B2B Marketing Archives - Page 3 of 44 - Online Marketing Blog

Always-On Influence: Why B2B Needs Brand Research & 11 Must-Ask Questions For Marketers

Lane Ellis on Jun 24th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

What is brand research and why is it an important step in building a successful always-on B2B influencer marketing program? What are the key facts you need to learn about a brand that will lead to the creation of a strong ongoing influencer program?

Doing brand research right is crucial for always-on B2B influencer marketing success, but where do you start, especially with the increased importance of brand empathy and authenticity?

Don’t worry, as in the third part of our ongoing #AlwaysOnInfluence series — following on the heels of “Always On Influence: Short Term vs. Long Term for Success During a Crisis” — we’ll take the time to show why brand research is key to building a B2B influencer marketing program that features the most relevant influencers.

Always-On Influence: Why B2B Needs Brand Research & 11 Must-Ask Questions For Marketers

Manufacturing Runs: 9 Summer Content Marketing Tips Drawn from the Diamond

Nick Nelson on Jun 23rd, 2020
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

Baseball and content marketing are two of my greatest passions. When I think about it, there are some intrinsic similarities between the two that aren’t hard to see.

Much like content marketing, baseball is rhythmic and methodical by design. Sure, there are the flashy home runs (and it helps when your favorite team *ahem* set the all-time record a year ago), but at its core, baseball is about strategy, patience, and sequencing: Accept the inevitability of failure and learn from it. Take good at-bats, call the right plays, string together base runners, manufacture runs.

via GIPHY

Sadly there is no baseball season right now, but if there was, it’d be inching toward “the dog days of summer” – a term given to those stretches in July and August where the relentless heat and daily grind start to wear on ball players as they battle their way through a marathon 162-game schedule.

Manufacturing Runs: 9 Summer Content Marketing Tips Drawn from the Diamond

Trust in Marketing: How to Build Influence with the C-Suite and on the Street with Customers

Lee Odden on Jun 22nd, 2020
B2B Marketing

80% of CEOs don’t trust marketers.

And yet 91% of CEOs do trust CIOs and CFOs

Ouch!

In addition to the many challenges marketers are currently facing with the COVID-19 pandemic and overall social change, a study by Fournaise Group found that CEOs felt marketing was not meeting expectations, causing a lack of confidence. Whether it was due to too much emphasis on martech or marketing “hype”, the outcome is clear: the credibility of marketing is at risk.

The thing is, those credibility issues are not limited to the C-Suite. Customers have trust issues with marketing as well and for good reasons:

Brand vs. Customer Focus
Lack of Confidence & Trust
Not Delivering Value
Not Meeting Expectations
Lack of Authenticity

Trust in Marketing: How to Build Influence with the C-Suite and on the Street with Customers

How To Level Up Marketing Content From B2B Influencers

Joshua Nite on Jun 18th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Why do you even need a content person for influencer marketing?

After all, the influencers are providing the content. You just have to collect their pearls of wisdom, make them look pretty in a PDF, and you’re good to go, right?

I’ll confess, on my first influencer marketing project, I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing there. Over the last few years, however, I’ve come to understand the role that content marketers can play in shaping influencer content.

It’s the content lead’s job to shape the conversation with the influencer. We have to ask the right questions, and provide a structure and framework to elicit thoughtful, detailed responses.

How To Level Up Marketing Content From B2B Influencers

Don’t Do That: Email Marketing Lessons From My 26 Year Spam Archive

Lane Ellis on Jun 17th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Email Marketing

What makes for strong long-term email marketing, and what can email marketers learn from a 26 year archive of spam?

In 1994 I started archiving the funniest and most outlandish spam emails I received, and throughout the rest of the ‘90s I sent out an annual holiday compendium of the year’s top unsolicited messages.

Over the years friends and associates began sending me their own wild spam finds, and although I ceased my annual updates long ago, I’ve kept up my spam archive — a trove of email marketing horrors, hi-jinks, and oftentimes hilarity that I still hope to turn into a book someday.

For now, I’ll crack open the archive and share five email marketing lessons taken from analyzing 26 years of spam, to help illustrate how we can adapt, grow, and innovate — and how not to follow in the footsteps of atrocious spammers.

Don’t Do That: Email Marketing Lessons From My 26 Year Spam Archive

Break Free B2B Marketing: Sean Crowley of Dun & Bradstreet on Cracking the Alignment Code

Nick Nelson on Jun 16th, 2020
B2B Marketing

“Integrated marketing” is an ideal with clear appeal, but one that is often difficult to actualize in practice. Developing a truly integrated strategy — in which marketing functions in lockstep with sales, product, and other departments — is immensely challenging, especially within large and complex organizations.

It’s not necessarily for a lack of trying, or a lack of good intentions from all involved. These roles simply operate and think differently from one another. Friction and disconnects are inherent. Silos are pervasive.

As the Leader of Integrated Marketing for Sales and Marketing Solutions at Dun & Bradstreet, Sean Crowley tackles these barriers head-on each day. Eager to hear his philosophies on bridging these crucial gaps, and to learn what’s working at D&B, TopRank Marketing’s Joshua Nite joined Sean for a chat during B2B Marketing Exchange in February.

