Editor's Picks for B2B Marketer Magazine

Amid a growing reliance on data, taking a gut check still holds a good deal of value for B2B marketers readying a new advertising or marketing campaign. It’s not a zero-sum game, of course. But as they get better at scrubbing their data and making sure it’s up to date, marketers will have an easier time striking an amicable balance between the data and human intuition.

Patti Cocciolo, senior director of global brand marketing at Cisco, says starting the company’s in-house agency, The Hatch, took a “leap of faith.” But the move has proved beneficial for the tech giant’s marketing efforts. The in-house team brings an institutional knowledge of the company to the table while relations with outside agencies are a lot closer and more productive.

At the height of the pandemic, B2B marketers placed a much bigger emphasis on supporting existing relationships and cultivating lifetime value. As things start to ease up and acquisition-level marketing commands more budget, it’s crucial that marketers not lose the momentum they built up over the past year with their long-term customers.

A new report explores the “consumption gap,” or the time between when content is requested and the moment it’s opened for consumption, and how this varies according to job title. As B2B buyers become even more elusive, it’s incumbent upon marketers to distribute their content more strategically and strengthen their measurement efforts.

Marketers stress that outbound calls should cater to specific accounts, personas, and/or industries, and they should be integrated within the cadence of email campaigns so that every call is highly relevant. “Spray and pray” has run its course.

The pandemic has put pressure on B2B marketers to craft a better customer experience and build more multichannel programming. Experts suggest that the right place to start is with existing customers.

B2B marketers have made little progress in tackling some chronic problems (read: sales-and-marketing alignment) and cultivating digital revenue streams. Could the increase in digital adoption caused by the pandemic help clear some of the logjams and spur an online-first strategy once and for all?

B2B CMOs are much more hopeful about the post-COVID economy than their CEOs, says a recent survey. Cockeyed optimism? More like a sense that the pandemic presents marketers with an opportunity to demonstrate their value to the C-suite and drive better business results.

With lower-than-average CPMs, B2B companies are turning to digital advertising to combat the decline in their traditional marketing channels. This reallocation doesn’t equate dollar for dollar, but there has been enough of a budget shift to drive substantial growth via paid digital channels.

Across the country, small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are suffering from closures, restrictions, and changes brought about by the novel coronavirus, and many are scrambling to do what they can to stay in business. To help, a number of B2B brands, including Deluxe, Vistaprint, American Express, and The UPS Store, are developing tools, grants, and resources for SMBs.

While the impact from the crisis has varied, most B2B sectors are scrambling for effective ways to boost their marketing efforts to retain customers and find new ones.

In a post-COVID world, digital interactions with customers and prospects will rise dramatically, and e-commerce transactions for expensive B2B purchases — long the domain of in-person sales — will become much more common.

With most every brand having to recalibrate its digital capabilities, CMOs have a new opportunity to help shape their company’s future — and increase the overall value of marketing.

The implosion of live B2B events and the accelerating shift to a virtual model will require marketers to be both fast and nimble when crafting their online conferences.

B2B marketers continue to struggle with making the most of their growing marketing technology stack. A major part of the problem: Too many companies rely on individual technology purchases rather than foster an integrated approach.

Valerie Beaulieu, U.S. CMO at Microsoft, brings a highly balanced approach to B2B marketing to tackle the most pressing issues facing marketers.

With most every business reassessing overall spending due to the coronavirus outbreak, it’s an opportune time for B2B companies to reassess their email marketing strategy and ensure that the audiences receiving their emails are getting immediate value.

Being simpatico with vendors themselves — and not being in thrall to social media messaging or online reviews — can be highly influential in the B2B purchasing process.

Companies that let marketers steer the sales-enablement process exceed their revenue goals much more so than brands that put sales reps in charge, says a new report. And the C-suite is taking note.

The onus is on marketers to spot regional or cultural trends that may impact their business category and/or products and services — even if the company lacks a significant global presence.