by Elizabeth Hines | Sep 4, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Strategy
The biggest challenges for B2B marketing, according to a recent report? Finding leads that convert and engaging the right target audience.
Highlights:
- Measuring social media ROI is a challenge for 58% of respondents, and 39% report that proving ROI is the biggest hurdle to securing C-suite buy-in.
- Only 23% of brands have a dedicated social media team.
- 60% of marketers report content marketing is their most valuable technique for lead nurturing.
Chief Marketer’s 2019 B2B Marketing Outlook report is out, and it’s full of revealing statistics for B2B marketers industry-wide. The survey studied 209 B2B marketers in more than 20 verticals, getting a bird’s eye view of biggest challenges and trends in B2B marketing.
Here are the top 10 stats you need to be aware of.
10 B2B marketing stats from Chief Marketer’s 2019 report
1) For 58% of respondents, measuring ROI is the top challenge surrounding social media marketing.
Measuring social media ROI is notoriously difficult, though certainly not impossible. For well over half of the survey respondents, it proved the greatest challenge when it comes to social media.
65% of respondents reported engagement as one of their biggest social media challenge, while 45% cited the challenge of having enough content. Adequate bandwidth to respond to social followers and post frequently and inadequate social budget (24% each) were lower on the list of social concerns.
2) Only 23% of brands have a dedicated social media team.
We’ve written before about how social media management is a herculean task that falls all-to-often to an overworked marketing team. Chief Marketing’s survey found that, for a vast majority of B2B brands (75%), their marketing team is in charge of maintaining social media presence.
Even as social media is becoming increasingly effective at ushering leads through the sales funnel, only 23% of brands surveyed have invested in a dedicated social media team, while 15% are outsourcing their social media management.
3) Articles/blog posts and reviews/customer testimonials are tied as the two most effective types of content for moving prospects through the sales funnel.
45% of respondents reported that articles and blog posts, as well as reviews and customer testimonials, are the most effective content types for moving prospects through the sales funnel.
Following closely behind, 32% reported whitepapers and 31% reported video as most effective. Partner content, at 26%, came next, while social media is gaining efficacy, coming in at 22%.
Respondents reported that for all content types, the visual aspects were key. For Informa Engage, for example, more visual content is performing well, says Tricia Syed, Vice President for Marketing Strategy and Execution. “In some markets, traditional whitepapers and webinars are still hugely popular, but we’re getting more visual with e-books [to illustrate] data.”
4) 39% of survey respondents reported being unable to prove ROI to C-suite as the biggest obstacle for getting approval for marketing expenditures.
Just as proving social media ROI is a poses a challenge for B2B marketing, proving overall content marketing ROI to win C-suite buy-in can be equally daunting. 39% reported it as the biggest hurdle to getting marketing expenditures approved.
46% of respondents cited the challenge of budgets that are focused elsewhere, while 33% reported that executives still don’t understand the need for marketing expenditures.
5) For 60% of respondents, content marketing is the most valuable technique for lead nurturing.
Content marketing is reported by 60% of marketers as their most valuable technique for lead nurturing. Email marketing led the pack at 62%, while in-person marketing took a close third place at 57%. When it comes to lead nurturing for B2B marketing, social media was relatively low on the list, reported by only 20% of respondents as their most valuable technique.
6) Only 22% of respondents have an in-house editorial team dedicated to content creation.
While content marketing is overwhelmingly reported by marketers as being a highly effective technique for generating, nurturing, and converting leads, relatively few brands have chosen to invest in a dedicated in-house editorial team for content creation. Instead, a whopping 80% of marketers are charged with creating their own content.
“That’s a surprising disconnect,” says James Furbush, B2B marketing manager of Lord Hobo Brewing. “I’m not surprised marketing teams are creating content, but if you’re going to be that focused on content marketing, having an editorial team is an important investment.”
Perhaps even more surprisingly, only 23% of respondents are taking advantage of the opportunity to outsource content creation, an excellent alternative for companies who are unable to afford a dedicated in-house team.
7) 42% say that their organizations will increase martech budgets in 2019.
Martech, or the fusion of marketing and technology, is taking over B2B marketing. 42% of survey respondents reported that their martech budgets will be increasing in 2019, while 40% said that existing martech budgets will remain the same. Only 4% reported that they anticipate a decrease in martech budget.
When asked what types of martech they plan on investing in, 45% of respondents pointed to marketing automation, 43% to video, 40% to email, 38% to customer experience, and 37% to social media management.
Interestingly, despite all the discussion surrounding AI, only 9% of businesses surveyed report that they are considering investing in these technologies.
8) When it comes to generating new leads, 55% reported that finding leads that convert is their biggest challenge.
More than half of survey respondents pointed to the challenge of finding leads that ultimately convert as the greatest obstacle to generating new leads. 57% reported that their biggest challenge is getting targeted prospects to engage with their brands.
