Digital B2B Marketing

APRIL 20, 2011

A Quick Content Selling Test. If your registration page fails the test also, don’t feel bad. Most marketers fail this test. Personally, I would not, here are a couple reasons why this fails the content selling test. Go to one of your registration pages. If your form included a $39.99 Would you pay $39.99

Lead Generation 100

Lead Generation Generation Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 100

Digital B2B Marketing

NOVEMBER 1, 2012

The result was not only some good advice for marketers, but also a window into the varying opinions marketers hold about inbound marketing, testing, budget allocations and more. Dan Hanssel ( @dannyhanssel ) moderated a recent #b2bchat discussion on Twitter that tackled some of these issues.

Inbound Marketing 100

Inbound Marketing Allocation Opinions Marketing & Strategy 100

Digital B2B Marketing

MAY 5, 2014

Your A/B testing is optimizing your site for the average visitor, the one you don’t actually care about. The noise is what distracts us from the truth.” ” B2B marketers today are overwhelmed by the noise from all of the activity that is tracked and reported on from people who will never buy.

B2B Marketing 100

B2B Marketing B2B Paid Search Agency Banners 100

Digital B2B Marketing

MAY 12, 2014

The list is then tested, bounces are (hopefully) removed, and its sold to you with a nice round deliverability guarantee. But with no trail back to the original opt-in request, why would a vendor bother to purchase a list of people who ever opted-in for anything? It’s far less expensive to purchase addresses in bulk.

Opt-in 100

Opt-in Buy Privacy Policies Opt-out 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JANUARY 7, 2014

Yes, there are ways you could create a more structured test to assess the impact of inbound marketing, but it would be a significantly more difficult study to field). It doesn’t say anything about what will work for you. What would you like to see changed in the inbound marketing research that is available today?

Inbound Marketing 100

Inbound Marketing Paid Search Agency Cost per Lead Correlation 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JULY 28, 2011

Stability (see the next section) will be a challenge with hub activity, but if I were a CMO at a large company, I would at least consider testing data from a hub as a proxy for overall social media reach. Is there a way to control social media distribution in order to test within paired markets?

Social Media 100

Social Media Media CMO Marketing Mix 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JULY 23, 2013

Have you been running an advertising program to set meetings for years and now want to test outbound telemarketing? But is that always the best decision? Consider this second scenario. Comparing Apples to Oranges. The measured cost to set an appointment should go down significantly.

ROI 100

ROI Advertising Agencies Telemarketing Planning 100

Digital B2B Marketing

APRIL 13, 2011

Marketers test new opportunities. More importantly, unless you are @charliesheen , developing an audience takes time. It takes hours (and hours), but it happens over weeks, months or more. And there is the rub for marketers. They rarely jump in with both feet. In social media, starting slowly is wise, starting half-heartedly is foolish.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Impressions Social Marketing 100

Digital B2B Marketing

NOVEMBER 22, 2011

The algorithm is clear (test results, possibly quizzes, attendance or participation) and you work to influence the result. Do you pay less attention to Klout than you did before the algorithm changes? If so, you may be doing exactly what Klout wants you to do. If you care about grades in school, you study for your exam.

Best Practices 100

Best Practices Keywords Intent Google 100

Digital B2B Marketing

NOVEMBER 22, 2011

The algorithm is clear (test results, possibly quizzes, attendance or participation) and you work to influence the result. Do you pay less attention to Klout than you did before the algorithm changes? If so, you may be doing exactly what Klout wants you to do. If you care about grades in school, you study for your exam.

Best Practices 100

Best Practices Keywords Intent Google 100

Digital B2B Marketing

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

Should all large B2B marketers make a concerted effort to test new opportunities? Your Turn How should businesses look forward and balance emerging opportunities with today’s tried and true or must-have activities? Share your perspective in the comments below or with me on Twitter ( @wittlake ).

Twitter 100

Twitter B2B Marketing Internet Marketing Course 100

Digital B2B Marketing

MAY 7, 2013

Here is an easy litmus test you can use. It should be easy to avoid a random act of marketing but it is extremely difficult to pass up a great marketing opportunity. Sometimes telling the difference is hard. Will this improve other elements of your marketing? Do other ongoing marketing activities improve this specific opportunity?

