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- 15 Aug
B2B Buyers Seem to Be Engaging Sales Reps Earlier in the Process
from Marketing Charts
A recently released Demand Gen Report’s 2019 B2B Buyers Survey Report [download page] has brought up evidence that runs counter to what we thought to be true. For the past few years, we have seen data that suggests that B2B buyers were not engaging with brands until very late in their buyer journey.A Long-Held Assumption May No Longer Be Valid
However in this study, they found that currently nearly three-quarters of respondents report that they engaged far earlier now. They indicated that they spoke to a vendor within the first 3 months of their buying process. And, in fact, it went much deeper than that with them actually engaged with a sales representative from the vendor they selected in that period as well.
One key element brought out in this study is what buyers say they value most from vendors. Of prime consideration for vendors is being able to demonstrate knowledge of their buyers and their needs. This is the one thing that sets winning vendors apart from the others. And a big part of demonstrating knowledge of the buyer and their needs is being able to provide them with relevant content.
To see more of the data and insights and for some tips on how this information can help your B2B sales cycle, read the full article at MarketingCharts.com
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- 14 Aug
7 Actionable Steps to Convert Social Media Followers to Buyers
by Moss Clement
Social media can be a fantastic digital marketing asset. Whether for B2C or B2B, it can quickly skyrocket your business if you use it correctly. And it is considered to be a top marketing assets in our digital-first world. In fact, it is the one, single place you can add to your digital presence.
Social Media is More Than Cat Memes Now
It can help increase your visibility, boost brand awareness and create an online presence. And if you have a growing following on social media, it means you have a group of potential customers waiting to be engaged with.
But, are you making the most of your followers to increase your return on investment (ROI)? Not sure how or where to start? In this article from Jeff Bullas’ Blog, Moss Clement gives us his seven action steps that will help you convert your social media followers into paying customers. So let’s get started on Jeff Bullas’ Blog.
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- 13 Aug
What You Need to Know About Email Deliverability
You click send. And your marketing email is off on its journey into subscribers’ inboxes. But when you go back to view performance, 10% of the mailing list didn’t even receive it. What gives? The emails you spend so much time strategizing about, crafting, and scheduling aren’t worth much if they don’t actually reach your target audience.
You Cant Manage What Y0u Don’t Measure, Accurately
One truly essential marketing measure that many marketers either ignore or don’t understand is email deliverability. But what is it? Simply stated, deliverability is the email’s ability to reach recipients’ inboxes rather than a “junk” or “promotions” folder. And if you aren’t measuring this, then you can’t manage your email program.
Remember that simply because an email is sent, doesn’t mean it is delivered to a person’s inbox. To learn why and how to remedy this, read the full article at MarketingProfs.com
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- 12 Aug
7 Ways B2Bs Can Use Social Media to Boost Conversion Rates and Lead Gen
by Tessa Burg
Almost all companies recognize the importance of social media. But recognition isn’t the same as understanding. And there is a huge amount of confusion around its value as a B2B marketing opportunity. A lot of those companies tend to view social’s utility through a narrow and skeptical lens.
Most B2B companies don’t believe any B2C marketing strategies will work for them. And this attitude extends to the notion that B2C social strategies won’t work. Instead, they mistakenly use social platforms as real-time broadcast channels. So, they only post announcements or company updates.
That Strategy Misses One Vital Ingredient: Participation
Social media allows B2B companies an opportunity to show their expertise while participating in and adding value to a community. Done correctly, social can drive B2B lead generation and even conversions. To learn how you can begin to leverage social media, read the full article at MarketingProfs.com
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- 10 Aug
Is Hybrid Content Strategy the Future of B2B Content?
by Tim Morral
A majority of B2B marketers plan to reshuffle their strategies and prioritize the development of short-form content in 2019. A move largely motivated by buyers’ changing content preferences. But aligning content with buyer preferences isn’t as simple as tweaking the marketing budget. Nor is it simply a matter of creating a few more social posts.
Today’s B2B marketers find themselves struggling to maximize business value. Now, they are challenged to use social, video, multimedia and gated content assets to engage audiences. And to do so on a meaningful level.
