Marketing Interactions

FEBRUARY 17, 2020

Content marketing has been an ongoing practice for B2B marketers for more than a decade. Marketers are spending a boatload of money, time and effort producing and distributing content to their audiences. But for many buyers, the B2B content they encounter is out of context. Lack of Context in B2B Content Kills Engagement.

Work Management 96

Work Management Marketing Management B2B Thought Leadership B2B 96

Marketing Interactions

NOVEMBER 29, 2021

To gate or not to gate your B2B content? It will help to identify when and why to gate B2B content and when to set it free. Gating content is done to collect buyer contact information. Reasons to Set B2B Content Free. Making access to content easy also has benefits for both parties. Benefits of Ungated Content.

B2B 62

B2B Work Management Marketing Management B2B Thought Leadership 62

Marketing Interactions

AUGUST 24, 2021

And they benefit from B2B content that shows them how to do those things. I agree with Gartner that this is a huge opportunity for marketers to help buyers by creating content that assists them with job completion. There’s a lot more to B2B content marketing than thought leadership, industry trends and infotainment.

B2B Thought Leadership 62

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership B2B Gartner 62

Marketing Interactions

JANUARY 9, 2022

B2B content doesn’t create a sum of knowledge as one-off random acts of content. To create influence, your B2B content needs oomph, conviction, and purpose. I’ve written about the need for B2B content to have a point of view. But here’s where a lot of content goes wrong…. There’s no randomness.

B2B Thought Leadership 62

B2B Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Content 62

Marketing Interactions

MAY 21, 2018

The intent to expand content marketing strategy and tactics is in every B2B marketing survey. B2B marketers plan to create more content, spend more on content marketing, increase the number of channels for content distribution, and add more technology to their marketing tech stack. consistency with their content.

Cost 69

Cost Content Marketing Automation Services Work Management 69

Marketing Interactions

APRIL 14, 2019

Marketers say one of their biggest challenges is creating content that engages and compels their buyers. The future will not only depend on engagement, but on continuous, content-driven conversations that result in buying decisions in your favor. Content-Driven Conversations Rely on Nuance. Dry content won’t cut it.

Conversion 86

Conversion Marketing Automation Services B2B Trigger Marketing 86

Marketing Interactions

APRIL 11, 2019

I’ve been actively involved in content marketing for 20 years. There’s something new to learn every day and content marketing feels like it’s taken over marketing. I remember back when just putting up a blog post once or twice per week was a novel approach to content marketing. The Evolution of Content.

Peer-to-peer 53

Peer-to-peer Content Enterprise Management Broadcasting 53

Marketing Interactions

MAY 23, 2018

When I was asked to review Kapost’s latest benchmark on B2B content operations strategy, I jumped at the chance. Content operations as a standard practice is still a pretty new concept for many B2B organizations, and I was curious to see how it was going. B2B Content Operations Are Making Progress. I’m admittedly a data hound.

Advertising Benchmark 83

Advertising Benchmark Marketing & Strategy B2B Content 83

Marketing Interactions

MAY 21, 2018

As our ability to collect data grows, so do the different ways we can measure content performance. It’s hard to inform anything about your content marketing strategy with such low results. Yet, we seem content to continue to send email campaigns with mediocre performance. Don’t Let Your Content Become a Dead End.

Webinar Metrics 74

Webinar Metrics Marketing Strategy Marketing & Strategy Dwell 74

Marketing Interactions

APRIL 21, 2017

One of the biggest values that come with content marketing operations maturity is the ability to say “no” to ad hoc content demands. As B2B marketers have adopted content marketing, many have found themselves on the hamster wheel of content production. But publishing content is not content marketing.

Content Marketing 60

Content Marketing Planning Marketing Management Paid Search Agency 60

Marketing Interactions

DECEMBER 29, 2016

Using content for marketing in B2B companies has caught on with a fervor that continues unabated. And, even though only a small percentage of B2B marketers say they are consistently effective with it, most of them will produce more content next year. And now their sights are set on scale for B2B content marketing.

B2B Marketing 81

B2B Marketing Content Marketing B2B Content 81

Marketing Interactions

JUNE 23, 2017

While 89% of B2B marketers have embraced content marketing, only 37% have a documented content marketing strategy, and only 22% say they are extremely successful with their overall approach to content marketing. One of the key foundational elements to a content marketing strategy is a buyer persona.

Buyer Personas 74

Buyer Personas Enterprise Management B2B Marketing Marketing Strategy 74

Marketing Interactions

DECEMBER 26, 2016

Nearly all B2B companies are using content marketing to attract and engage buyers. But getting it right is still a struggle for a majority of companies. This is because we haven’t formalized content marketing as a strategy or built sufficient process, workflow, and collaboration around its execution. Let’s take a look….

