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Three Data Opportunities B2B Marketers Are Missing Today

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Rolls of DataFor all of the discussion of data in marketing, and Big Data in 2014, most B2B marketers are showing they are inept when it comes to actually using data to improve the majority of their marketing.

Yes, B2B marketers are doing a few things well when it comes to using data:

  • B2B marketers are increasingly adopting marketing automation and using past behavior to deliver more relevant content.
  • Ads are (occasionally) targeted and relevant to discrete audiences, using retargeting or through data providers like Bizo.
  • B2B marketing performance is being carefully tracked and optimized based on reported results.

Sound ok? Before you give yourself a pat on the back, this isn’t even the tip of the iceberg! [Read more…]

7 B2B Advertising Opportunities You Are Missing

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B2B advertisers generally target smaller, harder to define audiences than consumer advertisers, which puts a major premium on effective targeting in B2B advertising.

However, many B2B marketing groups are continuing to use the same targeting options they mastered in print and direct mail, simply applied to newer digital marketing tactics.

Today, B2B marketers have many new options available. Below are 7 options and potential providers for each one. [Read more…]

LinkedIn: Do New Offerings Make It the King of B2B?

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Picture of a Lion at the Oregon ZooIf you are in B2B advertising, you cannot ignore LinkedIn. With great reach (#22 US site in January 2013 according to ComScore), extensive profile data actively maintained by the audience and granular targeting options, LinkedIn is a powerhouse in the world of B2B advertising.

So when LinkedIn introduces a new advertising option, as a B2B advertiser, you need to pay attention. Here are two new offerings LinkedIn introduced in the last quarter that seem to have slipped under the radar of most B2B marketers. [Read more…]

3 Steps to Using Data in an Imperfect Data World

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Archery target with arrows around the edgeData is reinventing the online advertising market. Today, algorithmic media buying is one of the fastest growing areas in online advertising and without data, it wouldn’t even exist.

This isn’t just a consumer advertising trend, increasingly B2B advertising is being driven by data as well.

However, the problem with online data is it is inherently dirty. Collected from registration forms, browsing behavior or appended offline data sources, collecting online data is an imperfect process at best.

So what is the smart way to use dirty data to improve your advertising? Glad you asked.

Here are three steps that will guide both media and creative. [Read more…]

A New Way To Connect Twitter To Lead Generation

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B2B marketers are so anxious to generate leads from social media they are turning Twitter into a list for cold calls and mass email blasts.

In the last couple weeks, two companies have emailed or called me because I follow influential sales and marketing accounts on Twitter.

There is nothing social about this! Marketers are just turning social into a source of email or telemarketing lists for mass outbound marketing.

Here is a better way, along with actual results, that companies can use to drive leads through social media. [Read more…]

Marketing Automation’s Next Frontier: Madison Avenue

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Marketers have invested in marketing automation, content and, in many cases, creating complex business rules to determine what content and message to deliver when.

This represents a significant investment but, for many companies, the application has been limited to emails and landing pages.

The real value is in the rules and logic used to deliver the right message at the right time. The next evolution in marketing automation will be extending the application of these rules across the full spectrum of digital and addressable marketing channels. [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…]

Bad Advertising Advice: Go Where Your Audience Is

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It sounds obvious, on point, and innocent, but the oft-told advice to “go where your audience is” is one of the worst pieces of advice B2B marketers receive.

This advice leaves B2B marketers looking at what their audience does. Do they watch the Super Bowl? Are they on Facebook? Do they read Sports Illustrated?

Media sales representatives perpetuate the problem, comparing reach to their competitors. The “more read our stuff” chart is in nearly every major media kit in one form or another and every day it leads marketers astray. [Read more…]

Using New Data for Marketing that is “Just Right”

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You go to Macys.com and you see baby clothes prominently featured on the homepage. You sign up for the newsletter that promises daily special deals on baby clothes and toys. It is a no-brainer, your first child is on the way.

Macy’s newsletter arrives in your inbox promptly at 5:55 AM every morning, just as you sit down with coffee and fire up your email. On Fridays, it arrives at 6:30 AM. You always sleep in a little on Friday.

On Saturday, you walk into your local furniture for the nursery. On Monday, you notice a crib in the sidebar of your Macy’s email.

Across town, your friend receives an email from Macy’s at 8:25 AM. Well timed, it arrives as she sits down in the office to check personal email before the real work day begins. [Read more…]

A New Way to Understand Your Social Media Audience

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Audience research is invaluable and well developed personas provide a broad array of insights into the lives and minds of your target audience, insights that form the basis for your social media plans.

Then, you put your social media plan in place, including sharing great content from others and creating your own. And you hit a fundamental disconnect. Your planning is based on your target audience, but you are measuring activity from everyone. Here are two questions that are difficult to answer.

  • Is the content you share via social media resonating with your target audience or a random audience?
  • What content is most popular with your target audience?

[Read more…]