Want to host a webinar? While webinars are great tools for lead generation and thought leadership, most companies are doing them all wrong. Use these tips to ensure your next webinar is anything but boring and frustrating for your adueince. Webin-are you doing it right? Every week I am invited to watch webinars – some […]
An infographic making the rounds online looks at the various leadership approaches and how each outlook motivates employees. More than 4,000 executives were analyzed to identify six defining characteristics of leadership styles, based on results from emotional intelligence tests. As the consultants at Business Management Degree point out, these are the top performing leadership styles: Authoritative […]
The world of HR software is busier than ever. Established players have been usurped, or even swallowed up, by upstarts. Technology has shifted its emphasis to cloud-based solutions. Companies have embraced a “Moneyball” approach to managing their human resources, turning increasingly to analytics. As HR software continues to evolve as companies find better ways to […]
It’s been a wild and fun year for our B2B News Network. In the two months since our soft launch (Nov 1, 2014), we have attracted attention from B2B executives and startups from across the world. We’ll have an update on our data on the first of the year, but it’s clear our reports and […]
Will we soon see Alibaba buying eBay? Could Walmart bolster its e-payment strategy with a PayPal acquisition? Those are some of the predictions posited by Jason Del Rey in Recode, as he looks forward to what may be a blockbuster acquisition year in e-commerce. Alibaba, overflowing with valuable stock following the biggest IPO ever, is poised […]
One service many B2B marketers clamor to is SlideShare, the online presentation sharing site. As over 65 percent of B2B marketers use online presentations in their marketing campaigns, SlideShare is one of the popular places to share them on. Almost half of the marketers surveyed in CMI’s recent B2B Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends report (41% […]
Prior to today, have you ever heard of the viewability online advertising metric? This tool is now gaining major traction after a new report from Google was released this week. Every digital advertising professional understands that viewability remains one of the most important elements of online media. This crucial online advertising metric, which monitors impressions […]
The unofficial buzzword in advertising — especially mobile — for 2014 is programmatic. While programmatic has become one of the most talked-about innovations in advertising this year, a surprising chunk of the ad world still don’t have a clue what it actually is. So for the uninitiated, programmatic simply means automating the process of buying advertising inventory. Programmatic has […]
One of the biggest shopping days of the year, besides Black Friday, is of course Boxing Day. Annually Boxing Day brings in billions of revenue for retailers, but there has been a new pivot in spending with consumers as they continue to turn to online sales. That means a boost in cash flow for ecommerce […]
When you work at a start-up or SMB, it’s easy to dive headfirst into your career and think of little else. You might have family obligations and social events to attend, but as an entrepreneur you could envelope yourself in work without a second’s hesitation. After all, this company is your baby and your dedication […]
Social networking has transformed the way businesses relate to their customers. Customer relationship management (CRM) is no longer a monolithic, one-way sales push; it requires meaningful engagement across multiple channels and a 360-degree knowledge of every customer. According to a Pew Research study from January 2014, 74 percent of all online adults use at least […]
What’s more overwhelming than an already-stressful full time job? How about two jobs? That’s the general perception most entrepreneurs have when describing their jobs-kids-family workload. Recently, new father Simon Schneider reflected on the balance between running a start-up and running a family, in his article for Fast Company “How the birth of my son made […]
At this time of year, many of you are looking at strategic plans, forecasts, and budgets for 2015. Have you given much thought to the conference line item in next year’s budget? Aside from all the socializing and swag-gathering that goes on at conferences, they are the perfect way to boost your creativity with workshops […]
“Data is a new form of capital,” said Neil Mendelson, Oracle’s vice president of Big Data and Advanced Analytics. Such a proclamation isn’t hyperbole. In a few short years we’ve developed an increasing number of tools and platforms to manage the massive amounts of information we create everyday. We have the ability to quickly process […]
What’s the best time to send an email? Whenever there’s less competition. According to Yesware’s analysis of over 500,000 sales emails sent in Q1 2014, email open and reply rates are higher on the weekends. Why? It could be because there’s significantly less email being sent on weekends. Think of it as the Late Night […]
If you’re experienced enough to remember B2B tech lead-generation pre-Internet, it was the dark ages of marketing. Tiny budgets. All direct mail, trade shows and conferences. Little influence. It was difficult to make any connection between leads and sales. The marketing function was typically so divorced from strategy and relegated to a pure marketing communications […]
Sony felt the sting. It happened to Home Depot. Target, as well. The Canada Revenue Agency, too. And of course, Microsoft. Security breaches and hacking exploits and bugs can dirty a business plan like a mudfight at a wedding. Whether you run a startup or a hefty SMB or a Fortune 500 firm, security has […]
Twitter cofounder Ev Williams joined a new venture fund aiming to assist companies working to change the world in a positive way. The altruistic company, dubbed Obvious Ventures, calls itself a “world positive” venture capital company, and writes on its website: “We’re entrepreneurs. We’ve helped a lot of companies launch, grow, and generate great financial […]
Giving a talk at an industry event can be a great way to increase your visibility and grow your business. Here’s how some SMB execs have successfully grabbed the spotlight. There you are, at one of the many industry events you attend each year, listening to a speaker up on the stage giving a talk […]
We all keep hearing the same refrain: the Internet of Things (IoT) is coming—or in some cases, it’s already here. At least that’s according to the New York Times, they reported General Electric (GE) opened up their big data platform to help facilitate more growth within the IoT industry. But what exactly does that all […]
