In this week’s #B2BChat, we take on the topic of B2B Blogging. Fun, right?
There is a tremendous amount of discussion on B2B blogging and the benefits it offers; extending your voice, the creation of ongoing, regular fresh content to be found by search engines, share-ability, inbound links and the list goes on.
While many B2B marketers have been at it awhile, many are also just learning the ropes of B2B blogging. In this week’s #B2Bchat, let’s discuss the questions below and learn how B2B blogging can be used effectively as part of a B2B marketing strategy.
We’ll ask:
Do you have a B2B blogging strategy? Or are you flying by the seat of your pants?
Are you consistent or erractic? Do you blog on a schedule?
What is the single biggest benefit you have seen from your blog?
What is the single biggest UNEXPECTED benefit you have seen from your blog?
How does it tie in into your lead generation activities, other things in your marketing mix?
Are you budgeting more or less time and money going forward (2011) to support your B2B blogging efforts?
Name one lesson you wish you knew when you started.
What advice would you offer to those just starting a B2B blog?
Ghost blogging. Good or Bad?
What is the biggest challenge to working with multiple internal authors?
Fatigue. How do you deal with it?
WordPress users: Favorite plugins?
Join us for a live conversation with other B2B marketers who face the same challenges that you do.
Follow @B2B_chat for updates and join us this Thursday, September 2nd, at 8 pm Eastern as we tackle B2B blogging.
Measurement is close to the heart of many marketers, and B2B marketing is no exception. We decided to take on the topic of metrics after it was recommended by several of our #B2Bchat community members.
Here is an edited recap, the highlights of our August 26, 2010 Metrics That Matter in B2B Twitter chat.
Q. What is the biggest challenge companies face when it comes to metrics and measurement?
Not knowing what to measure
Not using the information they gather / not taking action
Understanding how using metrics for measurement, analysis and trending will positively impact the bottom line
Data synchronization across channels
Accepting results are rarely as expected. Creating a learning culture
Tying marketing metrics and measurements to business results
Establishing metrics in new areas such as social media
Q2. If you could only measure one thing in your marketing organization, what would it be?
Cost per lead/ cost per customer acquisition
Lifetime customer value
Customer loyalty / customer satisfaction
Sales from leads generated by marketing
$ spent on each marketing activity – mapped to sales revenue
Return on investment
Q3. How do you best communicate metrics internally? Which medium do you use? How often?
Keep things visual. Use graphs and charts.
Simple is often more effective, e.g. use a white board (if reporting locally)
Taping a graph to the office door (great conversation starter)
Pay attention not only to the mechanics of reporting metrics, but also the context. Is a number good or bad? Should I care?
Internal wiki
Online dashboard, pdf, Excel, and PowerPoint versions
Show metrics compared to benchmarks and targets to put the number in context
Supported by anecdotal evidence and stories of customer wins. – Speak to sales and customers… learn how they found you
Q4. Which marketing metrics does your CEO get to see? Note: This question received a variety of answers, pointing to the fact that there are likely great differences depending on the company’s culture, and company size.
All of them. The CEO reads, ask questions, makes comments.
As few as possible. Keep their eyes on big picture; let units worry about finer details.
Show high level metrics and results that matter to senior exec. Always match against business objectives to show progress.
CEO will look for qualitative data. Is this number good or bad?
The best CEOs are interested in all the marketing metrics. There is always something to learn from.
Typically summaries of activities with results (clickthroughs, replies); more detail when new campaign or new medium is launched.
CEO doesn’t need granularity of Marketing KPIs, but needs those directly tied to forecast.
It will really will matter on the CEO’s background. A former CMO will probably want everything.
Any report to the CEO should be more than metrics. What do the #’s reveal? What’s the next move?
Q5. Have you recently discarded a metric because it was deemed low priority? What was it?
There are many useless things people still measure – e.g. Page Hit, Impressions (without influence) .
Number of followers
Competitor mentions vs corporate mentions, the reason being, too many variables at play
Don’t give as much importance to overall traffic – we all know how to get tons of hits with no results.
