It’s funny how so many business-to-business marketers take themselves so seriously. And ironic, how the world at large doesn’t.

Unfortunately, B2B seems to have an image problem. But the thing is, it’s never been a more exciting time to be on this side of the industry. Fact. And there are lots of them.

That’s why we produced our follow up to vital statistics for b2b marketers – providing a veritable feast of new statistics for our counterparts to digest.

The aim: to capture the B2B zeitgeist, helping people make sense of what’s really going on out there.

Our guiding principles: to make it useful and capture the charm and element of surprise we’ve built our brand around.

It made sense to create an infographic to support the film. And slightly less sense to produce tea towels featuring the infographic. But then again who doesn’t want to learn about the big shifts in B2B while drying the dishes.

B2B marketing boring? We like to prove otherwise.

But this isn’t just about us – there are a whole host of facts and stats hidden away that we want you to share to help B2B marketers at large.

Introducing…the great tea towel giveaway

Over the coming months Earnest will be giving away one Vital Statistics for B2B Marketers Tea Towel a week from here on in until stocks run out.

All you need to do to get your hands on one is simply tweet @earnestagency your best B2B marketing statistic featuring the hash tag: #b2bvitalstats

Each week we’ll send one lucky tweeter a Tea Towel to do with as they please (suggestions welcome in the comments section)

So make yourself a cuppa, get tweeting and we’ll help out with the washing up.

Metrics. Measurement. ROI

Three little things responsible for marketers across the world waking up in cold sweats at night.

The thing is being a b2b marketer is not easy at the moment.

Your customers’ buying behaviours are changing, industry experts are shoving social and digital myths down your neck and worst of all your CEO is losing patience with woolly results from marketing campaigns.

Then came along big data. The measurement super hero. Ready and waiting with his team of insight tools, analytics experts and reams of spread sheets to give the answers marketers have been yearning after for so long.

However, as was clear from a recent debate hosted by ABBA and IAB, there’s a sticking point or two that is shadowing marketing from the shining light of insight

Issue one: The baffling complexity of the systems

There is a plethora of systems that can help marketers gain insight into their customers, and their campaigns. The likes of Eloqua, Silverpop and Hubspot shine a light on what prospects are doing and how they are interacting with your business. Who is visiting your site? What are they looking at? Where are they in the buying cycle? Unfortunately, to effectively use these systems your business needs highly trained and skilled specialists. The truth of the matter is the skills gap is huge and until this problem is fixed and marketers are fully educated and trained to use them, useful data insights will remain locked away.

Issue two: The sales marketing divide

During the debate it was clear one old issue remained a sticking point for businesses – the sales/marketing divide. The entrenched frustrations that exist between the two departments ring true as ever when it comes to big data. The crux of the issue is that sales don’t think they are getting the right insight and information about the prospects (and whether they are in fact a warm, qualified lead) and marketing often doesn’t get feedback, information and insight into what is ticking the right boxes for prospects to shape future communications. Until we begin to see unity between the old foes, businesses realistically will never see the true value of big data.

Issue three: Technology is not the answer to all marketing woes

There was a clear theme that came through in the heated discussion. Marketers, struggling to connect with an ever changing customer, believe that big data is the answer to all their woes. And sadly it is not. The data can shine a light on your customers, their issues and how they interact and respond to your campaigns – but without the right messaging, creative and strategy in place from the start activity is ultimately set to fail. Sadly big data is not the medicine for bad marketing.

Issue four: Balancing insight with intuition

While big data is relatively new to the world of b2b marketing, comprehensive data and analytics have been used to make big decisions in sport for years. Particularly in Formula 1, managers are forced to make split second decisions based on hard data that sits at odds with their gut feeling. The question is; are b2b marketers ready to question their current tactics if the data says do the opposite? Are they willing to target a whole new audience if insight says their purchaser is changing? The data can throw up some challenging questions – but who is willing to face up to them?

It’s clear the future is bright for marketers, and the reams of data and insight will only help maximise the effectiveness of marketing activity. But until these barriers are conquered, big data will remain the baffling beast it is today.

If I’ve read it once I’ve read it one thousand times.

