2021 B2B Marketing

 

2021 B2B Marketing Exchange Gears Up To Help Marketers Refresh, Renew & Remix Their Strategies For A Digital-First World

For the past 10 years, Demand Gen Report has brought thousands of B2B marketing and sales professionals to the B2B Marketing Exchange (#B2BMX) in Scottsdale, Ariz. to learn about the latest strategies, tools, and trends from top industry influencers, analysts and thought leaders. In light of the concerns surrounding the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, this year’s event is coming to the home office as a digital experience like no other.

The B2B Marketing Exchange virtual experience — taking place Feb. 22-24, 2021 — will focus on providing educational content that helps B2B marketing teams refresh their minds, renew their creative focus and remix their channel and format mix to reach buyers in this new, digital-first world. Speakers will share their hits, misses, and learnings from the pivots of 2020, and how they are strategizing future initiatives for 2021, putting the customer first and supporting remote sales teams to sell virtually.

The annual event may be run through a new venue, but everything attendees know and love about #B2BMX will remain the same:

·   Stellar keynote presentations;

·   6 targeted educational content tracks covering topics such as demand generation, ABM, sales enablement, marketing strategy, channel marketing, and content marketing;

·   Hands-on virtual Workshops;

·   More than a dozen Case Study and Lunch & Learn sessions spotlighting the top technologies in the industry;

·   Mentoring programs; and

·   Endless networking opportunities through 1:1 meetings, interactive roundtables, and more.

Demand Gen Report is no stranger to virtual events. The publication most recently hosted the B2B Sales & Marketing Exchange online experience in October 2020. The event was rated 4.4 out of 5 stars and provided the team with plenty of attendee feedback to make #B2BMX even better.

Source link: https://www.demandgenreport.com/features/industry-insights/2021-b2b-marketing-exchange-gears-up-to-help-marketers-refresh-renew-remix-their-strategies-for-a-digital-first-world

B2B E-commerce In 2021

B2B E-commerce In 2021: Accelerating Digital India

 With the emergence of COVID-19 vaccines, the global economy is regaining its hunger for growth, and Indian manufacturers cannot afford to lose the opportunity to build back better. Time is precious and Indian manufacturers, both OEMs and MSMEs, have to seize the opportunity with speed and agility. Our manufacturing enterprises will have to focus on 3As to accelerate economic growth: affordability, accessibility, and availability. While B2C e-commerce will ensure accessibility to the last person standing, B2B e-commerce will enable manufacturers to ensure availability and affordability of goods by optimizing the supply chain.

Digital twinning of the manufacturing supply chain

Indian manufacturers will have to prioritize solving the legacy problems that surfaced through the COVID-19 experience. Major issues include reducing logistics costs and reducing the turnaround time of programmable tasks. B2B e-commerce firms can enable Indian OEMs and MSMEs to solve these problems through the digital twinning of the supply chain. Manufacturers can replicate the entire manufacturing supply chain ecosystem in a virtual environment and ensure higher pandemic-proofing levels by making several supply chain processes conducive to work-from-home and remote working models.

B2B e-commerce: A demand engine for Indian MSMEs

As recovery accelerates in 2021, restoring the demand generation for MSMEs to pre-COVID-19 levels will be crucial. This year B2B e-commerce models will enable Indian MSMEs to gain higher visibility before OEMs searching for industrial goods. B2B e-commerce firms map large scale OEM orders against supplier production capacities, TAT, ETA, cost, insurance, and freight charges using data analytics. They will be integral to connecting MSMEs to new local business opportunities.

B2B e-commerce will make all stages of brand distribution more agile

In 2021 Indian manufacturing enterprises will have to rebuild their supply chain distribution processes from the ground up with a focus on agility. They will need to compress the cycle time across different supply chain stages of make-to-order, plant-to-port, and market-to-cash. B2B e-commerce firms will enable Indian manufacturers to reduce each of these supply chain stages' turnaround time by providing robotic process automation solutions that standardize processes, repeat cyclical tasks for each order, and reduce manual efforts. 

