Marketing Interactions

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

So, choosing not to shift your view as their perspectives, needs, and preferences change, is choosing to watch the effectiveness of your marketing programs diminish as they become more irrelevant over time. As today’s relentless march of change continues, this is no time to rely on the “way you’ve always done it.”.

Ideal Customer Profiles 80

Ideal Customer Profiles Buyer Personas Marketing Analytics Tools B2B 80

Marketing Interactions

APRIL 14, 2019

Given that Forrester finds that 62% of buyers say they can develop selection criteria or finalize a vendor list based solely on digital content, marketers must use technology to effectively grow engagement with buyers.

Conversion 86

Conversion Marketing Automation Services B2B Trigger Marketing 86

Marketing Interactions

JANUARY 3, 2022

Your B2B nurturing programs must account for the dynamism of the customer lifecycle to be effective. Effective content in this scenario for an existing customer must motivate them to adopt something new in addition to what they’re already doing. Do they understand why they should? What added value will they gain?

B2B 69

B2B Paid Search Agency Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 69

Marketing Interactions

DECEMBER 26, 2016

They know that company and product-oriented content is not the most effective, but they still produce as much of it as content focused on the issues and problems their buyers face. What I find interesting about this report—and many other B2B research efforts—is that B2B marketing and sales leaders know what’s going on, yet fail to adapt.

Conversion 82

Conversion B2B Top of Funnel Stats 82

Marketing Interactions

SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

The RMM will be most effective if used as the standard to evaluate relevance across channels and the company to establish processes for continuous improvement specific to each area in relation to the quadrant it occupies on the matrix. The least effective quadrants of the RMM are Irrelevance and Shifting Relevance.

Relevance 58

Relevance B2B Marketing B2B Broadcasting 58

Marketing Interactions

MAY 23, 2018

While marketers have widely embraced content marketing, we’ve yet to give it the foundation of a content operations function to manage its effectiveness at scale. Content shock—a condition coined by Mark Schaefer —is in full effect. Establishing a content operation is the next step toward consistency, effectiveness, and scale.

Top of Funnel 67

Top of Funnel Paid Search Agency Companies B2B 67

Marketing Interactions

OCTOBER 8, 2020

The addition of just-in-time learning means you can pair content with quick tips on how sellers can use it to best effect, so reps have the insight they need in the moment they need it to create relevant conversations with buyers. So, to be effective make your content clear, concise, and compelling. Now it’s decidedly harder.

Buy 77

Buy B2B Peer-to-peer Work Management 77

Marketing Interactions

APRIL 21, 2017

This has led a majority of B2B marketers to admit that their content marketing is not effective—year over year. And it’s often publishing random content because of an arbitrary schedule that mandates a daily blog post or weekly newsletter, or some other act of publishing without the appropriate strategy or plan in place tied to outcomes.

Content Marketing 60

Content Marketing Planning Marketing Management Paid Search Agency 60

Marketing Interactions

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

The content we use to engage B2B buyers must resonate and be relevant. Unfortunately, this is a challenge that marketers continue to struggle with. And that’s not surprising given the rate things change in today’s market landscape. However, sometimes we’re our own enemy in the engagement and relevance department. We’ve all done it.

B2B 149

B2B Marketing Qualified Leads Lead Ranking Content 149

Marketing Interactions

MARCH 25, 2023

Would it surprise you that a whopping 1% of decision makers believe that B2B marketing shows a meaningful understanding of the human experience? Read that again. This is a finding from The Power of Provocation Report. Granted, the report is based on responses from only 175 business decision makers.

B2B Marketing 91

B2B Marketing Content Marketing B2B Content 91

Marketing Interactions

JULY 25, 2021

All personalization that works effectively is reliant on context. When I searched on “hyper-personalization,” I found a variety of articles that state that what makes personalization hyper is context. So, what, then, is just plain old personalization?

B2B Marketing 69

B2B Marketing B2B Paid Search Agency Buying Cycle 69

Marketing Interactions

JANUARY 30, 2017

It’s also the reason why effectiveness with content marketing is in question for many B2B organizations. B2B Marketers need to change their thinking and approach if they want to create compelling experiences that align with buyers, as well as business objectives.