600 – 800 words is the optimum. Always tweet about it on a Tuesday. And definitely start with a joke. Everyone loves a joke.

It’s with great trepidation, therefore, that this blog post touching on that very topic is written.

But don’t flick over to Facebook just yet. This isn’t the usual gumpf giving ’12 crazy tips to make the perfect blog post’

This is a rallying call.

The problem is a lot of b2b blogs have become a bit plain boring. The plethora of content we see blocking up our Hootsuite streams talking about the same old thing.

‘Steal like an artist’, a fantastic book by the very insightful Austin Kleon, made us sit up and think about what really makes a great blog.

So where are we going wrong? And how do we get back on track?

Write about what you want to read. Not what you know.

It’s quite amazing the amount of ‘expert bloggers’ that write the same blog post with a different title on such a regular basis.

Do you really want to read about the same thing day in day out? No.

So write what you would want to read. What is really interesting? What is in the news that day? What is it, if you were the reader, that would make you glad you spent the last 10 minutes reading your blog and not getting on with that all important proposal? Only ever write what you would want to read.

So where do you start?

Staring at the screen isn’t going to help anybody. Reading the same old things are only going to make you write about the same old things.

What really interests you? What inspires you? How can you put a spin on this to make it relevant to your readers? We have recently developed a penchant for behavioural psychology – and believe what marketers can learn is huge. So we write about it.

Always inspire people. Always make them think. Always spark discussion. That’s what ‘social media’ is really all about. If you are not doing that, highlight your blog post and hit delete. It’s the best thing for it.

And stop writing about the same thing. Just because you are a social media, or a content marketing or an SEO ‘specialist’ doesn’t mean you spout the same old message in each post.

Get down on paper what interests you not your ‘followers’.

Some people will love what you have to say. Some will hate it. That’s brilliant.

And remember – sharing really is caring.

The blog is one of the founding fathers of social media. Social is about sharing. Not just sharing your blog but sharing your knowledge. Sharing your strategy.  Sharing your unique ideas. It might get stolen. But that doesn’t matter. You can steal stuff yourself.

Not just from the B2B bubble but across the industry across the world.

What is the charity sector doing that we can learn from? What new technology is being used by Indian advertising agencies? How are small cake shops engaging their customers online? There is a wealth of knowledge to learn from out there. Take it.

Finally, always mix with the right people. Read the best blogs from other agencies. Chat up the right people at events and learn what interests them. Talk to your most intelligent clients about what floats their boat.

Some stuff you will agree with, others will make your blood boil. But use that to shape your next post. It’s a therapeutic process with great results.

So come on world. Fill up our twitter feeds with something people actually want to read. Not another 15 tips every average marketer needs to know.

Thank you.

‘You marketing lot just stick a few pictures in PowerPoints and brochures don’t you?’

How we giggled.

While these views are clearly archaic, it does highlight an on-going issue that we marketers face – ‘how do we show the real value we add to the business?’

For the majority of other departments this job is easy.

Sales guys can show directly where they are adding to the bottom line. Tech guys can launch new products on a yearly basis with a big bang. But marketing? It’s all slightly less tangible.

But, there is no doubt that things are beginning to change.

CMOs are increasingly respected by the board (on which many now sit). Innovative campaigns, branding and marketing programmes have helped companies across the world pull themselves through the ‘sticky patch’ some refer to as a global recession.

Despite this, there is still work to do for marketers to get the respect and love they indeed deserve.

And there’s good news. There’s still a big gap in most organisations. It’s a marketing shaped hole that desperately needs filling.

What is it? The educator within the business.

Why? Well the clue is in the name. Marketing’s primary role is too know the market better than anyone else in the company, and to have to use this insight to help drive the business strategy.

As buyer habits develop and prospects spend increasing amount of time researching products, the market and their business issues– the insatiable thirst for knowledge and insight needs to be fed.

They are looking for more information online, asking more demanding questions from sales and being far more testing when it comes to finding out if their potential supplier really knows their onions.

So how does marketing successfully fulfil this role as the educator within the business?

First up – start to build your own knowledge base.

The internal education process rests on the marketing team putting their ears to the ground to know what’s going on out there.

