by gabriel_sales | Jul 22, 2014
Last month, the results of a B2B Video Marketing Benchmark Survey were published—showing that video marketing is on the rise in B2B, with 69% of respondents currently using the tactic.
For those that are engaged in B2B video, 82% reported experiencing at least some type of success in their efforts. While the other 18% prove that there is still room for improvement, this is a good sign for those who have been wary that video could work in B2B.
However, the survey shows that significant barriers remain to achieving success with video. The top barriers listed include:
- No budget (47%)
- Lack of internal resources (45%)
- Creating compelling content (45%)
- Lack of effective strategy (33%)
While it is unsurprising that lack of budget tops the list, the survey suggests the budget barrier may weaken over the next year as the majority of companies plan to increase their video marketing spend. But, the next top barriers on the list show that once budget is taken care of, problems remain.
“Lack of internal resources’, ‘creating compelling content’ and ‘lack of effective strategy’ all point to the same problem: lack of expertise. It seems that even if companies can find the budget for video marketing, they often lack the personnel, skill and strategy to really move the needle in terms of business value. They know they need to do B2B video marketing, but they don’t really know how.
It is no shock then, that “65% of B2B organizations outsource all or part of their video marketing campaigns, gaining the specialized skills and resources not available internally.
Companies that outsource video marketing generally gain several advantages. First, you don’t have to waste time figuring out what works and what doesn’t. The outsourcer has already done that and will offer their best practices, saving you countless hours and dollars. Second, hiring a full-time video expert might not make sense financially if your company only wants to make one video per quarter. With an outside agency or outsourcer, you gain all the skill and expertise needed without incurring the cost or risk of hiring internally.
To learn more about why B2B video marketing is a great idea in 2014, read this quick blog. Feel free to contact us with any questions, or check out our services page if you are interested in B2B video production and management.
by gabriel_sales | Jul 15, 2014
It seems that B2B sales and marketing today is dominated by a whole bunch of acronyms that didn’t exist twenty years ago—CRM, SEO, MA, SEM, MLM, PPC, SMM—the list goes on.
As these acronyms suggest, the world we now live in is a digital one. In order to succeed and thrive in it today, companies need to not only be sales and marketing experts, but digital experts as well.
For many companies, entering the digital game has been somewhat of a struggle:
Struggle to implement marketing automation
In a 2014 report published by Regalix on the State of Marketing Automation in 2014, it was found that two of the top obstacles to implementing marketing automation were lack of expertise to use the data and intelligence offered by the tool (55%) and complexity of marketing automation software (34%). Additionally, the report found that it took 64% at least six months to see results from their marketing automation implementations.
Struggle to engage customers via content marketing
A July 2014 report from the Online Marketing Institute found that while over half of B2B marketers claim their content marketing efforts are ‘very mature’ (51%), most are finding it difficult to develop content that engages customers (87%). The report suggests that the reason for this disconnect may be in B2B marketer’s focusing too much on closing the deal and not enough on creating compelling content for the entire lifecycle of the B2B buyer.
Struggle to prove marketing’s business value
The same report from Online Marketing Institute found that B2B companies are also having trouble tying their content marketing efforts back to real business value. 85% admitted that their content activity is only somewhat effective (or less) at delivering business value in terms of generating revenue, retaining customers, or winning customers’ long-term loyalty. Additionally, “when asked to look back at the past 12 months and rate the effectiveness of content marketing efforts, only 14% of those surveyed gave their content practices high marks for delivering value back to the business.”
Given these findings, it is no surprise that many B2B companies out there are looking for solutions to improve technology use, create more engaging content and prove the value of their efforts. One solution many B2B companies are finding success with is B2B sales and marketing outsourcing, and our next blog discusses three of outsourcing’s main advantages.
Continue Reading – 3 Ways an Outsourced B2B Sales Team Can Help Your Marketing Efforts
by gabriel_sales | Jul 11, 2014
B2B companies are always looking for ways to sell more and better. This year, it looks as through B2B companies may be trying to tap into a marketing strategy that has so far been dominated by B2C: mobile.
