April 13, 2017 by Carla Johnson Research from the Content Marketing Institute, released yesterday, shows how far B2B marketers still have to go to put customers squarely in the middle of conversations. Too many B2B marketers still focus on their brand, rather than their audience. In fact, 53 percent of respondents say they focus on creating content for audiences versus …
86% of CMOs Say Marketing Will Own the Customer Experience by 2020
November 10, 2016 by Carla Johnson In the midst of buyer complexity marketers are getting the message that it’s time to change their role in the business. A report from The Economist Intelligence Unit, The Path to 2020: Marketers Seize the Customer Experience, explains exactly how much. The report is based on a global survey of 499 CMOs and senior …
From Stories to Experiences: Marketing’s Evolving Role in Creating Value
September 27, 2016 If ever there were a profession suffering from motion sickness, it’s marketing. Upheaval from a sea of constant change is truly the new norm. Sure footing is a thing of the past. As we look to deliver value within our organizations, we find that our arms need to span greater breadths and depths. First we thought alignment …
How Understanding the Goals and Intent of Buyers Can Transform Marketing
September 22, 2016 by Tony Zambito People and professionals in organizations can have different intentions while working towards the accomplishment of organizational, as well as, individual goals. Understanding the difference between intent-driven and goal-driven behaviors allows for deeper levels of understanding buyers (customers). Leading to more effective online engagement, content design, and sales conversations. The relationship between intent and goals is …
Where Do You Fall on the Customer Experience Maturity Scale?
August 16, 2016 by Carla Johnson Customer experience isn’t a new idea, but the growing attention to it is. Customers are more widely connected than they’ve ever been, easily hopping between a growing number of devices. They’re looking for a rich, consistent experience that delivers value – whether that’s information or entertainment – whenever they want it. Marketing’s ad hoc …
What’s Brand Storytelling and Why Do You Need It?
August 11, 2016 by Carla Johnson Frustration. I’m hearing more of it and not just from marketers – but from executives as well. Conversations that used to be within the walls of marketing are overflowing into the C-suite. And a big part of that conversation is about relevance. How do we become more relevant not only to customers, but to …
Use Buyer Persona Research to Improve B2B Customer Experience
August 9, 2016 by Tony Zambito Customer experience has been and will continue to be one of the major influences on how buyers make choices. Recent research by SiriusDecisions found that for 80% of B2B buyers surveyed, customer experience counted as the top significant reason why they chose to work with a specific provider over another. These findings are consistent …
Sleepless in the C-Suite: What keeps CMOs up at night?
August 2, 2016 by Carla Johnson “What keeps you up at night?” For marketers, there’s plenty. The annual Tech Heads survey of marketing directors and business buyers points out exactly this. This year’s results reveal that B2B CMOs are six times more likely to lose sleep than gain it in 2016, compared with previous years. And while there are several …
Does Your Company Have a Full-Funnel Content Strategy?
July 28, 2016 by Chuck Frey Do your sales and marketing teams have a full funnel content strategy – a process for moving your ideal prospects from awareness to consideration and acquisition? An effective content strategy isn’t just focused on inbound marketing – generating leads to fill the top of the sales funnel – which is where many B2B marketers …
Growing Up – Moving Away from Kid’s Menu Content
July 7, 2016 by Jeff Julian Content marketers love writing content. It’s almost like we made Content Marketing up just to fool our managers into letting us write and get paid for it. Just in the segment of content dedicated to help marketers, thousands of pieces of content are being produced and distributed daily but most of it is, well, …
The Basics of B2B Social Media Marketing Strategy
June 28, 2016 by Tom Pick Although more than three-quarters of B2B technology marketers use social media to market their products, less than half say they can tie social channels to revenue generation for their businesses. This may be a problem with measurement, or with setting the wrong objectives for social media marketing (it’s far more effective for customer service …
7 Elements of Customer Understanding the C-Suite Must Master
June 16, 2016 by Tony Zambito Changes in customer and buying behaviors continue to rock the very foundations of many industries. According to recent surveys by PWC, Forrester, IBM, and McKinsey, disruptive trends in customer and buying behaviors are expected to continue over the next five years. Many organizations are undergoing digital transformations in order to improve customer interactions, engagement, …
Does Marketing Have a Glass Ceiling?
June 14, 2016 I was catching up with a fellow marketer the other day. One of the things that we both hear over and over is that marketing’s tired of not having credibility. Marketers want more responsibility, more influence and more respect. They want a seat at the infamous table. Both of us have been in marketing for a long …
Digital Experiences Have No Easy Button
June 7, 2016 by Robert Rose I’m finally finished with a six city tour – teaching content-driven experiences to marketers. It’s a blast to tour around the country and get to meet so many content marketers at these events. Two ideas came together for me during the tour – one from a class attendee in Boston, another from an article …
Why Subscribers are Key to Growing Your Brand’s Audience
May 31, 2016 I’ve had the amazing pleasure of working with many brands to transform their marketing departments and build their content marketing programs. It doesn’t matter how big or small they are, they understand that how they get and keep people’s attention is very different from just a few years ago. They lead with value rather than their brand. …
5 Steps to Create a Business-Driven Content Marketing Strategy
May 24, 2016 Most brands have grabbed hold of the idea of content marketing but many struggle with how to plan and execute it to see meaningful results. Without exception, this comes from a lack of understanding about how to create and deliver value as marketers that’s separate and distinct from the products and services that we sell. Our ability …
4 Myths Preventing True B2B Customer Understanding
May 10, 2016 by Tony Zambito There is a big problem when it comes to B2B customer research. And, most B2B executives may be unable to see or recognize the problem. The scarier notion is some may not even know it exists. What is this big problem? According to various studies over the years (by credible institutions such as Harvard) …
Research: 4 Keys to Effective Enterprise Content Marketing
April 26, 2016 The Content Marketing Institute keeps rolling out research that give marketers better perspective about the growing profession we’re in. This week, CMI released B2B Enterprise Content Marketing 2016: Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends – North America. What’s clear is that we’re seeing a consistent trend for content marketing across all research sectors. While overall content marketing effectiveness is …
Research: Technology Marketers Gain Stronger Content Marketing Foothold
March 29, 2016 Maturity and experience. These are two things that matter with the 71% of technology marketers who say their organizations are effective with content marketing. The latest research from the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and MarketingProfs delves into the success of technology marketers. In 2016 B2B Technology Content Marketing: Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends – North America, technology marketers …
102 of the Most Inspiring Storytelling Quotes of All Time
February 2, 2016 Stories have been shared in every culture for millions of years – starting with rudimentary drawings by people who lived in caves – as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and instilling moral values. The ancient art of storytelling has made its way to the boardroom, but some people – including marketers – still wonder if …