Break Free B2B Marketing: Sean Crowley of Dun & Bradstreet on Cracking the Alignment Code

Project Management FAQ: Top Questions B2B Marketers Ask About Projects and Process

Anne Leuman on Jun 11th, 2020
B2B Marketing

What is every B2B marketer’s favorite word?

Process.

Okay, I’m kidding. For people who live and work in a creative field like B2B marketing, process has a little bit of a reputation. A reputation for stifling the creative process with extra steps, procedures, and — depending on who you ask — hoops to jump through.

While it’s certainly true that too much process becomes a hindrance, it’s also true that not enough process becomes chaos. We need processes to onboard new staff, establish marketing innovations, create more efficient projects, and more.

With such a critical — and controversial — role in B2B marketing, it makes sense that marketers have a lot of questions when it comes to processes and the projects they aid. You may even be one of those marketers. To help you get the answers you seek, here are the most frequently asked questions B2B marketers have about process and projects.

Project Management FAQ: Top Questions B2B Marketers Ask About Projects and Process

B2B Brands Take a Stand: 5 Examples of Going Beyond Words to Action

Lane Ellis on Jun 10th, 2020
B2B Marketing

It’s never been more important for brands to show purpose and to be connected to what’s important to customers. As our CEO Lee Odden recently observed in Marketers: We Can Do Better Than Words with Action, “We can all agree that there has to be a change and that we can all play a part in some way, large or small,” a call to action that is being taken to heart by individuals and brands alike.

Here are 5 examples of B2B brands making a difference today by going beyond words and taking action.

1 – Microsoft United For Change

Microsoft’s “United for Change” initiative was announced by company CEO Satya Nadella in an email to the firm’s employees, also made public in a post on its LinkedIn* page.

B2B Brands Take a Stand: 5 Examples of Going Beyond Words to Action

Break Free B2B Marketing: Sofia O’Malley of Dell Outlet on Creating a Global B2B & B2C Marketing Team

Joshua Nite on Jun 9th, 2020
B2B Marketing, B2C Marketing

Okay, marketers, here’s your content marketing challenge for the day. Your target audience includes the following:

Small business owners
Gamers
Teachers
Lifestyle bloggers
Young professionals/Entrepreneurs

All you have to do is come up with messaging that will resonate with each of these groups, while repurposing as much content as possible for maximum efficiency. Some of these segments are B2B, some are B2C, and some ride the line between the two, so plan accordingly.

Oh, and while you’re at it, we need versions of your content for multiple regions around the world. So make sure your Super Bowl metaphors are converted into World Cup references.

Break Free B2B Marketing: Sofia O’Malley of Dell Outlet on Creating a Global B2B & B2C Marketing Team

Always On Influence: Short Term vs. Long Term for Success During a Crisis

Lee Odden on Jun 8th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

The focus of Always On Influence for B2B brands is to establish and maintain relationships with business influencers through content co-creation, engagement and various types of activations that create and reinforce brand thought leadership.

In fact, those strong relationships with industry experts create value for driving marketing performance across the entire customer lifecycle from awareness, to purchase to advocacy. There are many of examples of B2B brands implementing ongoing influencer programs and having impact.

When the COVID-19 pandemic came along, many B2B marketers took a moment to evaluate whether their marketing programs were a fit, taking care not to sound tone deaf or too opportunistic. With the current movement about racial justice and equality, even more considerations are at hand with all social channels rich with messages about social change and little with commercial intent.

Always On Influence: Short Term vs. Long Term for Success During a Crisis

5 Ways To Inspire Your Marketing With Gratitude

Lane Ellis on Jun 3rd, 2020
B2B Marketing

How does gratitude help us become better marketers and in our professional and personal lives?

The world B2B marketers face today is rife with a variety of new and unexpected challenges, and meeting these often daunting twists and turns head-on with a mega-dose of gratitude creates not only better marketing, but also makes us stronger and more compassionate.

To inspire your own marketing process let’s explore five examples of infusing the power of gratitude into your work efforts, from five memorable people.

1 — Infuse the Goodness of Fred Rogers in Your Marketing

via GIPHY

“Try your best to make goodness attractive. That’s one of the toughest assignments you’ll ever be given,” Fred Rogers once said in an observation that applies especially well to the best marketing efforts.

5 Ways To Inspire Your Marketing With Gratitude

Break Free B2B Marketing: Julie Brown of Johnson Controls on Proving the EBIT of Your Marketing

Joshua Nite on Jun 2nd, 2020
B2B Marketing

For decades, marketers have measured success differently than the rest of the organization. We raise awareness, increase share of voice, generate impressions, deliver MQLs to sales.

Meanwhile, the success of the business itself is measured in….well, money. Revenue. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT).

But this disparity is changing as marketers are becoming more data-driven — and being increasingly accountable for their direct contribution to revenue. It’s not enough to show a return on investment; it’s not enough for marketing to not be a cost center. The marketing department needs to be a powerful engine for generating revenue.

Break Free B2B Marketing: Julie Brown of Johnson Controls on Proving the EBIT of Your Marketing