Lead Scoring 72

Lead Scoring Lead Ranking B2B Marketing Planning 72

Marketing Interactions

JUNE 23, 2017

In this post, I’ll discuss how the details of a buyer persona inform a content marketing strategy. As VP of Finance for my company, most of my time is spent in status meetings with my direct reports. Seeing both sides of a pain point is helpful when generating content to address a buyer persona’s needs. Objectives. Orientation.

Buyer Personas 64

Buyer Personas Marketing Strategy Marketing & Strategy B2B Marketing 64

Marketing Interactions

MARCH 7, 2022

Most companies tend to either write them off or recycle them back into their existing net new B2B nurturing programs. Yet most companies don’t act on this potential, losing the work that’s already been done—on both sides. Content Ideas for Lost Opportunity Engagement. Share their content and then layer your perspective on top.

Ideal Customer Profiles 88

Ideal Customer Profiles B2B B2B Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer 88

Marketing Interactions

JUNE 27, 2021

Creating compelling and engaging content. Creating content for specific stages of the buying process. Proving the ROI from content marketing. Here’s the kicker for me > Despite the above challenges reported, two-thirds of marketers say they’re using buyer personas to inform their marketing strategies and content development.

Buyer Personas 111

Buyer Personas B2B Ideal Customer Profiles Account Based Marketing 111

Marketing Interactions

NOVEMBER 15, 2021

Once they engage with your company, the intent score swings to have more weight based on branded interactions—visits to your website, branded keyword search, targeted display ad engagement, and more. No indicated awareness your company exists on their active radar. No indicated awareness your company exists on their active radar.

Intent Data 124

Intent Data Intent B2B Marketing B2B 124

Marketing Interactions

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

Timing of touches and developing targeted content for each buyer stage/interest are the top two issues at 49% and 48% respectively. Also, ask them what they found most valuable in their interactions with your company during the process—from the content they viewed to their conversations with your sales reps.

Ideal Customer Profiles 80

Ideal Customer Profiles Buyer Personas Marketing Analytics Tools B2B 80

Marketing Interactions

JANUARY 25, 2022

The beginning of the year is when a lot of B2B companies look at what they want to accomplish this year as a clean slate. Company objectives shift due to market fluctuations, board consensus, or the CEO’s new hyper interest. This means your content marketing strategy needs to follow suit. Room for adjustments exists.

B2B Marketing 69

B2B Marketing B2B Budget Programs Marketing & Strategy 69

Marketing Interactions

JANUARY 3, 2022

Unfortunately, many marketing campaigns provide the same content to both buyers and customers. Therefore, the same content isn’t useful for both contexts. What if they’re not using some of the features and functions – then educational content would apply, right? As well as show them that the content really isn’t for them.

B2B 69

B2B Paid Search Agency Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 69

Marketing Interactions

AUGUST 15, 2021

And, before you start yelling that you “have” to send everyone to sales, I’ve heard this antiquated notion shared by marketers in a variety of companies. Usually, these are sales driven companies that tolerate marketing as the fluffy cost center but don’t trust them with prospects beyond the form fill. Most companies do not.

Marketing Qualified Leads 62

Marketing Qualified Leads Lead Ranking Sales Qualified Leads High Quality Lead 62

Marketing Interactions

JULY 18, 2021

Despite marketers’ best intentions, nearly half say delivering personalized and relevant content is a top business challenge. However, personalization remains a priority for B2B marketing executives, with 52% planning to increase spending on content marketing and personalization technology to get this right.

B2B Marketing 75

B2B Marketing Personalization B2B Planning 75

Marketing Interactions

OCTOBER 15, 2021

Marketers produce or oversee/govern much of the content used across the customer continuum, including for brand awareness, demand generation, ABM, sales outreach and follow-up, customer engagement, social media, events, advocacy programs, and more. There needs to be one orchestrator of brand narrative: messaging, content, and story.

B2B Marketing 131

B2B Marketing Lead Ranking B2B Paid Search Agency 131

Marketing Interactions

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

This one is critical for buyers given the overwhelming amount of content available on every topic—not to mention the conflicts in information they must untangle. Harness this rhythm and you’ll see higher engagement as buyers find resonance with your content because they learn information that helps them advance by answering their questions.

B2B 75

B2B B2B Sales Webinar Metrics Buy 75

Marketing Interactions

FEBRUARY 8, 2022

Strangely, B2B companies use it to foster an inside-out perspective. Customer centricity has become another tool companies use to try to place products, with their goals taking priority over their buyers.’. Most companies understand—at least theoretically—customers (happy, satisfied customers) drive organizational growth.