B2B Marketing 100

B2B Marketing Planning B2B Act-On 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JANUARY 31, 2012

Products that are released before they are fully tested, if sold, undermine the trust sales has developed with your customers. Not only does this hurt the company’s chances on selling this offering, it also hurts their chances of selling future new offerings until I see they have had the time to polish and refine them.

Business 100

Business B2B Sales Paid Search Agency Startups 100

Digital B2B Marketing

APRIL 2, 2013

All existing marketing performance will need to be updated, triggering an extended period of testing in order to determine the most effective tactics based on the new measurement. New marketing technology or service investment will need to be made, likely increasing the infrastructure cost of marketing. Your Turn.

Top of Funnel 100

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

Digital B2B Marketing

AUGUST 20, 2013

Conversion rate optimization, including A/B testing, is one of the most cost effective investments you can make once you have sufficient site traffic. Are You Getting The Right People. As you do a better job of reaching the right people, the percentage of contacts that become marketing qualified leads will increase.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads B2B Marketing Sales Qualified Leads 100

Digital B2B Marketing

OCTOBER 4, 2011

Are you interested in testing new media buying approaches? Registration Page Results The registration rates for visitors driven by audience targeted media buys were significantly lower than for visitors from targeted industry publications. If so, make certain you consider how the rest of our marketing may need to change as well.

Demand Generation 100

Demand Generation Demand Buy Generation 100

Digital B2B Marketing

OCTOBER 23, 2012

Similarly, if LinkedIn hasn’t worked in the past, consider another test. With all of the changes LinkedIn has made, you can no longer use prior experience as a predictor of future performance. With these changes LinkedIn is now drawing a larger audience and people are visiting for different reasons.

Linkedin 100

Linkedin Cost Per Thousand CPM Business 100

Digital B2B Marketing

APRIL 25, 2013

With that in mind, in early 2012 I determined to test sharing 10 links per work day. Following Advice From the Experts. I continue to see my own social media usage, and this blog, in part as one (growing) experiment and learning exercise. In the first few days, I continued to average roughly the same number of clicks per link.

RSS 100

RSS Social Media Twitter Traffic 100

Digital B2B Marketing

OCTOBER 4, 2011

Are you interested in testing new media buying approaches? The registration rates for visitors driven by audience targeted media buys were significantly lower than for visitors from targeted industry publications. If so, make certain you consider how the rest of our marketing may need to change as well.

Demand Generation 100

Demand Generation Demand Buy Generation 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JUNE 11, 2014

In controlled tests, I’ve seen programs where 95% or more of view-through activity was simply counting what would have happened anyways. Counting what would have happened anyways. If you have a well-known brand and run a well-targeted campaign, you are reaching people who would buy from you without your marketing.

Doubleclick 100

Doubleclick Search Marketing Marketing Report Paid Search Agency 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JANUARY 10, 2012

Centralize management of the corporate database and data acquisition In addition to DemandGen’s recommendations, I would add the following recommendations when buying B2B marketing lists: Purchase marketing lists in small increments so you can test and refine sources and selection criteria over time.

Buy 100

Buy Email Marketing B2B Marketing Jigsaw 100

Digital B2B Marketing

DECEMBER 22, 2011

As companies enter social media late, they will turn to social advertising to develop an “audience” and as ways to extend digital media buys while satisfying internal requirements to test social media. Media Buying 7. Brand advertising will shift towards demand.

B2B Marketing 100

B2B Marketing Mobile Advertising Paid Search Agency Marketing Automation Services 100

Digital B2B Marketing

DECEMBER 2, 2011

As companies enter social media late, they will turn to social advertising to develop an “audience” and as ways to extend digital media buys while satisfying internal requirements to test social media. Media Buying 7. Brand advertising will shift towards demand.

B2B Marketing 100

B2B Marketing Mobile Advertising Paid Search Agency Marketing Automation Services 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JUNE 14, 2011

If you are interested in testing switchboard, I understand the beta will be available at switchboard.bizo.com shortly. Your turn, have you filled this information gap in the past , or has it not been a challenge? Are there other solutions in this category I have missed? Share in the comments below. About Eric Wittlake.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Curation Ideal Customer Profiles 100

Digital B2B Marketing

DECEMBER 2, 2013

To address this, test your own branded content in publisher lead generation programs and consider reserving analyst and third-party content for programs where you have full control over the promotion and landing page branding. You become another cold call or email blast.

