The manufacturing industry has been somewhat slow to accept social media as a marketing tool. This is largely because it can be difficult to see how social media plays into the larger business-to-business (B2B) marketing strategy. That, however, appears to be changing. Acccording to a Forrester report released in March 2011, 30 percent of global manufacturers intended to increase social media...Read More

Behavioral research has found that “foot-in-the-door” techniques can prove effective when attempting to motivate your target audience to make a large behavioral change. For example, if you are marketing a B2B product or service that requires your prospects to make a huge change (such as switching from a provider  they’ve used for decades), it may be useful to have them...Read More

WEEK OF JANUARY 16-20, 2011 This week in B2B marketing the B2B blogosphere is buzzing about mirroring leadership, mastering new innovation, and building relationships via new means. Stay aware. We appreciate the content contributors who keep the B2B marketing community informed with your reports, thoughts and observations.     It's 10 pm. Do you know where your...Read More

As a B2B marketing agency, we encourage our clients to work on their website content before diving in too aggressively in social media. In most cases it makes sense for our clients to be blogging, providing white papers, case studies, video and other content that will be helpful to their customers and prospects. To be successful in social media, it helps to be human. Create a clear,...Read More

WhichTestWon.com recently conducted a great case study testing two concepts that can influence someone’s buying behavior: self-efficacy and testimonials. The test consisted of two pages with the same heading of “30-Day Free Trial on All Accounts,” but with different subheads. One subhead gave instructions for signing up, while the other related positive testimonials from...Read More

WEEK OF DECEMBER 19-23, 2011 This week in B2B marketing we're sharing interesting blog articles about best practices, and wiser options for promotions for B2B marketers' 2012 plans. Thank you to the content contributors who keep the B2B marketing community informed with your reports, thoughts and observations.   MS Office's B2B campaign grows with triggered e-mail...Read More

Optimizing your online conversion requires making things as clear and conspicuous as possible, because your target audience won’t look for it — they’ll just leave. But clear and conspicuous don’t matter if the content doesn’t resonate enough to motivate anyone to buy. WhichTestWon.com illustrated a perfect example of this in one of their recent B2B marketing...Read More

The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) suggests that our ability to persuade someone lies in their ability to elaborate on the issue at hand, and one factor that can motivate a someone to engage in elaboration is personal relevance. Recently I came across a B2B marketing case study on WhichTestWon.com regarding this topic that revealed just how important personal relevance may be in motivating...Read More

In influencing your B2B target audience, the idea of whether or not to include guilt in your messaging may be a factor. Studies on guilt appeals suggest that as guilt increases, persuasiveness decreases. But when you add in the notion of hypocrisy, things aren’t as cut-and-dry. Implicit Hypocrisy If your target audience receives a message that enables them to see their hypocrisy...Read More

Online relationships have become an integral part of your target audience’s lives, and must therefore be part of your B2B marketing. BtoB Magazine recently presented a webinar called From Caveman to Customer: What the Evolution of Storytelling Means to Marketers that helped explain why these online relationships are so important. Drive to Bond As humans we are driven by multiple...Read More

The internet has given us a new type of relationship we never would have had without it: online relationships. And though they occur online, our brains understand them the same way as offline relationships. BtoB Magazine recently presented a webinar that spoke to this phenomena, called, “From Caveman to Customer: What the Evolution of Storytelling Means to Marketer.” Online...Read More

I recently read that the success of a campaign is based on the target audience’s belief that the issue is important enough to consider, and that the person who is delivering the message is entitled to be doing so. I often write about the many variables involved in how someone develops their beliefs about what is important (such as social perception, personal factors, etc.), but this idea...Read More