content Archives - B2B Marketing Source

5 Reasons You Should Build a Strong In-House List

March 6, 2019/3 Comments/in B2B Digital Marketing, B2B Marketing, Data Management, Email Marketing, Lead Generation /by Susan Mitchell

B2B marketers continue to rely heavily on email for effective lead generation, content marketing and growing revenues. According to results from the B2B Content Marketing: 2019 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends – North America report, email is the number one content distribution channel used by 87% of marketers. This means you need a “strong” in-house list, one with complete and accurate contact information.

Do you rely on purchased lists? Haven’t been properly maintaining your in-house list? If you answered “Yes” to either of these questions, you’re wasting time and money. Plus you’re increasing the risk of missing your revenue growth goals.

Let’s discuss 5 reasons why you should invest in your B2B in-house list

Your B2B Marketing Content: Corporate Asset or Just Another Expense?

February 19, 2019/0 Comments/in B2B Digital Marketing, B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Lead Generation /by Susan Mitchell

Way back in 2011, Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, posed the question, “Is content an asset or an expense?”. Most B2B marketers know content is the fuel for their lead generation and nurture. However, it seems many have forgotten or failed to answer Joe’s important question. So let’s revisit this topic now.

“Why now?”, you ask. You’ve likely set your budget for 2019. But ask yourself how hard it was to get the budget for your content development including writing, design, and management. If you had trouble justifying the budget or didn’t get the budget you needed, then read on. Read more

B2B Referral Marketing: Driving Leads vs Closing the Sale

June 27, 2017/0 Comments/in B2B Digital Marketing, B2B Marketing, Customer Retention, Lead Generation, Referral Marketing /by Susan Mitchell

I’ve been thinking about referral marketing recently due to my own experience giving referrals to friends and family for Blue Apron, the meal kit delivery service. Clearly Blue Apron is using referral marketing to drive lead generation. But does this type of B2C referral marketing translate to B2B marketing?

The classic referral marketing program

Blue Apron’s is the classic referral marketing program where they encourage customers to get others to try the service via various incentives. Initially the incentive was the ability to give free meals worth $60 to my friends and family. More recently they upped the incentive to include savings for me if the person continued the service. Anyone connected to me on Facebook knows I’m a raving fan of the service, with or without the incentives, because I frequently post pictures of the awesome meals we make. So this got me thinking about how this type of program translates to the B2B world.

Referred leads are better leads

Of course for any referral program to work the company must be retaining customers and keeping them happy. So why bother at all with referral marketing? In the most recent Hubspot survey report, the State of Inbound 2017, respondents rated referrals as the highest quality leads. The report concluded this was likely because respondents thought these leads are more likely to convert. However, the report also acknowledged the challenge most organizations face scaling referral programs to get more leads into the sales funnel. Similarly, according to the Journal of Marketing, a referred customer has a 16% higher lifetime value than customers acquired through other methods. Intuitively this makes sense because we trust our professional peers who may recommend a company’s product or service via word of mouth, social media, or online review. The thing I wrestle with is how a B2B marketing team can make this a formal program for lead generation.

A lead generation referral program?

Picture It, The Right Photo When You Need It

June 1, 2017/1 Comment/in B2B Digital Marketing, B2B Marketing, Content Marketing /by Susan Mitchell

Managing B2B marketing photo assets is more important than ever. Photos are an important element for B2B marketing such as content, social media, websites, and presentations. Photos and images add visual interest, understanding and engagement to everything from white papers and case studies to literature and blogs. For example, according to Buffer Social, adding a photo to a tweet boosts retweets by 150%. We are visual creatures. In fact it’s been shown that three days after hearing a piece of information a person can only recall 10%, but add a picture and their recall is 65%.

However, B2B marketing teams struggle to ensure photo assets reflect their brand and messaging, are visually engaging, and easy to retrieve and use. Why is this such a challenge and what’s the solution? Read more

Is It Back to the Future for B2B Marketing? (Finally!)

April 26, 2017/0 Comments/in B2B Digital Marketing, B2B Marketing, Buyer Persona, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Strategy /by Susan Mitchell

Have you noticed how disjointed some B2B marketing is? Over the last ten, and especially five, years this seemed to be a growing trend. Article after article talked about and many B2B marketers implemented digital, social media, inbound marketing, SEO, etc. as though each can stand alone. And sadly, in many cases, each has stood alone. Many marketers gave little thought to an overall integrated marketing strategy. As a result, these marketing efforts delivered less than stellar results. However, last week I attended a conference that gives me hope we may finally be seeing a return to strategic integrated marketing. Read on to learn more about this and other takeaways from the Mid-Atlantic Marketing Summit (MAM Summit). Read more

4 Tips for Conquering the Top Decision Stage Challenges

April 13, 2017/0 Comments/in B2B Digital Marketing, B2B Marketing, Buyer Journey, Buyer Persona, Content Marketing /by Susan Mitchell

Part 3 in a 3-Part Series on Content Marketing for the B2B Buyer’s Journey

I discussed in Part 1: Awareness stage challenges and in Part2: 6 Tips for Conquering Consideration Stage Challenges. In Part 3 of this 3-Part series, I’ll discuss the Decision stage of the buyer’s journey and provide tips for overcoming the top B2B content marketing challenges in the Decision stage.