We know from the experience over the past few years that short-form content works. But as marketers, we have seen that long-form content has it’s place as well. The solution? Integration. By integrating short-form and long-form content in a hybrid content strategy, B2B marketers can increase the business impact of their content investments and engage buyers in more creative ways. To learn how, read the full article at TargetMarketing.com
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- 09 Aug
3 Tips on How to Create Branded Video on a Shoestring Budget
There is growing evidence that all businesses need to develop online video as a core part of their strategy. Consider these two points. First, nearly 50 percent of web users look for videos related to a product before visiting a bricks-and-mortar store. And, add to that, 70 percent of B2B buyers watch videos along their path to purchase. Now, those are certainly compelling arguments to use video, aren’t they. And this goes for businesses no matter which industry or size.
No Need for a Hollywood Production Team Here
The opportunity is real. Even if you are a small-to-medium-sized business with limited experience with online video. With modern digital platforms, even SMBs can effectively use video to increase sales and create brand awareness.
But how do you accomplish those goals without breaking the bank? To find out, here are three tips for ramping up your online video advertising and marketing on a shoestring budget on
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- 08 Aug
2018 B2B Video Completion Rates and Success Benchmarks
from Marketing Charts
We know that in the B2C space, marketing videos have grown in popularity. But, this year B2B marketers have also named video as their top lead generation tactic.But keeping B2B buyers engaged can sometimes be a struggle. Marketers are constantly challenged with the cold, hard reality of engagement. So, the question remains if they work and how they can work harder for our marketing. And, can video really help with that?
One measure of video marketing success is video completion rate. That means, people watching the complete video from start to finish. And a new video benchmarks from Vidyard [download page] offers insights into that very benchmark. And what they found for completion rates for business-related videos, and the results are encouraging.
But beyond just completion rates, the study offers other benchmarks for business-related videos on Vidyard’s platform in 2018. To see what those are and to learn just how effective B2B marketing videos can be, read the full article at MarketingCharts.com
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- 07 Aug
A Handy Guide to Press Release Distribution Success
by Sam Allcock
To thrive as a small business, you need people to know that you exist and that you can help them. One way to do that is to get press coverage. But, unfortunately, coverage doesn’t just come naturally. It is something that you need to work to get.Enter: The press release.
Press releases are important for increasing your brand awareness and helping your public relations (PR). But if nobody sees your release, you won’t get very far. You need to distribute it effectively to get your story picked up by national newspapers, magazines, or blogs.
But you may not know exactly how to do that. So, to help, Sam Allcock from HubSpot has put together a Handy Guide to help you learn how to properly create, pitch, and distribute a press release for optimal brand awareness. To see the full guide, read the full article at HubSpot.com.
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- 07 Aug
6 Great Tips to a Better B2B Video
Video has increasingly become an the choice medium for many businesses. And that is because so many have found it extremely effective to drive engagement with digital audiences. In fact, video snippets have become one of the top three content types used by B2B marketers in 2018.
Short . . . Medium . . . Long. It All Works
But short-form is not the only digital media tool they use. There is mounting evidence of the impact of long-form video content and social media video stories. The reason? Well, video content appeals to viewers at every stage of their buying journey. Whether they are just being introduced to your business, or are deeper in the sales funnel and looking for more information about your products or services. Video works for them.
With video marketing being one of the top digital marketing trends, now is the time for B2B marketers to focus on creating engaging and valuable videos for branding, lead generation and thought leadership. And if you are ready to start making your own marketing videos, consider these five great tips from Christa Tuttle on Business2Community.com
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- 05 Aug
How to Use Topic Clusters to Drive SEO Performance
Today, it’s no longer enough to do keyword research. While this has served as the basis of the vast majority of SEO strategies over the last decade-plus when creating content, it is beginning to drift into the fog of history. Now, we need to think more holistically about our content.
And That Means Using “Topic Clusters.” But, What are Topic Clusters?
Topic clusters are a relatively new way to think about how to write and organize content. From now on, no blog post, article, or other digital content should exist only to include the odd long-tail keyword phrase. When you write, you must think about where your content fits into the bigger picture – a picture that a topic cluster content model builds for you.
But, why are content marketers and strategists using them? And how can you start using them yourself? Let’s examine the topic and see if it’s a good fit for what you want to accomplish in this article by Eric Goldschein on Jeffbullas’s Blog.
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- 03 Aug
6 Psychology-Backed Hacks for Making Engaging Videos
by Clifford Chi
It’s only natural that HubSpot would do a lot of digital marketing. After all, they are HubSpot, and central to that activity is video. So much so that they have compiled a lot of valuable insights into leveraging the natural power of video in their marketing.Short-Form VS Long-Form
One thing that they noticed was that their one-minute Facebook videos usually receive more views than their longer videos. That would be expected. But, the seeming contradiction to this comes from the fact that their long-form videos are their third most viewed video. And when I say long-form, i mean that it is almost four minutes long.
