Online Marketing Blog

B2B Marketing News: Top Enterprise Firm Challenges, What B2B Buyers Want, Mobile Ad-Buy Shift, & LinkedIn’s Content Trends

Lane Ellis on May 29th, 2020
Online Marketing News

What B2B Buyers Want From Tech Vendors Right Now
55 percent of B2B buyers say it’s appropriate for marketing efforts to continue during these challenging times, and 53 percent are presently in the market for B2B products and services, with most of those having recent new purchasing interests, according to newly-released survey data. MarketingProfs

Programmatic Ad Spend Down 9% Since Beginning of 2020, Driven by Travel and Auto
Amidst an overall fall of 9 percent in April, ad spending for the technology vertical and the education and training segment were up 70 percent and 63 percent for the year, with streaming ad spend also up by some 18 percent, according to recently-released report data. Adweek

B2B Marketing News: Top Enterprise Firm Challenges, What B2B Buyers Want, Mobile Ad-Buy Shift, & LinkedIn’s Content Trends

20 Marketing Jokes for Marketers Working from Home

I’m not here to lie to you: Sheltering in place is getting pretty old.

I do count my blessings, of course. My family and I are healthy. My wife and I both can work from home; our kids are pretty great; we actually enjoy each others’ company.

Still. There are only so many loaves of bread you can bake, puzzles you can solve, board games you can play before the ennui sets in.

If you’re like me, you could use a laugh right now. And I need to exercise my comedy muscles before they atrophy.

And in a world where people are still writing articles called, “Should You Include Humor in Your B2B Content,” we need constant reminders that people like jokes. People like to laugh. Laughter brings you closer to your audience and creates a connection.

20 Marketing Jokes for Marketers Working from Home

Hyperspace: 5 Surprising Marketing Lessons From ’80s Arcade Games

Lane Ellis on May 27th, 2020
Content Marketing

What can marketers in 2020 learn from the low-resolution stand-up video arcade games of the 1980s?

Here are five surprisingly-modern marketing lessons that we can learn from and implement today, with roots that come directly from vintage ‘80s arcade games.

Slap that fire button and let’s warp ahead and take a nostalgic look back at a simpler time in both video gaming and marketing, and then hyperspace ahead to today’s vastly different landscape.

1 — Defender: Fire & Forget for a Constant Content Cadence

Photo by Author

Williams Electronics’ Defender is my all-time favorite stand-up video arcade game, an insidiously difficult side-scrolling spaceship-protecting-the-world shooting match juggernaut from 1981 programmed by early video game legend Eugene Jarvis.

Hyperspace: 5 Surprising Marketing Lessons From ’80s Arcade Games

Break Free B2B Marketing: “Webinerd” Mark Bornstein of ON24 on Dialing In Digital Experiences

Nick Nelson on May 26th, 2020
B2B Marketing

Like many other digital experiences, the webinar has traditionally been viewed as a means to an end: Create something that seems valuable to your audience, and use it as a vehicle to acquire contact information for lead generation purposes.

But marketers like Mark Bornstein take a different angle: What if we view the webinar itself as an end — an extremely valuable marketing tool on its own? What if we’re just muddying it up with all these mandatory form-fills and sales-y follow-ups?

“You need the name once, you need the demographic information one time,” he observes. “But why do we keep putting forms together again and again? What matters is the experience.”

Break Free B2B Marketing: “Webinerd” Mark Bornstein of ON24 on Dialing In Digital Experiences

Why SEO & Influence are Critical to Pandemic Era Content Marketing

Lee Odden on May 25th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Influencer Marketing, SEO

On this Memorial Day of 2020, it is important we remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice serving our country – not only in the military, but those on the front lines of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Thank you to first responders, law enforcement, healthcare workers and all that support them!

The health and economic crisis we are all facing now compounds the many other uncertainties of our time including trust and expectations in the brands we buy from. The COVID-19 pandemic and our society’s reaction to it have changed the reality we have lived with into something different and very digital.

Why SEO & Influence are Critical to Pandemic Era Content Marketing

B2B Marketing News: Biggest B2B Differentiators Study, Facebook Buys Giphy, LinkedIn Prepares Stories, & Facebook’s New Video Chat

Lane Ellis on May 22nd, 2020
Online Marketing News

B2B Decision-Maker Survey: COVID-19’s Impact on Marketing, Buying, and Sales
65 percent of enterprise B2B buyers now view online interactions as being more important than traditional vendor conversations, one of several findings of interest to digital marketers contained in newly-released U.S. B2B pandemic response survey data. MarketingProfs

Facebook just bought Giphy
Facebook has acquired popular animated GIF image platform Giphy in a $400 million move that will likely bring deeper integration with both Facebook-owned Instagram and its messaging features, the social media giant announced.Engadget

LinkedIn Stories Is Almost Here: Will It Reinvent the B2B Social Media Landscape?
LinkedIn (client) has tested its variation of the popular ephemeral stories format. When rolled out to the Microsoft-owned platform’s 690 million users, LinkedIn Stories would bring B2B marketers on the platform a new digital storytelling tool option. MarketingProfs

B2B Marketing News: Biggest B2B Differentiators Study, Facebook Buys Giphy, LinkedIn Prepares Stories, & Facebook’s New Video Chat

How to Measure Changing Marketing Goals During a Crisis

Birdie Zepeda on May 21st, 2020
B2B Marketing, SEO

In recent months, I’ve been listening to Paramore’s song “Hard Times” a lot. Their 2017 hit talks about struggling to overcome challenging circumstances above ’80s-inspired new wave pop. It’s a bop, as the kids say, and confronts hardship — truthful and emphatic with a spoonful of sugar.

via GIPHY

During this global health crisis, I’m sure most marketers want to wake up fine, be told that they’re alright, and — in their weakest moments — have “wonder[ed] why [we] even try.”