What’s interesting about these numbers is that, while marketers are reporting these issues as lead-generation obstacles, they are simultaneously pointing to content marketing as their most effective tool for lead nurturing and conversion.
9) For 44% of respondents, email is a top source of B2B leads.
When it comes to which channels are the largest sources of B2B leads, email leads the pack, with 44% of respondents putting it first. Online searches came in at a close second at 43%, and live events came in at 41%.
A respectable 36% of respondents cited content marketing as a top source of B2B leads, while 22% pointed to social media.
Knowing where leads are coming from is only part of the picture. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the channel that produced the leads with the highest ROI was email for just under half (49%) of survey respondents.
10) 56% say cost of conversion is the metric that matters most in marketing attribution.
When asked which metrics matter most in marketing attribution, cost of conversion topped the list at 56%, followed closely by amount of time to convert at 53%. Other important metrics included channel (34%), first click (29%), and last click (22%).
“At the end of the day, the most important takeaway when setting up campaign attribution is to think about your goal,” said one respondent. “Start with the end in mind, reverse engineer your marketing campaign, and set up ‘mile markers’ along the way to track trends in your prospects’ digital footprints.”
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by Elizabeth Hines | Aug 28, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, SEO
Being aware of the marketing acronyms being discussed on the internet is key to staying up with the latest digital marketing trends and ideas.
Highlights:
- Key performance indicators (KPIs) are the metrics you determine to be most important in measuring the success of a digital marketing campaign.
- All-important search engine optimization (SEO) is what allows your page to rank high among search engine results.
- A positive user experience (UX) is crucial to converting leads.
If you’re not up on internet language, the profusion of acronyms can sometimes make it feel like an unbreakable code. Being aware of some key marketing acronyms can go a long way toward helping your business generate online leads and revenue.
There are a seemingly endless supply of acronyms being thrown around out there, from the general to the highly specialized. These eight marketing acronyms are the ones you need to know to help you navigate digital marketing language and be on the cutting edge of best practices for your business.
8 marketing acronyms you need to know
1) KPI: Key Performance Indicator(s)
Effective digital marketing campaigns start with documented goals, accompanied by the metrics you will measure to determine how successful you are at reaching those goals. KPIs are your most important metrics. Choosing the right KPIs for a specific campaign is critical to its success, since these metrics are how you evaluate and tailor your efforts.
2) CTA: Call-to-Action
Even if you haven’t run across this particular one of our marketing acronyms, you’re probably aware of what it refers to. Your CTA is the vital step in which you ask your audience to take an action that moves them one step closer to your objective of connecting them with your company. Creating effective CTAs is key to converting leads.
3) SEM: Search Engine Marketing
SEM refers to the type of advertisements that appear on search engines such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo among the sponsored results. These advertisements can be effective if you choose your keywords wisely.
4) SEO: Search Engine Optimization
SEO is one of the most important marketing acronyms you’re likely to run across. All of your digital assets, particularly all website content, should be geared toward ranking highly when prospects search for keywords relevant to your business. There are mountains of material written on SEO, as it’s a crucial topic for digital marketers. Our four-part series on writing for SEO is a good starting place.
5) CRO: Conversion Rate Optimization
CRO refers to the idea of increasing the percentage of website visitors that take the desired action on your page – or, more specifically, the visitors that convert into leads. Optimizing your conversion rate means ensuring that your website design, content, and functionality make it easy and attractive to navigate, as well as being persuasive.
6) CTR: Click-Through Rate
Your CTR is the number of clicks an advertisement or post receives divided by the number of times it has been shown or shared. This metric not only lets you determine how effective your content is, but it also helps you measure engagement on social channels. An engaged audience and a high CTR means more opportunities to convert leads.
7) CPL: Cost Per Lead
When you’re paying for leads to be delivered to you through an ad campaign, your CPL refers to the amount you pay each time a user fills out a form, subscribes to your blog, or provides an email address.
8) UX: User Experience
When it comes to digital marketing, user experience refers to the ease and navigability of your website and other digital assets. CRO, for example, is one of many aspects of UX, which also is affected by the overall architecture of your site, how quickly your page loads, the quality of your content, how your website interacts with your social media accounts, and more.
What other marketing acronyms have you found useful?
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by Elizabeth Hines | Aug 7, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Supply Chain
As digital natives flood the purchasing landscape, visual presentation is critical. Our infographic offers tips to improve your visual content to resonate with today’s buyers.
Highlights:
- Visual content can be more easily digestible and compelling than purely text-based content.
- Optimize your visual content for search engines by accompanying it with searchable text and tags.
- Keep branding consistent with a unified color scheme and fonts.