A tactic for determining value of metrics to the organization: pull the report but don’t deliver it. See if anyone screams.
Q6. Social Media and B2B. What are the metrics you need to watch?
In general, social media is hard to measure.
Most important are blog stats; Twitter followers, etc. are gravy.
Most important measurement of social media for B2B marketers is conversion rate of visitors drawn to site.
Marketers need to watch rates of follower add-ons over time, drop offs and tie to tweets and other activities of their firm.
Distill conversations/comments into categories based on objectives with -/+ ratings. Also report on influencers vs masses.
Marketers also need to measure “rate” and “direction” of viral activity and look for patterns
Social Media channel to email list conversion
B2B marketing deptartments often measure reach, sentiment and share of voice (and convo)
Track stickiness to other channels to get big picture: events, webinars, mailing lists and regional call centers.
The final word of today’s chat goes to Katie Morse, Community Manager at Radian6. We tackled several specific questions in our session, but this tweet could be applied as an answer to most of them…however you share your metrics, they have to tell a story. #’s for the sake of #’s aren’t usually helpful.
About the B2Bblogger: Andrew Spoeth is an independent marketing consultant who specializes in B2B demand generation. He most recently worked as the marketing director at Enquiro, one of North America’s leading search marketing agencies. You’ll also find Andrew speaking at industry events, co-moderating the weekly #B2Bchat series on Twitter, and blogging at MarketingFinger.com. You can follow him on Twitter at@andrewspoeth.
That has become the marketer’s mantra since modern analytics tools have made it easier than ever to measure almost every aspect of our businesses.
But is a comprehensive measurement strategy the key to success? Absolutely not. It’s only a start.
It is the prioritization, filtering, and internal communication of metrics that lead to ultimate success. Many organizations unfortunately choose measures that have little value, while ignoring those that truly matter.
Join us Thursday at 8pm Eastern for this week’s Twitter chat, Metrics That Matter in B2B Marketing, where we will share our ideas and experiences surrounding metrics. Follow the hashtag #B2Bchat to see the whole discussion.
Q. What is the biggest challenge companies face when it comes to metrics and measurement?
Q. How do you best communicate metrics internally? Which medium do you use? How often?
Q. If you could only measure one thing in your marketing organization, what would it be?
Q. Does your company measure less or more than it did two years ago?
Q. Which marketing metrics does your CEO get to see?
Q. Have you recently discarded a metric because it was deemed low priority? What was it?
Q. Social Media and B2B. What are the metrics you need to watch?
I’d like to leave you with another thought. In his latest book titled Crush It!, author Gary Vaynerchuk takes a position which is almost diametrically opposite to the “measure everything” philosophy, telling us to trust our instinct over detailed numbers:
I use analytics very rarely and I urge you not to rely too much on them either, especially if you’ve got good business instincts. A lot of times the stats and percentages related to my business just don’t support what my instinct says is true, and I’ll trust my instincts over numbers every time.
Do you agree? Where do you sit in the continuum between instinct and “measure everything”?
Join us for this week’s #B2Bchat on Metrics That Matter in B2B Marketing, Thursday, August 26th, at 8pm Eastern (5pm Pacific). Follow @B2B_chat for updates.
About the B2Bblogger: Andrew Spoeth is an independent marketing consultant who specializes in B2B demand generation. He most recently worked as the marketing director at Enquiro, one of North America’s leading search marketing agencies. You’ll also find Andrew speaking at industry events, co-moderating the weekly #B2Bchat series on Twitter, and blogging at MarketingFinger.com. You can follow him on Twitter at@andrewspoeth.
This week’s #B2BChat was yet another fast-paced exchange of insightful input as our participants tackled the ins and outs of lead nurturing. The chat zoned in on hot questions that dealt with the various lead nurturing strategies that would work, the kinds of content that would have the most impact and success, the significance of lead scoring, the tools that can be used, etc.
This is a summary adapted from the complete transcript and if you want to read the full version then you can just drop by here.
