A key theme is found in the intentions related to inbound marketing. 35% of marketers said they will spend more on inbound than outbound. 31% said the reverse, with the remaining third saying they’ll spend the same on inbound and outbound. Almost a ‘tidy’ 3-way tie. However, this is a significant shift to what they did in 2012 – with (more on) inbound getting only 22% of the vote.

This intention was supported by other related responses. More will be spent on content marketing and we assume most of that is for attracting buyers to the sellers. More organisations are active in social media with 52% rating themselves as ‘publishers’ now in 2013, which was only 1/3 in 2012.

However, will the CEO and head of Sales support this direction, and investment?

Most marketers are not able to report positive ROI from their social activities which we suspect is a key plank in their inbound strategy. This will have ramifications for investment in thought-leadership content budgets as well. At the end of the day, marketing exists to help drive revenue. So that means sales need qualified leads, which will be preceded by an audience of interested/engaged prospects – developed by marketing.

Whilst most B2B CEO’s are keenly interested in how social and inbound can help, there will still be some convincing to do.

The post Will the B2B CEO support the leap to inbound marketing … really? appeared first on Green Hat.

In case you’ve been living under a digital rock for the past 12 months, Pinterest is “a content sharing service that allows members to “pin” images, videos and other objects to their pinboard”. Anyone planning a wedding, re-decorating their home looking for beauty tips or that next best receipe will know what Pinterest is. All of this may scream ‘personal’ use only, but businesses are embracing and exploring how to use Pinterest.

Here are some of my ideas on how to use Pinterest for B2B marketing.

At its core, Pinterest is a visual sharing tool, so why not start with existing compelling images from your website? Ensure each pin you add is linked back to your website and has a meaningful caption (including key search words & hashtags) to drive traffic back to your website.

Pintrest presents companies a fantastic opportunity to “humanise” themselves. Why not have a board that is called “About Us” or “This is who we are” and pin staff headshots with bios, pictures from company events, interesting things happening in your office – whatever shows off your company brand and the individuals that make it!

Pinterest just isn’t about pretty pictures. You can also pin whatever video content you upload to YouTube or Vimeo. As with most social media communications, it’s not about creating unique content for each medium, it’s about creating engaging & compelling content and then sharing it across the most relevant social media platforms!

Don’t Pin everything or spam your followers. A pin of a “subscribe here” button isn’t going to endear you to your followers, nore does it enhance your brand. Choose your images wisely, go for pins that are instructional, educational, editorial, interesting and/or informative! And don’t pin everything all at once. Spam rules apply!

Promote Pinterest. Make sure you have a Pinterest follow button on your website, email signature and any other applicable social media channels. No good thinking “If I build it, they will come”…you need to promote your presence!

Just like Twitter, follow and engage with other relevant Pinterest users. Also just like the re-tweet, re-pinning content is just as relevant as pinning your own content and is a great way to get started on Pinterest whilst you get your feet wet and find your way around (but make sure you consider copyright and permission rules). Don’t be afraid, jump in!

 Shhhh…it’s a secret. Pinterest recently launched secret boards that are only visible to the board creator or others that you specifically invite to pin to that board. What a great communication or collaboration tool!

Competitions. I’ve been squirreling away the idea of using Pinterest to hold competitions, but I’m setting it free now (I know it’s not the newest idea). Create a contest where clients have to post pictures of them using your product and the one with the most likes or repins wins. Create a scavenger hunt where people have to collect & pin certain images to go into the draw to win. Usual competition rules (include Trade & Lottery Permissions) obviously apply…but guess what, there is another pin!

Of course, we practice what we preach and you can find Green Hat on Pinterest. This blog author is also on Pinterest if you want to find and follow her.

The post Pinning down how to use Pinterest for B2B Marketing appeared first on Green Hat.

It seems that we are on the cusp of a break-through. There is a strong indication that marketers are getting on board with ‘Inbound Marketing’. Firstly the respondents (audience of 294 Australian marketers) have indicated that they will spend more on Inbound than Outbound in 2013 – last year that was in reverse. Having said that the difference was only 4%, but I think that’s an important line to break.

