Archive for the ‘B2B Marketing’ Category
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
Figures from the B2B Barometer1 show that the economic situation for B2B marketers looks optimistic for the future:
Business optimism gradually returning amongst B2B marketers
On the client side:
- Three fifths (60%) anticipate economic recovery within the next 12 months
- Two thirds (66%) expect their own organisation to grow in the next 12 months (up from 50%)
- Three quarters (73%) expect marketing spend to increase; up from one half (48%) last wave.
Agencies are more optimistic, with four fifths (79%) anticipating that they will grow over the next 12 months. For many agencies this represents a significant turnaround in their fortunes; 45% report that revenues have declined in the last 12 months. For others it represents a continuation of an existing trend; 34% report growth in the last 12 months.
Newer media continue to increase share of wallet
Client-side marketers continue to allocate a significant proportion of their budgets to three channels; trade shows (16%), direct mail (13%) and email marketing (16%). ‘Newer’ media channels continue their rise and now account for 41% of total marketing spend (up from 39% last wave).
Increased focus on measuring ROMI
There is a noticeable trend towards measuring the Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI)
from this spend. Two thirds of client-side marketers (65%) now measure return compared
with one half (49%) last wave. Unsurprisingly given this focus on accountability, two fifths
(39%) of agencies report that some or all of their clients measure agency performance using
ROMI measures.
Social media relevant …but B2B marketers lack understanding
Two trends have received extensive coverage in the B2B press in recent months:
- The alignment of marketing with sales
- Social media in a B2B context.
The B2B Barometer sought to explore each area in some depth and has brought fact to an
area where opinion dominated:
- Sales and marketing are becoming more closely aligned. Although 50% of client side and agency side marketers believe marketing still plays a secondary role to sales in B2B organisations, three quarters (70%) of clients report that the two functions are actually effectively aligned. Marketing may play second fiddle but it supports sales well
- Social media is perceived to be relevant in a B2B context. Three fifths (60%) of client-side marketers feel it is relevant to them and two thirds (66%) of agencies feel it is relevant to their clients. And social media is not a fad. Approximately three quarters of both clients and agencies disagree that social media in a B2B context is a passing phase
- However social media is still an area which puzzles many marketers. Two thirds of client-side marketers (63%) have no social media strategy in place; two fifths (41%) cite ‘insufficient understanding’ as the reason for this
For more information visit http://www.abba.co.uk/
1The B2B Barometer is compiled by the Institute of Direct Marketing (IDM), the Association of B2B Agencies (ABBA) and Circle Research
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Friday, June 25th, 2010
Nick Hague this week delves into the world of social media to determine its relevance for B2B marketers.
When our IT Manager spoke to me back in 2005 about Web 2.0 and the way it was going to change not only how we did business at B2B International but also how we communicate to our customers, my eyes glazed over as I was lost in hi-tech babble.
However, I duly took a lot of what was said on board and we implemented our blog that has not only played a major role in our brand building and positioning but also has been a key element in our continued SEO push. Throughout the last 5 years we have concentrated our efforts on delivering new and fresh content with the end result now being a repository that holds a massive amount of information including podcasts, e-books, videos and white papers. However, that was then and this is now (back then there was no such things as tweeting).
With many businesses these days venturing into the ‘Wild West’ of social media, trying their hand at Twitter and creating a company profile on Facebook, I felt it worthwhile diving back into the world of social media to see if there are other learnings we B2B marketers can take from our consumer cousins.
Firstly I did some digging into the Twitter phenomenon to see if this truly was something for us to look into, since our main foray into the world of social media had principally been blogging. I found from a recent study with B2B marketers that Twitter didn’t transpire to be the groundbreaking trend that I had been led to believe. So much so that nearly a half of the 400 people surveyed stated they were dissatisfied with their return on tweets and four out of five couldn’t directly attribute any increase in revenue from their Twitter activity. ‘Hold on a minute’ I thought, ‘are these consumer marketers or B2B marketers?’ (After all, this was meant to be a study of B2B marketers.)
Do they not know that the sales cycle for B2B products is not instantaneous and is often a very long process involving numerous decision makers from financial and operative through to production and technical? When was the last time you spent $500,000 on a new software platform without some serious consideration from multiple parties? B2C marketing is all about ‘here today and gone tomorrow’ – just look at the number of celebrities that are using Twitter to bolster their waning status.
B2B marketing is very much more about a relationship lifecycle that numbers years, not months, but this is where I think B2B companies can take advantage of social media more so than consumer companies. Twitter is just part of the armoury at our disposal that contributes to building brand awareness and engaging in the many continuous touch-points we look to generate; we shouldn’t ignore the tried and tested methods of direct mail. By way of example, one of my colleagues recently received an e-mail from a previous client with whom we hadn’t done business for over 5 years but had continued to communicate with through a mixture of direct marketing:
Subject: direct mails from B2B
Hi Paul, hope all is well.
