication, we wanted to share with you what email automation is and how it can help your email marketing.

First things first, what is email automation?

Automation by definition is where you introduce systems that will generate actions due to certain triggers that you set up. Applying this to email marketing, it means that once a customer subscribes to a certain email journey, they will automatically receive your emails without you having to do anything else. This is a brilliant…

B2B content marketing strategy for traditional and inbound marketing

The B2B buying cycle is a long, arduous process. It includes multiple stakeholders with different agendas and an aversion to risk lingering from the last decade’s financial difficulties. Couple the aversion to risk with the new trend of buyers researching extensively before contacting the seller and you get today’s B2B selling environment. It demands a change in strategy from your marketing and sales teams. Inbound marketing, a method of “pull” marketing, replaces traditional marketing's practice of appealing to the broadest possible audience in the hopes of capturing a single sale. Inbound marketing is more effective and substantially less costly than traditional marketing, and it meshes with new buying trends.

Inbound Marketing: The Definition

Inbound marketing leverages content marketing, email marketing, and marketing automation to build rapport and trust. Sellers nurture a relationship with prospects by offering valuable content that answers the most pressing questions from…

Social media is more popular but less effective than PPC for B2B companies

If you're a B2B marketer wondering how to get ahead in the digital arena, you might be frustrated with the lack of statistics available about B2B marketing. While the web is rife with stats on the latest B2C trends, B2B marketers often struggle to find data which can influence their digital strategies. Bubblegum Search have created an infographic that highlights some of the most vital B2B statistics in 2017 and has some fantastic insights which can translate into actionable strategies for B2B marketers. Let's look at three important takeaways that demonstrate key gaps and opportunities in B2B marketing.

1. Twitter is an effective platform for 55% of B2B marketers

51% also report that they have great success with YouTube, and even Instagram is proving effective in generating B2B interactions. LinkedIn just takes the lead with 66% reporting success, which isn't…

A well-planned newsletter makes sure your customers always remember you

Enewsletter writing is hard – particularly as you don’t really get a great deal of feedback as to what works and what doesn't. The only guidelines email marketers can work off are engagements and clicks - but this metric varies depending on what vendor you use and how they measure engagement. So how do you know you're writing engaging copy?

[si_guide_block id="59002" title="Download our FREE Resource – The State of Email Marketing 2017" description="Global benchmarking research report to support Email Marketing Excellence."/]

Go out there and subscribe to some of your competitor's newsletters to see what works and what doesn’t. Don’t stop there. Check out newsletters in other businesses and areas. Look at some of your near-competitors (those who have products that are close to yours but not the same) and see what they do. They might have good ideas you can apply. You…