B2B Tech Storytelling: Leading with Purposeful Narratives

Cisco Systems is often referred to as a ‘bellwether’ stock, meaning it’s a leading indicator of the direction of the economy, or of a sector of the market, or the market as a whole. How did Cisco achieve that eminence with a remarkable internet-enabled worldview? It was partly via commercial storytelling.

via Digital Lifescapes

Content: How to Reignite Your Marketing Communications

Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) have a choice, embrace the future or cling to the past. To succeed today, they have to abandon mass-media thinking and resist the urge to squander their budgets on trivial advertising or paid media.

via Digital Polymath

How Sales Enablement Tools Unlock B2B Growth

“Seventy-one percent of executives surveyed by Gartner said they had plans to deploy sales enablement tools to support sales training, coaching and onboarding in the next two years,” said Hilbert. “Seventy-seven percent indicate they were in the process of, or are going to, deploy sales digital content management or guided selling tools in the next two years.”

via Gartner

How Beauty Marketers Get Personal with Chatbots

Just a few years ago, there was excitement around using AI-powered chatbots in retail ecommerce. That hype has died down a bit, but the beauty industry is still experimenting with the technology. Lancôme is testing AI to deepen its site personalization.

via eMarketer

Digital Marketing Conference 2018: Seven Key Takeaways

Eighty-one percent of marketing leaders responsible for customer experience (CX) say their companies will mostly or completely compete on the basis of CX in two years. Yet only 22% say their CX efforts have exceeded customer expectations. Reality needs to catch up to aspiration if companies are to realize a customer-centric future.

via Gartner

Four Ways to Improve Your Content Marketing

In the past decade, content marketing has become a widely established practice. Companies have hired writers and Chief Content Officers to run departments, create blogs and other materials, and, in the process, some have assured sales people that content marketing can mean the end of cold calling.

via HBR

Quest for Customer-Centric Marketing Leadership

Companies often say they embrace the concept and are making moves to change, or claim that they are already customer-centric. However, many can’t seem to fully commit to enacting the required operational, procedural and behavioral changes needed to be truly customer-first.

via Gartner

Content Marketing: Few Real Leaders or Visionaries

Our first finding is that storytelling isn’t so much a tactic as a mindset. And by that we mean, we’re all showing up every day to publish e-books, publish blogs, to get it done one day after another—and that’s good. But we find that Leaders and Visionaries really have a sense of purpose that’s much bigger.

via Skyword

Why B2B Marketers Need Authentic Content Creators

Influencer marketing has gotten big enough that disclosing ties between brands and influencers is a necessity, not an option. Although compliance is growing, there are many examples where it doesn’t happen. Content marketing requires real employee talent, not hired outsiders.

via eMarketer

Savvy B2B Marketers Create High Quality Content

Creating high quality content that is focused on the audience across all buyer’s journey stages is a major goal for B2B marketers in 2018. A refined program should include strategic, efficient and innovative content created by a dedicated team.

via eMarketer