3 Important Inbound Marketing and HubSpot Services for B2B Companies

One of the major things that any company needs to keep in mind – no matter in what capacity they might be working in – is to find the best strategy possible that will help maximise the investment they’ve put into their marketing efforts, and help them reap the results required to succeed in a highly competitive business environment. Keeping this in mind, it must be said that one of the best ways to make sure that your marketing efforts don’t go to waste is by implementing the tried-and-tested methodologies present in inbound marketing services. It’s easy to see why this form of marketing has gained a lot of traction a great and reliable strategy, due to its unwavering focus on generating quality organic traffic who are genuinely interested in your company and what it does.

Spotlight

Connection2

Connection2 is a B2B Sales and Marketing agency based in Reading, Berkshire, providing Business and Channel Development services for technology companies across EMEA. While demand generation services are our bread and butter, we also offer fully integrated marketing solutions to support your requirements and resolve your problems. Marketing campaigns need to be multi-channel in order to achieve the best ROI, and C2 understands this simple fact. By integrating creative alongside a telemarketing campaign, your results are going to be decidedly better. We also offer a social media managed service named Social On Demand - it's the perfect tool to leverage your partners and colleagues and seriously amplify your content reach.

OTHER ARTICLES
Programmatic ABM

B2B Ads: Optimize Your Campaign with these 5 Steps

Article | June 9, 2022

Some companies are wasting a significant portion of their B2B advertising dollars because they lack the audience insights of larger, more seasoned B2B firms. Some are still using outdated strategies while understanding the nuances of digital marketing. Check out these five steps to optimize your B2B ad campaigns: Survey the Audience to Determine Brand Preferences Regularly survey your audience to see how open they are about confessing their brand preferences and ad campaign responses. In one of Forrester’s surveys, 91% of B2B buyers said they became aware of a previously unknown company due to advertising. Make Behavior Insights the Prime Metric Most B2B buyers may respond to the ads without clicking on them, so their behavior insights are crucial to know their response to the campaign. According to a Forrester report, 92% of buyers searched for the company featured in an ad, and 86% visited the advertised website without clicking on the ad. Base Ad Creative & Copy on Ad Preferences B2B buyers prefer ads relevant to their needs and interests. Irrelevant ads without any personalization can waste your ad budget. “Avoid promoting too much gated content and opt for higher-value advertising creative to reduce waste if form-fill efficacy is too low,”says John Arnold, Forrester Principal Analyst. Identify Preferred Media and Channels for Effective Outreach Marketers like you should go beyond using Google Search and LinkedIn for your outreach. Map your omnichannel approach to ensure maximum exposure across channels to get maximum impressions. Doing this can help you distribute your costs over multiple modalities. Access Media Time Spent to Allocate Ad Budget Track media time spent on the B2B buyer level and target buyers who spend media time on B2B products or services. Instead of spending money on account-based marketing vendors and having them figure out everything for you, be thoughtful about where you want to place your ads. Conclusion: Don’t Wait for Buying Cycles to Develop for Your Ads to Work B2B buyers need to develop a stronger preference for your company or solution through your ads to enter your sales funnel. So, invest in ads and get them placed where they can get you the response and conversions you expect.

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Buyer Intent Data

ABM – Another Bullshit in Marketing?