What strategies work for lead nurturing, what doesn’t, and what could be improved upon?
@asuthosh: Nurturing implies constant and strategic engagement and that’s the fundamental basis of nurturing
@paige_oneill: That’s what we do (@aprimo) (www.aprimo.com) so I’m lucky to use it. Challenge is adapting people to processes. myself included.
@sharonmostyn: I attended @Eloqua (www.eloqua.com) conference in ’08 & was impressed w/them-I’m sure they’ve made even bigger strides but new emplyr can’t afford
How do you want to see lead nurturing evolve? What’s your wish list?
@joezuc: I want to see lead nurtuing truly become personalized w/content that is individually tailored to a buyer rather than impersonal
@cuferg: More integration of tools, combine offline and online analytics.
@fearlesscomp: My hope is that B2B companies will finally go beyond the bare minimum and craft highly personalized campaigns.
@utollwi: better reports in the tools and always better training for all teams sales & marketing…make them believers
@joezuc: I hope that mktrs consider variable data publishing to include personalized direct mail also during a drip marketing effort.
@sharonmostyn: Lead nurturing wish list: inexpensive automation that easily delivers personalized msgs to the right person at the optimal time.
@ExoPoirier: Lead nurturing OUTSOURCED to specialists like us! Client B2B sales team concentrating on hottest leads. Tried it and it works
@jeremyvictor: Let’s make it “customer nurturing”. We are starting the relationship wrong by calling human beings “leads”
As expected, it was an insightful session indeed. Many thanks to all who participated. Join us for next week’s #B2Bchat, Thursday, August 19, at 8pm Eastern (5pm Pacific, 8am Aug 20 in Singapore). Follow @B2B_chat for updates.
About the B2Bblogger:Anol Bhattacharya (@B2Bento) is CEO of GetIT Comms, a marketing and communications consultancy for hi-tech and telco’s, where he helps clients (Cisco Systems Inc, IBM, IDC Asia Pacific, HP, Datacraft etc) in the field of B2B marketing, demand generation, lead nurturing, social media strategy & implementation, interactive digital media for marketing initiatives and user experience design.
Anol is one of the key contributors at B2Bento.com and has had his articles published in various media in the region.
Not all prospects are ready to buy immediately, especially in B2B. Lead-nurturing campaigns therefore become imperative for transforming prospects into sales-ready opportunities. Success hinges on planning, creativity and technology working in tandem.
In this week’s #B2BChat, we cover lead nurturing, an area that’s getting a lot of interest from the B2B field. Here’s a snapshot of what’s up for discussion:
Strategies for lead nurturing (what works, what doesn’t, what could work if improved upon)
Content marketing for lead nurturing
Lead scoring and best practices
Lead nurturing tools
Wish list (hey, it’s a field that’s evolving every day – seek and it may just be granted)
Actual questions to be posted:
What strategies work for lead nurturing, what doesn’t, and what could if improved upon?
What’s the sort of content that works well for lead nurturing? How can it be effectively marketed?
What and how significant a role can lead scoring play when nurturing leads?
What lead nurturing tools are you using / considering to use? What have the results been to date?
How do you want to see lead nurturing evolve? What’s your wish list?
Bring your opinions, experiences and questions for a lively discussion with other B2B marketers.
Join us for this week’s #B2Bchat on Lead Nurturing Best Practices, Thursday, August 12th, at 8pm Eastern (5pm Pacific). Follow @B2B_chat for updates.
About the B2Bblogger:Anol Bhattacharya (@B2Bento) is CEO of GetIT Comms, a marketing and communications consultancy for hi-tech and telco’s, where he helps clients (Cisco Systems Inc, IBM, IDC Asia Pacific, HP, Datacraft etc) in the field of B2B marketing, demand generation, lead nurturing, social media strategy & implementation, interactive digital media for marketing initiatives and user experience design.
Anol is one of the key contributors at B2Bento.com and has had his articles published in various media in the region.
