B2B Summit Crunched

Everything you need to know from the people in the know. ♯b2bsummit

400 B2B Marketing professionals, 34 expert speakers, 4 workstreams, 2 keynote presentations, 1 unmissable day in June

We came, we saw, we crunched…

The grass is looking greener on this side of the fence

42% of B2B Marketers are more confident of delivering improved results in the next 12 months versus 33% of B2C Marketers (James Smee Purestone)

But B2B marketers need to adapt as the way people buy is changing…

The B2B buying journey is starting online – more than 2 out of 3 buyer journeys start with a Google search (Jason Bell, Amaze)

60% of the sales cycle is over before a buyer talks to a sales person (Kieran Flanagan, Hubspot)

Welcome to the consumerisation of B2B…

We are all receiving information through constant jumps between personal and professional networks – blurring the lines on where we are happy to connect with brands (James Smee, Purestone)

Where it’s all about engaging B2B buyers emotionally…

What they want:

• Make me look good
• Teach me something
• Entertain me
• Impress me
• Give me a moment
• Give me an experience
• Market with me not at me
• Do not sell to me
• Talk my language

In the way they want to be engaged…

Mobile is a primary business tool for 56% of B2B audiences, rising to 73% for under 40s (Jasper Bell, Amaze)

Mobile is shifting everything – keep pace with your changing audience. (James Smee, Purestone)

All this matters because

If you really understand the customer – you win (Paul Higgins, Talk Talk)

However, take note

B2B buyers say only 1 in 10 sales conversations gave them the value they wanted (Graham Wylie, Decision Point)

So inbound and/or outbound?

When it comes to inbound and outbound marketing – don’t completely turn off one tap, as you won’t be able to turn the other on fast enough (Steve Kemish, Cyance)

Everyone is going content crazy

Great content is the best sales tool in the world (Kieren Flanagan, Hubspot)

Like Coca Cola, think liquid content that can work everywhere (Jasper Bell, Amaze)

There are two types of story: man goes on a journey or  a stranger comes to town. And it’s true even in the world of B2B (Scot McKee, Birddog)

If it’s all about educating your audience, why isn’t eLearning part of your content marketing strategy? (Amanda Philips, Volume)

Salespeople spend on average 40 hours a month creating their own content for presentations – and 90% of what marketing give them is discarded (Graham Wylie, Decision Point)

99% of people are content consumers. 1% of us are content creators. How can you turn 100% of people in your business into content creators? (Scot McKee, Birddog)

A great tool to help you track interaction with your content – Tynt: A tool that allows you to track who has copied and pasted your content, and where it has been shared (Steve Kemish, Cyance)

Time for a re-think?

Content should drive campaigns instead of campaigns driving content

Content creators beware

3 sentence ideas are being turned into 36 page eBooks. Microsites full of the obvious disguised as the profound. Video interviews that might as well be subtitled Yadda-Yadda-Yadda (Jasper Bell, Amaze)

Quality is everything

Keep the bar high. Put out good content. F*** frequency (Maria Burnee, Dell)

We’re in a content arms race. Soon there’ll be a massive content standoff, then a treaty to ban production of new content (@philaslehurst)

This social thing isn’t going away soon

Social networks will eliminate email (Scot McKee, Birddog)

The three key tricks to social: Listen. Engage. Sustain (Maria Burnee, Dell)

But bear in mind…

The lifetime of a message on Twitter is 17 minutes (Maria Burnee, Dell)

A great tool to help with your social activity – Findpeopleonplus.com: The place to search for and connect with the who’s who on Google+ (Ian Duncan, Media Co)

We’re still struggling to measure real results…

Success is hard to quantify and even harder to track (Sam Papi, Reading Room)

But some measures are better than others…

If you can’t change how you behave, it’s a bad metric (Maria Burnee, Dell)

If you really want to stand out

Don’t forget creativity as it’s the thing that separates your process and plans from everyone else (Paul Higgins, TalkTalk business)

And brand matters more than ever

Be a brand that people want to spend time with (Kieran Flanagan, Hubspot)

Telemarketing is 5x as effective if your prospects know your brand (Sylvia Jensen, Eloqua)

The only way you can truly run an integrated campaign is if you have a system to pin it all together (Paul Higgins, TalkTalk Business)

If there’s only one thing you take away…

Just do some stuff. Take the first steps. The worst that can happen is you will feel a bit stupid. The best? You begin to revolutionise your marketing (Paul Higgins, TalkTalk Business)

That was the B2B Summit 2013 crunched