Just received this afternoon one of the almost legendary direct mails from B2B – unfortunately the Belgium team did not make it to South-Africa…
Nevertheless, I hope to get in touch with you soon regarding picking up brand awareness survey again (that’s five years ago!)
cheers
w.
Would this person have got back in touch if we hadn’t continued to engage with him over the years? – maybe, but his head could have been quite easily turned by another research agency if we hadn’t continued to put our brand in front of him.
It is true to say that, at the moment, social media is definitely still in its infancy when relating to B2C marketing, but I believe that social media usage within a B2B market can actually deliver greater rewards; especially because B2B marketers address a much smaller number of customers who spend larger amounts of money, and personal relationships are of much more importance than in B2C markets – we just need to be clever with it.
The first thing to understand is that social media for B2B markets is more about education, facilitating word of mouth referrals and driving traffic to your website as well as thought leadership, and therefore requires deeper layers of interaction. For example, concentrate on company blogs and communities rather than Facebook; place more effort on relationship marketing through Linkedin rather than Twittering away; and deliver useful, relevant podcasts rather than spouting lyrical about anything and everything on YouTube.
And that brings me to my final point on social media. On the same day last week, one of my colleagues sent through an amusing link to the BP spills coffee video on YouTube whilst a ‘loose friend’ on Facebook sent me a request to join the group ‘I hate BP’. The video is very funny and I recommend you search it out as it will definitely make you laugh. This then triggered me to view the ‘I hate BP’ page on Facebook and saw that 9,009 people had already joined this crusade. It made me realise the power of the internet and social media that can very quickly either work in your favour or dramatically against you, as in BP’s case.
How your business is perceived in the Web 2.0 world will affect your reputation and your ability to connect with customers, associates and potential customers (just look at the BP example). If you are a B2B company just about to take the plunge into the creation of your social media blog, first of all determine if you have or can produce enough relevant content for the media and customers to justify the development in the first place. Content is king!
Secondly, make sure it looks good. Branding, design and user experience matter when you are interacting with social media and the main objective is to deliver relevant information, quickly.
Finally, make sure it is up-to-date. Social media is the first step in content marketing. The value of the content lies in being able to aggregate information in one place that helps build search traffic while serving as a clearing house for information relevant to the media, customers and employees. For social media to have value you have to have more than news releases to post; you need other information such as images, video and social links that provide an added layer of information and perspective about the organisation. Remember, who wants to commission a company that can’t even manage an engaging, thought-provoking blog?
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Monday, May 24th, 2010
The B2B sector is changing. However perceptions of this important area of marketing are often stuck.
Talented young people still want to work on consumer accounts because they perceive them as sexier… But, how can B2B show that, in reality, this is not ALWAYS the case. Could it be by encouraging creativity in the sector? Could it be through the migration to digital and even social media? And will the reduction in budgets across key B2B sectors (construction, automotive, etc) continue to push fresh thinking to react to the constant challenges, in turn, pushing creativity and driving a new age of talent coming through…
B2B International Director, Nick Hague, was recently interviewed by The Drum to get his views and below are the answers to some of the questions
- THE DRUM: How relevant is Social Media to B2B Marketing?
NH: At the moment, social media is definitely still in its infancy when compared to B2C marketing but I believe that social media usage within a B2B market can actually deliver greater rewards; especially because B2B marketers address a much smaller number of customers who spend larger amounts of money and personal relationships are of much more importance than in B2C markets. The first thing to understand is that social media for B2B markets is more about education, facilitating word of mouth referrals and driving traffic to your website as well as thought leadership and therefore requires deeper layers of interaction eg private brand blogs/communities rather than Facebook; Linkedin rather than Twitter and podcasts rather than YouTube. Here at B2B International we have embraced social media to play a role in brand building and positioning through the development of our blog since January 2006. Throughout the last 4 years we have concentrated our efforts on delivering new and fresh content with the end result now being a repository that holds a massive amount of information including podcasts, e-books, videos and white papers – http://www.b2binternational.com/b2b-blog/
- THE DRUM: How can the industry tackle the percieved lack of creativity in B2B Marketing?
NH: I think it is purely down to laziness of the industry not carrying out the necessary market research to get into the targets mind to understand what makes them tick. People in business are still human and do make business decisions based on emotion so this shouldn’t be lost in trying to develop a B2B marketing campaign. I think another misconception in B2B marketing is also the fact that too much attention is paid to the product rather than the bigger picture to hone in on people’s needs – has a picture of a new printer ever evoked a stirring need in you to go and order one for your office?
