Marketing Interactions

AUGUST 24, 2021

And for buyers who have already done the work they need to do to decide they’re in market. We understand what it does, how it works, why it’s needed, and more. They’ve got work to do. These types of questions are what your potential customers are working through in that majority of their buying process that doesn’t involve you.

B2B Thought Leadership 62

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership B2B Gartner 62

Marketing Interactions

SEPTEMBER 9, 2021

ABM is a terrific vehicle for enabling marketers and sellers to work in parallel to help B2B buyers do their own discovery and complete their pre-buying work to enable them to buy what you’re selling. What work do they need to do to get to the true cause of the problem they’ve identified? How will they know?

Ideal Customer Profiles 62

Ideal Customer Profiles Account Based Marketing B2B ABM 62

Marketing Interactions

MAY 23, 2018

I work with a lot of B2B marketing teams that are pressured to do more with less. A C-level conversation about marketing must relate to how the work of marketing helps the company to reach its objectives and revenue goals. But we still have work to do. Target Your Audience. The problem is in how that approach is taken.

Planning 118

Planning Paid Search Agency Content Marketing Marketing & Strategy 118

Marketing Interactions

JULY 18, 2021

But it’s not working out very well. There are three simple components that work together to give you the key to personalization your buyers will appreciate: context, connection, and conversation. Personalization in B2B marketing has been on an upward intention trend for a while now. But that’s not necessarily true.

B2B Marketing 75

B2B Marketing Personalization B2B Planning 75

Marketing Interactions

JANUARY 9, 2022

When content works together to build a sum of knowledge, each piece adds depth to, and expands, on the others. Forward-looking content that distills the trends you see coming and identifies the challenges they’ll bring (along with how you’ll help them pivot) can serve to help customers continue to gain value from working with you.

B2B Thought Leadership 62

B2B Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Content 62

Marketing Interactions

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

Marketers who proactively work to engage new customers by helping them facilitate change and see added value will help to increase retention. It’s common that there’s a champion who has worked tirelessly to help their company buy your solution. Your customers won’t continue to pay for shelfware. Expand Customer Relationships.

Marketing Funnels 87

Marketing Funnels Top of Funnel B2B Marketing Work Management 87

Marketing Interactions

APRIL 14, 2019

However, if you say “doing X will allow your workforce to cut 5 steps out of a 10-step process, allowing them cut response time to service tickets in half,” those details will cause your buyer to sit up and ask just how that works (if your buyer is in charge of the help desk, for example). Use Marketing Automation to Increase “Turns”.

Conversion 86

Conversion Marketing Automation Services B2B Trigger Marketing 86

Marketing Interactions

FEBRUARY 8, 2022

To do so requires you do the work to learn and understand your buyers. Understanding perspective and temperament is as key as understanding the problem they’re working to solve. Unite Around Buyers, Not Products. To change this outcome in our favor, we need to unify around B2B buying committees (individuals), not channels or products.

B2B 69

B2B Peer-to-peer Gartner Top of Funnel 69

Marketing Interactions

DECEMBER 21, 2021

Investing in the idea of change is emotional – Will it work? 52 tips on X with no explanation about why or how they work or when to use them. Due to the high investment for many B2B purchases (in time, money, and resources), risk is also an emotion, albeit one we want to minimize for our buyers. What if it fails?

B2B Marketing 80

B2B Marketing B2B Content Paid Search Agency 80

Marketing Interactions

OCTOBER 24, 2021

This is usually the case I find in the work I do with my clients. Communication is a critical part of getting work done. I’d wager a guess that it’s because you haven’t created personas or done the audience/customer research to really understand their roles and perspectives in relation to the problem your solution solves.

B2B Marketing 100

B2B Marketing Content Marketing Planning B2B 100

Marketing Interactions

APRIL 18, 2019

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. Asking for big swings doesn’t work. Complex Buying Processes Require Small Shifts. If your buying cycle is 6 months, buying is obviously not the shift you’re looking for out of the gate.