The internet is becoming an increasingly visual space, and brands are feeling the pressure to stand out from the masses. But making an effort to improve your visual content doesn’t have to be an arduous chore. In fact, the type of complex information that supply chain marketers often need to present can be far more easily digestible in graphic format.
Strategically created and distributed content that is design-minded and visually appealing is your brand’s best friend. Our infographic offers 5 ideas to improve your visual content efforts, with a focus on broadening your brand’s reach, engaging your audience, and generating leads.
5 tips to improve your visual content
(Made with Canva)
1) Make your content search-engine friendly.
In the same way that social media analytics are struggling to keep up in an increasingly visual climate, search engines have yet to be effective at searching visual content. No matter how compelling your visual content, you won’t be getting the most out of your efforts unless you optimize your content for search engines.
There’s a simple solution to make sure your visual content makes it to the top of relevant search queries: post a text transcript with video or accompanying explanatory text with infographics and images. You can also make sure your visual content is easily searchable by categorizing and organizing it. Label visual assets like logos and images with relevant keywords, and tag them when publishing.
2) Make data come alive.
When it comes to presenting the kind of turgid data that’s often inherent in supply chain purchasing, visual formats are a marketer’s best friend. Supply chain marketers are ideally positioned to make use of attractive data presentation, including charts, graphs, and animated images. Organizing data into a visually appealing graphic, video, or animation makes it far more engaging and digestible for your audience.
3) Create reusable graphics.
Whether you’re creating visual content in house or outsourcing visual content creation, it behooves you to consider how it can be reused. When designing an infographic, for example, think about how it can be broken up into multiple graphics, each with a set of statistics or other information. You can combine these smaller graphics to other pieces of text content, adding visual appeal and boosting engagement.
These visual snippets are also ideal for posting on social media as teasers to link to fuller visual assets.
4) Consistency is key.
One of the most important things you can do to improve your visual content is make sure it’s consistent. Your brand’s visual presentation includes fonts, font sizes, colors, image styles, and any other graphic elements that are visual indicators of your brand’s identity.
Make sure all content creators in your organization receive clearly documented visual guidelines, along with samples for their use. Every time you publish visual content, include checking these guidelines as part of your editorial process.
5) Tell a story with your content.
The difference between good visual content and great visual content ultimately boils down to one thing: emotional resonance. The most significant way you can improve your visual content is to start with the idea of telling a story.
Ideally, you’re presenting data in a way that communicates a feeling and elicits an emotional response from the viewer. If your data is impactful, your viewers will forge an emotional connection with your brand.
What tips do you have to improve your visual content?
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by Jennifer Hart Yim | Jul 30, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Leadership, Marketing, Supply Chain
Supply Chain Management can boost productivity – and alleviate issues – for companies as they scale.
This guest post comes to us from Argentus Supply Chain Recruiting, a boutique recruitment firm specializing in Supply Chain Management and Procurement.
Awhile ago, we blogged about how more Startups are looking to Supply Chain Management to boost their productivity as they scale. Procurement – the effective purchasing of raw materials, back-office goods and professional services – as well as Logistics – the orchestration of the movement of those goods – might not seem to be as important as sales, marketing, R&D or finance at first blush. But failure to account for these factors can be a major bottleneck to growth, and many a startup has failed because of Supply Chain issues.
Supply Chain Management is an important factor for fast-growing hardware manufacturing companies, whether they’re producing goods overseas or at home. But it’s important in food manufacturing, consumer goods, Pharma, and Cannabis as well, as well as any industry with direct B2B sales. In fact, we recently brought on a new Cannabis client who’s scaling up a strategic sourcing operation in all of their Procurement, so that all their spend is captured and accounted for as they grow, rather than after. Rather than taming out-of-control spend later, they’re maximizing profitability by being strategic about the company-wide spend now, by hiring a team of Procurement category managers.
The most successful startups grow quickly by relentlessly focusing on the consumer – giving them a better product, or a better customer experience – but customer service is dead on arrival without an effective Supply Chain. Any growing company needs people to forecast demand, produce or source the goods to meet that demand, and ship it quickly and reliably to consumers, while only holding as much inventory as absolutely necessary.
As a founder or senior leader in a growing company, you might think that you have the expertise to “figure it out” on the fly, because how hard can it be? But trust us, if you don’t have Supply Chain experience, you can’t. Developing a product line and business model is hard. Getting it funded is harder. But as a founder, you don’t know true pain until you’ve been saddled with massive inventory because you failed to plan, or until you’ve seen an entire shipment waiting at port for customs clearance three weeks before your launch because you don’t have someone on staff who has the experience to get the paperwork in order before you need to.
Avoid failure.
That’s how Supply Chain has always advocated for itself, and you may have even heard about these considerations before. Get your Supply Chain in order, and you might avoid pain, but you’ll also experience innovation and opportunities to improve your customer experience in ways you never thought were possible. It can also reinforce your core company values and mission, and pass it on to customers in ways you haven’t considered.
