Online Marketing Trends
The Latest Online Media Trends,Analysis,News,Research on Online Advertising,Social Media,Search Marketing and More
Posts tagged b2b marketing
Aug 11 '10
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The State of Online B2B Marketing: What Lies Beneath
Here are some of the best B2B online marketing trends and statistics which have been compiled from many websites. I hope that some of my readers who are b2b marketers might find these links interesting.While there might be many sites which i may have missed, I would appreciate if you could send me more b2b resources which would be web marketers. Special thanks to Adam Bache of socialmedia b2b and Sarah Chong
Usage:
- 86% of B2B firms are using social, compared to 82% of B2C.
- B2B firms aren’t as active in their social media activity with only 32% engaging on a daily basis compared with 52% of B2C firms.
- More than half (53.5%) of marketers surveyed said they currently use social media as part of their marketing strategy. as compared to 45% in 2009
- 81 % of B2B companies have accounts on social media sites compared to 67% of B2C
- 75% of B2B brands participate in Twitter versus 49% of B2C
Forecasts:
- Annual growth in US B2B online marketing is set to reach 14% by 2012. and to $54 million in 2014.
- B2B advertising spend on social media and lead generation sites is to grow at an annualized rate of 21% and 17% respectively in 2013.
- Online accounted for 7% of the B2B marketing mix in 2008. This is set to reach 12% by 2013. (Source)
- Two thirds of B2B marketers believe that online must be complemented by traditional marketing activities. (Source)
- Only 50% of B2B marketers formally analyze metrics to judge ROI – B2B marketing spending on social networking sites is predicted to rise 43.3%. (Source)
Decision Makers Interest:
- 36% of B2B execs surveyed said there was low executive interest in social media in their company, compared with 9% of B2C marketers who said the same. (Source)
- 46% of B2B respondents said social media was perceived as irrelevant to their company, while only 12% of consumer-oriented marketers had the same problem. (Source)
- Eight out of Ten IT decision makers said word of mouth is the most important source when making buying decisions
Focus:
- According to an eMarketer study, B2B online marketers focus on lead generation (38%), retention (34%) and awareness (28%). (Source)
- The top applications for the use of social media for b2b marketers are thought leadership (59.8%), lead generation (48.9%), customer feedback (45.7%) and advertising on sites (34.7%). (Source)
- 93% of B2B buyers use a search engine such as Google to begin the buying process
- 81% of B2B companies maintain company-related accounts or profiles on social media sites versus 67% of B2C
- 75% of B2Bers participate in microblogging (eg. Twitter) versus 49% of B2Cers
- Just 16 of the FTSE 100 companies are using Twitter, despite the fact that 20% of Tweets contain a reference to a product or brand
Distribution Channels:
- Asked to rate the effectiveness of specific social media sites in their marketing efforts, more than one-half of respondents said that
- Facebook was “extremely” or “somewhat” effective. Somewhat fewer said the same of LinkedIn, and just 35% considered Twitter effective.
- In contrast, when Hubspot surveyed B2B companies in North America about lead generation through social channels, 45% rated LinkedIn effective, compared with just 33% who said the same of Facebook.
- Methods generating the highest B2B ROI are topped by advertisers’ own websites, followed by conferences, exhibitions and trade shows; direct mail; search engine keywords; and e-marketing/e-newsletters.
- 7 out of 10 buyers say that they start their buying process at vendor sites, not Google
- 89% of journalists make use of blogs while conducting their online research and 96% turn to corporate websites
Measurement
- 34% of B2B marketers said they were not measuring social success at all versus just 10% of B2C respondents. (Source)
- Website traffic, brand awareness, engagement with prospects and engagement with customers are the leading metrics used to measure the success of social media for B2B companies. (Source)
- 54% of CIOs prohibit use of social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, while at work
Resource Allocation:
- 60% of B2B firms have no staff dedicated to social media compared with 54% of B2C players. (Source)
- Just 10% of B2B firms use outside agencies or consultants compared with 28% of B2C firms. (Source)
- B2B product marketers were spending an average of 3.4% of their marketing budgets on social media in February 2010, and B2B services marketers were spending 6.5%.
- Within online marketing, the top areas that will see spending increases include Web site development (70.7% plan increases), email marketing (68.6%), search marketing (62.3%), social media (60.3%), video (50.7%) and webcasts (46.0%) (Source)
Jul 23 '10
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No matter what your product might be.. We all are at the bottom of the pyramid talking to humans , people who want to be a part of a conversation.Users to would love to be pampered, and consumers who would like to get your attention no matter how big and powerful you are..Markets are ultimately conversations and your users might communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can’t be faked.While most b2b marketers in terms of distribution channels across the digital space probably do the same things ( webminar/white papers/PDf Download, vertical social networks, Videos ) , Cisco has really raised the benchmark on how a product should be integrated and not hard sold across their business verticals!!As the Cluetrain Manifesto sums up in the most apt manner ,.
“Its time we stopped thinking of marketing as a one-way propaganda campaign or a mere Broadcast.”Being talked to, preached at, or lectured to by those trying to win our business is generally felt as annoying, not persuasive. As clients, we don’t respond to conventional, one-way, “packaged” marketing because it doesn’t answer the questions we have when we are trying to buy, nor tell us what we need to know.If you want to influence your consumers, give them the chance to talk to you, about their needs, wishes, and wants.If you really want my business, let’s talk; let’s have a conversation.