It was great to be a part of this week’s #B2BChat. The topic was about creating great (if not yet viral) videos for B2B. The conversation was frenetic, informative and fun and it was indeed quite exciting to partake in an event such as this. There were several key points discussed and, as expected, the answers kept coming in at a hectic pace.
The chat revolved around several topics like scenarios where B2B videos can go viral, the advantages between slick or raw production styles, the differences between in-house and out-sourced content, techniques and “secret” recipes, etc.
This is a summary adapted from the complete transcript and if you want to read it you can just drop by here. Here are some highlights.
When and where do we use video for B2B marketing?
@billrobbSAP : My gripe is that u can’t “create a viral video”. u create a compelling video that hopefully ur community makes viral.
@martinehunter : training, testimonials, factory tours, case studies, product demos, production schematics, should be short, concise
@fearlesscomp : I believe customer videos need to be front and center on websites
@asuthosh : when video tells a compelling story, when customers are willing to be featured. When authenticity is key
In-house development versus out-sourcing … what works best for video content?
@prdreamer : Depends on style. Slick corp. video should be outsourced to co. w/ skill set. Quick testimonials can B done in-house w/ Flip.
@chevypham : outsource for creative content, editing, production, but in-house editorial for appropriateness and relevancy.
@billymitchell1: Production value is driven by type of result desired – and budget limitations. Some of the best B2B video is very basic
Are there any secret recipes that fuel B2B video content?
@jeremyvictor: Same as with any other content – connect with your buyer personas rationally, emotionally and logically
What are the tools and techniques that you use or can suggest for pre and post production?
@SpideyJo : Tools – can be as simple as using Windows Movie Maker up to Adobe Premiere. Techniques : Good planning
@billymitchell1 : Voice, personality, humor, passion, sincerity, knowledge of subject and confidence. Video camera sees all.
Where can you post your B2B videos? White label hosting … YouTube … etc. And why there?
@prdreamer: Post em where the ppl are. I say YouTube. It’s easy and free for the video hosting. #b2bchat
@fearlesscomp: TubeMogul.com is a good site that posts to all, including YouTube
@b2bento: YouTube embed in webpage – pump up the SEO
To round it all up, it was a nice session as expected. Thanks to all who participated. Join us for next week’s #B2Bchat, Thursday, July 22, at 8pm Eastern (5pm Pacific). Follow @B2B_chat for updates.
About the B2Bblogger:Anol Bhattacharya (@B2Bento) is CEO of GetIT Comms, a marketing and communications consultancy for hi-tech and telco’s, where he helps clients (Cisco Systems Inc, IBM, IDC Asia Pacific, HP, Datacraft etc) in the field of B2B marketing, demand generation, lead nurturing, social media strategy & implementation, interactive digital media for marketing initiatives and user experience design.
Anol is one of the key contributors at B2Bento.com and has had his articles published in various media in the region.
Editor’s Note: Please join Andrew, Ksenia and I as we welcome Anol Bhattacharya (@B2Bbento) as a new co-moderator to #B2BChat. Anol is one of the leading B2B marketers in Asia and serves as the CEO of GetIT in Singapore. We look forward to his international perspective and leadership on our moderating team. Anol takes Kent’s place who plans to be joining us frequently each Thursday, but has stepped away to focus on other exciting endeavors like,Social Media Marketing (SMM) Magazine.
Recipes for Great Viral B2B Videos
Social media is littered with countless “close encounters of the viral kind”, with most of these encounters being videos that transcend cultural barriers and achieve both cult and pop status. B2C businesses have exploited this for several years now and reaped mostly positive results.
Which leads us to ask, can B2B video achieve the same impact as their B2C counterparts? And if so, then how can we make our videos go on to become viral hits – the Old Spice man being the most recent wild success?
In this week’s #B2BChat, we will attempt to answer those questions and more. Our conversation will delve into why B2C videos go viral and how can we adapt these aspects to our B2B content.
Here are some snapshots of our topics at hand:
When and where to use video for B2B marketing?
