Slides including summary notes from the three breakouts which concentrated on the critical marketing tools required to build a successful and enduring b2b marketing campaign on. This was part of the inaugural Smart Insights Digital Impact 2014 conference held in London on 17 September 2014, organised by Dave Chaffey.
1. What really
matters in B2B
digital marketing
B2B workshop @ Smart Insights
Digital Impact Conference 2014
@renepower @bdbmarketing www.bdb.co.uk #digitalimpact2014 17 Sept ‘14
2. What B2B marketing needs to
achieve
or
@renepower @bdbmarketing www.bdb.co.uk #digitalimpact2014 17 Sept ‘14
3. Your reality
How many of you in the room have a
digital strategy? (30% - in line with latest research)
How many of you have an integrated,
focused digital marketing plan? (40%)
How many of you are happy with how you
position your business, its products,
services, people? (None)
@renepower @bdbmarketing www.bdb.co.uk #digitalimpact 17 Sept ‘14
4. Five critical elements of b2b
digital marketing
@renepower @bdbmarketing www.bdb.co.uk #digitalimpact2014 17 Sept ‘14
5. 1. Home base: Websites
The most important b2b asset – why?
Vendor’s own search is still the no 1 way
buyers assess suppliers
Your website is your 100% owned way of
controlling what they see, learn and how
they feel about your business
All promotional routes need to lead
somewhere – your website!
@renepower @bdbmarketing www.bdb.co.uk #digitalimpact2014 17 Sept ‘14
9. 2. Getting and staying found
On page and off
page
PPC – especially in
emerging markets
Language keyword
research
Location based
search
Link building
@renepower @bdbmarketing www.bdb.co.uk #digitalimpact2014 17 Sept ‘14
10. Run on-page SEO audit
Check-list for SEO
SEO restrictions with
existing SharePoint
module
Bonus content Bonus content
@renepower @bdbmarketing www.bdb.co.uk #digitalimpact2014 17 Sept ‘14
11. Link building
Trade
media
Trade
associations
Directories
Search
engine
indexes
Social
media
Bloggers
News
sites
Main-stream
press
Top
Internet
sites
Conferences
Discussion
Trade portals
shows
@renepower @bdbmarketing www.bdb.co.uk #digitalimpact2014 17 Sept ‘14
12. 3. Customer outreach with email
Offering the most important b2b touch
points – why?
Opted in (easy to opt out)
Direct
Personal
Immediate
Gets more attention than any other medium
Transactional
@renepower @bdbmarketing www.bdb.co.uk #digitalimpact2014 17 Sept ‘14
14. 4. Content is a big deal in b2b
Source http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/UK_Research_CMI_2013_Final-3.pdf
@renepower @bdbmarketing www.bdb.co.uk #digitalimpact2014 17 Sept ‘14
15. A big deal in b2b
Bonus content Bonus content
Source http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/UK_Research_CMI_2013_Final-3.pdf
@renepower @bdbmarketing www.bdb.co.uk #digitalimpact 17 Sept ‘14
16. 5. Social is a big deal in b2b
Source http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/UK_Research_CMI_2013_Final-3.pdf
@renepower @bdbmarketing www.bdb.co.uk #digitalimpact2014 17 Sept ‘14
17. Winning with social media
Bonus content Bonus content
@renepower @bdbmarketing www.bdb.co.uk #digitalimpact 17 Sept ‘14
21. Three breakouts
Demand generation with content
Engagement through landing pages
Lead nurturing with email/personalisation
@renepower @bdbmarketing www.bdb.co.uk #digitalimpact2014 17 Sept ‘14
22. Demand generation with content
Workshop feedback
Set against high level business objectives
Understand business demand
Agree buyer personas e.g.
Owners, influencers, decision makers in customer
companies
Engage sales teams
Uncover knowledge/insights
Use questions customers ask most to drive
content
List top five customer pain points
Understand triggers
Focus on lapsed customers as much as prospects
@renepower @bdbmarketing www.bdb.co.uk #digitalimpact2014 17 Sept ‘14
23. Engagement through landing pages
Workshop feedback
Set engagement objectives
Determine what is most relevant to be on the
page
Include dynamic content and references from
referral channels
K I S S
Make sure to include mobile
Consider clever use of invitation only
hidden / campaign pages
Test and report
Across content as well as call to actions
@renepower @bdbmarketing www.bdb.co.uk #digitalimpact2014 17 Sept ‘14
24. Lead nurturing with email
Workshop feedback
Consider marketing automation tools and
integration with website activity and CRM
software
Consider resources – who/how
Responsibility for data analysis
Map customer journey & touch points
Make the case for testing and investment in
software by incremental improvements in
engagement and nurture
@renepower @bdbmarketing www.bdb.co.uk #digitalimpact2014 17 Sept ‘14
25. Breakout summary
Integration of tools works best – great
content is created, served up to recipients by
email and leads to them to brilliant (and
relevant) websites
Set objectives (how you will measure
success) from the outset
Understand customer needs and their
journey to conversion through the AIDA
model
Map all comms to different stages in the
model and what you want them to do
@renepower @bdbmarketing www.bdb.co.uk #digitalimpact2014 17 Sept ‘14
26. More great b2b content
Bonus content Bonus content
1. Go tell anyone who’ll listen about this deck!
2. Buy v1 of Brilliant B2B Digital Marketing from Amazon
3. Head to Smart Insights Expert members and access the
book for free (and hundreds of other guides and resources)
OR request a free copy strictly for “review purposes”. Twitter
works best for speed. NB: v2 comes out soon to members.
4. Look me up on Linkedin, connect and talk to me one-to-one
about your content marketing challenges
5. Start receiving my Marketing Assassin blog and event
updates.
