B2B Marketing, Digital Media and Marketing Strategy
No one makes a million dollar decision based on one white paper, one email or one Google search.
The buying process may take 12 to 18 months. 20 different people may be involved in the decision. Peers, consultants and analysts will provide their input.
It is called a complex sale for a reason, but B2B marketers keep trying to fit it into a simplistic measurement framework: where did we get that lead? [Read more...]
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Most B2B marketing organizations miss the biggest opportunities to impact their business because they have not identified the right goals.
Why isn’t business coming out of your ears?
Dig into that question, ask why of every answer or assumption you come up with, and you will eventually get to the root challenge and the basis for goals that can move your business forward.
It is easier said than done. [Read more...]
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Do you care if potential prospects see your services as high value or a complete rip-off? Of course you do.
This is about the perception each individual has about you. This is about your brand.
Perceptions are created by experience with your products, service and people, through what other people say about you (even competitors) and through your own marketing.
No one buys from a company they distrust or pays a premium for a solution they see as a low cost provider.
However, in B2B, the value of perceptions have been set aside, in favor of the new holy grail of B2B marketing: lead generation. [Read more...]
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Lead scoring and personas are popular topics in B2B marketing. However, the two are generally discussed separately.
Until B2B marketers begin talking about personas and lead scoring together they are missing an simple way to identify missed sales opportunities.
What if your objective is to deliver highly engaged leads to sales, but your persona indicates that sizable segments of your audience are not likely to engage with marketing content or even to register. [Read more...]
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What if banner ads could become as targeted and relevant as emails?
One of the emerging trends in online advertising promises to make this possible.
Rather than targeting an audience based on various characteristics, CRM retargeting allows you to target segments of your CRM database with online ads. [Read more...]
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B2B marketing is complex. Sales cycles are long, measurement can be convoluted, and segmentation, lead scoring and sales and marketing alignment take traditional marketers into uncomfortable spaces.
Amid the details and uncomfortable spaces, the bigger marketing picture is often lost.
Take a step back and consider the three bigger picture items below. How can you improve each of these things? [Read more...]
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Sitting in a meeting recently and reviewing various B2B sites, someone said “they even have a promotional offer with pricing on their site.”
It wasn’t a complement of their marketing prowess or focus. It was a knock, the final proof that this B2B marketer did not know how to market.
Say what? Solution selling and never undermining your value are anthems in marketing. But has it gone too far? Not everyone will compete on price and promotion, but does that mean no one should? [Read more...]
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Lead generation continues to be a top objective for B2B marketers and content syndication is primary offering from publishers.
Definitions:
As demand for B2B lead generation programs increases, new providers are springing up, sporting slick new websites, massive email databases, lower costs and brand new approaches.
As the landscape changes, here are some of the benefits and drawbacks [Read more...]
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Increasingly, marketers are adding content curation to their marketing activity, often with objectives of sharing a certain amount of content each day. Ardath Albee (@ardath421) has a sample to-do list for a content marketer in Show Quantity the Door.
Three weeks ago I published Three Reasons Content Curation is Overrated, my reaction to research published on eMarketer and advice we frequently see about curating content in order to establish thought leadership.
That doesn’t mean curation is not valuable. It may be one of the primary ways you stay in touch with your audience. But the path to value from your curation is a winding one. [Read more...]
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In B2B marketing, bad data represents a huge lost opportunity. According to SiriusDecisions, companies with the best quality data drive 70% more revenue through marketing programs than those with simply average data quality.
Despite the cost of bad data, the practice of the average marketer guarantees bad data, and it may be getting worse each year. With a growing body of research showing current marketing practices are consistently delivering bad data, it is time for change. [Read more...]
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I am a digital and B2B marketer with a background in analytics and online media. Based in Portland, Oregon, I run the media group at Babcock & Jenkins.
Views expressed are my own.