Make use of all the brilliant blogs, tweets, articles and discussions relevant to your industry that are out there and take to soak up the reams of content that’s available (and free!).

Where to start? Set up your Hootsuite account, sign up to relevant RSS feeds, follow key words through Google alerts and get reading.

Turn your knowledge into educational content

There is nothing quite as frustrating (or wasteful) as tacit knowledge. While getting your head around your industry and customer issues is great, if it isn’t effectively passed on to the rest of the business the task is largely useless.

Develop content that clearly and easily explains what you believe is fundamental for everyone in the business to understand. Whether it’s customer pain points, upcoming legislation or changing marketing trends – this stuff is important, and valuable to every person in the organisation.

One of Earnest’s favourite examples of this is the 8 minute expert – a short guide for the sales team to get into the head of the customer while over a quick coffee or while they are waiting in reception before a meeting.

Simple. Yet effective.

Get your face out there

It’s about time marketing started getting their face out into the business. The reason for the pig headed quips from the cynic in the corner is because they simply aren’t shouting about what they are doing and how they can help.

Time for this to change.

Our advice? Set up a series of internal briefings on different topics (one a week if you can), invite everyone along and turn it into a bit of a discussion session (or knowledge share for our more corporate audience)

Most importantly have a real open door policy. Marketing should be flooded with visits from every department hunting for the answer to the question that means they can understand the business a little bit better and do their job a lot better.

Develop your internal social network

To encourage a culture of learning within the organisation – marketing should be owning the show in developing a platform the foster this.

Whether it’s a simple intranet system or the more socially focused yammer site – online is the ideal way for individuals across the business to share what they have learned, what’s on their customers minds at the moment and hot topics to look out for.

Stay in it for the long term – keep blogging and enjoying the quick wins

A lot can be said for keeping your own networks flowing with content relevant for your business peers. The simple wins are often the best when it comes to educating internally.

Create a personal blog and write every week, tweet about what interests you and share interesting content with your peers through LinkedIn.

All you have to make sure to do everyone internally is listening. Simple.

And there is no time like the present. It’s time to read the next blog. Do a bit of delving into what’s going on out there. And tweet about this one. And share it with your colleagues of course.

You are now the educator. Don’t take the role lightly.

The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, also known as Davos, is now in its 40 something year. It’s raison d’etre: to provide an unrivalled platform for leaders from all walks of life to shape the global, regional, industry and business agendas.

While it’s easy to dismiss Davos as simply one big knees up mother brown for the world’s elite, you could argue it is, amongst other things, an important bellwether of the pressing issues and priorities of businesses globally.

Take this year’s theme: ‘Resilient Dynamism’.

As founder of the forum, Klaus Schwab argues it’s now time to look beyond crisis management: “Future growth requires bold vision and bolder action”.

Excuse the corporate speak but there’s more: “We live in the most complex, interdependent and interconnected era in human history – a reality we know as the hyper-connected world… (it) requires successful companies to demonstrate strategic agility and to possess risk resilience.”

So the message to businesses in a nutshell: if you don’t adapt – and keep on adapting – you’ve had it.

Social makes the top table 

The business agenda specifically had three key themes: one about creating new value and reshaping business models; another about how to leverage advances in science, technology and medicine; and the final one, how to adapt to the future evolution of social technology.

Yes, social has climbed the ranks and is now firmly on the agenda of the top table. You may not be banging on a closed door for much longer.

The big 5 

We didn’t have the privilege of attending (but happy to get an invite next year Klaus). However, here’s what we learnt from doing a bit of digging:

1. Big business beware: this Internet thing is empowering the underdog

For underdog, read you, me, your next door neighbour. Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress, shared some David and Goliath stories to set the cat amongst the pigeons. The businesses who had at their peril upset the little man, only for that single voice to quickly multiply online.

http://forumblog.org/2013/01/online-we-can-act-as-a-fifth-estate/

2. Big data yes, but there are some sticky privacy issues to address

Several sessions seemed to talk up the big data opportunity as the penny seems to have dropped that mining the rich vein of data now available on our every move can be used to real competitive gain. Ellen Richey, Chief Enterprise Risk Officer at Visa sensibly argued that for the promise of big data to be fulfilled, there’s got to be a real emphasis on building trust in the way that data is being used. In other words, if you’re going to use my data for commercial gain, what’s in it for me?

