Balancing Inbound Marketing and Outbound Marketing

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Join #B2BChat on Twitter every Thursday at 8:00 PM EasternInbound marketing has captured the attention of B2B marketers, and no wonder. According to Hubspot, leads from inbound marketing cost 62% less than leads from outbound marketing.

However, opinions and knowledge of inbound marketing vary widely among B2B marketers.

Dan Hanssel (@dannyhanssel) moderated a recent #b2bchat discussion on Twitter that tackled some of these issues. The result was not only some good advice for marketers, but also a window into the varying opinions marketers hold about inbound marketing, testing, budget allocations and more. [Read more…]

4 out of 5 Marketers are Zombies! [Infographic]

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What, it’s changing? Quick, call it dead! Write an article about how social media is killing advertising!

Advertising is Dead. SEO is Dead. Television is Dead. Magazines are Dead. Newspapers are Dead. Websites are Dead. Agencies are Dead. Media companies are Dead.

Did TV kill radio? After more than 50 years, radio is still here. Like everything else, it has changed. Like everything else in marketing, it lives on.

See the pattern here? Most marketers want everything around them to be dead. But the only thing dead in marketing are marketers. [Read more…]

9 Tips for Content Marketing in an ADD World

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Distraction is constant in our technology and communication-fueled lives. Email alerts, Facebook replies, tweets, Google’s red box, …

Everything around us is competing for our attention. We may not have ADD, but we definitely act like it.

How can B2B content marketers, who are often marketing complex products and need to share a meaningful level of detail, be effective in this environment? [Read more…]

The Intersection of Content Marketing and Advertising

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In order to deliver something more memorable than most advertising, marketers are turning to content that tells a story, engages the audience and delivers value.

But how do marketers reach a large audience with their content? Major publishers continue to have audiences that dwarf those of nearly every marketer, relying on just their own audience isn’t enough.

In the past, marketers relied on advertising and PR to get to these audiences, but those approaches mean the marketer’s own content is still a step removed. Today, there is an emerging third option that allows marketers to distribute quality content at scale: native advertising. [Read more…]

LinkedIn Just Went Into the Publishing Business

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A number of publishers and blogs covered the launch of LinkedIn’s new follow feature for 150 thought leaders or influencers over the last few weeks. However, labeling it the ability to follow thought leaders (as LinkedIn did) misses the real point.

LinkedIn did not launch a new feature to follow thought leaders or the ability for select individuals to publish articles on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn just launched as a publisher with 150 thought leaders, influencers and public figures as their first journalists and contributors. [Read more…]

B2B Online Advertising: Improve Targeting by 10x (or more!)

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B2B advertising begins with the target audience. Until you know who you are targeting, you cannot identify the publications, sites or ad networks you should be working with.

However, one of the first things advertisers do is generalize their target audience. Here are a couple examples of how B2B target audiences are generalized for advertising:

  • Juniper targets companies with large data centers. However, before that can be turned into a broad advertising plan, it is generalized as large companies or specific industries likely to have large data centers.
  • UPS targets companies with national and international logistics and high volume shipping needs. Again, that is generalized into industries, large companies or even geographic regions before it can be used as a target for advertising campaigns.

What if you didn’t need to generalize your audience? Instead of targeting large companies or industries, what if Juniper could directly target companies with large data centers or UPS could directly target companies with complex logistics needs?

Today they can. [Read more…]

Inbound Marketing vs Outbound Marketing: The Real Difference

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Outbound marketing is about interruption. Inbound marketing is about discovery.

But so what? We have all been interrupted and had it lead to something wonderful. We have all turned to Google or social media and discovered things that are completely useless or misleading.

So why is inbound marketing a better way to market?

The difference is friction. [Read more…]

B2B Marketing’s Missing Objective: Creating a Home Field Advantage

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What companies do you want to work with? Not just the ones that seem safe or are good for your resume, but the ones you just want? The ones that would make your day, even if they didn’t make your wallet?

Those brands are out there in your personal live, from BMW or Louis Vuitton to Apple or Blendtec. You don’t need them, you want them.

Now consider your business. Do people want to work with you? Are you simply helping your customers justify the decision they already want to make? Or are you approaching every opportunity as if it is a level playing field and looking to win on your merits alone? [Read more…]

The Thin Line Between Social Media Marketing and Spam

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You can share. You can publish. You can broadcast. You can spam.

Today, communication is more accessible than ever before. Anyone with an internet connection can email or Tweet.

With more people publishing and more competition for our attention, free and easy-to-use communication channels lead to spam. Even well-intentioned individuals, marketers and publishers can fall into the spam trap. [Read more…]

Marketing’s Broken Foundation: Measurement

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Data is the foundation for analytics. Analytics is the foundation for marketing driven by data and insights.

When you start with bad data, you get erroneous insights and your marketing goes in the wrong direction.

A recent research result from ITSMA and Vision Edge Marketing is eye opening. Even though the importance of starting with good data should be obvious, B2B marketers are analyzing and optimizing marketing from a broken foundation. [Read more…]