Lead Generation 100

Lead Generation Budget Programs Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 100

Digital B2B Marketing

OCTOBER 15, 2013

If you test it, watch your quality metrics carefully. StumbleUpon’s paid program delivers traffic directly to your site, they never even click. That translates to lower cost, but also lower average traffic quality.

Paid Content 100

Paid Content Distribution Advertising Agencies B2B Marketing 100

Digital B2B Marketing

DECEMBER 19, 2013

I had an opportunity to run an interesting test a few years ago comparing performance of the exact same audience on key targeted sites and across a network. The network results have been even worse in subsequent (unpublished) tests that included a registration step. There are useful tactical roles you can begin testing, including: 1.

Paid Search Agency 100

Paid Search Agency Buy Work Management Marketing Management 100

Digital B2B Marketing

DECEMBER 3, 2013

If you are, test lowering your bid slightly in Canada, where competition is often lower for B2B marketers. Unless your program was mapped to your call center hours, test a reduced bid in place of turning your program off completely. It required both design and layout testing as well as content testing.

Paid Content 100

Paid Content Search Marketing Paid Search Agency Budget Programs 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JUNE 21, 2011

Based on my testing, it appears that any link posted from a Twitter account that is associated with a LinkedIn account (even if auto-sharing is not on) will count as a LinkedIn share. If you have tested this more thoroughly, please let me know in the comments or on Twitter!]. Twitter again.

Linkedin 100

Linkedin Content Ideal Customer Profiles Aggregators 100

Digital B2B Marketing

APRIL 20, 2016

According to a 2015 survey from Demand Metric and Demandbase, 45% of B2B marketers are testing or have adopted account-based marketing and more than 75% of those plan to increase their use of ABM in the next year. Interest in account-based advertising is, no surprise, following the adoption of account-based marketing.

Advertising Agencies 100

Advertising Agencies Advertisements Advertising DemandBase 100

Digital B2B Marketing

DECEMBER 10, 2013

These aren’t just small test budgets, content represents a big portion of overall marketing budgets as well. (Stats available from CMI’s benchmark report ). The outlook seems grim. Marketers are pouring more and more into something they aren’t confident in. So why do programs fail?

Budget Programs 100

Budget Programs Content Marketing Paid Search Agency Wikipedia 100

Digital B2B Marketing

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Not only will you see better results, you will be testing programs that are more like the ones you will ultimately roll out. Toby highlighted the tendency many marketers have to run small pilots with a large number of companies and then conclude advertising won’t work. Jumping Straight to Sales.

Buy 100

Buy B2B Marketing Advertising Agencies Planning 100

Digital B2B Marketing

MARCH 14, 2013

Combine it with something like DataPop, mentioned above, and you could have a system that continuously creates, tests, learns and optimizes brand new creative. Companies like MediaMind make this possible today. Marketing Automation.

Enterprise Management 100

Enterprise Management Work Management Planning Marketing Management 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JUNE 5, 2012

The Solution: Test Ruthlessly Your research data is accurate. To improve your marketing, ruthlessly test your assumptions and findings. Today, particularly for B2B marketers focused on driving engagement online, tests are relatively simple to execute. For example: Landing Page Testing: Google Website Optimizer , Unbounce.

Opinions 100

Opinions Adwords Paid Search Agency Banners 100

Digital B2B Marketing

MAY 16, 2013

Then test marketing that is created for your audience, not for you. Assuming Your Audience is Just Like You. Mistake contributed by Dara Schulenberg and Traci Browne. They aren’t. Study your audience, talk to them, ask them questions, strive to understand them.

B2B Marketing 100

B2B Marketing Planning B2B Paid Search Agency 100

Digital B2B Marketing

DECEMBER 14, 2012

When we finally checked those email accounts, here is what we learned: An Overview of B2B Publisher Email Habits Publishers Send LOTS of Email Only 6 of the 10 publishers emailed regularly through the test but those six sent more than 2,000 emails. TechTarget easily topped the list with more than 1,000 emails.

Ad Frequency 100

Ad Frequency B2B Webcast Opt-out 100

Digital B2B Marketing

JULY 1, 2013

LinkedIn is making Sponsored Updates available through their sales team and through their self serve platform, making it easy to test and easy to incorporate into larger existing programs. Have you seen LinkedIn’s Sponsored Updates test, or participated in it? Broadly Available. If so, what do you think of this new opportunity?

Cost Per Click 100

Cost Per Click Linkedin Advertisements Advertising 100