Digital B2B Marketing

MARCH 1, 2012

Here are two examples and four steps you can take to protect your content. Example 1: Sage on Hey, It’s Free! Here is a screenshot of Sage’s white paper “7 Steps to Building a Business Case for ERP” promoted on the site. This is not the audience profile of a site providing business software.

Enterprise Management 100

Enterprise Management Advertising Agencies Banner Ads Marketing Management 100

Digital B2B Marketing

NOVEMBER 21, 2013

B2B marketers are undervaluing Twitter’s contribution to their business. Here is an example of #3: Two weeks ago, Mike Volpe shared one of my posts on Twitter, but visits from his Tweet aren’t reflected in my Google Analytics reporting. Here’s his Tweet: The Worst B2B Spammers on Twitter via @wittlake [link].

Twitter 100

Twitter Marketing Analytics Tools Social Networks Social Media 100

Digital B2B Marketing

FEBRUARY 14, 2013

This trend will eventually destroy your business. One of my favorite examples is this story shared by Stan Phelps ( @9inchmarketing ) about Hertz. If you want more, Stan has actually published an entire book of examples: What’s Your Purple Goldfish? Show Your Love. How to Win Customers and Influence Word of Mouth.

Word of Mouth 100

Word of Mouth Banners Custom Publishing Marketing & Strategy 100

Digital B2B Marketing

OCTOBER 29, 2013

In the example above, the video statistic was highlighted on its own. Here is a hypothetical example: 79% of end users agree that our solution is easy to use. Bonus: here is a classic example of how marketers biased their research to make bacon part of breakfast. But continue on, we will look at this same statistic again.

Statistics 100

Statistics Banner Ads Stats Sample 100

Digital B2B Marketing

OCTOBER 4, 2012

Clearly Identify Your Objectives For example, your overall objective might be increasing revenue or marketshare for a certain product or solution group. Develop Your Marketing Plan Once you have identified the marketing objective in Step 2 (not the overall business objective) develop your marketing plan.

Marketing Management 100

Marketing Management Planning Sales Qualified Leads B2B Marketing 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JUNE 14, 2012

This perspective should be completely independent of your business and your offerings. Examples: Eloqua has done a great job of focusing on content marketing as a topic, a priority for the demand generation marketers who are driving adoption of marketing automation platforms. Where do the line up exactly?

Content Marketing 100

Content Marketing Planning Eloqua Marketing Automation Services 100

Digital B2B Marketing

DECEMBER 4, 2012

One day many businesses will put a value on their social media audience, if it is in the form of monthly impact to their business or the average value of an audience member. How do you use the value of a like, follower, circler, or similar to improve the value of your marketing and your business?

Wikipedia 100

Wikipedia Social Media Hubspot Sample 100

Digital B2B Marketing

MAY 29, 2012

However, the people B2B marketers want to reach are ultimately trying to solve a challenge or embrace an opportunity based on their unique business. Scenario 2: Small Business Storage and Backup Solution You sell a storage and backup solution for small businesses. Shouldn’t B2B marketing solutions be just as unique?

Work Management 100

Work Management B2B Marketing Marketing Management B2B 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JULY 14, 2011

Here is the definition of thought leader provided by Wikipedia: “Thought leader is business jargon for an entity that is recognized for having innovative ideas.&#. Thought leaders understand their own business, clients needs and the larger market context. Here are examples of thought leadership marketing I have seen: Company 1.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Wikipedia Paid Search Agency 100

Digital B2B Marketing

APRIL 25, 2013

Here are three examples: 1. Prior to that I had generally been sharing 3 to 5 links a day and would often not share anything on busy days. Notably, this is roughly in line with the first monthly drop in the Twitterfeed example above). What Happens When You Share Too Much. Ramping Up Volume with Twitterfeed.

RSS 100

RSS Social Media Twitter Traffic 100

Digital B2B Marketing

FEBRUARY 9, 2012

But unless your business is marketing, thought leadership needs to come from your business. Thought Leadership Is Human Today, it seems some businesses are so busy humanizing their company or brand that they forget to include real humans. Marketing can facilitate, organize and amplify.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership Wikipedia Paid Search Agency Blogger 100

Digital B2B Marketing

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Like in these examples, many of the most important changes and the biggest opportunities you face will stem from changes that are beyond your control. Are you ready to respond to these threats and opportunities as they come up? Does your strategy and infrastructure position you to respond to changes as they happen?