http://forumblog.org/2013/01/will-the-promise-of-big-data-be-realised/

3. The race for ever greater business productivity is stifling creativity

Shantanu Naraven, CEO at Adobe argued the case for creativity – with some hard facts. Apparently 8 out of 10 people surveyed believe that unlocking creativity is critical to economic growth. That said, only 1 in 4 people think they are actually living up to their own creative potential – believing productivity, not creativity, is what employers demand. Naraven summed up that everyone can be a creator and share their creations today – ideally using Adobe’s software. Sorry we added that last bit. Snide comments aside, we’re with you Mr Naraven.

http://forumblog.org/2013/01/is-data-killing-creativity/

4. Fail to understand who buys your stuff and what they really want at your peril

Mark Spelman, MD at Accenture shared his thoughts on the 10 ways consumers are changing and why it’s important. He reported that 73% of consumers surveyed say they have increasingly been using the Internet to research and buy products and services in the last three years. And lots are using social media as well. Picture the scene, lots of business leaders incredulous that this Internet thing is finally catching on – busy taking notes and wondering where they can buy it. Anyway, common sense prevailed and Spelman advised that it’s no longer about the ‘where’ and ‘who’ of selling but the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of consumption. Being able to understand and act on these changes is the key to generating profitable revenue growth.

http://forumblog.org/2013/01/10-ways-consumers-are-changing/

5. It’s all about playing the long game

S.D. Shiblulal, CEO of Infosys got to the heart of the challenges proccupying business leaders today – and stated the case for focusing on the long-term. Basically, agility and speed of response are critical in overcoming short-term challenges, but resilience determines the long-term fortunes of an enterprise. He went on to say that essentially a long-term is nothing but a series of short terms, so it’s important to overcome the short-term stuff with a firm view on the emerging future. Glad he cleared that one up. However, there were some strong themes: about tuning into mega trends; living with constantly changing business cycles (they’re here to stay) and the need of enterprises to fulfill their social contracts – to give back from society from which they take so much.

http://forumblog.org/2013/01/the-challenges-facing-business-leaders-at-davos/

And there you have it. Davos 2013 – in one handy guide that’s excluded all the important political frolicking that makes the headlines. We hope you enjoyed your armchair visit as much as we did.

As a marketer, you’re now under more pressure than ever to prove your worth – and demonstrate ROI.

Your budget is under scrutiny – and no doubt, you need to put forward a strong case to justify your spend.

So what do you do?

Be bullish about the potential return – ever optimistic about your ability to deliver the goods, but knowing it’s the only way you’ll get go-ahead.

Or take a more bearish approach – assuming a more grounded, perhaps pessimistic view (clearly with the aim of exceeding expectations)  - but at the same time, risking the powers that be pulling the plug on your grand plans.

Well, at a guess, we’d probably say you’re predisposed to be more bull than bear.

It’s something psychologist Daniel Kahneham in his fine and highly recommended book ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ describes as the ‘Planning Fallacy’.

When it comes to forecasting, he argues misplaced optimism pervades.

One of the examples he cites is a study examining rail projects undertaken worldwide over a 30 year period: In more than 90% of the cases, the number of passengers projected to use the system was over-estimated. And despite these shortfalls being widely publicised – forecasts simply did not improve. In fact, planners over-estimated passenger numbers by 106%.

The Planning Fallacy is about making plans and forecasts that are based on the information we have in front of us (at best) – and failing to allow for the ‘unknown unknowns’. It’s about us tending to unrealistically base our forecasts on the best-case scenario.

Guilty?

So what’s the cure?

While we can’t foresee the unknowns, Kahneham argues that to overcome the Planning Fallacy and improve our forecasts, we need to consult the statistics of similar cases – where possible referring to distributional information. He calls this the outside view.

