May 12, 2016
We are suckers for B2B marketing… it’s part of our DNA here at IF and we like to keep our finger well and truly on the pulse. We are working with some absolutely cracking names in B2B right now and we figured that it was only right with all that is going on – in the fun and fast paced world of marketing – that we do a quick round up of “what’s hot” in B2B marketing.
So here goes – this week’s biggest chats in B2B:
PlayMaker
Engagio, the B2B Marketing Software Company set up by Marketo founder Jon Miller, has just launched PlayMaker. They refer to it – and I love this by the way – as fishing with a spear instead of a net! Essentially, Engagio understand that B2B campaigns aren’t about reach but about securing accounts.
This new software moves to an ‘account based everything’ model that allows multiple people on your team to approach and connect with multiple people on target teams and sync up your efforts in what they call ‘plays’. It is a lovely idea, as long as you understand that the requirement to change the way teams currently work is most likely a necessity – hey, that might not be a bad thing!
Improving B2B Marketing
There is still so much hysteria around what makes good B2B marketing – by the way – change is good! For 5 years now we have been having the ‘buy in’ argument – well people are buying in, waking up and understanding that we can sell in different ways now. The biggest problem now for B2B companies seems to be content – they have so much, almost too much of it.
It’s created without purpose and direction and they spend way too much money doing so. According to Acronlix, 70% of brands produce low-quality content. Yes there is a lot of content created but is that a good thing?
As we pointed out in our blog a while back – there is a real necessity to revisit the content creation vs. content distribution balance – especially in B2B.
Paid Search
Software house Unbounce produced a really nice piece of content this week around whether paid search really works for B2B and it picked up quite a bit of traction. They explain that before you can gauge ‘success’ you really have to acknowledge ROI and understand the lifetime value of a customer for a B2B company – all of a sudden your PPC costs start looking very attractive. There are some really nice tips and tricks for making the most of your paid search and I would strongly advise a read for any B2B agency struggling with the paid search… or just stick the budget in paid social 😉
Predictive Analytics
It’s everywhere. What is it? Do you know? Are you ready!? There are some smart cookies out there at the cutting edge of this technology – Amar Doshi, John Bara and Sean Zinsmeister are just some of the ones to keep your eye on. Find out if you are ready for predictive analytics and what it could mean for your business in this article.