The pros and cons of in-house development versus out-sourcing
Are there any “secret recipes” that fuel successful B2B content?
Tools and techniques for pre and post production
Tapping the right distribution channels: answering “where” and “why”
Bring your opinions, experiences and questions for a lively discussion with other B2B marketers.
Join us for this week’s #B2Bchat on B2B Podcasting and Video, Thursday, July 22nd, at 8pm Eastern (5pm Pacific). Follow @B2B_chat for updates.
About the B2Bblogger:Anol Bhattacharya (@B2Bento) is CEO of GetIT Comms, a marketing and communications consultancy for hi-tech and telco’s, where he helps clients (Cisco Systems Inc, IBM, IDC Asia Pacific, HP, Datacraft etc) in the field of B2B marketing, demand generation, lead nurturing, social media strategy & implementation, interactive digital media for marketing initiatives and user experience design.
Anol is one of the key contributors at B2Bento.com and has had his articles published in various media in the region.
What does the move to mobile mean for B2B marketing?
You’ve heard the anticipation for years: mobile will take over the Web and transform the Internet experience as we know it. Although the days of change haven’t come as soon as some predicted, the shift appears to now be in full flight.
How does this shift towards mobile affect the way businesses connect with business customers? Here are some of the questions we want to address in this week’s #B2Bchat:
Q. How relevant is mobile marketing for B2B and how do you know if it’s relevant to you?
Q. To what extent do your customers use mobile devices, e.g. smart phones, in business?
Q. What about location-based services such as Foursquare? Are they applicable in a B2B environment?
Q. Have you advertised / considered advertising on a mobile ad network? ~
Q. Have you considered developing a smart phone app?
Q. What opportunities does the mobile Internet present for B2B marketers?
Q. Does your company have/intent to have a mobile version of your website?
Q. Do you have a mobile marketing strategy?
Q. How you measure the ROI?
Q. Your experience with mobile marketing: What worked, and what didn’t?
Q. What’s next in B2B Mobile Marketing?
Join us this Thursday, July 15 at 8:00pm Eastern for our latest episode of #B2Bchat. Bring your ideas and experiences surrounding mobile and B2B marketing!
About the B2Bblogger: Andrew Spoeth is an independent marketing consultant who specializes in B2B demand generation. He most recently worked as the marketing director at Enquiro, one of North America’s leading search marketing agencies. You’ll also find Andrew speaking at industry events, co-moderating the weekly #B2Bchat series on Twitter, and blogging at MarketingFinger.com. You can follow him on Twitter at@andrewspoeth.
We are all faced with growing responsibility/client load, and not enough resources. Or having the resources, but not feeling that you are getting the best bang for your buck. It’s all about setting expectations and tracking results.
In today’s #B2Bchat, we’ll tackle the tricky issues of resource management and utilizing outside contractors and agencies.
If you are looking for job/projects now, what skills are most in demand? What are the best ways to find new business/job?
What does it mean to be a great client? A great agency?
Have you parted ways with an agency? What is the best way to go about that?
On the agency side, have you ever ‘fired’ a client? What are the reasons to do so?
What are the benefits of using contractors vs agencies? Employees vs interns?
What is the best use for a marketing intern? What’s the balance of learning vs getting the results?
What tools have you found useful to manage workloads and teams?
Join fellow B2B marketers for a discussion on B2B Marketing Resource Management.
About the B2Bblogger: Ksenia Coffman is senior marketing manager at Firetide, a wireless infrastructure mesh company, where she is responsible for Firetide’s marketing strategy and technology solution partnerships. Her articles on wireless infrastructure appeared in various publications, including Security Products, Law & Order, SecurityInfoWatch.com and Communications News.
An ASIS member (an international association for security professionals), she is a frequent speaker at industry events, including ASIS workshops and IWCE conferences. Ksenia launched @Firetide – with 800+ followers, it’s is one of the most active Twitter accounts in physical security and wireless infrastructure space. You can read more from Ksenia at Mesh Without Wires blog.
