Archive for the ‘Social Networking’ Category

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Business Optimism Grows for B2B Marketers

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

Posted in B2B Marketing, Business, Business To Business, Marketing, Social Networking |
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Positive Outlook for Industrial Companies

Good news this month for many of our clients! According to a new report, Trends in Industrial Marketing 2010: How Manufacturers are Marketing Today – incidentally published by one of our clients, GlobalSpec – 70% of sales and marketing professionals in the industrial sector expect their companies to increase sales this year, compared with a mere 16% in 2009. However, the online survey of 464 respondents found that only 31% had an increased marketing budget.

For 42% of sales and marketing professionals questioned, customer acquisition is their primary goal this year. One-third is focusing on lead generation and 13% specified branding as their main aim.

More than two-thirds (68%) plan to increase spending on social media. The same percentage intends to increase their spend on online video this year. Conversely, a quarter plans to decrease spend on trade magazine advertising and 24% will decrease use of printed directories.

Posted in Industrial Research, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Social Networking, Surveys, Trends |
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Marketing Tidbits

A variety of random figures and stats, which marketers everywhere might find interesting, were spotted recently in Deliver – a magazine for marketers produced by the United States Postal Service. As ever, we like to pass on useful information to our readers so, in no particular order, these include:

• Two in three people prefer print catalogs to online catalogs¹
• 52% of consumers are influenced to buy because of loyalty programs; 58% want more relevant offers and individualized deals; and 70% want more discounts and savings incentives²
• 65% of marketers say their companies have not increased revenue or profited using social media³
• More small businesses are using direct mail to attract new clients. Almost half (47%) consider mail important to finding new customers or members, up 18% from 2009⁴

Sources:
¹ Pitney Bowes
² “Leading Loyalty: Feeling the Love from the Loyalty Clubs,” 2010 CMO Council
³ R2integrated, April 14, 2010
⁴ Constant Contact, 2010 U.S. Small Business Attitudinal Survey

Posted in Loyalty, Social Networking |
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Beware! ‘Slick’ Marketing Can Be Detrimental To B2B Marketers’ Health

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?

Posted in B2B Marketing, B2C, Business To Business, eBook, Marketing, Nick Hague, Social Networking, Thursday Night Insight |
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To Twitter or Not to Twitter…

 
BtoB magazine has conducted a survey into the effectiveness of social media phenomenon Twitter for b-to-b marketers. Yet, with mixed findings, Twitter didn’t emerge from the survey of almost 400 US marketers as a ‘must-do’ marketing action.

Nearly half of all respondents in last month’s ‘Twitter in B2B Marketing’ study were dissatisfied with their return on tweets, and four out of five could not directly attribute revenue to micro-blogging. Yet, the survey revealed a striking contrast between occasional and heavy Twitter users, with successful Twitter marketers not surprisingly being more optimistic about Twitter’s future and long-term potential. Another unsurprising revelation was the suggestion that those marketers who do manage to generate revenue via Twitter tend to be more active and commit more time to using the social media site.

Interestingly, although the survey was based on 387 responses, in fact 592 questionnaires were completed. More than 200 results (35%) were discounted because the respondents say they do not use Twitter for business purposes, presumably using it on a personal level only…

More about this study can be found by clicking here.

Posted in Business Decisions, Business To Business, Promotion, Social Networking |
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