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Archive for the ‘B2B Marketing’ Category« Previous EntriesSocial Media For B2BFriday, April 19th, 2013 
We alluded to this the other day, but infographics are everywhere these days. As if to reinforce our point, we recently came across another one that we found interesting, courtesy of B2B Marketing, which we wanted to share with you today. This infographic, which draws on data from the 2013 B2B Marketing Social Media Benchmarking Report, deals with the state of B2B social media at the present time. We hope you find it interesting, too. An Insightful DiscussionThursday, July 26th, 2012  A couple of weeks ago, B2B International Director Carol-Ann Morgan took part in a roundtable event in London hosted by Marketing magazine. ‘Greater Insights 2012’ invited some of the UK’s foremost market researchers to lead a discussion on what’s hot and what’s not in the market research industry at the present time. This week, a report on the day’s debate has appeared in the magazine. Amongst other things, the attendees discussed their shifting roles and the ways in which the industry can help organisations unlock the secrets of their clients and consumers. To read more about the Greater Insight Roundtable, please click here, or to watch a short video of Carol-Ann sharing her thoughts on the day, please click here. B2B Social Media MarketingWednesday, June 27th, 2012  Social media marketing seems very much to be the domain of consumer companies, but increasingly b2b organizations are being encouraged to get in on the act. An interesting article written by one of B2B International’s clients, GlobalSpec, and recently published in Quirk’s, offers some handy tips to B2B companies taking their first steps in social media marketing: 1. How often and for what purpose does your target audience participate in social media? By looking at how often and why your target audience participates in social media, it will help you to decide the sort of content – and the frequency – that you should be aiming for. 2. Which social media platforms do they prefer? With a huge choice of social media channels to choose from, and more springing up every day, you must consider which would best capture the attention of your target audience. 3. What are your organization’s goals in implementing a social media initiative? Depending on whether you’re seeking awareness, demand, engagement or actual sales, will influence your chosen social media strategy. Social media is particularly good at playing a supporting role in brand recognition and visibility in your target markets; building relationships with your audience; and establishing your company as a thought leader in your industry. 4. What resources (i.e., people, time, budget, etc.) do you have available to invest in social media without taking away from other online marketing efforts? Social media can be budget-friendly, but don’t forget that time and resources are still required to create fresh content and analyze the results of your efforts. It’s important to remember that social media should merely complement rather than replace any existing successful online marketing programs. 5. How will you integrate social media into your overall marketing strategy? With limited resources, key to maximizing your social media efforts is integrating it into what you are already doing, for example reposting your regular blog posts on Facebook, or Tweeting about a webinar you may be hosting. 6. How will you define success and measure ROI on your social media investments? You already measure the effectiveness and ROI of all of your marketing initiatives. Social media is useful in building awareness, engagement and thought leadership. To achieve those goals, consider driving traffic to your Web site by offering downloadable content (e.g., white papers, research, infographics, etc.). 7. How will you promote your social media efforts in other initiatives? To drive traffic to your social media platforms, you will want to incorporate them into your other marketing initiatives: Include links to your social media channels on your Web site, blog, business cards and in your collateral. Add them to your e-mail signatures. Read the article in full here B2B Industry Confidence Is High From The New B2B BarometerFriday, June 15th, 2012  The B2B Barometer – the bi-annual ‘state of the nation’ survey for B2B marketers – has just launched its sixth wave, reporting client-side marketers and agencies are feeling positive about business over the coming year. Backed by three years of historical data on B2B marketing, the survey collates the views of client and agency side marketers, and gives a bird’s eye view on what’s important in the world of B2B. Results of this wave were surprisingly positive given the tough economic climate. A massive 80% of respondents interviewed (client and agency side) expressed confidence in their organisations’ outlook for the next 12 months – the highest figure ever recorded in the Barometer. This confidence is being driven by positive performance over the last year as well as signs of life for the next six months, with 61% of agencies reporting rising revenues and 63% seeing more new business enquiries during the past 12 months. 48% of client-side marketers expect their B2B marketing budgets to rise in the next 12 months – only serving to spur on this positive feeling within the industry. To see the full report please go to http://www.b2bbarometer.co.uk/ What effect does emotion have on choosing a b2b supplier of goods and services?Wednesday, March 21st, 2012  In this week’s Business Surgery, Paul Hague looks at how we make decisions – and particularly how much of an influence a strong brand plays in the process. At the heart of good marketing is persuasion. We shouldn’t be shy about the fact that we have a product or service that we want people to buy. However, marketing focuses on the customer and their needs whereas selling focuses on the seller and what they want to get rid of. In other words, marketing forces us to understand the world through the customers’ eyes. One of the most difficult things when trying to see the world through our customers’ eyes is “how rational are our customers when they make their decisions?” Malcolm Gladwell in his book Blink argues that we subconsciously make our minds up very quickly indeed – in fact in a blink. We might then spend a long time rationalising this decision and believing that it has been arrived at by conscious rather than subconscious thought. The relevance of this to us in business-to-business marketing is that we are inclined to believe that business-to-business customers leave their emotions at home when they come to work and that all their decisions are rational. We know that this is not the case. Research consistently confirms that those companies that are best known to us (in other words they have a strong brand) are most likely to get the business. This is because familiarity is important in the blink test – we feel more comfortable with a supplier that we know even if we have never done business with them before. The answer is therefore to build a brand, not only in terms of awareness but also to engage with the customer and build trust. For those of you who haven’t yet read Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink, we strongly recommend it. Or watch his 30-minute discussion on the subject on YouTube Questions arising from Gladwell’s work are:
For more information on building a strong brand, click here. « Previous Entries |
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