In support of this, more respondents say their companies are publishing/creating in social media than those who are not. Another important line to break. So this will be writing blogs, tweeting, publishing video etc. This certainly was not the case in Australia 12 months ago.

And marketers claim they intend to spend about  $1 in every $7 on content development. We did not define what ‘content’ was so some may include websites and microsites as content as well. However, you can’t be an inbound marketer without content, so these stars line up.

On the traditional marketing front (think … ‘offline marketing’), PR has jumped to the #1 position. Once again, an inbound marketing tactic.

All fascinating stuff for the new-age marketer trying to re-think the new world of b2b marketing.

Stay tuned. We release the report on the Tues 12-March-2013.

Andrew Haussegger

The post Inbound b2b marketing breaking through appeared first on Green Hat.

 Let’s face it, how many B2B campaigns have used this image…

Or this one…

As you peruse the 101 clichés, how many have you been guilty of in the past?

I’m on a personal mission to prove that B2B marketing doesn’t have to be boring…if the client is willing. That’s the hardest part sometimes. A combination of corporate branding guidelines, nervousness about using a different colour, scared to try something different is why the same clichéd images are trotted out again and again.

Although we work in the business to business marketing arena, we are still at the end of the day marketing to a person. A person who is more than likely inundated with hundreds of emails a week, vying for their attention, trying to cut through. Why can’t we bring in some ‘consumer’ ideas to B2B marketing? Granted, selling a piece of business intelligence software isn’t as remotely fun as selling iProducts but does that really mean we have to stayed in a clichéd world?

I recently worked on a campaign where the client was willing to push the boundaries of traditional B2B imagery in their campaign. Their exact words were “I’d rather seek forgiveness than ask for permission.” Of course we made sure the correct logos were used, but our inspiration for the look and the feel of the campaign came from that very popular site www.someecards.com. Slightly retro imagery, bold colours, starbursts and witty headlines!

Nothing like you see in their corporate branding guidelines let me tell you. And you certainly wouldn’t find any of the images we used in the 101 clichés!

Someecards, meme’s, Pinterest, trends on Twitter…these can all be places for inspiration on how to break through the barriers of “boring” B2B marketing.

The post B2B marketing doesn’t have to be clichéd appeared first on Green Hat.

Having worked in the UK for several years I was really looking forward to the London event for two reasons – one to catch up with past colleagues and clients and two to hear “the next big idea” in B2B Marketing. I personally have always viewed the UK/Europe as trendsetters in this area, as the two times I’ve returned to Australia from my UK working stints, I came armed with skills & knowledge that either hadn’t yet emerged in Australia or were just on the cusp.

Unfortunately, only one of my expectations was met at the London event, which was catching up with past colleagues and clients. I had several people say to me very quizzically “What on earth are you doing here? Are you back?”. Otherwise, the several presentations I sat in were very much reiterating the current buzz words, phrases and topics that I already knew about. The next big idea was not revealed. Not to say that the day wasn’t interesting & worthwhile, but I did come away slightly disappointed.

 Here are some of the more interesting tidbits from the London Funnel event (all from my perspective and IMHO):

• I liked how Silverpop took the time to talk about the difference between a CRM system and a Marketing Automation System and how the two interface with each other. I think it’s still something people can get confused about, so it was good to see it on a simple slide.
• I was very surprised to learn that the first Sales & Marketing funnel was created by St. Elmo Lewis (what a cool name) in 1898 (fact courtesy of Brendan Dineen, IBM).
• Andrew Freeman from CRM Technologies (my previous employers) likened the buyers journey to a game of snakes & ladders – it’s all about have the mechanisms in place to help buyers navigate their journey up a ladder or down a snake where relevant.
• I thought I was aware of all of Twitter tools, but I learned about a new one at this event from Kieran Flanagan, Marketo called FollowerWonk. It’s a bio search engine for Twitter that helps you find influencers and who influences them.

