Digital B2B Marketing

MAY 28, 2014

'Every time someone unsubscribes from my mailing list it stings a little bit. To get on my mailing list, you not only had to sign up, you probably had to dig the Mailchimp confirmation out of your spam folder to confirm your opt-in! That was an active decision. If you then unsubscribe, it means I didn’t meet the expectations you had. And that stings.

Click Rate 100

Click Rate Opt-out Deliverability CAN-SPAM 100

Digital B2B Marketing

MAY 20, 2014

'According to Google, progressive profiling is “a method of asking questions incrementally, gathering more information about a prospect over time.” With progressive profiling, instead of putting a 15 field form in front of your next potential prospect, use progressive profiling and only ask for the first couple pieces of information. Then, as they come back over time, continue to gather a little bit more.

Profiling 100

Profiling Marketing Automation Services Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation 100

Digital B2B Marketing

MAY 13, 2014

'Finally, you can mute on Twitter. Everything that’s wrong with Twitter has been fixed confirmed. If you don’t want to see what someone Tweets, unfollow them. If they are spamming with mentions, favorites or retweets, block them. If that isn’t enough, report them for spam. But mute? The only reason Twitter needs a mute button is the platform’s addiction to reciprocity.

Twitter 100

Twitter CAN-SPAM Paid Search Agency Work Management 100

Digital B2B Marketing

MAY 12, 2014

'Are you looking to grow your B2B marketing database by buying an opt-in list? This is everything you need to know: If someone offers to sell you an opt-in email list, don’t even respond. Just walk away. It’s that simple. You have the only list of people who have opted in to receive email from you. They don’t! No one opted in with a random list company to receive emails from you.

Opt-in 100

Opt-in Buy Privacy Policies Opt-out 100

Digital B2B Marketing

MAY 8, 2014

'If you are a B2B marketer, you are paying attention to LinkedIn. You almost can’t ignore it today. LinkedIn has become a powerhouse media company for B2B marketers , from opportunities for direct engagement (it does still have a few social media trappings) to publishing, content promotion and advertising. Not to mention the targeting data (but we’ll come back to that).

Linkedin 100

Linkedin Campaigns Social Media Advertisements 100

Digital B2B Marketing

MAY 5, 2014

'Enterprise B2B marketers spend the majority of their effort marketing to individuals that don’t have any chance to become customers. Your marketing database is full of contacts that will never become clients. Even if it’s well maintained, it is full of tire kickers, companies that are too small or large, or contacts that just aren’t a good fit.

B2B Marketing 100

B2B Marketing B2B Paid Search Agency Banners 100

Digital B2B Marketing

APRIL 29, 2014

'Native advertising, and specifically native publishing programs, will struggle in the future. It isn’t because publishers’ offerings are flawed, because visitors have developed sponsored content blindness or because we have all developed an aversion to all sponsored content. It comes down to a marketplace issue that, over time, will be a thorn in the side of native publishing.

Advertising Agencies 100

Advertising Agencies Advertisements Advertising Advertorials 100

Digital B2B Marketing

MARCH 12, 2014

'You know millions of people saw your content. But do you know the answer to the more important question: why did they take the time to read it or watch it? It isn’t because it was widely shared on Twitter or LinkedIn. Your SEO program didn’t make then read it. A content promotion program didn’t make it suddenly appealing. Triggered emails gave them a link but didn’t make them click or spend their time with it.

Intent 100

Intent Long Tail Marketing Marketing Automation Services Content 100

Digital B2B Marketing

MARCH 4, 2014

'LinkedIn has gone Tumblr on us and B2B content marketers are drooling. Finally, you can publish directly on LinkedIn, along with people like Bill Gates and Richard Branson. It seems like the perfect opportunity, but it is brand new territory. What should you expect going in? How should you approach it? Although it has only been available for two weeks, and only to a handful of people, here are my initial expectations. 1.

