2017 B2B TRENDS

We’re here to talk about 7 emerging trends in B2B

marketing

The Value of Thought Leadership1

B2B Buyers Are ScaredB2B is not “rational”, it’s even more emotional than B2C

“ Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM.”

Clients Buy From Vendors That “De-Risk” The ProcessThought leadership gives a buyer confidence in your products

“Buyers don’t buy your products until they ‘buy’ your approach to solving their

problems.”

That’s Why Thought Leadership Drives Massive ROIIf structured correctly, it can drive leads and build brands at the same team

MQLNO YES REVENUESALESNURTURE

NO

BLOCKBUSTER

The Profitability ofContent Franchises2

The Current Model Of Thought Leadership Is BrokenOnly 30% of B2B marketers believe their content “works”

So Don’t Imitate Newspapers, Imitate DisneyStudio revenue is up 63% due to a relentless focus on “blockbusters”

S U M M E R2 0 1 5

FA L L2 0 1 5

W I N T E R2 0 1 5

S P R I N G2 0 1 6

S U M M E R2 0 1 6

FA L L2 0 1 6

W I N T E R2 0 1 6

S P R I N G2 0 1 7

S U M M E R2 0 1 7

A B2B Blockbuster Monetizes A Brand’s Expertise A focused approach that markets the same IP across multiple channels

The Need forTouchpoint Consistency

3

Nobody Remembers Anything Anymore, Especially AdsThe average consumer sees 5,000 ads a day

Pattern Recognition Is How Brands Drive RecallWe see B2C and B2B brands accomplish this every day

Blockbusters Enable Touchpoint ConsistencyHelping build a memorable brand across an explosion of channels

The Rise ofEveryone-As-A-Marketer4

It’s Now Clear That Employees Are The Key TouchpointBuyers trust employees significantly more than brands

Employees Are Most Trusted Spokesperson On Every Topic

Employees Offer Massive Reach And EngagementEmployee networks have 10X the reach of Company Pages

100Employee

Shares

96Profile Views

48Company

Page Views

48Job Views

16Company

Page Followers

32New

Connections

So Make Sure You Have A People-First StrategyBlockbusters align marketing and sales internally and externally

The Death ofHypertargeting5

Brands Are Obsessed With Ad TargetingDigital sells itself on the false promise of ‘zero waste’

The Problem Is That Targeting Excludes Potential BuyersSophisticated B2C marketers are waking up to this expensive truth

The Solution For B2B Is “Relevant Reach”Reach the entire buying committee, today and tomorrow

TARGETED BUYER

Junior Decision Makers

Extended Buying Committee

The 3 Principles of Brand Investing6

#1: Obey The “60/40 Rule”Brands need to balance long and short-term objectives

“Investment in long-term brand and

trust building, combined with short term brand activations to reap the sales benefits of those

investments”

60/40 RULE

#2: Plan For A “10:1 Ratio”In A Pay-To-Play World, Distribution Is King

#3: Budget For The “80/20 Rule”80% of value comes from 20% of your blockbusters; invest accordingly

The Arrival of Cost-Per-Connection7

Everyone Is “Counting” The Wrong MetricsCurrent industry metrics (CTR, CPC) do not correlate with revenue

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything

that can be counted counts.Albert Einstein

B2B Sales Is Still Largely Relationship-DrivenCutting-edge measurement should reflect the offline world

So Why Aren’t We Tracking Cost-Per-Connection?Start by measuring “Connection Density” which *does* correlate to revenue

Non-Nurtured Prospects Prospects Exposed To Content

16%

40%

Source: Internal LinkedIn Data : 7/1/2016 – 12/31/2016*Average email unique click rate: 2.76%. Source: https://mailchimp.com/resources/research/email-marketing-benchmarks/

Response Rate to InMails Sent By Sales Teams

+150%

14X Higher Than Average

E-mail Response Rate*

Great. So how can my client take advantage of these trends

today?

1 Invest in thought-leadership content

2 Package your thought-leadership into “blockbusters”

3 Use your blockbuster to achieve touchpoint consistency

4 Activate your blockbuster via employees

5 Reach the entire buying committee with your blockbuster

6 Distribute according to the 60/40, 10:1, and 80/20 rules

7 Start measuring “Cost-Per-Connections”