Virtual Events: An Evolution of Marketing and Selling

The sudden shift to virtual events in the first half of 2020 produced mixed results in terms of attendance. While just over half of the events lost the audience in the transition, 46 percent gained attendees as a result. Removing travel requirements and audience familiarity with video presentations worked together to keep event attendance largely intact.

via Digital Lifescapes

How Savvy B2B Buyers Raised the Bar for Vendors

“In the future of buying, the buying process transforms from seller-led to buyer-led. The future B2B buyer will expect buying experiences to be increasingly open, connected, intuitive, and immediate:” B2B channel marketing leaders must anticipate and plan for buyers’ evolving expectations.

via Sirius Decisions

Corporate Social Media: Why It’s Still Not Valued by CEOs

Only 24% of U.S. online adults agree it’s cool to be associated with a company on social media. And, 68% don’t think companies share interesting content. In 2020, 32% of CMOs are still unable to show business impact; only 30% can prove the impact quantitatively.

via Forrester

2020 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study

“B2B decision-makers and CXOs told us that strong thought leadership content not only strengthens a company’s reputation but also positively impacts RFP invitations, wins, pricing and cross-selling that occurs post-sale.”

via Edelman

Why Authentic Employee Advocates will Drive Growth

While trust in brands has dwindled, B2B buyers hold those same brands’ employees in high regard as authentic and compelling sources of information. They want to engage with them. However, buyers don’t trust paid ‘influencer’ shills — they’re not credible.

via Forrester

How Content Marketers Influence Business Leaders

“Looking at the marketing subtopics that influenced business over the years, we find only three: marketing communications, customer relationships and channel management. The only one consistently on an uptrend since the 2000s is marketing communications.”

via INSEAD Knowledge

Time for Fresh Thinking and Learning New Skills

“Focus more on creative market development ideas, compelling content strategy and thereby focus less on how you’re going to spend your limited available budget on Ads. Just because it’s easier to buy Ads shouldn’t make it a priority.”

via Digital Polymath

Real Thought Leadership Requires Leading Thoughts

“To become a truly differentiated bellwether in your market sector, start by raising the bar of expectations for your leadership team. Envision a ‘movement’ that you can passionately lead in the marketplace — as the recognized #1 or #2 influencer.”

via LinkedIn

Why More B2B Marketers Explore Launching Podcasts

B2Bs are experimenting with the audio format at a time when podcast audiences are growing. eMarketer forecasts that by 2022, 83.8 million people in the U.S. will listen to at least one podcast per month, that’s up from 73.0 million people in 2018.

via eMarketer

LinkedIn Study: Why Meaningful Influence Matters

“While four of the top five content categories were in line with expectations — Finance and Economy, Startup Strategies, Business and Management, Technology — it was Society and Culture that topped the list.”

via LinkedIn