Linkedin 100

Linkedin Content Marketing Advertising Agencies Content 100

Digital B2B Marketing

FEBRUARY 25, 2014

'Marketers are looking for a way to get attention, to get their message across and ultimately to get an advantage over their competitors. Marketing has become a bad word to many. As a marketer you may even cringe in certain settings when you are asked what you do. Unfortunately, you know the feelings toward marketing is sometimes justified. Even some of the best brands fall for the worst marketing tactics at times.

Rules 100

Rules Paid Search Agency Banners Barriers 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JANUARY 22, 2014

'What happens when you survey 50 media buyers? You learn that media buyers have put a bit of social lipstick on their buys but they still don’t understand the potential of social media, the importance of content, and so much more. About two weeks ago, two equity research analysts at Cowen & Co surveyed 50 ad buyers. 60% said Facebook delivers the best ROI, 25% picked LinkedIn and just 5% chose Twitter.

Paid Search Agency 100

Paid Search Agency Ads Advertising Agencies Ad Exchange 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JANUARY 20, 2014

'For all of the discussion of data in marketing, and Big Data in 2014, most B2B marketers are showing they are inept when it comes to actually using data to improve the majority of their marketing. Yes, B2B marketers are doing a few things well when it comes to using data: B2B marketers are increasingly adopting marketing automation and using past behavior to deliver more relevant content.

Reachforce 100

Reachforce B2B Marketing DemandBase Planning 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JANUARY 7, 2014

'If you published 250 blog posts over the last year and saw no benefit to any area of your business from that effort, what would you do? What if you were just getting started, you published 20 posts over the last quarter, and you already saw an immediate positive impact on your business? That’s what I thought. Now, consider some of the popular statistics used to support inbound marketing.

Inbound Marketing 100

Inbound Marketing Paid Search Agency Cost per Lead Correlation 100

Digital B2B Marketing

DECEMBER 19, 2013

'Programmatic buying, driven by real-time bidding (RTB), is the fastest growing segment of digital marketing today. But it isn’t ready yet for today’s B2B marketer. Time and time again, B2B marketers fall prey to a wonderful sounding sales pitch for their demand generation plan that goes something like this: “We use 100′s of data points and sophisticated technology that optimizes every single impression in your campaign.

Paid Search Agency 100

Paid Search Agency Buy Work Management Marketing Management 100

Digital B2B Marketing

DECEMBER 17, 2013

'Stop grumbling about Facebook’s latest blow to marketers. You’ve increased your likes 100-fold in the last two years, and many of your competitors have too. Others have finally jumped on the social media bandwagon, adding their own voice to the marketing cacophony of Facebook. Of course your posts aren’t reaching as many people on Facebook!

Facebook 100

Facebook Television marketing Brand Identity Branding 100

Digital B2B Marketing

NOVEMBER 21, 2013

'B2B marketers are undervaluing Twitter’s contribution to their business. That’s hard to believe at a time when many B2B marketers are glomming on to Twitter like it’s the last shiny object opportunity they will ever have (even turning to spamming ), but it’s true. It is happening because web analytics packages are dramatically underreporting traffic from Twitter.

Twitter 100

Twitter Marketing Analytics Tools Social Networks Social Media 100

Digital B2B Marketing

NOVEMBER 19, 2013

'Enterprise B2B marketers face a conundrum. Businesses needs to drive growth and lead generation is a key way the business expects marketing to contribute. However, sales cycles are long. It can take months, even years, before marketing is able to prove the value of lead generation efforts with revenue. And you can’t afford to wait that long to optimize your investment and show results.

Lead Generation 100

Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 100

Digital B2B Marketing

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

'Need leads? It will cost you. Between $35 and $65 per registration according to statistics recently published by Madison Logic. And that is if you are just targeting a broad function, like “marketing” or “technology.” Do you want a specific industry? Level of seniority? Geography? The more targeting you need, the more expensive those leads become.