Webinars are an important part of the B2B demand generation toolkit. What advice do marketers have when it comes to producing, promoting, and following up on webinars? We put this question to our #B2Bchat audience in our latest session. Here is what the experts had to say:
Q. What are innovative ideas of promoting webinars?
Schedule the webinar on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. 9am Pacific (noon Eastern) was cited as a preferred time. An alternate strategy would be to schedule webinars when others aren’t being held, e.g. Fridays, to avoid competition.
Send a voicemail service reminder to registrants the day before.
Use social media to promote via Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Place reminders on your corporate site and banners on industry publications.
To increase attendance, send email reminders 7 days, 3 days and 1 day prior.
Offer a short video preview.
Offer a prize draw for attendees.
Average webinar attendance ranges from 30% to 70% depending on industry and qualifications of registrants.
Many people actually prefer viewing on demand, after hours; it allows for fast-forwarding, pausing and skimming.
When offering an Outlook calendar invite, make sure to set the reminder. Many default to “no reminder.”
Q. How can marketers leverage Twitter with webinars?
Tweet before, during and after the webinar.
For sharing the tweet transcript post-event, www.wthashtag.com is GREAT. Just make sure you register & describe the tag beforehand. www.wthashtag.com will summarize tweets and also illustrate via bar chart who your top tweeters were, so you know who to thank.
Prepare a few canned tweets based on content ahead of time to get the conversation going.
Have designated Twitterer, and expert to answer questions.
Don’t forget the twitter hashtag. Have it on all slides for latecomers. And the host should determine, create and promote the hashtag far in advance, or someone else might.
Q. What are some of the biggest mistakes that marketers make when producing webinars?
Not sufficiently promoting the event in advance
Not sharing the content afterwards
Droning on about “company capabilities” esp. if at the beginning
Saying “on this slide”
Not following up with attendees
Not inviting people to submit questions in advance
Not leaving enough time for Q&A. 1/3 of the total webinar time should be alloted for this.
Q. What is the best way to follow up after a webinar?
Send a short email to attendees referencing the highlights from the webinar and Q&A, plus link to the recording.
Follow up on survey results. If someone provides very interesting comments, write back personally.
Send info on the next webinar.
Whatever follow-up activity, the presenter should set the expectation. If a rep. is going to call, tell them so in advance.
Q. What will webinars look like in 5 years?
Webinars will be more interactive, include things like instant polls, widgets, integrated payments and social media capabilities.
There will be less PowerPoint and more video.
Audiences may be smaller, but more specialized.
Mobile devices will play a bigger role.
Join us again this week for #B2Bchat – Thursday, June 24 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern (5:00 p.m. Pacific). Follow @B2B_chat for updates.
About the B2Bblogger: Andrew Spoeth is an independent marketing consultant who specializes in B2B demand generation. He most recently worked as the marketing director at Enquiro, one of North America’s leading search marketing agencies. You’ll also find Andrew speaking at industry events, co-moderating the weekly #B2Bchat series on Twitter, and blogging at MarketingFinger.com. You can follow him on Twitter at@andrewspoeth.
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Hi, I'm @jeremyvictor, the founder of Make Good Media and Editor In Chief of B2Bbloggers.com.
B2Bbloggers.com is an online magazine for B2B marketers. Our goal is to engage, educate, and make it easier for B2B marketers to find the information they care about to do their jobs successfully.
As a publisher and new media marketing agency, Make Good Media advises businesses how to integrate social media and content marketing with traditional marketing tactics to attract, nurture, engage, and convert customers in the brave new B2B world of the social, mobile web. How can we help you Make Good Media?
About the B2Bblogger: Andrew Spoeth is an independent marketing consultant who specializes in B2B demand generation. He most recently worked as the marketing director at Enquiro, one of North America’s leading search marketing agencies. You’ll also find Andrew speaking at industry events, co-moderating the weekly #B2Bchat series on Twitter, and blogging at 
About the B2Bblogger:Anol Bhattacharya (
About the B2Bblogger: Ksenia Coffman is senior marketing manager at 