Article | June 20, 2023

Is ABM just Another Bullshit in Marketing* or a path to success? After some exciting years of establishing and experiencing ABM, I think, there is clearly a potential for both: a chance for a significant contribution to success, or just another bullshit. There are many paths in both directions (succeed or bullshit) - below are some thoughts and personal observations - and I leave the decision with you! ABM and the Relationship with Sales:There is no chance for ABM if you are not working in lockstep and partnership with sales. Anything else is just bullshit. The Right Balance to Scale ABM,1:1 ABM vs. ABM at Scale:Both approaches have their reasons and value. As ABM at scale is often discussed, the key question is: what makes the approach account based? Applying ABM methods in a scaled environment is an enormous chance to put more customers into the center, especially if 1: few is seen as a scaled 1:1 (and not as a small 1: many). Account insights are used for better planning, personalization, messaging, and content development – the right balance is the key. The chance of scaling ABM to death is relatively high - then just don't call it ABM. From Pipeline Only to Customer Loyalty:What is the expected outcome? This quarter’s pipeline? Or a long-term successful relationship with a loyal customer? How will you measure success in such a customer relationship? There are extensive lists of KPIs for ABM. Leads are normally not part of it - for a reason. My view is: Finally, ABM has to contribute to the business, especially in the long-term. It is relatively easy to realize short-term success, but will your accounts be loyal customers over the years? Will they grow over time or only for a quarter? Defining joint goals for sales and ABM and committing as peers to customer lifecycle-related goals, not just single deals, reduces the risk of delivering bullshit. Is Your Approach "Marketing for Accounts" or "Account Based"? There is value in both in marketing for accounts and in account-based marketing. If you label it “ABM,” make it account-based. Ideally, you look at your data and insights and decide: is that enough to make it an ABM approach? If so, great! If not, fix your data. My company invested an enormous effort in fixing the data and developing an innovative view of our accounts. Listen to Your Customers! That's something I do by myself, and I ask my team to do so, too. Have you ever asked your customer (humans, people, executives - not data) how your ABM was received? Do they value what you do for them, and what exactly makes the difference between all the many newsletters and emails they receive? We measure everything we do, but we do not really measure what we don't do. What do you think about it? *By the way, the "bullshit statement" was made by a sales leader in one of my first ABM presentations in front of his team. We have proven multiple times the opposite, but to be constantly successful, we have to challenge ourselves daily: Is that really ABM what I do? Can I prove it? What is the expected short-term and long-term outcome? What will my customer think about it? One has to reflect on these questions.

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Account Based Data

Adjusting ABM Strategies During COVID-19

Article | June 29, 2023

Empathy is an emotion that many marketers invoke when they are developing their positioning and messaging for various campaigns. They consider questions such as: “If I put myself in the buyers’ shoes, what do I think they think or feel about this particular pain point?” “Do I understand the challenges they are facing?” “How can I help them overcome this issue and provide long-term value?” Over the last few years, many B2B marketers have leveraged account-based marketing (ABM) to address these questions with specific use cases and examples tailored to their target accounts, in order to boost engagement and drive high-value conversions.