B2B Marketing 73

B2B Marketing Marketing Strategy Marketing & Strategy Webinar Metrics 73

Marketing Interactions

AUGUST 8, 2021

To boost engagement and effectiveness we must help people become buyers first. When I help clients build buyer personas, I start with status quo. Others often start with “why you need our solution” or “why choose to buy our solution.” But that’s assumptive, and often off the mark. What’s their current situation? How do they do things today?

Buy 62

Buy Work Management Lead Ranking Marketing Management 62

Marketing Interactions

APRIL 26, 2022

What is it that puts the humanness in business experiences? A recent study from researchers at the University of Florida found that it’s not the question of whether people prefer a chatbot or an exchange with a human, but rather the perceived “humanness” of the interaction.

Top of Funnel 91

Top of Funnel B2B Content Terms and Conditions 91

Marketing Interactions

JANUARY 19, 2020

I’ve seen this happen more than once and have had to resuscitate personas that were no longer accurate in order to activate them to effectively inform new marketing programs. Otherwise, when you finally have the resources to address the others in six months, you’ll find out they’ve changed. Why do the work twice?

Buyer Personas 121

Buyer Personas Enterprise Management Work Management B2B 121

Marketing Interactions

OCTOBER 24, 2021

Every year, Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs release their latest B2B marketing research. This year the report includes a chart of current B2B content marketing challenges. A few of them surprised me as I thought (or hoped) we had beaten many of these issues. Let’s look at 4 content marketing challenges and how you can defeat them.

B2B Marketing 100

B2B Marketing Content Marketing Planning B2B 100

Marketing Interactions

SEPTEMBER 9, 2021

As Hank Barnes asked at the end of this post , “Can we afford not to educate and guide our prospects on how to buy effectively?”. And that transition will be seamless, as the next step in a well-orchestrated buying process that they are able to justify making.

Ideal Customer Profiles 62

Ideal Customer Profiles Account Based Marketing B2B ABM 62

Marketing Interactions

OCTOBER 5, 2022

Customer success has their hands full onboarding and supporting your existing end users in using your products effectively. And finally, you may be thinking this is the job of customer success. They may not always have relationships with decision makers—especially for expansion deals.

Ideal Customer Profiles 62

Ideal Customer Profiles B2B Marketing Enterprise Management Work Management 62

Marketing Interactions

MARCH 7, 2022

Why did you lose that opportunity? Better yet, how might you resurrect buying intent? I recently wrote about B2B nurturing for net new vs. existing customers. But what about lost opportunities? Most companies tend to either write them off or recycle them back into their existing net new B2B nurturing programs. Neither is the optimal choice.

Ideal Customer Profiles 88

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

Marketing Interactions

FEBRUARY 20, 2022

What happens when something goes wrong? In B2B marketing and sales, we talk a lot about our buyers’ pain or need. But that’s not what really defines a problem. The dictionary definition of problem is, “a matter or situation regarded as unwelcome or harmful and needing to be dealt with and overcome.”. There’s wiggle room in that definition.

Top of Funnel 88

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

Marketing Interactions

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

Creating a strong customer retention strategy doesn’t always mean focusing on getting more money, but can be just as effective when focused on getting more time. This leads to expansion opportunities via cross- and up-sell potential.

Marketing Funnels 87

Marketing Funnels Top of Funnel B2B Marketing Work Management 87

Marketing Interactions

AUGUST 24, 2021

If you’ve developed effective buyer personas , you will have this insight. Thinking leadership information. Or you can. Your customers all went through this process when they chose to solve the problem with your (your solution’s) help. It’s critical to talk to customers while the journey is still fresh. Memory can change over time.

B2B Thought Leadership 62

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership B2B Gartner 62

Marketing Interactions

DECEMBER 21, 2021

For some reason, B2B marketing content tends to lean more toward academia than literary license. Much of the content produced is dry, mechanical, and, well, academic. We think our content must exude professionalism because we sell complex, high-ticket solutions to businesses.