- THE DRUM: How do you convince talented new recruits that B2B can be just as sexy as consumer accounts?
NH: I think the plain answer is, because of the lack of creativity that has gone before in the industry, it is much easier to make your mark in B2B marketing than maybe it would be in B2C marketing. Also, I believe there is a greater incentive for being a bit riskier in B2B markets as there is so much staid marketing and advertising that goes on with stock images of laptops and handshakes. The bolder the message, the greater reward in the end.
- THE DRUM: Is B2B marketing now more important than ever?
NH: As Drucker once said “A time of turbulence is a dangerous time, but its greatest danger is a temptation to deny reality. However a time of turbulence is also one great opportunity for those who can understand, accept andexploit the new realities. It is above all a time of opportunity for leadership”. Whatever the marketing strategy being considered, one of the most difficult challenges faced by B2B marketers is convincing senior management of the value of marketing and the need to invest in it, especially in bad times (when budgets have no doubt been cut). Marketing teams need to prove the ROI of their actions at all times so as to obtain buy-in to marketing efforts and acknowledgement of the importance of marketing as a strategic approach to business which will in the end impact on the bottom line.
- THE DRUM: What are the biggest problems faced by business-to-business marketers?
NH: I think the problems that B2B marketers face today are the same as they have faced historically in the past. Small customer numbers, complex decision making units and complex products and applications throw the emphasis on close targeting and personal relationships, especially in the current economic climate. One of the problems in B2B marketing however is getting across the message that your product or service is different to those of the competition (especially as so many B2B markets are commodities with little differentiation). Therefore being able to truly understand customer needs is the starting point in any successful B2B marketing campaign.
For more information and the full article visit – http://www.thedrum.co.uk/
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Friday, March 12th, 2010
This week Director Matthew Harrison draws the key marketing lessons from his (now dormant) seduction techniques.
Each and every year, the month of March is a joyous occasion for me. The brutal New York winter dissipates and makes way for 8 months of glorious sun. The English football season reaches its climax, as along with the rest of the Western world I fix my attention on Nottingham Forest’s promotion challenge. Most importantly and joyously of all, the month of March marks the anniversary of my wedding, which I should highlight (just in case she’s reading) was a day of unparalleled perfection.
And so this week my mind took a surreptitious walk down memory lane to a warm September day in 1997, a lucky 13 years ago. This was the day when I targeted my now-wife and (eventually) convinced her that I would fulfil her every need. Now, as a marketer first and lady-magnet second, thoughts of this distant time got me thinking. What, if anything, could my seductive exploits of the late 90s teach me and the wider marketing community about appealing to their target audiences? If I can successfully target that most notoriously demanding of audiences, the attractive female, surely there is no limit to my marketing prowess?
That sunny day in 1997 had been an inauspicious one, at least from a professional point of view. My finest achievement had been to break the photocopier and spend 90 minutes failing to fix it. As I returned home at 5.30, I frankly needed a beer. I delicately broached the subject with my housemate Dave, who pondered my request before suggesting we go to the pub immediately.
Two hours and 5 pints of Kronenbourg later Dave and I were deep in discussion, our agile minds flitting between the meaning of life and whose turn it was to buy the next drink. I was just about to walk towards the bar when I noticed the door open and two girls in their early twenties walked in. I salivated, ordered another round and began plotting my next move. My mission: to make the blurred, dark-haired girl on the right fall in love with a drunken photocopier-wrecker. Mercifully, Dave told me a joke about Camilla Parker-Bowles, distracting me for the rest of the evening.
Several evenings later, a group of friends and I decided to meet up in the same bar. Word was that a selection of females would be present, some of whom would be more than happy to meet the man of their dreams this evening. Even better, one or two discrete enquiries amongst the local cognoscenti revealed that the blurred girl was called Caroline and would be making an appearance along with her friends.
I sensed my chance, and quickly set about polishing my shoes, getting Dave to iron my shirt, and splashing myself in enough Fahrenheit to make a cactus wilt. I donned my leather jacket and, fusing debonair cool with rugged Anglo-Saxon masculinity, unbuttoned the top 2 buttons of my shirt. It would be no exaggeration to say that I looked irresistible.
Scanning the bar as I arrived mid-way through the evening, I immediately saw Caroline, chatting with her friends in the far corner. She was tall and slender with long, dark brown hair. Her dark knee-length skirt and tailored jacket clung enticingly to her figure and her top revealed a hint of décolletage. Her outfit reminded me of the perfect hors d’oeuvre: just enough to keep the interest; not quite enough to make me feel queasy and rush for the exit. I wonder if anyone’s ever delivered a finer compliment than that to her? I do hope so.