B2B e-commerce will enable manufacturers to scale up faster

Traditionally Indian manufacturing enterprises have faced the challenge of cost inefficiencies that have impacted demand. In 2021, B2B e-commerce models will enable Indian manufacturers to reduce cost efficiencies through cloud computing solutions. Cloud-hosted SaaS models work on subscription pricing and metered billing practices. B2B e-commerce firms use such cloud-hosted SaaS models that are scalable. It means that once a digital workflow for a task is created, supply chain stakeholders like OEMs, MSMEs, logistics service providers, suppliers, and supply chain financiers can repeat the task several times at zero marginal costs. Such cloud-SaaS models' scalability will allow B2B e-commerce firms to drive economies of scale and positively impact the unit economics of industrial procurement, sales, and distribution, supplier relationship management, and direct procurement contracting.

Source Link: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/365286

Email Automation

 

Email Automation as a Tool in B2B Lead Generation

From social media to offline conferences, lead generation uses multiple sources but emailing has remained the best channel to reach new audiences. It is simple, effective, and cheap. It brings highly qualified leads. It helps nurture leads and prospects. Every $1 spent on email marketing brings $38. Email is part of marketing campaigns with tremendous results.

However, a successful email marketing effort needs fine-tuning. Today’s business tools make it possible for companies to automate their email outreach. Consult professionals in the appointment setting to make sure your email deliverability and CPRs are not compromised. Email professionals will recommend the best email marketing service and will set up email automation.

Email Lead Generation: How?

With email marketing being one of the best practices for lead generation, your business simply can’t let go of a potential client without getting their email address first. How can you do it?

·   Add a subscription form on a website. Probably all websites have a signup form somewhere on the far left or right side of the page. However, if you want to have as many visitors converted into subscribers as possible, you have to offer them something enticing. A lead magnet. Offer to send some tips and tricks useful for the visitor’s interest or to deliver a monthly digest about innovations in the industry.

·   Add links to your chatbots on social media on a website. Creating multiple channels for the visitors of your website to get their contact details Multichannel forms (links to Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, etc.) will bring you more subscribers than a signup form on its own.  

·   Use social media to sign people up. It is possible to add a sign-up form on your social media profiles too. It will allow you to turn your audience on social media into email leads. Facebook provides sign-up forms and Instagram is on the way.

How to Get the Most from Email Outreach?

Now, when you laid your hands-on a ton of valid email addresses, move carefully and with precision.

Set Up Email Automation

Setting up email automation workflows will get emails sent at the preferred time while you get busy with other important things. You just need to choose a software service, provide a list of email addresses and email texts or templates, and set up specific times.

Email automation is usually triggered by specific events. It is up to you to set up which triggers will cause an email to be sent but usually, email automation is launched when a lead:

·  Signed up for a subscription

·  Bought a product or a service

·  Subscribed to a newsletter

·  Registered for a webinar

Send Drip Email Campaigns

The first email triggered by a single event can launch a fully-fledged drip email campaign where emails one-by-one are sent to a lead on a preset timeline. Thanks to well-chosen triggers, the automated software sends warm, rather than cold, emails to your target audience.

In drip email campaigns, automated sequences of consequent emails are not long. Usually 2 to 5 emails with 2- to 5-day delays in between. Here are examples of drip email campaigns:

·   Welcome new subscribers (3 emails with an incentive to get started in the last email)

·  Welcome new customers (3 emails with information on sales in the last email)

·   Nurture leads and educates about your services (5 emails with a discount code in the last email)

·  Complete the purchase (2 emails, one to let know that you noticed the lead abandoned a cart on the website and the other with an incentive to make a purchase)

·    Promote special offers/events (3 emails)

·    Re-engage inactive customers (3 emails)

Source Link: https://www.newsanyway.com/2021/02/08/email-automation-as-a-tool-in-b2b-lead-generation/

 

Demand Generation Strategies

Demand Generation Strategies: Biggest Shifts Happening in Marketing Strategy

If we learned anything from 2020, it’s that anything can happen in the world at any time. As a marketer, being flexible and adapting to the ever-changing world as we know it will be your greatest strength. What worked in terms of marketing strategy before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic is old news. Even further, what may have been relevant three or even six months ago might no longer be a strategy that works today, right here and now.

Our world is shifting fast. As we move into 2021, we want to be mindful of the biggest shifts in marketing, to monitor how we’re adapting and maintaining relevancy as we fight to compete in our respective markets.