Corporate firewalls have kept smart employees in and smart markets out. It’s going to cause real pain to tear those walls down. But the result will be a new kind of conversation. And it will be the most exciting conversation business has ever engaged in.Popular b2b Marcom Blogger Diana Huff shares her thoughts on how Cisco has managed to used the web to distrupt ,influence and raise awareness and re-inforce perceptions about their products . Click here to read how CISCO ‘s online Strategy was so refreshing and what other Brands need to learn from CISCO
B2b Marketing Lessons from Cisco
Among all b2b Online Marketing Campaigns, Cisco probably has used the digital medium in the most innovative and disruptive way. Cisco has truly mastered the art of differentiated Branding across the web through their amazingly superb Videos, Blogs and other distribution touch points. This is probably the same route which most other b2b marketers would go … but would fail to do with such a high degree of scientific precision and artistic execution . What most of us probably fail to understand ( specially b2b business ) that its not the business which you are in, but its the people who are in that business matter most..
No matter what your product might be.. We all are at the bottom of the pyramid talking to humans , people who want to be a part of a conversation.Users to would love to be pampered, and consumers who would like to get your attention no matter how big and powerful you are..Markets are ultimately conversations and your users might communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can’t be faked.While most b2b marketers in terms of distribution channels across the digital space probably do the same things ( webminar/white papers/PDf Download, vertical social networks, Videos ) , Cisco has really raised the benchmark on how a product should be integrated and not hard sold across their business verticals!!As the Cluetrain Manifesto sums up in the most apt manner ,.
“Its time we stopped thinking of marketing as a one-way propaganda campaign or a mere Broadcast.”Being talked to, preached at, or lectured to by those trying to win our business is generally felt as annoying, not persuasive. As clients, we don’t respond to conventional, one-way, “packaged” marketing because it doesn’t answer the questions we have when we are trying to buy, nor tell us what we need to know.If you want to influence your consumers, give them the chance to talk to you, about their needs, wishes, and wants.If you really want my business, let’s talk; let’s have a conversation.
Today’s Consumers are getting hyperlinked even as markets are. Companies need to listen carefully to both. Mostly, they need to get out of the way so intranetworked employees can converse directly with internetworked markets.
Corporate firewalls have kept smart employees in and smart markets out. It’s going to cause real pain to tear those walls down. But the result will be a new kind of conversation. And it will be the most exciting conversation business has ever engaged in.Popular b2b Marcom Blogger Diana Huff shares her thoughts on how Cisco has managed to used the web to distrupt ,influence and raise awareness and re-inforce perceptions about their products . Click here to read how CISCO ‘s online Strategy was so refreshing and what other Brands need to learn from CISCO
Jul 23 '10
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Routers and Social Networking:The Cisco Story
Building a Community with Social Media and Web 2.0 - A Cisco Product Launch Case Study
View more presentations from LaSandra Brill.
This is the second part of my post on : “How Cisco has been able to use social media ” to market something as utterly boring as Routers” .
Most of B2b Online Marketing Campaigns have a limited bandwidth to experiment on their Online Strategies.While the objective of the B2b Marketers is to establish thought leadership and build relationship with their potential business channels, unlike their B2c counterparts where the primary motive remains lead generation and establishing brand awareness.Social Media in a b2b environment is an experience and not an event. Most Brands using Social Media continue to use traditional web1.0 tactics..forgetting that social media is about co creation, collaboration, crowd sourcing and Integrating your brands experience with user perception.Instead of making users a part of your brand experience .. they are too busy broadcasting one way messages…rather than engaging with them
The biggest lesson here is this: Routers aren’t sexy. If Cisco can make a router exciting enough for social media, you too can utilize social media to create a buzz about your product or service.LaSandra Brill, manager of Web and social media marketing at Cisco discussed the tactics and results of the ASR 1000 launch at one of the Social Media Marketing Summit.I have reproduced Brill’s presentation on SlideShare.
ASR 100 Launch Campaign Steps
1.Created a fun micro site directed at uber users (the tech and early adopter audience) to help create and spread buzz.
2.Cross posted videos from the micro site to YouTube to extend reach.
3. Established Second Life presence that included a countdown calculator and pre event live concert to increase visibility; research showed much of their audience is on Second Life.
4. Created a FaceBook group to cater to users not part of Second Life.
5. Created an interactive 3D game - Edge Quest - to attract the large gaming audience.
6. Created a widget that holds a collection of key videos, documents and images that allows sharing for their content, while remaining on their server.
7. Blogged about it on the Cisco blog to try and intrigue bloggers and customers.
8. Heightened buzz with press with a vague two paragraph teaser press release to extend press coverage and fuel buzz.
9. Created a social media release to reach out to bloggers.
10. Introduced product via live online event; video on Second Life that was cross posted on FaceBook and YouTube.
11. Created ‘Ask the Expert’ - a forum where customers could talk to the engineers that created the product.According to Cisco “they met their goal of increasing visibility and involving their audience by using the social Web, creating buzz and building a community at a negligible cost; a soft cost that involved time, resources, and creativity instead ofbudget.
<script src=”http://b.scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js?c1=7&c2=7400849&c3=1&c4=&c5=&c6=”></script>4. Created a FaceBook group to cater to users not part of Second Life.
5. Created an interactive 3D game - Edge Quest - to attract the large gaming audience.
6. Created a widget that holds a collection of key videos, documents and images that allows sharing for their content, while remaining on their server.
7. Blogged about it on the Cisco blog to try and intrigue bloggers and customers.
8. Heightened buzz with press with a vague two paragraph teaser press release to extend press coverage and fuel buzz.
9. Created a social media release to reach out to bloggers.
10. Introduced product via live online event; video on Second Life that was cross posted on FaceBook and YouTube.
11. Created ‘Ask the Expert’ - a forum where customers could talk to the engineers that created the product.According to Cisco “they met their goal of increasing visibility and involving their audience by using the social Web, creating buzz and building a community at a negligible cost; a soft cost that involved time, resources, and creativity instead ofbudget.