Decision stage buyer activities

The buyer moves into the Decision stage once they know the best type of solution for solving their problem or opportunity for improvement. They are ready to buy, but haven’t decided exactly which vendor to use, but your company made their short list. During the Decision stage the buyer is typically researching their short list vendors online. They want to understand which vendor’s specific products, services, and capabilities are the best fit for their needs. They are looking for content that helps them:

compare vendors and pricing
sell the solution internally to upper management (return on investment, ROI calculators)
purchase and implement the solution

The content marketer’s goal during the Decision stage is convincing the buyer your solution is the best fit.

Content marketing in the Decision stage

For most B2B companies, the Decision stage is where others such as purchasing and upper management become active participants in the buying decision. So it’s important Read more

Challenges in the Consideration Stage: 6 Tips for Conquering

March 28, 2017/0 Comments/in B2B Digital Marketing, B2B Marketing, Buyer Journey, Buyer Persona, Content Marketing /by Susan Mitchell

Part 2 in a 3-Part Series on Content Marketing for the B2B Buyer’s Journey

In Part 2 of this 3-Part series, I share the top challenges B2B marketers face when developing Consideration stage content. I also provide tips for overcoming these challenges. In Part 1 I reviewed the Buyer’s Journey and provided tips for conquering challenges in the Awareness stage. The buyer moves into the next stage, Consideration, after clearly defining their problem, or opportunity for improvement, and determining it’s worth finding a solution. Now let’s take a look at the Consideration stage to understand the top challenges B2B marketers face.

Consideration stage buyer activities

The buyer in the Consideration stage first researches and evaluates the different approaches, methods, or solution strategies available for solving their problem or making improvements. The buyer wants to understand and think about which approach best fits their needs, so they are comparing solution strategies (make or buy, hire or outsource are two examples of solution approaches). They also begin comparing specific solutions, vendors, and suppliers within the approach that best fits their needs. They are looking for content that helps them understand the pros and cons of available approaches and why it would be the best fit for them. Content should also begin comparing product/service features and functions. The goal for a content marketer during the Consideration stage is to convince the buyer your solution method is the best fit for them and that your specific solution should be on their short list.

Tips for Conquering the Top 2 Challenges in the Awareness Stage

March 9, 2017/3 Comments/in B2B Digital Marketing, B2B Marketing, Buyer Journey, Buyer Persona, Content Marketing /by Susan Mitchell

Part 1 in a 3-Part Series on Content Marketing for the B2B Buyer’s Journey

B2B content marketing seeks to provide helpful and compelling content for each stage of the Buyer’s Journey. By thinking about what actions a buyer is taking in each stage, B2B marketers should provide content that educates. Your content should help the buyer progress to the next stage in the Buyer’s Journey and toward your product or service.

In a three-part blog series, I address the primary challenges B2B content marketers face during each buyer’s journey stage and provide tips for how to conquer these challenges. So let’s jump in!

Review of the buyer’s journey

First, a quick review of the buyer’s journey which defines the typical actions and steps a prospective buyer takes. The buyer starts by first understanding their problem to finally purchasing a solution. By defining specific phases or stages along the journey, we can better understand what information the buyer needs in each stage. There are many different buyer’s journey concepts available, some more granular than others. I prefer HubSpot’s Buyers Journey, shown in the graphic below, because it is easy to understand and more than adequate for content marketing purposes.

The entire journey has only three stages, Awareness, Consideration, and Decision. In this blog, Part 1 of 3, I discuss the Awareness stage.

Awareness stage buyer activities

During the Awareness stage, the buyer is just becoming aware there is a problem that may need to be solved. Or they may be discovering an opportunity for improvement. The buyer is typically researching online and offline to better understand if they have a problem, or opportunity, that warrants further investigation. They are looking for trustworthy educational content. This is content that is not trying to sell. It is content that helps them more clearly define their problem or opportunity. The goal for a content marketer during the Awareness stage is to gain the buyer’s attention. The successful content marketer does this by offering educational and helpful content in the places where the buyer is looking and researching.

Customer Retention: From Sticky Relationships to LTV

February 24, 2017/4 Comments/in B2B Digital Marketing, B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Customer Retention /by Susan Mitchell

B2B customer retention marketing focuses on strategies and programs designed to retain your existing customers and optimize lifetime customer value. In my previous post, B2B Retention Marketing: The First Thing You Must Do, I discussed why B2B customer retention marketing is worth doing and where to begin. Now let’s talk about some strategies B2B marketers can use to retain their existing customers and gain additional revenues throughout the relationship.

Strategies for customer retention

At a fundamental level retaining your customers boils down to keeping them happy enough to continue doing business with you. Many customers, though of course it varies by industry and product/service, will simply maintain the status quo. Change involves the risk, real or perceived, of an unknown provider. Most importantly, changing providers also involves switching costs. Switching costs are actual costs the customer incurs (financial fees for early termination) or personal costs (career risks, time required to research providers and negotiate an agreement) to stop buying your product or service and begin with a new provider.

Create “sticky” customer relationships

To prevent your customers from defecting to competitors who will eventually upset the Read more

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