Lead Generation 100

Lead Generation Generation Leads Lead 100

Digital B2B Marketing

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

'Collecting followers is so last decade. It is easy to make arguments against simply trying to build up your following count and the tactics that are often used: Purchased followers aren’t real. Fake follower sites can reportedly tell if you followers are real or fakes and fakes are a sign that you have been buying followers. Mass following is frowned on by Twitter and if carefully managed, your follower ratio eventually makes you look like a spammer.

Twitter 100

Twitter Reachforce Demand Generation Agencies B2B Marketing 100

Digital B2B Marketing

NOVEMBER 5, 2013

'The biggest problem in B2B content marketing is that it requires content. Somehow, this most obvious of truths has become the thorn in the side of B2B marketing (and the inspiration for 1,000s of pieces of content). So what if you could be a content marketer without actually creating content? Hallelujah! All your problems are solved! Enter curation, the glittering solution for today’s content marketers.

Curation 100

Curation Content Differentiation Twitter 100

Digital B2B Marketing

OCTOBER 29, 2013

'If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything. One of the challenges with relying on research, particularly research companies use in their own marketing, is that the statistics used have been tortured. When you see a sales pitch full of statistics, how do you differentiate the real story from the spin? Short of dismissing all of the data presented (a good idea, but not realistic for most of us), these five methods will be a good starting point. 1.

Statistics 100

Statistics Banner Ads Stats Sample 100

Digital B2B Marketing

OCTOBER 15, 2013

'Forrester recently released a report pointing out the failure of most content marketers to plan for adequate content distribution. And they’re right. Marketers are slaving over content today, but almost no one sees that content. Optimizing your content for search and distributing it through your own social and email channels is just the starting place.

Paid Content 100

Paid Content Distribution Advertising Agencies B2B Marketing 100

Digital B2B Marketing

OCTOBER 1, 2013

'We like to measure ourselves against something. We want to know that we are doing good work. Is my my email click rate good? Is my search conversion rate where it should be? Is my brand lift above average? Ummm, but what are you comparing yourself too? A number in some book or website, based on the results of businesses nothing like yours? Stop. Now.

Advertising Benchmark 100

Advertising Benchmark Click Rate Sample Statistics 100

Digital B2B Marketing

SEPTEMBER 24, 2013

'Google just made two major announcements. Long-term, these could change the face of online marketing and advertising for almost every company. But before we look at how they are related, two background points are key. 1. When it comes to online advertising revenue, no one is bigger than Google. Not even Facebook comes close. 2. Online advertising companies that use big data in advertising are today’s market darlings.

Advertising Agencies 100

Advertising Agencies Advertisements Advertising Mobile Advertising 100

Digital B2B Marketing

SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

'Native advertising, and more specifically native content publishing, is hot. Nearly every major publisher already has a program or is working on one. It shouldn’t be a surprise, as marketers increasingly turn to content, publishers need to offer solutions to promote and distribute that content. For B2B marketers, the Forbes BrandVoice program is one of the original and most established programs.

Advertisements 100

Advertisements Advertising Research Distribution 100

Digital B2B Marketing

SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

'If your marketing requires an explanation to your audience, it has missed the point. If you expect your audience to stop and think about your ad, you don’t comprehend yet just how unimportant ads are to your audience. As marketers, you agonize over creative and messaging. You study it. You dissect it. You inspect every nuance. You treat it like a piece of art, to be savored slowly.

Advertisements 100

Advertisements Advertising B2B Banners 100

Digital B2B Marketing

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

'A colleague forwards you link with a short note: “this is awesome, we should be doing this.” Your interest is perked. Your expectations are high. You click and… your heart sinks. Its last decade’s news and isn’t relevant for your business today. What was gold to your colleague was a waste of time for you. Content quality is in the eye of the beholder.

Content 100

Content Rules Marketing Education 100

Digital B2B Marketing

AUGUST 27, 2013

'You don’t need more content. You need old content. I know, that’s not what you usually hear, so stick with me. Old content is the real king of content marketing. It’s why established publishers still have a huge advantage. It is why new successful publications like Huffington Post or Copyblogger really aren’t all that new. Better content isn’t enough when your competitors have good old content.

