B2b Marketing Minute

A recent article on a BtoB Marketing website titled “Facebook user satisfaction dips; could face user exodus,” reports that the online service’s customer satisfaction has hit an all-time low. In fact, half of those questioned in an informal poll were prepared to abandon the social network in favor of Google+. Isn’t that one of our dreams as marketers? Have the switching costs be so high, that folks would rather stay with you than go through the pain of moving?

The 2011 Arketi Web Watch Survey: Inside BtoB Media Usage of Social Media is hot off the press and reveals BtoB media continue to have a rich appetite for using social media tools. This year's survey found that 92 percent of journalists have a LinkedIn account, an increase from 85 percent from the 2009 survey. Find out where journalists are getting their story ideas and which channels you can utilize to engage with target audiences.

As BtoB marketers, we know what follows flies in the face of all that’s instinctive. But the time has come for all of us to confront a tough reality – some of our prospect relationships just aren’t working anymore. And it may be time to turn these prospects loose.

The email newsletter has become a mainstay of every BtoB marketing mix. But as the novelty of getting a newsletter in one’s inbox has worn off, open rates and clickthroughs have declined. Much of this can be remedied by making the enewsletter more relevant, targeted and just plain interesting. In parallel to content and segmentation efforts, enewsletter design can also be tweaked to yield better results by keeping 4 key points in mind.

Arketi interviewed Jim Novy, founder of IT Marketing World, to discuss the growing online community made up of the best and brightest information technology marketing and PR professionals. The online community is committed to establishing and refining industry best practices for communications professionals working in technology organizations.

Did you know that 90 percent of BtoB organizations are now engaged in content marketing? In addition, more than a quarter of a BtoB organization’s marketing budget this year alone will be spent on content marketing. WOW!

As the numbers of mobile device users continue to increase, so does the amount of people who rely on mobile apps on a regular basis. After reading an entertaining article in Lexusmagazine on the top mobile apps for Lexus owners, it got us thinking, “What are the top apps for BtoB technology marketers?” After posing this question to the Arketi team, we discuss five of our Top 10 mobile apps.

Arketi’s fourth annual Atlanta High-Tech CMO Roundtable featured marketing and PR executives from leading technology companies throughout the Southeast. The collection of top marketing and PR minds gathered to discuss the current and future state of BtoB marketing, and four common themes emerged.

In today’s marketing world, “print collateral” is a deceptive term. To meet the demands of today’s digital world, collateral pieces must translate beyond print and into digital formats. This new definition has resulted in marketers shifting design philosophy to remain effective in all media and accommodate the widest audience possible.

Every executive wants to see the words “Industry Expert” in front of his or her name. In the quest for thought leadership, the speaker circuit can drive both brand awareness and lead generation—if executed strategically. Arketi believes there are five main elements to building a successful speakers bureau.

Over the past year, the use of video marketing has rapidly increased. Researchers have found that half of Internet users watch videos at least weekly and three-quarters watch professionally-produced online videos regularly. Arketi believes there are five main elements to effective BtoB videos.

One of Arketi Group’s digital designers, Charles, shares his musings from the MODxpo 2010 in Dallas, a two-day conference to discuss the hottest and most advanced content management system (CMS). This is a quick dive into how the next-generation of CMS tools “helps even regular individuals manage content on their websites simply, quickly and intuitively.”

At Arketi, we recommend applying the principals of nurture marketing to recapture unfulfilled sales through strategic communications and continual outreach. Before lead nurturing can occur for an unfulfilled lead, you must identify why it was “lost” in the first place. Recognizing when and why a lead moved on from your company is critical to knowing how to best reach out to them in the future.

Recent industry studies have indicated that BtoB companies will invest as much as one-third of their total marketing budgets in developing lead nurturing content. While this may be a smart investment, many companies will not reap the rewards due to the absence of a comprehensive content strategy. Three-dimensional content mapping, as the name suggests, consists of three different strategic components.

As more BtoB companies begin ramping up their content marketing efforts, the role of clear, well-structured writing has never been greater. While grammatically correct writing is a start, copy that is direct and compelling is just as important in today’s attention-challenged, time-sensitive marketing world. Arketi Group highlights three common mistakes in business writing that plague even the best of us.

Arketi’s third annual Atlanta High-Tech CMO Roundtable featured marketing executives from leading technology companies throughout the Southeast. The collection of top marketing minds gathered to discuss the current and future state of BtoB marketing, and a handful of themes emerged.

Putting on our analytics cap to ensure efforts contribute to the bottom line for clients, the Arketi team is trying to better understand the metrics that matter most in B2B search engine marketing. To continue our Measurements that Matter series, we spoke with Jen Horton, Senior Research Director of SiriusDecisions.