B2B 69

B2B Peer-to-peer Gartner Top of Funnel 69

Marketing Interactions

FEBRUARY 20, 2022

That all takes time, research and political negotiations depending on company culture. Not necessarily in search of buying anything, but in exploring the depth of the problem, if others like your company are solving it, and the costs of the problem they’ve identified if it’s allowed to persist. Intent Data Can Be Misleading.

Top of Funnel 88

Top of Funnel B2B Peer-to-peer Lead Scoring 88

Marketing Interactions

OCTOBER 5, 2022

Considering only 18% of companies rate their customer experience as excellent (best in class), improving retention programs can help you transform your customer relationships—and your revenue growth. Toward the effort of improving customer experience, investing in new content and creative (42%) is a top priority.

Ideal Customer Profiles 62

Ideal Customer Profiles B2B Marketing Enterprise Management Work Management 62

Marketing Interactions

MARCH 22, 2022

The way B2B companies qualify leads is based on what we want, rather than letting our buyers guide us. And I’d wager that if you look at the way your company applies BANT, need has an inside-out focus. But the way we define it is more like, the company could use our stuff because they fit in the parameters of our ICP.

Work Management 62

Work Management Marketing Management Ideal Customer Profiles Sales Qualified Leads 62

Marketing Interactions

FEBRUARY 15, 2019

Know your audience has become a rallying cry behind the concept of creating compelling buyer and customer experiences and becoming customer-centric companies. You will need their buy-in to use personas successfully in your company.]. But how many B2B marketers can say they truly KNOW their customers? Data Can Be Misleading.

Conversion 93

Conversion Planning Buyer Personas Dwell 93

Marketing Interactions

JULY 25, 2019

Let’s back it up with a few more stats: 82% of VPs say not understanding content slows down the buying process ( source ). 70% of content sits unused (Sirius Decisions). Only 40% of content read by buyers is considered relevant (IDG). High level content won’t do this. Whatever the reason, you may never know.

Relevance 73

Relevance Work Management Marketing Management B2B Sales 73

Marketing Interactions

APRIL 21, 2017

What he said can be paraphrased as: If there is no buzz about your company online, I won’t consider your product as a viable choice. He also says he reads white papers, does his due diligence, looks for facts and data to back up company claims, and talks to vendors. Make content easier to access (shorter lead gen forms).

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer Lead Gen B2B Vendors 100

Marketing Interactions

APRIL 18, 2019

What we forget is that we’ve bought into what our company is selling. When you’re working on mapping out your content marketing strategy, start with the action you want them to take and then back into it. And that results in well-constructed buyer personas that give you the depth you need to create content that resonates.

Buyer Personas 119

Buyer Personas Buying Cycle Case Studies Case Study 119

Marketing Interactions

JANUARY 19, 2020

When you get this opportunity, you should also ask questions, such as: What does an ideal company profile look like for X product? As you have this conversation, also identify companies and contacts each salesperson thinks would be a good interview, so you can start building your list for interview requests moving forward.

Buyer Personas 121

Buyer Personas Enterprise Management Work Management B2B 121

Marketing Interactions

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

For SaaS and subscription companies, winning a customer is only the first step of the journey to customer lifetime value (LTV). This may seem doable when a company is small, but as customer volume grows, so do those requirements just to maintain a consistency in monthly recurring revenues (MRR). Expand Customer Relationships.

Marketing Funnels 87

Marketing Funnels Top of Funnel B2B Marketing Work Management 87

Marketing Interactions

SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

Unfortunately, the following recent research findings indicate not a lot has changed since I wrote my book four years ago: 55% of B2B marketers somewhat or strongly agree that they have difficulty getting their message and content in front of their target audience. Bridge the Gap , 2018, Ytel]. Widen Connectivity Report , 2018.

Relevance 58

Relevance B2B Marketing B2B Broadcasting 58

Marketing Interactions

DECEMBER 26, 2016

Corporate Visions recently surveyed more than 400 B2B organizations to find out how one statistic is creating challenges at the intersection of content strategy, sales enablement, and lead conversion. The report found that content used for both demand gen and sales enablement is created in different parts of the organization.

Conversion 82

Conversion B2B Top of Funnel Stats 82

Marketing Interactions

JULY 25, 2021

Natalie Petouhoff says this about ABX (Account-Based Experience) – “ABX is being able to know where the customer is in the buying cycle and using intelligent insights to know when to engage, with what content, and what to say to each and every account.”. Is this an example of hyper-relevance? Hyper personalization?

B2B Marketing 69

B2B Marketing B2B Paid Search Agency Buying Cycle 69