Rather than striding confidently towards her and delivering a killer chat-up line in front of her friends, I bravely decided to wait until she was on her own and then pounce. This must have been my lucky day because a few minutes later I found myself standing next to her at the bar.
We started talking. Now when I talk to attractive ladies, I have something of a magic touch – I start talking and they immediately disappear. Strangely, however, for an apparently sane woman with all of her faculties intact, Caroline responded – and not with a restraining order. She laughed at my jokes. She nodded as I told her all about my big-shot job in the photocopying room. She gasped with relief as I finally asked her a question. She seemed to believe me when I said that it must be the man behind me that stank of vinegar.
We met up a few more times over the following week or two, each encounter becoming slightly more relaxed than the last. I took her to a restaurant and tried to show off by buying some expensive wine that I’d never heard of. We went to a football match with a group of friends. Gentlemen, I hope you are learning as you read this. After 4 or 5 ‘meetings’ we were officially an item and I was congratulating myself on my marketing expertise.
So, when I look back at the seductive marketing techniques I employed in my early 20s and reflect upon how they changed the course of my life, I am struck by how similar the art of attracting a business-to-business customer is to the seduction of a beautiful woman. I therefore leave you with my key tips on how to attract and keep the most demanding of b2b customers:
Make the first impression count – A sober, well prepared marketing approach is always likely to be more effective than an impulsive dash in the direction of the target customer. This applies to all aspects of the marketing mix, from promotional materials and interpersonal contact through to pricing and proposal preparation. By the time you get to undoing an early bad impression, the object of your desire will already be looking elsewhere.
Expect the sales process to take 4 or 5 contacts – Business-to-business buyers, like women, are complex creatures. The quick ‘hard sell’ is far less suited to their multifaceted needs and their focus on interpersonal contact than it is to the more impulsive and impersonal world of consumer marketing. It is critical to take the time over a number of conversations to understand customers’ rational and emotional needs, before providing a personalized solution built around these.
Ask lots of (intelligent) questions – Like the most boring of inebriated men, bad b2b marketers focus so much on their own offering that they forget to ask the target customer what makes them tick and what would make their lives better. This is a fatal mistake when each target customer has needs that are often technical, complex and unique.
Always leave them wanting to find out more – Successful business-to-business marketing is a long-term, dynamic process built around frequent conversation and mutual exploration. The effective b2b marketer answers every question concisely, whilst hinting at new, intriguing ideas that make the target customer want to find out more next time.
Tell a coherent, authentic story and stick to it – This is the most difficult and most critical trick of all. Just as the single man identifies an overall impression he wants to project to the fairer sex and attempts to dress, smell and speak in a way that authenticates that impression, so the successful b2b marketer must identify the story that target segment wants to hear and ensure that every customer touchpoint authenticates that story. This requires consistency, and – most fundamentally – a deep and accurate understanding of what the target market wants from you. Master these two basics and you are on your way to becoming a seductive b2b marketer.
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Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
Everybody knows that 2009 was a tough year, with marketing budgets in particular feeling the strain. Yet things are looking more promising for 2010 already – and on both sides of the Atlantic!
A survey conducted at the end of 2010 in the United States showed good news for marketers after a year in which 60% of b-to-b marketers slashed their budgets. BtoB’s “2010 Outlook: Marketing Priorities and Plans” report, based on an online survey of 376 B2B marketers, found that although almost half plan to maintain their existing budgets, nearly 40% will increase spending in 2010. Just 13% will be reducing their marketing spend this year.
As with last year, online marketing – including website development, e-mail marketing, search, social media, online video and webcasts – looks set to see the biggest boosts. This medium is widely acknowledged as being both cost-effective and measurable. Spending on innovative direct marketing and customer events both look set to rise also. More about this report can be found here.
Meanwhile, in the UK, the latest IPA/BDO Bellwether report indicates that optimism and confidence are growing. In spite of the report showing a ninth consecutive quarter of declining marketing spend, the rate of decline is clearly slowing. Spend is down only 7% compared to 15% in the previous quarter.
Indeed, marketing budgets for 2010 have been set higher than those in 2009 and, with 35% of businesses surveyed seeing improved prospects, companies are the most optimistic they have been for the past five years.
As with the trends seen in the US, online advertising budgets were revised upwards for the second quarter running while direct marketing budgets have also increased (by 2.2%) for the first time since 2007.
Why not read our white paper, Marketing Strategies in a Recession?
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