Econsultancy published a great list of the “50+ key takeaways and soundbites from Funnel 2012” which you can find here.

Green Hat were fortunate to be a Gold Sponsor for the Sydney Funnel event, which was the first time it had been run in Australia. I think we are sadly lacking in events purely focussed on B2B marketing in Australia, so when we learned about this opportunity we leapt at the chance to be a part of it!

After landing back in the country at 7am, I managed to make it to the event to catch the second half of the second key note speaker of the morning. Thank goodness it was an image focused presentation as my head was still spinning.

As I slowly composed myself, I settled into a routine of attending sessions and manning the Green Hat booth we had in the networking area. Maybe at the Australian event “the next big idea” would present itself.

Alas, it was not to be. I did enjoy the more balanced mix of speakers at the Sydney event, as I felt the London event was too vendor heavy. But it was more of the same buzz words, phrases and topics. I was very pleased to see that our MD took my advice and did his presentation in a Prezi format and not in PPT, as that was a hotly discussed topic at the London event. I’m still surprised how many people are NOT using this more engaging way of presenting information. Once you know how to use the tool, you’ll never look back. I was also delighted to see his presentation focus on the down & dirty side of execution and how to really make a lead engine work.

 Again, here are some of the more interesting tidbits from the Sydney Funnel event (all from my perspective and IMHO):

• The one true lightbulb moment for me came courtesy of Rowan Hetherington from IBM. Rowan spoke about breaking free from the shackles of our concepts of past marketing learning – the distinction between ATL and BTL, measuring in different ways, the notion that activity is made up of one off push ‘campaigns’. Why do we still feel like we must adhere to old principles in this very different world?
• Rowan also introduced me to a new word “constituency”. Basically, those members of your tranditional audience that are actually engaged, that have put their hand up and want to be involved & are seeking change. These are the people marketing need to concentrate on, not the masses.
• I wasn’t able to make it to the very packed session on LinkedIn presented by Tom Skotidas, but upon reading his slide deck it was great to see some numbers on the costs & what to expect when using LinkedIn as a lead generation tool.
• Hayley Clarke from Optus Business (one of our clients) presented on the topic of “B2B Marketing: It’s much more than acquisition” and one of the main things I took away from her presentation was the concept of a common language that defines a customer lifecycle journey. So no matter what department you are talking/dealing with in your organisation, when talking about the customer you use the same language and key terms.
• Jason Davey from bullseye presented a fantastic slide on mapping the digital customer journey to the elements that make up your customer website/marketing platforms.
• Tood Wheatland presented my second favourite new word that I learned at Funnel…”Flawsome”. Be real with your customers & prospects. Show them who you really are, film that video in your office, be human in your online presense. Gone are the days of the flashy salesman and over the top product pitches. We at Green Hat are proud of our battle scars and mistakes and believe it makes us better marketers.

Unfortunately there is no corresponding “50+ key takeaways and soundbites from Funnel 2012” for the Sydney event, but if you hunt around on twitter for the hashtag of “#funnel12, there have been other summaries and blog posts written about the Sydney event.

Between the two events, there were a few similar and overriding themes:

• Integrating inbound marketing is become just as essential as effective outbound marketing.
• Content, content, content.
• If you ignore or still don’t “get” social, your days are numbered.

If you were new to B2B Marketing, these events would have filled your brain with knowledge and really aided your education. If you are a seasoned B2B practitioner, you would have thought “great, I know what I know, but really…what’s next”.

If I had input into organising a B2B Marketing event, I would try and find speakers that have “been there and done that” as I believe that is what people want to hear about now. Most attendees at these events know what they need to be doing for success in 2013 and beyond, but they are searching for the how, they want to know what is best practice, what mistakes to avoid, what pitfalls are ahead. They really don’t need to hear from another vendor selling their wares or the high level concepts around lead nurture, marketing automation, content planning, B2B media etc etc. Find those companies like Green Hat with the scars and experience to really shed some light on the execution pieces of this complex puzzle we call B2B Marketing!

Did you attend either event? What did you think?

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