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- 18 Aug
B2B Social Media Strategies That Work For Any Industry
For so long, social media was considered the sole domain for B2C marketers. Well, that may no longer be the case. And that’s because there are now a number of brands that have seem to have broken the social media code.Caught in the Middle Again . . .
What they have found is that for a B2B company to be successful on social media, their content needs to find the middle ground. I needs to fit between being engaging and not disrupting their audiences’ experience on the platform. And ultimately, it needs to be what their audience wants to see to truly reap the benefits of social media.
So, what is it that B2B companies have done to transform the landscape of what it means to be a brand on social media? To find out, consider these 10 B2B Social Media Strategies for Any Industry on HubSpot.com that might lead your own social accounts to success.
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- 16 Aug
5 Great Ideas for Innovative B2B Video Marketing
by Tom Shapiro
Video an incredibly powerful tool for B2B businesses. YouTube alone has approximately billion monthly active users. And aberdeen Group reports that video marketers generate 66% more qualified leads than marketers who don’t use video. Add to that the fact that Wyzowl found that 83% of marketers say that video gives them a significant ROI.
There’s No Law Against Making it Fun
Video is also a highly effective way to turn something mundane into something truly magical. Not only does it have the capability to highlight your brand’s creativity, but it can show off the brand in a way that is entertaining, informative and fun. And, tt shows that the company can take even the most mundane things and turn them into something magical.
But it isn’t enough to simply create videos. You need to create videos that will make your brand stand out from the crowd. So if your interested in learning some ways to make this happen for you, here’s five ways to make that happen on ChiefMarketer.com
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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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- 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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- 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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- 02 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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- 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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- 30 Jul
What is Intent Data and Why Should I Care?
by Kira Jerome, Intern at Heinz Marketing
As a marketer, you know how important it is to get in front of the right prospects at the right time. Your sales team may be asking for more leads, or maybe they have the volume, but not the low-hanging fruit—those prospects that fit your target audience and are ready to buy. A technology that could alert you when your ideal prospect was ready to buy sounds too good to be true, right? This is intent data. You may have heard about intent data, but maybe you’re not quite sure what that is or why its beneficial.Now This May Sound Too Good to be True . . .
Intent data is important because it shows when “high-fit” accounts or leads have been researching solutions that your company specializes in. When they do this, they leave digital footprints that can be tracked. Utilizing this kind of information can drastically increase the number of qualified leads and new sales opportunities for your company. And that permits your sales team to focus its energy on the most fruitful prospects at the right time.
In the world of B2B marketing, intent data is still a relatively new resource. But with it, there is an opportunity for your company to stay ahead of the tech curve and your competitors. To learn what you need to do to get started, read the full article at Heinz Marketing Blog
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- 29 Jul
Banish Boring: B2B Video Techniques to Entertain, Educate, Engage
by Aljaz Fajmut
When we think of some of the B2B videos we have seen, we probably think to ourselves – BORING. Well, B2B videos don’t have to be boring anymore. No longer is it necessary for our customers to suffer thought a monologue of charts, facts and figures.For B2B video marketing success today, those videos need to follow the Rule of the 3-E’s. They now need to entertain, educate and engage.
That Means It’s Time to Get Creative
We can no longer escape the fact that video is not a trend. It’s not a fad. In fact, it’s everywhere. And it has proven, time and again, to be a great way of connecting with clients, building leads and clinching sales. But, how relevant is it to the B2B sphere? Well, 73% of B2B marketers have already said that video positively affects their marketing ROI.
Today, there’s no reason why your next B2B video marketing campaign can’t hit a home run. And according to Aljaz Fajmut,as long as you use video to be entertaining, educational and informative, there is no reason to be boring. And to learn 7 of the best B2B video marketing techniques so that your own ROI grows and grows this year he shars, read the full article on Jeff Bullas’s Blog.
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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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- 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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- 11 Jul
The US B2B Trade Show Market Continues to Grow
from Marketing Charts
Recent studies confirm that trade shows and events are still proving to be incredibly effective. In fact, they are extremely effective across all the stages of the buyer’s journey. And of all event types, B2B demand generation marketers say that in-person events continue to be their best performing top of the funnel tactic.So, How Big is the Trade Show Market?
PwC, one of the largest professional services firms, has some answers. In its latest Global Entertainment & Media Outlook, they reviewed they broader B2B market in the US. And as part of that report, they looked into the trends for B2B trade shows and events.