Facebook will boost a video’s organic reach if it deeply engages viewers, so they knew their videos needed to grip their audience from start to finish. Especially since it’s four times longer than the majority of their videos. If it didn’t captivate them, Facebook could squash the video’s organic distribution.
So, to maximize audience engagement, they implemented psychology-backed hacks throughout the entire video. Check it out and see the takeaways to learn how to fully capture an audience’s attention with these 6 Psychology-based Hacks for Making Engaging Videos
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- 31 Jul
Research and Case Studies: B2B Audiences’ Most Valued and Trusted Content
from Marketing Charts
For content marketing to work, it must posses authority. That is the key to achieving the primary goals for content marketing of improving brand awareness, increasing customer conversions and increasing sales revenue. This is per a new report [download page] from Ascend2.A Preponderance of Evidence Does Support This Notion
While this report may be a bit skewed due to the survey sample (which consists in part of research subscribers), there’s previous research to support the idea that data builds authority and trust.
For example:
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- A survey from Clutch recently found that research and original data is considered the most effective form of content.
- And a Demand Gen Report found that over two-thirds of B2B buyers strongly agree. The use of more data and research would improve the quality of the content created and provided by vendors.
- Then add to that research from the Economist Group. They noted credible data and the quality of research analysis are extremely valuable. In fact, they are the factors most necessary to build executives’ trust in content.
To see more of the data and insights, read the full article at MarketingCharts.com.
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- 27 Jul
10 Effective Tactics for Promoting Your Content
by Mario Medina
You want to make your content marketing program work. And to do that, you need to devote a huge amount of energy, time and resources. An add to that the fact that the creative process is not easy either. It simply takes a lot to create great content.If a Whitepaper Falls in the Forest, . . .
But, even when you create great content, it might never be seen. That is, if it’s not promoted and shared. Content promotion is critical to the success of every piece of content. And that means that promotion is crucial to the success of your content strategy in general.
After all, the more views your content has, the more likely you are to engage a customer and ultimately make a sale. So, to make sure content gets seen and has a chance at generating leads, take a look at these 10 unpaid, organic content promotion tactics that Mario Medina brings us on MarketingProfs.
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- 26 Jul
Captioned Video Ads Show A Lift in Brand Linkage
from Marketing Charts
We know that advertisers are increasing their video budgets this year. But are they missing out on one key element that could make a difference to audience engagement? A new survey from Verizon Media has found that and astounding 7 in 10 US consumers watch videos without sound in public spaces. This makes captioning not only important but expected by viewers and crucial for your business.The vast majority of people who use captions are not hearing impaired. Half of the more than 5,600 US consumers surveyed report that captions are important because they usually watch videos with the sound off. Perhaps, more importantly, the majority of respondents said they are more likely to watch an entire video when captions are available.
What Does This Mean to Advertisers? Read the full article at Marketing Charts to learn more.
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- 25 Jul
Who Are “Cuspers” and How Are They Spending Their Money?
from Marketing Charts
A lot has been written about Millennials and Gen-Zers. But what about those young adults who fall in between these two groups? This goup has been dubed Cuspers. They are 19-25-year-olds adnd are just starting out in adulthood. But, they have, already mastered being consumers.Shyness is Not A Defining Behavior With Cuspers
In fact, recent research [see original research] by Fullscreen reveals that while Cuspers haven’t quite hit the financial standing of Millennials, they aren’t shy about spending their money. It seems that Millennials do have significantly higher average household incomes than Cuspers. But even with that, this younger segment isn’t that far behind when it comes to their spending.
To learn more and to see insights that may impact how you market to this emerging segment, read the full articl at MarketingCharts.com
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- 22 Jul
Content Marketing is a Dialogue, Not a Monologue
What does the phrase “content marketing” mean to you? If you’re like most B2B marketers, when you hear it, you may think of some combination of email campaigns and educational content. And today, most brands use this tandem with gated content as a way to build their email list. And then they tend to deploy an email drip campaign to stay connected with the prospect until they are ready to buy. For most, that works well.But one of the biggest challenges with content marketing is that all too often, we treat it like traditional marketing. We think of it as a monologue, as a one way conversation. We send out broadcast emails. We produce a blog and turn off the comments. We create an e-book. All effective but not for encouraging conversation. With our content, we have an opportunity to actually use our marketing to connect with a prospect or customer who is willing to actually engage with us. But that opportunity is lost because we dont engage in a real two-way conversation through out content.