6. Head to BDB’s channel on BrightTalk
@renepower @bdbmarketing www.bdb.co.uk #digitalimpact2014 17 Sept ‘14
Introduction, housekeeping and what we’re here to cover (achieve)
We’re in business to make money. AIDA.
Now the digital/science bit. Whether it’s on desktops, laptops, phablets or tablets, there is one truth when it comes to marketing your business online. If you can’t be found, don’t have a clear and compelling offer and don’t make “transaction” easy for customers, you’re doomed to failure.
Web searches, supplier websites, and in most countries email remain the primary information sources for the modern business buyer. These are the tools that allow customers to seek out products and services, to learn about the companies that provide them and to ensure they are regularly updated on them.
The underlying premise of effective B2B (digital) marketing though, lies in engaging customers and prospects and providing them with useful, relevant content that improves their own business’ revenue and performance and positions yours as an expert to rely upon. So before we get distracted by no less important traffic generation, let’s try and remember why we’re in business.
Easily accessible contact information is the most import thing on a B2B vendor website, according to a recent report from Dianna Huff and KoMarketing Associates.Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2014/24654/what-b2b-buyers-want-from-vendor-websites#ixzz3DUqtR5jG
Websites might not be viewed as a classic piece of content marketing. But think about it. Where do people go as a result of all your marketing communications? Where is the one place you have total control over message, first impression and access to engagement statistics?
I’ve picked Trelleborg seals as a great example of a b2b website for a number of reasons. They have successfully created a site packed full of customer centric information and resources to “help” them.
On the home page alone there are signposts to a variety of interesting things. From the simple use of words like ‘your’ and ‘solutions’ a visitor is going to feel like this site is for them. It starts at the top with the “What would you like to do? button before moving onto signposts to services and tools, high profile spots on apps, to information about Trelleborg around the world. They are using their real estate to the max.
Drilling into that blue button we really get to the heart of what they offer customers. It could perhaps be organised a little better but there are our certainly a number of options for the website visitor to explore and move very quickly to the content that might be the most appropriate for them.
It is thought that only 25% of what you do with your own site actually impacts search. Whilst click through rates are low on pay per click only, PPC can offer additional credibility when you list on both organic and paid. PPC is also perfect for launches and promotions, when a short term spike in interest is desired. It is only really used permanently in consumer and retail marketing.
Looking across markets, it is important to ensure any campaigns are set up on the right country search engine, ideally with locally hosted and domain relevant pages – i.e. running French ads on google.fr to a .fr page will have a more beneficial impact and be perceived more significantly by the local search engine.
With the team providing critical product and language support, we can ensure that your international (local) campaigns have the best chance of success.
Search can be used for key campaigns/regions depending on your priorities, could start small or with test campaigns to roll out further at later stage.
Getting found then becomes the next challenge.
Our SEO checklist includes things like keyword checking and selection, meta data incl. descriptions , URL and page titles, h tags, alt tags for images, anchor text on links, body copy, CTA copy. All have an impact on where a page ranks in search.
Not having optimised pages is a severe obstacle to search marketing success. This may require a different approach in terms of campaign landing pages if it can’t be addressed.
Having the right inbound links can dramatically improve your visibility online. Existing digital PR plays a part by targeting trade media but there are so many other influences on page rank that can and should be considered too. (Each could then be monitored using referral goals in GA).
The nirvana of B2B digital marketing is converting web visitors to engaged prospect, then transactional customer. So once your brilliant content has been found on your website through search, you need to ensure you give visitors a reason to part with their contact data – so you can continue the dialogue and dig a little deeper to meet their needs. Email marketing is so much more than the email. It is the seduction of a problem resolved, the usable and useful nature of the solution, the context in which it is offered and where it is housed. Consideration, too needs to be given to the power of putting the right content in front of the right people at the right time. Email is still the only direct way to access the people you want to interact with most.
Different examples of email activity – static email with no onward links (Innospec), static email single offer (SVA), dynamic email (tna), responsive email (BDB), video email (AZ)
I think most people on the webinar today are using content marketing or intend to (we’ll check that in a minute) but I thought it useful to share some of the latest data on content marketing uptake in the UK to help us see what’s being used and what is working.
CMI teamed up with the DMA to survey 190 UK companies between Aug 12 – Jan 13, 2/3 were b2b companies on content marketing use and future use.
This graph shows content marketing by use in the UK and I think it interesting to note that despite all the talk of visual content – video, image, animation and infographic - the most used continue to be focused around the written word. (Anything to do with search engines I wonder?)
Respondents looking forward to spending in 2014. Here we see 64% looking to spend more than they did in the survey period.
From the same research we can see the social media platform utilisation (platforms used to distribute content). Assuming there is a lot of written word content it isn’t a surprise to me that the top three are Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook. Then there is a dramatic drop off. Slideshare uptake is a surprise to me given how easy it is to place content and what great search engine optimisation it has.
Many people say businesses can’t run effective Facebook pages. I disagree, but there are some caveats.
1. You need to be very large or
2. You need to be hyperlocal and
3. You need to understand your market and be prepared to be creative
Bosch packaging’s Facebook page is clearly designed to impact several groups
Employees
Potential employees
Customers I think are a bonus!
See what types of posts get the most interaction on facebook. Clue it is never new product announcements!
A couple of other cool things Bosch Packaging does through Facebook is it’s career site – with bespoke German language careers section within Facebook and its events page. If you attend lots of exhibitions, put on seminars, webinars, networking events and meet and greets, double up and have them listed on Facebook too.
That’s all I’m talking about today if you want to learn more about how I and we at BDB approach marketing especially in challenging international b2b sectors, there are a number of ways to do that…
Thanks for your time after we’ve taken questions, please enjoy the rest of the day.