And of all the sectors they reviewed they found that the trade show market has one of the fastest growth rates. To see some of the data and for a chance to review the original report, read the full article at MarketingCharts.com.
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- 05 Jul
How to Use Social Media Research as a Tool for Sales Success
by Mike Schultz
If you’re in business, you market and sell something. And one of the challenges you face is finding prospects that want to buy. But, that takes a couple of things. First, you have to know who they are and they need to know who you are. Then, you need to know something about them. You need information about the buyer.But Where to Start? Without Being Creepy
Quite frankly, you are absolutely crazy if they don’t take advantage of the vast amounts of information about your buyers that’s available on social media. Whether you’re researching new prospective B2B buyers before reaching out, a buyer before a sales conversation, or a target industry, social media should be one of the first places you look.
And yet, most of us don’t do that. But those who do have a great advantage. Here are ways to research buyers on social platforms at MarketingProfs
NOTE: A Free Registration pop-up opens on this site. A Free MarkeitngProfs Registration may be required to read the full article.
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- 01 Jul
Find Your Ideal Customer with Account Insights and Profiling
by Mitch Folks
The digital revolution has raised customer expectations. Now, people want much more. The need more than just a product or an offering. They crave a complete experience. And that means that the success of your marketing campaign hangs in the balance. Today, it no longer depends on the number of leads you generate. Now, it rests on your ability to maximize your customers’ experience.If it Works Well, Then People Tend to Use it
That’s there has been so much movement to account-based marketing. Now marketing with sales, determine which accounts to target, why they should be targeted, and when they should be targeted. The reason? For one, 87% of companies report a higher return on investment when adding account-based marketing to their engagement strategy. Especially when they compare it to traditional lead-based only marketing initiatives.
In this blog, Mitch Folks takes a closer look at the first step of how to create epic account-based experiences (ABX) with the right account insights & profiling. So, to learn how you can gain highly accurate account insights and effectively profile your targets to create hyper-personalized account-based experiences that your customers and prospects will enjoy, read the full article on the Marketo Blog.
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- 28 Jun
5 Strategies to Target Your B2B Audience Online
B2B audiences aren’t always extremely easy to find, but they’re out there just as often as B2C audiences are. We marketers just have to look a bit harder for them. And that means that B2B advertising has a unique challenge in digital marketing.If you sell a product like socks or toilet paper, you know nearly everyone on the planet uses them, or we all hope they do. So your audience is everywhere. That’s the case for many B2C offerings. The target audience feels like they’re all over the place.
For B2B, That Feeling – and the reality – Isn’t Even Close to the Same
So what gives? Do we just take our ball and go home? Of course not! And that’s because your users are also all over the web, just like B2C audiences. The only difference: We have to work harder to find the proper targeting options. So what can we do? To find out, read the full article at WordStream.com
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- 18 Jun
Best Practices for Identifying, Developing and Engaging Your Target Audience
by Josh Baez
As B2B marketers, understanding our target audience is essential to every single thing we do. And yet all too often we lack the necessary details around our target audience. Without those details, we are unable to actually do anything meaningful.
It All Boils Down To One Common Problem
There is one common mistake that organizations make when it comes to identifying their target audience. They tend to assume that these people want to hear about the product. When, in fact, a majority of them probably don’t. And successful marketing requires a gap to be bridged. That gap that exists between those people who want to hear about the product and those who don’t. And that doesn’t even take into consideration those who aren’t even aware they have a problem that requires a solution to begin with.
How can organizations begin to bridge those gaps?
Here are three key areas to help you better identify, develop, and engage your target audience at Heinz Marketing. Then, you can more effectively and consistently drive pipeline for your organization.
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- 17 Jun
B2B Brands Need to Step It Up to Reach Millennial Buyers
by
Recently UPS released this year’s UPS Industrial Buying Dynamics survey. And what they found should be a wake up call to every B2B marketer. It seems that there is an increasing level of influence by Millennials in the B2B buyer process.Know the Trend: The Rise of a New Generation of B2B Buyer
This year’s study found a 10 percent increase over 2017. And that means that, if you haven’t already begun to adjust your tactics you need to. According to Brooke Yamini, VP of marketing operations at UPS, “the rise of Millennials ushers in a new era that challenges long-standing industry norms.”
This new generation of B2B buyers start their buying process online. And they do their initial research with social media and their peers. So, if we are going to successfully market to this emerging generation of B2B buyers, we need to begin to adjust our tactics. To gain more insights into the findings of this report, read the full article at Chief Marketer.
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