In simple terms:

i) Identify your reference class (Earnest view: business-to-business reference classes will clearly provide a better reference point than B2C if you’re in the B2B game)

ii) Obtain the statistics of the reference class to provide a base line prediction (Earnest view: okay, can be tricky to come by but there are more and more B2B benchmarking studies available)

iii) Use specific information about your project to adjust your baseline prediction (Earnest view: look at the variables you’re playing with, what you’ve learned from previous campaigns and in particular what you don’t know – for instance, if you’re using a new unproven data set – then err on the side of caution and adjust your predictions downwards).

Adopt this approach and chances are your forecasts will be more accurate and less risky, but ultimately it’s over to you to determine how you set the expectations of your stakeholders.

However, continuing to over-promise and under-deliver can only prove more damaging for your reputation within the organisation.

We’d argue the case for realism.

Some campaigns will no doubt deliver way above forecast, some less so. But by demonstrating more rigour in your planning – and building the confidence of stakeholders by delivering on your promises – the more marketing will show its worth and gain the respect it truly deserves.

When you next download an app to your phone, however, think twice before ticking that little box before you have read the small print.

This week Juniper released its research into the security of mobile apps and the findings were quite shocking.

As reported in the London Evening Standard, 7% of mobile apps can access the address book on your phone and send them back to the app owner.

And watch out which snaps you take on holiday – 5.5% of free apps can access your mobile phone’s camera.

But when you get further into the report things look more sinister

2.5% of apps downloaded for free can send text messages or make phone calls on your behalf and most worryingly some apps can even listen to ambient conversations in a room using your mobile phone.

Don’t go wiping your phone just yet though – most of these capabilities have been accidently programmed into the app and most are not used for the owners gain.

And if you are on Apple’s iOS things are looking pretty safe, the majority of these apps come through the other app stores.

Still, next time you are confronted by the 30 pages and 15,000 words of T and Cs take a bit of a closer look.

Pinterest has rapidly shot up the rankings to become a major contender in the social media marketing world, ranked third behind only Facebook and Twitter in terms of popularity. B2C marketers have been the quickest to move into this previously uncharted territory by taking advantage of the channel’s emphasis on visual communication.

As a result many B2B marketers have been left behind in the Pinterest marketing rush, unable to determine how to market their services effectively on it…

We aim to look at who has been pioneering the use of Pinterest as part of their content marketing strategy and what B2B marketers can learn from them.

How does it work?

Pinterest is an “online pinboard” where users can “pin” photos and videos of things they are interested in and categorise them on different “boards”. To add to this Pinterest functions as a social media channel, allowing users to follow other users that interest them.

What makes how people use Pinterest different to its rivals and attractive to marketers is the scale on which people share content, with 80% of all pins being “repins”.

Pinterest 101: Visual content

All social media channels have their own unique characteristics and features which make them better suited to fulfilling different marketing tasks. For example it is well known that Twitter’s 140 character limit when tweeting makes it excellent for announcements and regular updates but less effective at producing sales.

Pinterest’s USP is definitely its emphasis on visual content, as the little text present on Pinterest boards merely supports the messages posited by collections of images and videos. This reliance on visual communication forces businesses to be more creative in order to come up with enough attractive content to serve their various marketing aims.

Infographics are commonly used on Pinterest as they are an attractive and engaging way of conveying information in support of businesses’ objectives. Dell do this well on their “Infographics” board by pinning a variety of infographics that enhance their cloud computing solutions.

Many B2B companies will also recycle old content that is partially visual, such as the cover page of a white paper, in order to expand their repertoire. Something Marketo Inc do well on their Pinterest page is showing viewers their lively corporate culture by pinning photos of smiling employees at different events such as office fancy dress days.

Before creating their Pinterest accounts, B2B marketers should have a clear understanding of what messages they are trying to portray about their businesses, as well as what visual content best reflects this.

Engaging your target audience

Understanding and knowing how to engage their target audiences is essential if businesses are to reap rewards from using Pinterest. The difference in content that B2B and B2C marketers pin onto their boards illustrates this need to really get in the heads of your potential customers.

A good example of this in action is the content sports retailers such as Puma and Adidas pin onto their boards. Like many B2C businesses, these sports retailers effectively engage with their target audiences by pinning images of their products onto boards arranged by product type. Pinning these products up allows users to identify and engage with the brand by repining them onto their own boards with titles such as “My Style”.