Although proactive planning is important, an ever-changing environment can’t support a 12-month plan. At SmartBug®, our teams focus on strategic plans that are flexible and reach no more than three months into the future for that specific reason.

The Secret Marketing Sauce

You’re probably wondering, “What do I need to know to get started on the right foot this year?” I’ll let you in on a little secret … there’s no secret sauce in the world of marketing. There are, however, trends we’re seeing in the industry that we recommend your team adapt to right now.

As marketers, we spend lots of time educating ourselves, adapting, analyzing (often overthinking), and predicting behavior to hopefully drum up buzz for our brands. We don’t always come out on top—failure is inevitable. But maintaining relevancy in the market means staying on top of strategies that have been tried and tested.

One thing we do know is that, as marketers, generating that “buzz” starts with demand generation. Here are a few demand generation strategies for 2021 that your team needs to be sure they’re paying attention to.

Demand Generation Strategies for 2021 You Need Right Now

You might first be thinking, well, what is “demand generation” marketing? Demand generation marketing is when a company excites customers about its product or service. It generates a “buzz” through the use of various programs and strategies to raise awareness, with the goal of generating new relationships with potential customers.

Demand generation doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a long-term strategy. Inbound marketing is just one of the methodologies that fit into this model. Although inbound marketing is an essential part of demand generation and something you should already be doing for your business—it’s in some ways “old news.”

This blog is dedicated to newcomers in the realm of marketing and focused on how your team needs to catch up! Here are just a few ideas to turn your attention to in the near future.

Account-based marketing is the new B2B.

As a marketer, you’ve probably heard the term account-based marketing (ABM) for some time now, but like many marketers, are simply focused on the idea of full steam ahead, and haven’t stopped to smell the ABM flowers.

I recently began reading Terminus’s ABM is B2B, a book dedicated to explaining how the trend of account-based marketing is, in fact, business to business (B2B). This trend is a fundamental shift in how we’re generating leads and buzz for our brand through account-based marketing efforts. By tossing out the old funnel and focusing on this new tried-and-true strategy, you’ll be able to grow your business through driving qualified leads through a means of specific marketing strategies focused on 1:1 tactics that avoid that one-size-fits-all approach.

Terminus, one of the many partners SmartBug works with, is an end-to-end, account-based marketing technology platform that allows B2B marketers and sales professionals to amplify their ABM marketing. As leaders in the ABM industry, they use this book to highlight the ways the marketing funnel as we once knew it is gone. Instead, the new focus of your marketing efforts should be the ABM funnel.

SourceLink:https://www.business2community.com/strategy/demand-generation-strategies-biggest-shifts-happening-in-marketing-strategy-02384903

Email Campaigns With Zoho

Automate and Monitor Your Email Campaigns With Zoho

ZOHO started its current Email Marketing Basics Webinar series with how to write effective copy and building and maintaining your list. The next webinar is titled Automating and Monitoring Your Campaigns, which are key skill sets to optimize your email marketing efforts.

As you increase your email list, automating your workflow is key to managing the hundreds or thousands of emails you will acquire. ZOHO is going to teach you how to create automated email marketing campaigns to streamline your customer acquisition process. You’ll also learn about managing your sender reputation score, as well as key email marketing metrics to track to make sure your emails are performing as well as they can.

Transitioning your team to remote work requires the right tools and the right mindset. Zoho provides you with the resources and thought leadership you need to successfully run your company remotely.

Zoho offers more than 40 integrated applications for you to manage, automate and connect various business processes across your organization. Zoho One is a powerful suite of software to run your entire small business.

Source link: https://smallbiztrends.com/2021/02/small-business-events-calendar-february-6-2021.html

Digital Services for Lead Generation

 

Digital Services for Lead Generation | Lead Generation Platforms: Ken Research

There are several channels and marketing tools for digital marketers to utilize to get customers to notice their brand. If your business functions appropriately when in direct communication with the customers over the phone, lead generation marketing can provide a number of benefits.

Lead generation marketing is about motivating the interest of customers in a product or service and capturing that interest by obtaining those customers to reach out directly to your organization. Lead generation takes on several forms and can be deployed across several channels to successfully draw customers into your business.