In this post, Drew Mc takes a look at one of the three key takeaways from the content marketing trends report from Content Marketing Institute. He gives us his unique insights on this at the McLellan Marketing Group Blog.
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- 20 Jul
Three Proven Strategies for Engaging Millennial and Gen Z Customers
By current estimates Millenneials and Gen Z constitute a $350 billion combined spending power. And that fact has gotten the attention of almost every major brand. So, that means that brands are making those demograhics a priority. And today they are focused on how to reach them, motivate them, and inspire loyalty among them.
Now Here are the Real Questions
But what’s truly motivating these younger audiences? And how do they differ? And what strategies and tactics can today’s marketers use? Plus, what inspires the enduring loyalty of Millennials and Gen Z consumers?
To find out, Alison McGlone looked into it. She recently hosted a panel at Nerd 100 with prominent marketers and researchers. She assembled a panel of people who excel at understanding, engaging, and bridging these two generations of customers. So, to see what some of the things experts from Facebook, Airbnb, Lyft, Ellevest, and InterQ Research had to say, read the full article at MarketingProfs.com
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- 17 Jul
New Report: Timing Matters for Email Marketing Success
Email marketing is an ever-shifting landscape. What workd last year may not work now. And for that matter, what we used last month may no longer be generating the results we want and need from our campaigns.Change is the Only Constant Here
It is a space that takes a constant flow of insights. And what better way to gain those insights than to simply look at how things are performing? And that is exactly what Campaign Monitor did.
They reviewed the performance of over 30 billion – yes, that is billion with a B – emails across 4.2 million campaigns sent last year. And the report [view original report] revealed some interesting new trends. Some of which seem to conflict with what we may have been using as current best practices.
So, What’s in it for Me?
The report looked at the full range of standard email marketing metrics, including best day to send, click-though performance and open rates. Then used those stats to actually establish a set of industry benchmarks. From there, they went on to actually explain exactly how we can use those benchmarks to improve our marketing programs.
They did observe some of the more obvious points. For example, they noted that emails need to have a clear call to action and that they be easy to read. After all, people are busy and may very likely be reading your message in a non-business setting. And we need to avoid big blocks of text that make it difficult to read. Plus, it is still important to keep the focus on the customer, not your product, to keep them engaged.
To see all of the data and to gain insights into applying the research to your individual email programs, read the Ultimate Email Marketing Benchmarks for 2019 report at CampaingMonitor.com
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- 16 Jul
SEO is More Than Just Keywords and Links
The traditional ways of using keywords and links to build SEO rank is changing. As search has moved towards artificial intelligence, and now seeks to determine intent, the dynamics of what was good SEO have evolved. Now, instead of relying specifically on keywords we need to focus on new factors.
Ch, Ch, Ch, Changes . . .
Admittedly, the traditional SEO practices are not dead. But they are becoming more and more outdated. Today, there are a range of other factors that can affect your ranking results. Chief among them are your critical digital assests, your content and web pages.
And if you see that SEO and the performance of your digital assets is is important, then you need ot understand that SEO can be a full time job. And keeping up with the latest trends is difficult as the space becomes more complex. So to help, here are some general SEO tips to think about when writing content and building out your pages on the Heinz Marketing Blog.
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- 15 Jul
Three Tips for Connecting with B2B Buyers
by
It seems that B2B buyers are waiting longer and longer to connect with vendors. Today, rather than immediately connecting with a sales rep, both B2B and B2C buyers prefer to do their own research online, or ask their peers for input. And this makes becoming part of the purchase conversation as early as possible in their consideration process crucial. But a lot more challenging.Why Are They Waiting So Long Then?
Part of this is due to a lack of trust in vendors. In a recent report on B2B buyer disconnect, TrustRadius found that only 11 percent of buyers describe vendor reps as very trustworthy. And only 19 percent say reps have significant influence over their buying decisions. In contrast, 53 percent of vendors say they think their reps are very effective at moving the needle towards conversion.
How can you connect with prospects and get them talking? Here’s three ideas for driving engagement throughout the B2B buying cycle on ChiefMarketer.com
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