Whilst this type of content is appropriate to attracting consumers it is less likely to engage potential clients in the B2B space. That said, if you’ve got some good looking products that appeal to minority customers then pinning this could be useful. It’s all about understanding your target audience and pinning content that is most likely to be appealing.

Charm

A good way to make your target audience more susceptible to your messaging is to try and engage them through charming content. Content that charms viewers helps to disarm them and make them much more likely to read on. Charm comes in many forms…

A humorous example of this in action is BlueWolf’s “Other wolves we like” board. Making potential customers chuckle at their desks can be a great hook to rein them in towards more serious matters (thank you to David Kirkpatrick for bringing this to our attention on the Marketing Sherpa blog).

Yammer’s Pinterest page attempts to charm its viewers by pinning content that reflects a friendly and slightly geeky persona. This is evident in their “On our desk” board, where they pin images of curiously shaped office supplies such as USB sticks and old floppy disks.

Content Curation

An increasingly common form of marketing on Pinterest has been content curation. This is where businesses will collect the most insightful content relating to their specific products or services and pin them in their boards. The logic behind this is that this content will illustrate your business’s understanding of the market and appreciation for thought leadership.

In order to make your content curation useful to viewers you need to make sure it adds value, so provide individual commentary where you can and do not just copy and paste (and always quote your sources!).

IBM does this effectively with their “Building a smarter planet” board, where they relate interesting content from various sources to their target audience’s needs.

So now you’ve seen the marketing opportunities on Pinterest, will your business be using it in the future?

If you’re already using it we’re always keen to hear about what’s working well too!

1.       The power has shifted

It’s no longer a case of you putting materials out and attracting customers. 9/10 buyers say they will find you when they are ready and 81% start with a web search (an efficient use of social media does, of course, help your search ranking). Further to this 84% use WOM recommendations, and that’s not chatting down the pub – it’s being involved in online forums and chat rooms.

2.       Customers are out there researching

And your brand, messages and content need to be in the mix. 21% of b2b buyers use social media at some point in the buying process. Many are 50-60% into the buy cycle before they talk to you. And the higher the price of the product the more they will research – if the order value is over $10k they will review 4 or more pieces of content.

3.       Your customers are talking to each other and influencers online

Potential prospects are talking to their industry peers before they talk to you. 58% engage with peers, 48% follow industry conversation and 41% read pieces from thought leaders. Using social media ensures you are part of these conversations

4.       Your customers want you there

Using social media isn’t something you should be doing because you think it is a trend. It is actually something prospects and customers are calling out for. 85% of b2b buyers believe companies should present information via social networks and 20% are more likely to engage with existing suppliers on twitter.

5.       People want content in various forms

It’s not all about going onto a website and downloading a whitepaper. Buyers are searching online for new forms of media to consume to learn about their issue. 80% watch more video than before and 75% watch videos on business sites every week.

6.       It’s cheaper

Traditional outbound is not always cost effective. Use of content, social and inbound tactics will help with your ROI. An inbound lead is $135 compared to $364 for your average outbound lead.

7.       You can’t rely on your current database for outbound

Data is now hugely important to ensure you reach the right people, with the right content at the right time. Sadly, data for outbound activity is less and less dependent with the average data base containing 25-30% of useless records. Using social networks, however, opens up a tap of data for you to open up.

8.       You are more likely to be recommended

It’s not just about prospects. Customers are very important to engage with through social media and 38% of customers have recommended a brand they like or follow on social networks.

9.       Social media is being used at the top.

Thought social was only used by the graduates who are used to posting photos to their Facebook while they are on their gap year? Well think again. The internet is now the top information source for c-level executives with 74% saying it is their most valuable way of getting information.

10.   It’s the best way to get your brand out there

Don’t just think marketing for social media. It is a key part of your PR strategy. 89% of journalists use blogs while conducting online research and 56% said social media is important for reporting and producing stories.

We have always said that great content should be re-purposed, so we put them all into an infographic: The top 5 game changers for B2B Marketers.

Use and abuse at your leisure.

The top 5 game changers for B2B Marketers