Godaddy 100

Godaddy Marketing Management Planning Marketing & Strategy 100

Digital B2B Marketing

MAY 24, 2011

You understand my needs and my business. By taking the time to create an appropriate solution instead of sending me a solution sheet without context, you show my business is important and worth investing in. It is sized for my business, it works in my environment. You have a solution for me. You respect my time.

Marketing Proposals 100

Marketing Proposals Demand Generation Opinions Distribution 100

Digital B2B Marketing

MAY 17, 2011

As professional and personal lives intertwine, business marketing messages compete with new family pictures for attention. Ardath Albee has a great example of buyers driving the new research process in The Contagious Content Challenge. Avaya’s widely cited case of a $250,000 sale via Twitter is a great example.

Lead Generation 100

Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads Generation Leads 100

Digital B2B Marketing

APRIL 2, 2013

Yes, there are ways to more effectively measure the impact of marketing on your business, solutions that many mid-sized B2B marketers have access too. The conclusions are true because of the system marketers are working within. The solution isn’t simple. Usually, the near term answer is no.

Top of Funnel 100

Top of Funnel Peer-to-peer B2B Work Management 100

Digital B2B Marketing

NOVEMBER 17, 2011

The strategy you develop should be unique to your business, an outgrowth of the challenge or opportunity you are facing and the environment surrounding your target audience. Make sure your business is ready to connect with today’s social buyer. The problem is, marketing advice is prescriptive.

Planning 100

Planning Curation Marketing & Strategy Inbound Marketing 100

Digital B2B Marketing

NOVEMBER 17, 2011

The strategy you develop should be unique to your business, an outgrowth of the challenge or opportunity you are facing and the environment surrounding your target audience. Make sure your business is ready to connect with today’s social buyer. The problem is, marketing advice is prescriptive.

Planning 100

Planning Curation Marketing & Strategy Inbound Marketing 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JANUARY 12, 2012

Here are a few common metrics for B2B marketers and ways some businesses influence the metric without driving long-term results. High volume, low cost traffic sources will immediately your metrics, but they may not improve your business. Share your views and examples in the comments below or with me on Twitter ( @wittlake ).

Enterprise Management 100

Enterprise Management Planning Cost per Lead Banner Ads 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JUNE 12, 2013

Ok, there are a few good opportunities mixed in, but most are not the decision makers you need to reach or they are from businesses that are too small. Here are two (barely) fictitious examples: How SolutionX Integrates With Oracle or Migrating Your Email Program to ProviderY. There’s just one little problem: the leads are crap.

Lead Scoring 100

Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Buyer's Journey Leads 100

Digital B2B Marketing

DECEMBER 15, 2011

Here are two examples that will be familiar to people involved in online advertising in the last decade: 1. I once worked with a client that was seeing flat revenue, but the online marketing group, based on viewthrough tracking metrics, was claiming they had increased business by about 20%. Search attribution.

Paid Search Agency 100

Paid Search Agency Work Management Marketing Mix ROI 100

Digital B2B Marketing

SEPTEMBER 20, 2012

If you discuss personas, taking an extra minute to define what you mean, and ideally provide an example, will make the discussion more valuable for everyone. Keep personas focused on the business environment. Here are three of the takeaways I came away from the conversation with: Many B2B marketers do not understand what a persona is.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas B2B Marketing Paid Search Agency B2B 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JULY 26, 2011

For an example of this influence, see the bio I use on Twitter. Although my focus on numbers has evolved, in business, information still fuels me. For example, I was one of the first people at any of the large ad agencies to place an online exchange buy from one of the first fledgling trading desks. Food is important.

Paid Search Agency 100

Paid Search Agency Planning Advertising Agencies Ad Exchange 100

Digital B2B Marketing

MARCH 28, 2012

Here is one example from TechTarget : eBooks are earlier than white papers which are earlier than virtual trade shows? I have had it with “research” about the content formats B2B buyers prefer at each stage of the buyers journey. Yeah, right. When you dictate a 500 word format (this post), you get 500 words.

Buyer's Journey 100

Buyer's Journey Trade Show Content B2B Sales 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JANUARY 19, 2012

Example: Included in search results for “best cars” because it was shared by Ford on Google+: Ford.com. Business and Personal separation. Many people separate their business and personal activity. Having employees share your businesses content may require changing corporate and employee culture.