In addition to lead generation, Ken Research as a service provider of digital services for lead generation designates database solutions, event marketing services, and account-based marketing. We resist the heavy-lifting off your plate for B2B lead generation. Furthermore, our lead generation platforms countenances you to be more functional in who you are steering and who is successful in your message. You can target your preferred customers with the sustenance of profuse channels and by distinct geographies. Not only has this, with our lead generation platform, but your users are also proper to relate and research abundant products and services, thus incubation their aptitude to undertake the unsurpassed deal and functioning quality.

Our Lead generation platform is an inveterate and money-making tactic for attracting impending consumers and nurturing the leads throughout the technique to transform them into paying users. In the digital marketing world, the feasible customers who are fretful in buying your products or services are conferred to as “leads”. Hence, it is imperious to leverage numerous strategies in a business website to nervousness these qualified leads thereby succeeding in heightened ROI.

Source link:https: //www.openpr.com/news/2234197/digital-services-for-lead-generation-lead-generation

Email Marketing

Email Marketing versus Marketing Automation: Understanding the Difference

Ray Tomlinson was the first human ever to email. It’s been 42 years since and a lot has changed for email, especially for email marketing. From just having the ability to send a message, it has evolved to be the most cost-effective way of direct marketing. At present around 81% of SMEs rely on email as their primary customer acquisition channel, while 80% use it for retention. And in the digital era, the influx of data through social media and mobile devices paved the way for data collection and data management. Such importance on data led to the rise in automated and behavioral-led programs where strategies focused on customers’ specific needs. All of this development contributed to what we call Marketing Automation.

Do More in Marketing with Automation

So, if marketing automation is here to automate marketing tasks, do businesses still need email marketing? This is where the line between the two gets blurred. And businesses must understand which entity benefits how, when to switch, and whether even switching makes sense. While both these methods are used to target an audience group, email marketing only deals with tracking actions taken by the recipients. Before further diving into differences, let’s understand what email marketing and marketing automation are.

Email Marketing

Neil Patel describes email marketing as “Email marketing is a digital marketing strategy based on sending emails and developing relationships with prospects and customers. An effective email marketing strategy converts prospects into customers and turns first-time buyers into recurring customers. One advantage of email marketing is that you can automate the entire process.”

Email marketing is loved by most marketers as it has emerged as a proven way of building trust with prospects, enhance relationships with existing customers, and build loyalty. It is also a vital tool for educating prospects on the value of the brand and keeping them engaged between purchases.

Marketing Automation

According to HubSpot, “Marketing automation is all about using software to automate marketing activities. Many marketing departments automate repetitive tasks such as email marketing, social media posting, and even ad campaigns — not just for the sake of efficiency, but so they can provide a more personalized experience for their customers. The technology of marketing automation makes these tasks easier.”

The right mixture of automated technology and strategy can define marketing automation in simple words. It helps in offering personalized content to prospects and converts them into delighted customers.

So What’s The Difference?

Behavioral Tracking

The fundamental difference between the two is the way data is collected. Email marketing tracks prospect’s behavior over the opening of an email, whether they clicked any link or how many times they did. You can see the click rates, bounce rates, and unsubscribe rates. After collecting the data, the decision is concluded in terms of percentage based on prospects’ interaction with the email.

On the other hand, marketing automation helps marketers to track prospects over the web. How they interact with the website, which categories/landing pages/links they opened. Did they request or downloaded reports/ebooks/infographics/whitepapers or confirmed their presence for a webinar? It also covers behavior outside of your websites, such as social media and other digital footprints. Marketing automation helps in crafting personalized campaigns/messaging based on the aforementioned detailed information.

Customer-centric Campaigning

Email marketing requires a significant investment to create an email, list segmentation, and post-delivery analytics. However, after creating a campaign, the basic strategy is to send out a single, fixed email to everybody. We also know the technique as ‘batch and blast’ as the emails are sent to everyone on the list. Additionally, automating your email marketing can let you send emails to different list segments and even send different emails to different prospects.

However, marketing automation rewards you more for your efforts. The process still entails creating an email, list segmentation, etc. but also lets you do more with automation with more choices and options. You can set up a series of emails/messages to go out over time and can even set them up as prospects interact with your website. This communication strategy of sending a pre-written set of messages to prospects over time is also known as drip marketing.

Source link: https://martechseries.com/content/email-mktg/email-marketing-vs-marketing-automation/