B2B Marketing

There’s no doubt that well-placed speaking opportunities can offer excellent platforms to reach the business community. Not only do you have the chance to deliver your message to a captive audience, there is also the opportunity to be seen in the thousands of mailed brochures as well as the potential media coverage.

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I have to hold up my hands today. I am guilty of committing one of the cardinal sins of b2b marketing. Not just once but twice in the same day. In both instances I was able to overcome the issue, but only because I had been communicating on a one to one basis.

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Are blogs valuable in b2b marketing? I was asked this today. The first time in a while actually. It surprised me as I was under the impression most people now know the value of blogging. We certainly do.**

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As it’s Christmas, I wanted to write a an awfully seasonal blog post for you all to enjoy. Without further ado, here goes my 12 Days of Lead Generation

On the first day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
A social media marketing machine.

On the second day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Two brand new eBooks, and
A social media marketing machine.

On the third day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Three speaking slots,
Two brand new eBooks, and
A social media marketing machine.

On the fourth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Four days of telemarketing,
Three speaking slots,
Two brand new eBooks, and
A social media marketing machine.

On the fifth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Five optimised landing pages,
Four days of telemarketing,
Three speaking slots,
Two brand new eBooks, and
A social media marketing machine.

On the sixth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Six perfect blog posts,
Five optimised landing pages,
Four days of telemarketing,
Three speaking slots,
Two brand new eBooks, and
A social media marketing machine.

On the seventh day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Seven engaging podcasts,
Six perfect blog posts,
Five optimised landing pages,
Four days of telemarketing,
Three speaking slots,
Two brand new eBooks, and
A social media marketing machine.

On the eighth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Eight Payperclick ads,
Seven engaging podcasts,
Six perfect blog posts,
Five optimised landing pages,
Four days of telemarketing,
Three speaking slots,
Two brand new eBooks, and
A social media marketing machine.

On the ninth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Nine brand new webinars,
Eight Payperclick ads,
Seven engaging podcasts,
Six perfect blog posts,
Five optimised landing pages,
Four days of telemarketing,
Three speaking slots,
Two brand new eBooks, and
A social media marketing machine.

On the tenth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Ten twitter research reports,
Nine brand new webinars,
Eight Payperclick ads,
Seven engaging podcasts,
Six perfect blog posts,
Five optimised landing pages,
Four days of telemarketing,
Three speaking slots,
Two brand new eBooks, and
A social media marketing machine.

On the eleventh day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Eleven half day workshops,
Ten twitter research reports,
Nine brand new webinars,
Eight Payperclick ads,
Seven engaging podcasts,
Six perfect blog posts,
Five optimised landing pages,
Four days of telemarketing,
Three speaking slots,
Two brand new eBooks, and
A social media marketing machine.

And a partridge in a pear tree.

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Twelve email broadcasts,
Eleven half day workshops,
Ten twitter research reports,
Nine brand new webinars,
Eight Payperclick ads,
Seven engaging podcasts,
Six perfect blog posts,
Five optimised landing pages,
Four days of telemarketing,
Three speaking slots,
Two brand new eBooks, and
A social media marketing machine.

 If you’ve got this far well done you. Imagine trying to sing that after a couple of glasses of Sherry on Christmas Day.

And last but not least, enjoy this classic rendition of the Twelve Days of Christmas…

A couple of week ago I had the pleasure of hearing Joseph Jaffe speak at ExactTarget’s Connections 2012 conference.

His core message: why waste millions trying to acquire new customers when if you just looked after those you already have, new ones will follow. 

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I was asked to deliver a workshop at the B2BMarketing Annual Conference yesterday in London all about Pinterest. Thanks to Joel, Gemma and Saba for inviting me along. It realy was a great conference, lots of good sessions, most of which centred on the idea that B2B marketers need to get better at telling stories. Less what, more why.

You can see my slides below which I’ll also be delivering as a webinar for B2B Marketing too. Also some useful links for background reading here.

Any thoughts, questions, comments, start a conversation in the comments below.

If you work in B2B marketing and haven’t seen this webinar yet, shut everything off for 60 minutes and watch this – it will be invaluable for your marketing strategy planning in the next 12 months and beyond.

Some of the core highlights we’ve picked up are:

• In the age bracket of 41+, only 25% of business buyers use social media to inform a purchase decision. Compare this to the age group of upto 30 where the figure is 75%. This has to point to an ever increasing use of social media for business buyers as generation Y takes over. It also highlights the importance of knowing your audience demographics when planning your communications channels.
• There is an increasing trend for buyers to search for information on the web, but this is largely on supplier websites, web search and word of mouth, not social media. In fact trends show between 2011 and 2012 a falling use of Linkedin, Facebook and other social media platforms in B2B.
• People are using social media more for conversation and engagement and not for static content. Does your social media strategy account for this or are you using social to broadcast marketing messages?
• At different stages of the buying cycle people use different sources of information to make informed decisions. At the early stages of need recognition white papers lead the way, but as you get closer to the point of purchase, twitter and other word of mouth marketing platforms are more impactful.
• 85% of buyers work from a PC or laptop, but 13% now view online content on a smartphone of tablet computer. This is a trend we can only see increasing and all new websites must be designed with this in mind.

I’m sure if you watch this excellent webinar you will pick up some real nuggets for your own marketing planning too.

We were recently invited to contribute a chapter to B2B Marketing‘s ‘Guide to Online Events’, specifically a section on how to choose the right online event platform to reach your target audience.

The chapter intro reads:

“The growing use of online events in B2B marketing is hardly surprising when you consider some of the key benefits on offer: The cost is lower than physical events, there are more measurable outcomes, the creation of fresh marketing assets, the likelihood of message amplification post- event – the list goes on and on.”

“There’s no doubt that online events offer significant advantages to marketers. But is an online event the right option for reaching your target audience? You will have read all about the objectives for using online events earlier in this guide, but here we’ll be looking at how to align your content and platform choice to the right audiences. For example, should you consider a webinar or an online exhibition if you want to reach a CIO, or would your budget be more wisely spent setting up an offline meeting?”

The other chapters cover topics including the different types of online event formats, setting your objectives, and integrating online events to your overall marketing strategy.

It’s an excellent read for any marketer looking to use online events in their mix. We encourage you to take a look at the full guide available here.

You could also join the discusion in B2B Marketing’s Linkedin Group.

Look out for more articles from Klaxon to come on B2B Marketing.