While we have no control over the state of the world, we do have control over how we react or work in tandem with it. With data, we get a glimpse into how our respective markets have been impacted, and it can inform a new perspective and next steps. Let’s take a look at how the pandemic affects data and analytics, and if B2B marketers need to shift their pre-pandemic goals.

How to Measure Changing Marketing Goals During a Crisis

Day 4,777: Remote Work Tips From 13+ Years As A Distance Marketer

Lane Ellis on May 20th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Online Marketing Strategy

Today is day 4,777.

Not days quarantined, but days working remotely.

On Monday, March 23, 2007 I started working remotely, and 4,777 days later I still do.

A staple aspect of my daily work life that had been the exception for most marketers is now — at least temporarily — the rule, with most people working from home due to the global health crisis.

Having been a remote worker for a long time, I wanted to share the helpful practices that I wish I’d known when first starting out, and expand on my previous article “Remote Communication Opportunities For B2B Marketers.”

Many have been working remotely much longer than me, and each one will have their own stories of remote work successes and snafus.

Day 4,777: Remote Work Tips From 13+ Years As A Distance Marketer

Break Free B2B Marketing: Latane Conant of 6sense on Reinventing the CMO Role

Joshua Nite on May 19th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Online Marketing

What’s in a job title? In my tenure as a marketer, I’ve met gurus who don’t live on mountaintops, ninjas who don’t know martial arts, and evangelists who don’t preach on Sunday.

At worst, these creative job titles are pure puffery. But at best, they serve as a statement of purpose. I’m thinking of titles like Shep Hyken’s Chief Amazement Officer, or Ann Handley as Chief Content Officer: They tell us something about what the person — and their organization — values.

Latne Conant from 6sense has a subtly unusual job title: Chief Market Officer. She dropped the ‘ing’ from ‘Marketing,’ and that tiny change signals a major shift in the way she approaches her job. Instead of focusing on the verb of marketing — what tactics to deploy to reach an audience — her job is to deeply understand the market, the people her brand is trying to reach.

Break Free B2B Marketing: Latane Conant of 6sense on Reinventing the CMO Role

10 Worst Practices for B2B Influencer Marketing – Don’t be a Clown

Lee Odden on May 18th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

When it comes to sharing B2B marketing advice, I prefer not to clown around too much and do my best to be positive and optimistic with trends, insights and how to’s focused on looking forward towards best practices and getting better results.

Marketers expect serious results but unfortunatley, many B2B marketers insist on clowning around with half-hearted or incomplete influencer marketing efforts.

I know this from stories told by brand marketers that have worked with other agencies and from being on the receiving end of clueless pitches, minimum viable engagement efforts and willfully ignorant attempts to get me to promote something I really have no business caring about. I’ve heard much of the same from other people who are often engaged as influencers as well.

10 Worst Practices for B2B Influencer Marketing – Don’t be a Clown

B2B Marketing News: Changing B2B Sales Models, LinkedIn Adds Polls, Social Media Engagement Data, & Twitter’s Scheduled Tweets

Lane Ellis on May 15th, 2020
Online Marketing News

COVID-19’s Impact on B2B Software Budgets
31 percent of B2B software buyers say they’ll spend less due to the pandemic, while 30 percent said that spending won’t be affected, according to recently-released survey data. Web conferencing, collaboration, and remote desktop software were the three top segments for expanded spending, the survey also noted. MarketingProfs

90% of people buy from brands they follow on social media, study says
Nine out of 10 people purchase from the brands they follow on social platforms, and the amount they spend climbed 12 percent from 2019 figures — two of numerous findings of interest to digital marketers contained in new report data. Just 23 percent of marketers use social media data for measuring return-on-investment (ROI), the report also noted. Mobile Marketer

B2B Marketing News: Changing B2B Sales Models, LinkedIn Adds Polls, Social Media Engagement Data, & Twitter’s Scheduled Tweets

5 Project Management Tips for Adrift Remote Marketing Teams

Anne Leuman on May 14th, 2020
B2B Marketing

“WILSON!”

“Wilson, I’m sorry!”

via GIPHY

Work, lately, feels a little like being a castaway.

Isolating yourself. Dreaming of the past. Trusting in technology — however advanced or primitive — to get us through.

And work could stay this way for a while.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought an unprecedented number of information workers, including marketers, home for work. In fact, 62% of American workers said they’ve worked from home at some point during this crisis. But many experts are estimating that this volume of distributed and remote work won’t decrease after the pandemic ends. They see that hundreds, if not thousands, of businesses are realizing they never really needed an office — they could have operated remotely all along.

5 Project Management Tips for Adrift Remote Marketing Teams