The 3 digital techniques B2B marketers must excel in

Whether it’s on desktops, laptops, phablets or tablets, there is one truth when it comes to marketing your business online. If you can’t be found, don’t have a clear and compelling offer and don’t make “transaction” easy for customers, you’re doomed to failure. Web searches, supplier websites, and in most countries email remain the primary information sources for the modern business buyer. These are the tools that allow customers to seek out products and services, to learn about the companies that provide them and to ensure they are regularly updated on them.

Brand storytelling for B2B lead generation

The underlying premise of effective B2B (digital) marketing though, lies in engaging customers and prospects and providing them with useful, relevant content that improves their own business’ revenue and performance and positions yours as an expert to rely upon. So before we get distracted by no less important traffic generation,…

Why you could be irrelevant to 86% of your target audience... and what to do about it

86% of B2B email marketing does not work. That’s the average level of non-engagement in B2B email marketing databases - the people who never open, never read and never engage with any of your content. Yet email remains an enduring pillar of modern business communication with UK workers dealing with an average of 40 emails per day and spending an incredible 81 days of the working year reading and writing emails. How can email marketing be failing to reach such a large proportion of its intended audience when email communication is still so prevalent? So deeply embedded in our daily work? It is not email marketing that has become less effective, it is broadcast email marketing that has become less effective. That average of…

2014 Media Landscape for B2B Marketers

B2B Marketing and Circle Research surveyed over 288 client-side marketers to gather insight into how B2B companies are using social media, who is posting content and their key challenges. Their infographic shares these top level findings: LinkedIn generates the most revenue. Top 3 platforms for brand awareness are Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. 75% of content is posted by the Marketing team, followed by Key Experts within the company and then the Management Team. Key challenges are showing ROI and the time involved in social media. Additional Resources on Social Media Marketing for B2B companies Influencer outreach guide Creating a social media strategy for B2B companies Best social media for lead generation [Infographic] Influencing B2B Technical Buyers [Infographic]  …

Using video for brand storytelling

There is no shortage of people out there telling us that marketing today is all about storytelling, and that if you want people to connect with your brand, you need to tell stories that they can relate to. Of course, this is easier said than done, so in this post I wanted to introduce you to some ways of determining what story you should tell.

Making a video about your product

When you first consider making videos about your product, the natural tendency is to think about making videos that revolve around the product itself - demonstrating its features and benefits. This is our connection to traditional sales-focused advertising talking. Here is a Fairy Liquid advert that anyone based in the UK of 30+ years should remember. It is a good example of a product-focused advert that clearly shows some awareness of the importance of ‘story’ and emotional connection –…

Best practices for successful B2B corporate video campaigns

Online video marketing has come a long way in a relatively short space of time. What started out as secretly watching YouTube clips in your room or furtively sneaking a peek on your work computer has quickly developed into a practice suitable for the boardroom. In fact, a recent Forbes report stated that the majority of CEOs now prefer to watch a video than other types of content if both are on the same webpage. Consequently, there’s been an upward trend in video marketing for B2B businesses, in both effectiveness and popularity. However, B2B video marketing campaigns have been slow to shake off their boring, corporate image, which consists of them focusing solely on their product or service with stiff, emotionless campaigns. Here are 7 examples of companies where brands have added personality to corporate video, we particularly like the approaches that Intel…

Which content types engage and influence technical buyers?

SterlingKor surveyed over 2,000 key business and IT Decision-makers, to find out how B2B vendors can engage and sell 'their wares'. So how do vendors engage with these IT and tech purchasers and what type of content will they engage with?

The top influencers of purchase decisions are social, mobile and video content

Key takeaways showed that:

45% were influenced by a vendor's social presence and 55% are searching for product reviews.41% purchased the product within six months of being exposed to a mobile ad.B2B companies are looking for information in 'bite sized chunks'.

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Examples of 3 Facebook Applications that every B2B organisation needs on its brand page

You will know that on every brand’s Facebook Page there are four app thumbnails, three of which are customizable and whose positions can be moved. I've marked them 1 through 3 below. Some companies choose to use this space only to feature their Page’s Like count or Facebook’s 'Notes' and 'Map' apps. These companies are not making the most of their precious Facebook real estate! In this article I'll show examples of 3 better alternatives.

Essential apps for your Facebook page

Much like the cover photo, apps are a feature of the Page that capture the attention of Page visitors first. For B2B companies that want to squeeze the most value out of their Facebook Page, there are three essential apps that should live on the Page at all times: Newsletter app Resources app Testimonials app.

1.…

Five implications for B2B Content Marketing

The Content Marketing Institute recently published its latest 2014 B2B Content Marketing Report, which contains some interesting insights about the role content marketing plays in successful B2B marketing strategies.

The implications for content marketing in 2014

Viewing the report got us thinking about the way the content marketing realm has broadened for B2B marketers. Here are our top five take-aways from the report which B2B enterprises can use to leverage your content marketing strategies for the next year. 1. Content marketing is increasingly accepted in the marketing strategies of all B2B businesses Now we need no special marketing report to believe that. The rate of acceptance however comes as a surprise. A wonderful surprise that is. The report found that 93% of all B2B marketers use content marketing in their marketing mix.

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4 inspiring examples of B2B companies harnessing social media for B2B marketing

In our 7 Steps B2B Digital Marketing Guide we show the importance of tailoring planning and content generation and curation around the specific needs of business-to-business (B2B) buyers when positioning B2B products and services. In this post I will look at more examples of B2B companies making good use of social media.

Social media and business are two phrases that have sat uncomfortably for several years; I think for good reason. I think about my own use of social media going back before 2008 to when the major platforms developed into mass audience participation, real-time news and networking sites, and the ways in which people use them. Business applications of social media do appear to have been shoehorned in as an afterthought.

In previous posts, we talked about the importance of curating content and creating great original content and offered…

Plus 4 examples of videos aligned with business goals

We find that many of our B2B clients have a lack of confidence about their businesses suitability to video (or should that be the other way around?). They think that in order for a product to work in a video it needs to be entertaining in itself. But that is just not true - there are plenty of stories behind every business that are best communicated using video. In many cases it is often easier with B2B as the target customer is often more clearly defined and understood. What is more complicated with B2B video is that marketers need to work harder to convince a number of decision makers in an organisation. Here is an example of how we used 2 short videos to increase a B2B clients website by 10% - it only took 1 month to achieve this…