B2B Marketing 80

B2B Marketing B2B Content Paid Search Agency 80

Marketing Interactions

FEBRUARY 7, 2020

When I talk with clients about how to build a storyline across the entirety of the buying process, they often express hesitation…. What will we write about that will be interesting over 6-month span (or longer)? How will we prove value when the end of each month or quarter comes? We must generate MQLs faster than that!

B2B 114

B2B Content B2B Marketing Trust Marketing 114

Marketing Interactions

JANUARY 25, 2022

The beginning of the year is an appropriate time to take a stand about the payoffs of commitment in B2B marketing strategies. 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. Almost like you’re starting from scratch.

B2B Marketing 69

B2B Marketing B2B Budget Programs Marketing & Strategy 69

Marketing Interactions

JULY 18, 2021

Personalization in B2B marketing has been on an upward intention trend for a while now. But it’s not working out very well. Despite marketers’ best intentions, nearly half say delivering personalized and relevant content is a top business challenge.

B2B Marketing 75

B2B Marketing Personalization B2B Planning 75

Marketing Interactions

MARCH 22, 2022

The way B2B companies qualify leads is based on what we want, rather than letting our buyers guide us. Case in point > BANT. The only component in the four components of budget, authority, need, and timing that’s buyer-driven is need. And I’d wager that if you look at the way your company applies BANT, need has an inside-out focus.

Work Management 62

Work Management Marketing Management Ideal Customer Profiles Sales Qualified Leads 62

Marketing Interactions

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

To be effective, the questions your content answers must address buyer inquiry. 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

SEPTEMBER 21, 2021

Since the start of the pandemic, content has flooded digital channels trying to gain the attention of self-reliant buyers. The noise is deafening. And much of the B2B content produced is leaving buyers cold. Edelman and LinkedIn recently released the 2021 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study. Their findings gave me pause.

B2B Thought Leadership 69

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership B2B Content 69

Marketing Interactions

APRIL 18, 2019

What do your B2B buyers’ see? Until you can see what they see, you cannot create the conditions for change. But once you understand buyer context, you can solve a problem in perspective that they didn’t recognize they have. Why does this matter? Because if you try to tell them they’re wrong, they’ll just dig in their heels.

Buyer Personas 119

Buyer Personas Buying Cycle Case Studies Case Study 119

Marketing Interactions

JANUARY 9, 2022

B2B content doesn’t create a sum of knowledge as one-off random acts of content. That’s just a recipe for confusion about your brand; frustration and a turnoff for your buyers; and putting loyalty in question for your customers. To create influence, your B2B content needs oomph, conviction, and purpose.

B2B Thought Leadership 62

B2B Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Content 62

Marketing Interactions

AUGUST 15, 2021

I read an interesting exchange on LinkedIn recently. The post asked about how sellers engage with prospects who don’t yet either know they have a problem or understand the problem or how they want to solve it.

Marketing Qualified Leads 62

Marketing Qualified Leads Lead Ranking Sales Qualified Leads High Quality Lead 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. But how many B2B marketers can say they truly KNOW their customers?

Conversion 93

Conversion Planning Buyer Personas Dwell 93

Marketing Interactions

JUNE 4, 2017

Marketing, sales, and service will align naturally and collaborate more effectively. Your focus on knowing and understanding your target accounts will result in more relevant content that resonates.

Account Based Marketing 64

Account Based Marketing ABM Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 64

Marketing Interactions

JUNE 13, 2021

Try this instead: “In our work with [title], we’re hearing that X…” This is much more effective because it triggers the voyeuristic and curiosity tendencies that motivate people to engage. It’s annoying. They want to know what people like them are thinking, seeing, doing.

B2B Marketing 174

B2B Marketing B2B Gartner Purchase Intent 174

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. I’m admittedly a data hound. 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.

Advertising Benchmark 83

Advertising Benchmark Marketing & Strategy B2B Content 83

Marketing Interactions

DECEMBER 26, 2016

The 2017 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America research recently released by Content Marketing World and MarketingProfs finds: Only 41% of respondents agreed they know what an effective or successful content marketing program looks like. 37% have a documented content marketing strategy.

Lead Scoring 72

Lead Scoring Lead Ranking B2B Marketing Planning 72