Insights Into the World of Content Marketing

By Carlos Hidalgo | Content Marketing

Last week Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs released their annual B2B Content Marketing Study that dives into the practices and habits of B2B content marketers in North America.Content marketing is a key component for any customer experience strategy and while the overwhelming majority of B2B organizations are producing content, the study shows that successful execution may still be elusive.In looking at this year’s study there are some thoughts and musings I have listed below.

Getting sales enablement right to increase results

By Brian Carroll | Empathy-based Sales

Sales enablement is intended to help raise performance, but a lot of efforts have backfired due to departmental silos. And now there’s a growing gap between what salespeople need and what they’re getting to improve performance.

Why customer advocacy should be at the heart of your marketing

By Brian Carroll | Empathy-based Marketing

Customer advocacy marketing programs help you increase revenue by improving customer acquisition and retention best source of leads.

How to Attract B2B Buyers with Amazing Content

By J. David Green | Content Marketing

Content marketing is booming. According to the 2017 B2B Content Marketing Trends, 39% of companies are increasing investment in content marketing. And yet most companies are not creating effective content.  Want proof? Two of the leaders in B2B funnel benchmarking, SiriusDecisions and Forrester, will tell you that inquiry-to-closed-won conversion ratios are often below two percent […]

How giving away useful ideas builds trust

By Brian Carroll | Customer Experience

I had coffee with a potential partner, and our conversation ebbed to us talking about our business and marketing approach. I spoke about why I freely share ideas and help people. He replied, I think companies [like yours] give away too many of their trade secrets on their website and blogs. You provide too much […]

How customer-hero stories help you connect better

By Brian Carroll | Empathy-based Sales

Do you focus on capturing product stories or customer-hero stories? The answer can make a huge difference in your sales and marketing results. Let me explain. Despite all the time, money, resources spent on improving sales productivity, just 13% of sales people produce 87% of revenue in a typical organization according to the Sales Benchmark Index. […]

The post How customer-hero stories help you connect better appeared first on the B2B Lead Blog.

Stuck on words: how can marketing connect with customers better?

By Brian Carroll | Empathy-based Marketing

How can marketers better connect with people we hope will become our customers? Over the past year, I’ve been researching why there’s such a disconnect between marketing and customers so I can understand how to bridge that gap. Why? Because right now, the trust gap between marketers and customers has never been bigger. For example, […]

How to do lead management that improves conversion

By Brian Carroll | Customer Experience

Have you looked at your lead management approach from the perspective of customer experience? If not, you may want to start now. Here’s why: The average conversion rate of marketing qualified leads to customers is low. You may be wondering: how low? According to Forrester, top performers convert 1.54% of marketing qualified leads to revenue. […]

The post How to do lead management that improves conversion appeared first on the B2B Lead Blog.

Who should own lead generation for a complex sale?

By Brian Carroll | Customer Experience

Who should own B2B lead generation: sales, marketing or both? You might be thinking, “isn’t the answer obvious?” It’s not. Let me explain. I hear the same problem over and over. Sales and marketing aren’t doing a great job of executing lead generation because they both believe it’s the others job. And you know what? […]

New B2B Persona Research From Salesforce and LinkedIn Study

By Brian Carroll | Content Marketing

When was the last time you looked at the quality and accuracy of your B2B persona and contact data? Getting the right content to the right people continues to be a challenge in B2B marketing and lead generation. Starting in the fall of 2014, Salesforce started to analyze more than 15 million data points, spanning […]