Content Marketing 100

Content Marketing Content Inbound Marketing Search Marketing 100

Digital B2B Marketing

AUGUST 26, 2013

'We know companies track us across the web, but most companies don’t make the tracking obvious. LinkedIn, in quite a departure, is showing right on the homepage the company websites you have visited. The video below is a short screen capture showing how Eloqua and Demandbase were added to the recently viewed block on my homepage after visiting their websites, not just LinkedIn company pages.

Linkedin 100

Linkedin DemandBase Eloqua Privacy 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JULY 31, 2013

'According to Nielson , smartphone users spend 87% of their time with apps, and just 13% of time with the mobile web. Last quarter, 41% of Facebook’s revenue came from their mobile user base. What are you waiting for, you need a mobile app. Right now. STOP. You are asking the wrong question. As marketers, collectively, our perspective on mobile apps versus mobile web has had the wrong focus.

Mobile Marketing 100

Mobile Marketing Banner Ads Paid Search Agency Banners 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JULY 25, 2013

'Today’s marketing simply wouldn’t exist without marketing technology. From marketing automation to demand side platforms to content management systems, technology puts the right message in front of the right person at the right time. Or at least that’s how it is supposed to happen. You no longer create your marketing communications.

Eloqua 100

Eloqua Auto Responder Banners Marketo 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JULY 23, 2013

'What is a good ROI on marketing? If you can increase net income by 50 cents for every dollar spent on marketing, that’s good, right? The more you spend, the more money you make. But what if you learned your primary competitor was getting $1.50 in income for every dollar spent on marketing? 3x the return you are getting on marketing! All of a sudden your marketing looks pretty ineffective!

ROI 100

ROI Advertising Agencies Telemarketing Planning 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JULY 17, 2013

'Over time, your role in marketing begins to permeate every part of your life. You adopt behavior, language or perspective that is completely natural to you, but doesn’t make sense to anyone around you. Just maybe, that means it is time to take a break. If more than a handful of these describe you, it is time to get to know, again, what the world beyond your marketing bubble is like.

Planning 100

Planning Banner Ads Banners Ad Exchange 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JULY 11, 2013

'When the success of your business is less important than the success of your marketing, something is seriously wrong. Yet this is exactly how most B2B marketers approach lead generation today! You don’t care about the number of leads your sales team has. Instead you care about the number of marketing sourced leads. We all know B2B marketing measurement is imperfect, yet we momentarily suspend all reservations in order to judge our effectiveness based on results attributed to our efforts i

Lead Generation 100

Lead Generation Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Generation 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JULY 9, 2013

'Have you ever clicked on a promising headline and then been horribly disappointed by the results? Have you then been amazed at the number of social media shares you continue to see of that same thing post? I know I have. Those writers have discovered the foolproof formula for creating killer content with minimal effort or original thought. Content that consistently delivers results (shares and visits, not people that actually care, that’s not worth the trouble to measure anyways) for your

Content 100

Content Rules Guidelines Social Media 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JULY 1, 2013

'Have you felt like social advertising just wasn’t right for your B2B marketing? If so, LinkedIn’s new Sponsored Updates may just change your mind. This looks like the most compelling social advertising offering yet for B2B marketers. Up until now, advertising on LinkedIn was just advertising. With great targeting options, LinkedIn was compelling, but advertising opportunities didn’t fit the increasingly social framework of LinkedIn.

Cost Per Click 100

Cost Per Click Linkedin Advertisements Advertising 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JUNE 26, 2013

'Despite the capabilities of modern marketing automation platforms, many B2B marketers still approach nurture with a short term mindset. Your primary goal is to increase engagement, raise lead scores and pass a more active “lead” to sales as quickly as possible. The result is often a series of short term “nurture” programs combined with campaign blasts sent sporadically to a huge list of inactive contacts.

Buyer's Journey 100

Buyer's Journey Sales Qualified Leads Blast Campaigns Marketing Automation Services 100