Buyer Personas 119

Buyer Personas Buying Cycle Case Studies Case Study 119

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

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Once you’ve laid this all out, you’ll quickly see what works together and what doesn’t. This reduces the effort for your buyers and helps guide their thinking to help them make advances in their buying journey. You’ll likely find gaps you need to close to reduce the leaps and allow buyers to make steady progress.

B2B 149

B2B Marketing Qualified Leads Lead Ranking Content 149

Marketing Interactions

OCTOBER 5, 2022

Given the programs I’ve worked on recently, here are two ideas to get you started thinking about and strategizing your retention programs. Host a lunch and learn and invite execs or the appropriate personas from other departments/divisions with similar objectives to join a peer discussion about what’s working.

Ideal Customer Profiles 62

Ideal Customer Profiles B2B Marketing Enterprise Management Work Management 62

Marketing Interactions

APRIL 11, 2019

Five years ago, it wasn’t uncommon for me to work with a marketing team in one department that never spoke to or even knew the marketing teams in other departments: the social media team or the sales team or customer success teams. And, getting other departments involved, how would that work?

Peer-to-peer 53

Peer-to-peer Content Enterprise Management Broadcasting 53

Marketing Interactions

AUGUST 1, 2021

But this only works when there aren’t glaring gaps between the two. Almost half of working professionals change jobs at least every 4 years. And repeat…. It’s got to be one, seamless story with smooth transitions only visible to you. The Argument to Connect Brand and Demand. What have they heard?

Demand 69

Demand B2B Marketing Brand Identity Branding 69

Marketing Interactions

DECEMBER 29, 2016

It boggles the mind that we’d keep doing more of something that we aren’t sure is working. Look at how it could work together as a storyline to motivate engagement and the consideration of whatever change you’re trying to convince buyers to take on. And now their sights are set on scale for B2B content marketing. What comes next?

B2B Marketing 81

B2B Marketing Content Marketing B2B Content 81

Marketing Interactions

OCTOBER 8, 2020

Marketing and sales, working together, can use sales enablement to transform how buyers value sellers and engage them by using content to simplify buying. — a user story for everything they create, it’s easy for sales reps to quickly identify what pieces work for who they’re talking to.”.

Buy 77

Buy B2B Peer-to-peer Work Management 77

Marketing Interactions

JANUARY 3, 2022

I’ve worked on several projects lately where clients provided me with buyer personas to create customer retention programs. Your content will need to connect those dots for the new division, not present off-the-shelf rationale that may not match up with the experiences or use cases of the company they work for.

B2B 69

B2B Paid Search Agency Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 69

Marketing Interactions

MAY 23, 2018

This means that all the hard work marketing has done across the organization will be minimized. That brand awareness you worked so hard for will be tarnished as prospects and customers find you less credible. What they’ll think is that your brand doesn’t have its stuff together. This can be fixed with technology.

Advertising Benchmark 83

Advertising Benchmark Marketing & Strategy B2B Content 83

Marketing Interactions

OCTOBER 15, 2021

Because the marketing team’s focus is broader than the 1:1 focus of both sales and customer success, they can see the big picture more strategically—at least they should have that capability. Why B2B Marketers are Well Placed to Play a Pivotal Role.

B2B Marketing 131

B2B Marketing Lead Ranking B2B Paid Search Agency 131

Marketing Interactions

MAY 23, 2018

When content marketing is run as an ad hoc effort, marketers tend to look at the content they’re working on for the next deadline rather than trying to figure out the big picture for how the content inventory is used strategically across the organization. This is not necessarily your fault. Building a Business Case for B2B Content Operations.

Top of Funnel 67

Top of Funnel Paid Search Agency Companies B2B 67

Marketing Interactions

JUNE 4, 2017

Because both sides are focused on the same goals, working together becomes a natural extension of ABM program strategy and execution. We have to talk to each other to work accounts seamlessly. With insights to what each role on the ABM team is doing and the overall ABM strategy, it’s easier to work together.

Account Based Marketing 64

Account Based Marketing ABM Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 64

Marketing Interactions

SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

It’s beyond time for B2B marketers to buckle down and do the work needed to become and stay relevant with their prospects and customers. Achieving relevance takes work, commitment and elbow grease and works best when approached as an iterative process. I could go on, but I think you get the point.