Mobile in B2B
As early as last fall, marketing studies began finding that “B2B commerce is adopting B2C best practices in order to optimize the purchasing experience.” In terms of mobile, the study found that 75% of respondents planned to offer mobile sometime within the next 12 months.
The study suggested that the motivation for this stems directly from customer demand. This makes sense, as mobile devices become more and more a part of our lives, we increasingly want to be able to use them to learn about consumer products and services, whatever type they may be. In other words, whether we are looking for a new car or management consulting services, we want to be able to do both on our iPad while we are waiting to catch a plane or for our daughter to be done with soccer practice.
More recent data shows B2B companies are taking this demand seriously and investing to meet their customers’ needs. At last month’s Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition, a study of 100 businesses was done that found:
“Mobile commerce was cited as a top investment area more often by companies involved with B2B e-commerce than by those in retail e-commerce . . . Among those [37] respondents that were solely B2B, 26 cited mobile as one of their top three investment areas, followed by 19 that cited web commerce, 19 social, 10 e-mail marketing, and nine search marketing.”
For more on B2B marketing trends in 2014, you can read this blog series.
by gabriel_sales | Jun 25, 2014
This is the second half of a blog series on questions to ask when considering a B2B marketing automation platform. You can find part one here.
4. Do you need to be able to do social media?
While social media will probably always be a more effective marketing tactic for B2C than B2B, it doesn’t mean that B2B companies shouldn’t try to play the social media game. A marketing automation platform can be a great way to boost a B2B company’s social media effectiveness by offering analytical data and allowing for scheduled/automated posts.
However, it is important to know that not all marketing automation platforms are equal when it comes to social media. For example, Act-On, HubSpot and Marketo offer social media profiling, but Oracle Eloqua does not.
5. What are your payment needs/requirements?
Obviously, price is going to be a factor in any companies’ marketing automation selection process. In addition to looking at the overall cost for the value provided, B2B companies should also consider what payment plans are available and what is going to work best from a business perspective.
When it comes to selecting the right tool, there are about as many different pricing structures as there are marketing automation platforms. Some platforms have tiers based on database size; others have different prices for the amount of features or services used. Additionally, some platforms allow you to pay on a month-to-month basis while others require an annual agreement upfront. It’s all about what solution is best for your specific situation and goals.
6. Do you have the internal skills/expertise to gain ROI quickly?
Having a marketing automation platform is one thing, learning how to use it effectively for both sales and marketing is another. A report from earlier this year found that it took 64% of users at least six months to see results from their platform. The users listed lack of expertise to use the data and intelligence offered by the software (55%) and complexity of marketing automation software (34%) as two of their top obstacles.
This data shows that when it comes to marketing automation implementation, there is generally a long learning curve. If you do not have marketing automation expertise internally, you can end up having to devote a ton of resources to get everything up and running smoothly. We obviously have some bias here, but this is one place where hiring marketing automation consultants or an outsourced sales and marketing team can be greatly beneficial. By leveraging external resources, you can streamline your implementation process and quickly get up to speed on best practices as well as what to avoid.
If you’re curious to learn more about B2B marketing automation, you can read 3 Tips for Success from an Outsourced Marketing Automation Provider. Feel free to contact us with any questions or visit our services page to learn more about the marketing automation consulting we offer.
by gabriel_sales | Jun 23, 2014
According to a 2014 Buyer’s Guide on marketing automation platforms, 26% of B2B companies are planning on integrating a marketing automation platform into their sales and marketing program in the next 12 months.
For these companies with no prior marketing automation platform experience, the evaluation process can be daunting. Each platform seems to offer something a bit different in terms of features and capabilities, which can make it hard to know which platform will be most effective for your company.
To help you get started, here are six basic questions to ask when selecting a marketing automation vendor:
- Is your digital marketing program mature enough to warrant a marketing automation platform?
While marketing automation can be a game changer for many companies, not all companies have developed their digital marketing programs to the point that an automation system is necessary.
One of the main benefits of having a marketing automation system is having the ability to efficiently track and manage the many aspects and channels now involved in digital marketing (CRMs, website/landing pages, email marketing, social media, PPC, SEO, etc.). If your B2B marketing program does not currently involve a multi-channel approach supported with content marketing, adding a marketing automation platform is not really going to help you much.
