It’s not your father’s enterprise software buying environment. The #ensw buyer today is a different buyer with different research habits and information needs. In fact, there is no longer just one type of enterprise softwre buyers, but a nearly 50/50 split between GenX/boomers and GenY decisionmakers who have very different ways of looking for and […]
Category: Content Marketing
5 mistakes to avoid on your company blog
A company blog is a great investment for many reasons. It not only serves as an effective marketing tool, but can also provide a virtual location for potential customers to come learn about your business in a more personalized way than your standard commercial website. Did you know 93 percent of B2B marketers used content marketing in […]
14 questions to help develop your B2B content marketing strategy
Content marketing has been all the rage in marketing circles for the last several years, and B2B marketers are wholeheartedly subscribing to that newsletter. More corporate B2B blogs are popping up than ever before, and B2B hashtags are starting to make in-roads on various social media platforms. Yet B2B marketers are still having trouble executing […]
Yellow Pages gives the green-light to content marketing
The Yellow Pages is going through a major restructuring after it renamed itself YP in 2012. Part of that rebranding includes a content strategy and a marketing campaign called “Make Every Day Local.” As reported by Digiday, this campaign “featuring videos of news, sports and TV personalities including ESPN’s Hannah Storm and reality stars Bill and […]
Infographic: The top content marketing trends of 2015
Experts agree: content marketing is not a fad. It’s an important strategic asset that boosts profitable traffic. In listing the 30 most cutting-edge digital marketing tools, based on its 2015 Digital Marketing Trends poll, Smart Insights put content marketing at number one. B2B News Network recently reported on why you need a content strategy for […]
Why content marketing is facing a shortage of qualified staff
The world of digital marketing is facing a skills shortage when it comes to content generators. You might not think that’s the case, what with the incredible amount of content available online, but according to recent survey results from by SkilledUp.com, a website focusing on online educational resources, there is a critical need for skilled […]
8 ways to use content marketing as a recruitment tool
Content marketing shouldn’t just be regarded as only an additional layer to your marketing strategy. It can also find favour in HR as a recruiting tool. When you use content marketing that’s aimed at prospective employees, you’ll find those new hires. Just think of them as one of the personas your marketing team is creating […]
Survey: Marketing executives want to hire ‘creative and data-driven’ staff
As we enter 2015, businesses are developing new content and marketing strategies to continue to make gains in the competitive digital media industry, says a new survey of nearly 200 marketing executives. Also, marketers are committed to hiring staff well-versed in Big Data. Conductor Searchlight, a search engine optimization and web presence management firm, released […]
Survey: Lead gen top priority for B2B marketers
Lead generation is the number one goal of content marketers looking ahead to 2015, followed by thought leadership, according to a recent survey. Conducted by IDG Enterprise in partnership with the B2B Technology Marketing Community on LinkedIn, the survey found 30 percent of B2B companies have a formal content strategy. The report also highlighted several challenges B2B marketers […]
Why your business needs to create a ‘culture of content’
by Kay Mathews The demand for content is growing exponentially. To meet that demand, creating and refining content must go beyond the marketing department, according to a new report. When the value of content is infused across the organization, a Culture of Content can be the driving force behind an engine of content. A CoC leads […]
Infographic: The science of building buyer personas
If you’re selling a product or service, you need to know your buyers. Maybe you don’t know them personally, but at the very least you need to recognize their personality, their passions, their challenges. Below is a handy infographic breaking down the science of buyer personas, courtesy content marketing firm Single Grain. The infographic’s concluding […]
Law marketing: The high cost of doing nothing
For as long as there has been law marketing, practitioners and firms have been stopping worthwhile business development initiatives cold for a whole host of reasons. They raise questions about the cost of the project. They fret over how clients might react to what the lawyer thinks is a “too aggressive” effort. They worry about […]
Rules for Reddit: B2B intro to the world’s most influential discussion forums
Your boss or your client wants to run a new B2B marketing campaign. And try some new things. And they’ve heard Reddit is big. What do you do? Start here. First of all, is it big? Yes. Nothing major happens on the web without Reddit noticing. That may seem like a grandiose statement, but it’s true. […]
Dissecting the content marketing funnel
Content is king, and for your business to excel in today’s fast-paced marketplace you need a solid content marketing strategy to generate leads and turn them into paying clients. According to CMI’s study 2015 Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends, consistently creating engaging content, and on a variety of subjects, are the biggest challenges that […]
Applying the lessons of Shark marketing: Content marketing planning
In the post Lessons from a Shark, we looked at how senior executives measure content marketing performance. Here is one way to apply those lessons and get started understanding the performance of your organic content. Set up a content performance whiteboard. Draw a big circle on it. Then draw two smaller circles so that it […]
A B2B content marketing editorial calendar program for anyone
Rule #1: don’t put them to sleep. Content marketing is effective, but it’s not easy to plan. If it isn’t aligned to corporate priorities, it won’t get the right results. Without a focus on relevancy and customer needs, it might cause drowsiness. A recent study showed that nearly 50 percent percent of the 88 percent […]
Lessons from a Shark: how to measure organic B2B content marketing
Page views? Time on page? Video views? Are these real content marketing performance indicators? No. Why not? If you know how much time was spent on a page, and that more time was spent on one page of content than another page, is that actionable information? Does it give you any insight into content ROI? […]
How we launched B2BNN on Twitter: Day One to two weeks
Launching a new B2B presence on social networks with zero budget and no existing web presence on a Friday night? Requires tons of patience and you won’t really see results for months, right? Not necessarily. On September 19 2014 we launched the @b2bnewsnetwork Twitter account. We kicked off (somewhat unintentionally) at the worst time […]
Path to real content marketing relevancy? Your audience.
You wouldn’t serve wagyu to vegans or request formal attire at your Burning Man meditation meetup. So why do marketers deliver untargeted content? Yes, bad content is everywhere, and any way to create more relevant, useful marketing content works for us. But a way to do that AND cut your content marketing production costs dramatically […]
Creating useful B2B content marketing tools: the psychology
Sometimes when you’re looking for something, you need to take a step back and figure out what you really need it for, and what you need from it. Today this type of context is completely missing from product information in the rush to sale. But let’s re-imagine how this happens online … You arrive at […]