Relevance 58

Relevance B2B Marketing B2B Broadcasting 58

Marketing Interactions

DECEMBER 26, 2016

And through client engagements, I also know it works. Download your copy of the State of the Conversation Report to see why we need to do the hard work. I’ve been preaching for the end of campaigns and a focus on the continuum of the buying process for quite some time. Heck, I wrote a book about it. It’s not easy.

Conversion 82

Conversion B2B Top of Funnel Stats 82

Marketing Interactions

FEBRUARY 17, 2020

Of course, it’s truly difficult to nail context if you haven’t done the work to understand your buyers and customers at different points in the life cycle. Assumptions are clearly not working. Something is missing. That something is context.

Work Management 96

Work Management Marketing Management B2B Thought Leadership B2B 96

Marketing Interactions

JULY 25, 2019

In my work building personas, I find that often to be a low-ball count. Product needs regional teams to work better together to get products to market faster. Way too much time and effort is spent on content to have it sit languishing on a server or fail to do its job. Marketing cares about lead generation and brand awareness.

Relevance 73

Relevance Work Management Marketing Management B2B Sales 73

Marketing Interactions

APRIL 26, 2022

Since buyers admit to only spending 17% of their buying process involved with vendors , yet the number of interactions they have during buying is up to 27, you need to gain participation (think engagement) to keep them involved with your expertise as they work to solve the problem at hand. Humanness in B2B Content Pays Off.

Top of Funnel 91

Top of Funnel B2B Content Terms and Conditions 91

Marketing Interactions

FEBRUARY 7, 2020

I’ve been doing a lot of work around Microlearning for a client project. Becoming the answer to your customers’ challenges isn’t a one and done effort. It’s an accrual over time. Just as was true for Rome, trust isn’t built in a day.

B2B 114

B2B Content B2B Marketing Trust Marketing 114

Marketing Interactions

OCTOBER 8, 2020

In defense against the time sink that causes, many sales reps have downloaded content to their laptops and continue to use what’s worked in the past because searching for new content is unwieldy. On average, they must navigate at least six different repositories to search for content.

Effectiveness 122

Effectiveness Work Management Content Marketing Management 122

Marketing Interactions

FEBRUARY 20, 2022

Let’s work through it > an unwelcome situation could invite a variety of responses, including: Ignoring it and hoping it goes away. 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

MARCH 25, 2023

As someone who reads a ton of B2B marketing content and works to help companies create meaningful, provocative, and forward-looking content, I agree it is hard to come by. Buyers want that – darn near all of them. 74% want connection on a meaningful emotional level as well as a rational level.

B2B Marketing 91

B2B Marketing Content Marketing B2B Content 91

Marketing Interactions

JUNE 27, 2021

Misperceptions they had to work to overcome—for them or for others on the buying committee. Questions they needed to answer along the way. Obstacles that got in their way—from consensus to budget to justifying their decision. Areas where a lack of confidence slowed them down. Who else they talked to—internally and externally.

Buyer Personas 111

Buyer Personas B2B Ideal Customer Profiles Account Based Marketing 111

Marketing Interactions

SEPTEMBER 21, 2021

POV only works if you don’t waver. Challenge the status quo. POV should also support your brand positioning and messaging. What does your company think? Does it think so consistently? What does it stand for and believe? Much of the B2B content published today talks about what research thinks or what the industry thinks.

B2B Thought Leadership 69

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership B2B Content 69

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

AUGUST 15, 2022

In my work with clients, we’ve found it beneficial to segment by buyer personas and talk to them about the way solving the problem contributes to the company objective. I agree with Gartner that you need to get buyers to align around the company objective. That alignment is critical for gaining commitment to change that benefits the company.

Buyer Personas 75

Buyer Personas Ideal Customer Profiles B2B Gartner 75

Marketing Interactions

JANUARY 25, 2022

If the answer to any of those is “yes” – now you have some work to do to realign the foundation of your strategy in relation to your buyers. Has the problem your persona is trying to solve changed? Has the way the industry approaches that problem changed?

B2B Marketing 69

B2B Marketing B2B Budget Programs Marketing & Strategy 69