Sujan Patel says, “The latest Content Marketing Trends report from the Content Marketing Institute stated that 88 percent of B2B organizations are using content marketing, yet only 30 percent of them think it’s effective. Some marketers believe that producing content for B2B industries is difficult and that B2C marketing is easy. I don’t agree. They’re just different. And yet, they share one key similarity: regardless of what you’re marketing or who you’re marketing it to, you’re always marketing to a person. All you need to do is find a way to reach that person. Here are... [...]

Steven Casey says, “Today’s business marketers and their prospects are engaged in a frustrating content “dating” game. To get the content they want – and avoid the inevitable follow-up sales call or nurturing emails – more and more buyers are populating your gating forms with false, incomplete, or non-business information. They get the whitepaper, but all you get is another useless “lead.” To assess the current state of content gating and uncover innovative solutions to this problem, we reviewed 35 B2B websites and interviewed 15 B2B marketing practitioners across four industries,... [...]

Lena Brooks says, “In 2016, video is an important part of the content marketing mix, and it’s here to stay. Video has an uncanny ability to quickly warm up potential customers and connect them to you and your product. YouTube, the largest repository of videos, offers you the opportunity to create a dedicated audience of subscribers; and as the second largest search engine after Google, it’s not to be ignored. All that sounds very tempting, but if you don’t have video experience, it can also be very intimidating. When Magoosh, the company I work for, started making branded... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “What is the return on investment for B2B companies when they spend on Google AdWords search advertising? To find out, Bizible examined 1H16 data from 120 B2B companies in six industries. The researchers obtained a wide range of information from each firm, including monthly lead count, lead count attributable to AdWords, revenue, marketing spend, AdWord spend, and projected future revenue. The share of leads brought in by AdWords and the ultimate impact on revenue varies significantly from industry to industry, the analysis found. For the marketing agencies examined, AdWords... [...]

Samantha Anderson says, “B2B inbound marketing can be incredibly effective in regards to your specific marketing goals, whether it’s to generate new leads, improve your sales, build brand authority, build brand trust or simply increase brand exposure. However, what some businesses don’t understand is that B2B inbound marketing is a long-term strategy, not a short-term one. Inbound marketing consists of numerous strategies. If one element happens to result in instant results; for example, a video that goes viral and receives thousands of shares, it’s generally an anomaly. Trying... [...]

Aaron Agius says, “While LinkedIn is traditionally used as a networking platform for professionals and job-seekers, it also offers plenty of opportunities to market and grow your business. By the first quarter of 2016, the B2B social platform boasted more than 430 million users. When you add LinkedIn to your marketing strategy, you can build targeted connections, generate higher-quality leads, reinforce relationships with prospects, and greatly improve your brand visibility. Here’s how marketing with LinkedIn can help you grow: 1. Grow Your Presence With Targeted Content Unlike other social... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “The 50 fastest-growing B2B companies are investing in blogs, downloadable content, and live chat, according to a recent report from Drift and Mattermark. The report was based on data from the Mattermark platform, which analyzes more than 1.5 million companies to identify the fastest-growing firms based on indicators such as employee count and funding. The researchers manually examined the sales and digital marketing tactics of the top 50 companies to identify best-practices. The top three fastest-growing B2B companies are Upwork, WeWork, and Slack, the analysis found. Below,... [...]

Peter O’Neill says, “At Forrester, “EO + 6” is code for the publication status of a playbook. It stands for Executive Overview plus six reports – at which point, we formally launch the playbook with its special links and landing page on Forrester.com. Playbooks are designed to help clients succeed with complex programs, such as organizational transformation. Get Ready For The B2B Marketing Renaissance The next wave of competitive advantage for B2B companies will come from deepening customer knowledge and taking action based on an obsessive desire to deliver what their customers... [...]

Pratik Dholakiya says, “B2B manufacturers rely mostly on traditional methods of marketing like trade show participation and other paid methods of marketing. Yet, it is becoming increasingly clear that the key people in the process of making buying decisions in a company are using the Internet to make informed decisions on products after going through the reviews and opinions of other customers. It has been reported that 84 percent of industrial professionals use the Internet to find components, equipment and services, 74 percent of them use it to compare products across suppliers, 56 percent... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “B2B marketers say the most important goal of their data management strategy is to improve ROI measurability, according to recent research from Openprise and Ascend2. The report was based on a survey of 183 B2B marketing professionals from 101 organizations. Respondents were polled on their goals and challenges with marketing data management (the analysis, cleansing, enhancement, and unification of information). Some 72% of B2B marketers say improving ROI measurability is a top goal of their marketing data management strategy. Other important objectives are improving data... [...]