For a marketing automation platform to be most effective, it needs something to track. This means you need a solid database of prospects and quality marketing content to send to them. This way, you can see which prospects are engaging with what content/messages to help better determine how to move them through the sales pipe to close.
2. What are your integration needs?
If you’ve determined that your marketing program would benefit from an automation platform, the next step is determining what your integration needs are.
Generally, the most important integration to consider is your customer relationship management system (CRM). Without this type of integration, you will vastly limit the effectiveness of any marketing automation platform in terms of sales. Some marketing automation platforms can integrate with four or more different CRMs (e.g. Oracle CRM, Net Suite, Microsoft Dynamics, etc.) while others can only integrate with Salesforce. If you are attached to the CRM you are using currently, you should select a marketing automation vendor that will allow for easy integration.
It is also important to consider any other integrations that would be useful in your sales process. For example, the ExactTarget platform Pardot allows for integration with Outlook to allow sales reps to send and track one-off emails. Many other platforms (e.g. Act-On, Etrigue) do not allow for this type of integration, so consider whether or not this capability is critical when selecting the right tool for your business.
3. How big is your database?
Another aspect to consider when selecting a B2B automation tool is volume. There are some platforms out there that have limits on the number of contacts or prospects you can have at any given time (e.g. 3,000, 10,000). If you are a startup or a growing business, you may want to keep in mind that the number of prospects you have now is likely to grow, and you want your marketing automation platform to be able to support that growth. Conversely, if you are fairly confident that you already have most of the ‘universe’ for your given market within your database, you can opt for a platform with a smaller contact/prospect limit.
Additionally, some platforms have limits on the number of emails that can be sent at one time or sent daily. For example, Etrigue allows 1,000 people to be marketed to at one time. If your marketing requirements are greater than that, you will want to select a tool with higher volume limits for email campaigns.
Continue reading.
by gabriel_sales | Jun 19, 2014
B2b content engagement (continued) 
This is the second part of a 2 part blog on B2B content engagement. You can find part 1 here.
3. Make your prospect the hero
If the story you are telling in your marketing content features you as the main protagonist, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Building on the point above, stories enable people to imagine themselves in other scenarios and internalize new ideas or beliefs as their own.
By creating a story that allows your prospect to imagine himself as a hero (e.g. saving the day and earning the boss’s praise for finding the perfect solution for X), you create a major incentive to transact, so he can become that hero he imagined.
- Set up an emotional experience
We’ve written previously on why emotional connection matters more in B2B than in does in B2C. One aspect is that with higher risk sales, people need emotional assurance that things will go well in order to ease their anxieties.
Additionally, “behavioral psychologists have long argued that only 30% of human decisions are actually driven by rational considerations. This means more than 70% of customer loyalty and spending decisions are based on emotional factors.” Because we are so emotionally motivated, anything you can do to create an emotional experience for your readers will keep them more engaged. There are many ways you can facilitate an emotional response in your marketing content—humor, building action to create excitement, ending with a ‘hook’ to keep people coming back for more, etc.
5. Get it out there. Fast.
One of the biggest mistakes B2b companies make in their initial content marketing efforts is thinking that all you have to do to get prospects to engage with you is post content on their website. In terms on engagement, publishing content—like a blog—should merely be the first step in getting the content to your target audience.
Additionally, founder of Moz Rand Fishkin recently wrote that in terms of SEO, “One of the harsh truths of blog-focused SEO is that a few hours after a post is published, 90% of the ranking ability is spent. . . It’s that first burst of activity – of social sharing and people emailing it around and links coming in – that set the stage for ranking success in the search engines.” This means that the quicker you can get your content out and shared on a variety of platforms, the wider the reach your content will have and consequently, the more engagement.
For more tips on creating engaging marketing content, you can read 5 Ways Your B2B Content Marketing Program Can Fail. Feel free to contact us with any questions.
Last month, the results of a B2B Video Marketing Benchmark Survey were published—showing that video marketing is on the rise in B2B, with 69% of respondents currently using the tactic.