As Dave Evans recently talked about in Bloomberg, setting strong values early is the key to sustainable growth at a startup. Most entrepreneurs get that. But what they don’t always get is the importance of making sure that these values extend into your Supply Chain. Founders need Supply Chain experts who can forge close relationships with suppliers, and find manufacturing partners who can provide opportunities to improve the brand.
Too many founders treat Supply Chain like a transactional necessity: “okay, where are we going to source product from fastest and cheapest?” But Evans talks about how founders can actually use Supply Chain Management as an opportunity to improve and build their brand. He uses the example of Everlane, which has built a successful fashion brand out of radical supplier transparency – making it plain to customers exactly where their products come from, and breaking down all the costs associated with bringing it to market.
So where do you start?
Different areas matter more for different industries, and different levels of maturity. A seed-stage startup might need to set an overall direction for logistics and distribution (i.e. what sort of 3rd party logistics solution will you look to leverage?), whereas a scaling business might be able to leverage strong Procurement to extract additional value from supplier relationships – as with the Cannabis company we mentioned above.
Do you want your Supply Chain to be fast, cheap, or flexible? Skilled supply chain professionals can usually help you excel at two of those. The best in the business can get you all three. But if you don’t have any of that expertise, you’ll get zero.
Areas that startups need:
- Logistics and Distribution Strategy
- Demand Planning
- Production Planning
- Lead Time Management
- Inventory Planning
- Supplier Relationship Management
- Strategic Sourcing/Shared Services Procurement (growth stage)
Today’s top Supply Chain Management professionals can bring all these considerations to bear. One other thing to consider: manpower expenses are one of the highest costs in scaling a business, and you don’t want to take on extra full-time staff if you don’t have to. So one thing companies will do is hire a seasoned expert who has developed and implemented Supply Chain strategies at scaling companies before on a contract basis – say 6 or 12 months – to implement the process and strategy, and then move on to another contract. You will likely have to pay a bit more per-hour, but it can be a tremendously flexible and high-value option, especially because some of the best in the business are now working on contracts for growing companies.
Any way you go about it, failing to plan a Supply Chain can quickly sink a growing company – and developing one that excels will make a growing company soar.
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Having Supply Chain Management professionals in the room is some of the best business planning possible in 2019. That’s why they’re a founder’s secret weapon.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Jul 23, 2019 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media, Video Marketing
Videos drive greater conversion rates and increased leads. Here are four takeaways from Vidyard’s 2019 State of Video in Business Report.
Highlights:
- Over 82% of businesses reported greater investments in video last year
- Vidyard’s report stated that high-value video content has become a key factor in SEO and ranking.
- Aside from just tracking views, businesses will also track engagement time, drop-off rates, and reach across all channels, as well as the impact of video on lead generation and revenue.
Video Transcript:
Hi I’m Christy LeMire, the Director of Video Strategy at Fronetics, and today I’ll be sharing 4 takeaways from Vidyard’s 2019 State of Video in Business Report.
This report confirmed what us digital marketers already know, video is everywhere. Over 82% of businesses reported greater investments in video last year and it’s no surprise why. Videos drive more sharing, produce greater conversion rates and increase leads.
Here are the 4 key takeaways from the 2019 State of Video in Business Report
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Video isn’t just for social media
Though Facebook and Snapchat saw over 8 billion video views every day on their platforms, video didn’t stop with social media. Video took center stage in digital marketing and brand awareness. Vidyard’s report stated that high-value video content has become a key factor in SEO and ranking. This trend will continue to grow as marketers begin using video for frequently asked questions and explanations of complex and intricate business details.
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Short and sweet videos
Marketers used to create highly produced promotional videos for their websites and blogs. But now marketers are focusing on conversational and educational videos created specifically for social media. These casual videos give followers timely updates on industry trends, a behind the scenes look at projects, and interviews with clients and colleagues. The transparency created in these videos brings personality to your business. Marketers will continue to create video for social media, their blog and YouTube channels, resulting in a spike in short-form content like snackable video series.
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Video experiences focus on engagement
New approaches to video—including series-based content, video podcasts, interactive video, and personalized video—are helping marketers boost engagement and expand audiences. Experts predict we’ll see these new approaches gain more traction as the tools to create them become more user-friendly and best practices become more widely understood.
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Expanation of video analytics
As video has expanded, so have the needs of video analytics. Businesses will start making use of analytics tools to track video metrics that align with their digital marketing strategy. Aside from just tracking views, businesses will also track engagement time, drop-off rates, and reach across all channels, as well as the impact of video on lead generation and revenue. With more detailed reporting, businesses will see more efficiency and a higher ROI from their video content.
Check out the full report on our blog and find more digital marketing tips on our website at Fronetics.com.
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