Google 100

Google SEO Brand Identity Branding 100

Digital B2B Marketing

APRIL 29, 2014

Here are just a few examples: Since launching in 2010, Content Marketing Institute has a built a professional services business by establishing its own content brand. Marketers before you have proven that you don’t have to be a media company to create a content brand that drives results.

Advertising Agencies 100

Advertising Agencies Advertisements Advertising Advertorials 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JUNE 26, 2012

” To some people, this is an example of integrating their disparate marketing efforts. Strategy When you say strategy, or you referring to your 50 year strategic plan that considers things like the lack of potable water and the impact of peak oil on your business?

Demand Generation Agencies 100

Demand Generation Agencies B2B Thought Leadership Advertising Agencies Allocation 100

Digital B2B Marketing

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

Today’s business buyers are flooded with email they do not want and it seems cannot get rid of. Here are four examples of unsubscribe process that tell your audience you don’t care what they want, as long as they stay on your email list. Hidden Unsubscribe This recent example from Wine Enthusiast stood out.

Examples 100

Examples Privacy Policies Opt-out Barriers 100

Digital B2B Marketing

APRIL 20, 2011

Here is an example of content that does not sell, and it isn’t uncommon. IDC: Improving the Business Value of WAN Optimization. Don’t leave your buyer feeling ripped off. The copy below is from a Riverbed Technology registration page. This report was ‘recommended’ to me when I landed on the Riverbed homepage.

Lead Generation 100

Lead Generation Generation Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JUNE 14, 2011

&# With Switchboard, you see not only how many clicks you have on your content, you also see the firmagraphics, or business profile, of the audience that clicks on the links you share. Here is how you can use this information, using my own account Twitter account as an example: My target audience is marketing.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Curation Ideal Customer Profiles 100

Digital B2B Marketing

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

For example, it needs to be easier to edit tweets and control the final tweet. Here are places the change should be reflected: Product Roadmap: The roadmap should reinforce Triberr is more than a way to syndicate your content through other people.

Twitter 100

Twitter Work Management CAN-SPAM Paid Search Agency 100

Digital B2B Marketing

DECEMBER 18, 2012

As a marketer it may be difficult to believe, but marketing is not a business objective. Marketing must maintain or advance the business in order to be valuable and there is no single right way to do this. Here are three recent examples that have been widely shared in B2B and social media discussions.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media CMO Correlation 100

Digital B2B Marketing

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

My colleague Tom Bacon also contributed a number of examples. Clients of the marketers are also included in some cases to help show these at least appear to be legitimate and serious businesses. Yes, you can start your own business. I was surprised by many of the examples I found, but how do you feel about it? Reachforce.

Twitter 100

Twitter Reachforce Demand Generation Agencies B2B Marketing 100

Digital B2B Marketing

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

He recently joined Business Insider as the Sales Director for the Southeast, after a number of years with CBSi, parent to B2B technology focused properties ZDNet and TechRepublic (among others). Yes, marketing should build the business, but it doesn’t make the trees around your office burst into beautiful blooms of money.

Buy 100

Buy B2B Marketing Advertising Agencies Planning 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JULY 25, 2013

Here is my best guess: Eloqua populates this content dynamically and they didn’t have enough content, or content that matched to the business rules, to populate the entire template for some individuals. What is your favorite example of marketing technology failing?

Eloqua 100

Eloqua Auto Responder Banners Marketo 100

Digital B2B Marketing

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

For example, what if you optimized your website content based on the average time spent on site? Applying Industry Benchmarks to Your Business. Industry benchmarks are, by definition, from multiple businesses in different situations and with various practices. Are you considering the multiple segments within your audience?

Research 100

Research Advertising Benchmark Blast Campaigns Customer Surveys 100

Digital B2B Marketing

DECEMBER 8, 2011

Consider Context Limit your retargeting campaign to content that is contextually relevant or on an adjacent topic (for instance, business content for an enterprise technology offering).

Ad Frequency 100

Ad Frequency Banner Ads Campaigns Opt-out 100

Digital B2B Marketing

DECEMBER 3, 2013

I stumbled across a great example recently where this scenario appears to have been playing out. From the copy, CenturyLink is marketing enterprise or business cloud computing or hosting services. Share your examples in the comments below or with me on Twitter ( @wittlake ). Bart Simpson chalkboard image created at Add Letters.

Paid Content 100

Paid Content Search Marketing Paid Search Agency Budget Programs 100