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Account Based Analytics

Lost in translation: The problem with inconsistent language in marketing

Article | August 3, 2022

Inconsistent language in B2B marketing is becoming a growing hurdle for collaboration. I attended a workshop recently that brought together members of different marketing functions to train them on ABM. The task was simple enough: Act as the agency and put together an ABM brief. We didn’t have any trouble understanding the assignment. We just couldn’t seem to speak the same language. We were discussing the same topics and working toward the same goal. But the variations in how each of us used established B2B marketing terms made collaboration harder. And so, it got me thinking. How often have you sat in a meeting and understood what someone has said but not what they’ve meant? Sure, you understand that impressions measure how many times someone’s seen your ad. But why does it matter? How does it contribute to revenue growth and the overall performance of the campaign? What does it mean to me? I was reminded of when we were learning a foreign language in school. You could try directly translating a sentence to English, but chances are it wouldn’t make much sense. A translation would only add up when you understood its grammatical and syntactical context. So, if we (no matter how humorously) consider B2B marketing a language of its own, why aren’t we as rigorous in policing our use of terminology? Growing pains In the past, B2B marketing departments were seen as single-focus, cost center arms of a business. Since then, the Marketing remit has grown considerably. Tools and technology allow us to work on everything from insights and analytics to bespoke, hyper-personalized 1:1 ABM programs. Sales and Marketing alignment is helping prove our contribution to the bottom line. And we’re finally becoming a revenue center. But I think there’s a catch. The same increased responsibilities that allow us to connect our marketing activity to revenue have made the language we use more inconsistent. Teams are more specialized than ever. And the size of the marketing department has expanded massively. There are even employees in the same functions who’ve never said a word to each other. This creates bubbles of intradepartmental dialects. Linguistic nuances that create collaborative hurdles between teams, departments, and even organizations. Time that should be spent planning, producing, and activating is lost to soul-destroying email chains and inane meetings clarifying points of uncertainty. Things I’m sure we’d all be happier without. The effects on business Then there are the impacts inconsistent language has on your business. Brief your teams unclearly and budget/resource that could be used more productively is squandered on multiple revisions. Chains of stakeholder questions that could have been easily avoided with greater context can result in strained working relationships. Levels of employee stress can increase out of fear of asking a question and sounding stupid. And perhaps the scariest of all – misunderstandings of key deliverables that find their way through to your final outputs. Standardizing our use of language can help alleviate these challenges. Key performance metrics will always differ between functions. KPIs like leads generated and engagement will be valuable to your Marketing or social teams, but not Sales whose sole focus is accelerating pipeline. But it’s context that helps tie everything together. It saves you questioning why everyone’s talking about split testing and not A/B testing (before realizing they’re the same thing an hour into the discussion). It clarifies why certain conversations are happening, sets clear expectations of what needs to be done and by whom, and breaks down siloes between departments. It stops important points of discussion from being lost in translation. Speaking the same language Driving revenue through a more unified marketing and sales function is becoming core to what we do. But we need to take a step back and evaluate our use of terminology. Before considering Sales and Marketing alignment, our marketing teams have to speak the same language. Collaboration is a product of good communication. But siloes across your marketing department can stand in the way of productivity. Making a concerted effort to convey the scope and role of specific marketing functions, core metrics necessary for success, and ways of working for each team helps promote a more collaborative work culture. It’s our responsibility to ensure we’re all on the same page before starting group projects or aligning with other branches of business. Recognizing the inconsistencies in our language and addressing them in advance helps reduce wasted time and resource. It sets us up for success by reducing the number of roadblocks in the way of our work and path to revenue growth. Marketing departments in B2B industries will likely continue to grow. And for organizations like B2B tech enterprises, the challenges associated with inconsistent language are only exacerbated by teams spread by geo, mother tongue, and culture. Creating clear and consistent rules for the language we use as B2B marketers can help overcome these barriers, allowing us to focus on creating exceptional marketing. Some ways forward So, how do we create guidelines for more consistent marketing language? I won’t say I have all the answers. But I do think there needs to be a shift in employee education and training with a view to standardizing nomenclature. Glossaries that include company-specific frameworks can be a great way to provide context and meaning to your business’ use of terminology. Pre-recorded video resources with your subject matter experts can be paired with an intranet site to offer a more interactive, always-on education and training solution. Or, better still, regular workshops across departments to promote cross-functional understanding of why terms are used at certain times. I’d also recommend reviewing your corporate team structures to see which stakeholders have a seat at the table. Changes in how your teams communicate can only come from the top down. And a reflection on how your use of language affects those you work with, through researching communication processes/best practices or otherwise, can be a step toward fostering a more collaborative work culture. Establishing clear definitions for common language allows us to work closer together. It breaks down barriers to collaboration and lets us focus on common business goals. If Marketing really wants to become a revenue center, we need to start speaking the same language.

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Spotlight

Connection2

Connection2 is a B2B Sales and Marketing agency based in Reading, Berkshire, providing Business and Channel Development services for technology companies across EMEA. While demand generation services are our bread and butter, we also offer fully integrated marketing solutions to support your requirements and resolve your problems. Marketing campaigns need to be multi-channel in order to achieve the best ROI, and C2 understands this simple fact. By integrating creative alongside a telemarketing campaign, your results are going to be decidedly better. We also offer a social media managed service named Social On Demand - it's the perfect tool to leverage your partners and colleagues and seriously amplify your content reach.

Related News

Account Based Advertising

RollWorks Presents the ABM Lounge at INBOUND 2022

RollWorks | August 12, 2022

RollWorks is bringing ABM to INBOUND! Today, the account-based marketing (ABM) platform and division of NextRoll celebrated its powerful partnership with HubSpot and announced its presence at HubSpot INBOUND® 22, September 6-9, 2022, in Boston. RollWorks has 16 inspiring sessions designed to help B2B teams ABMify their inbound strategies, as well as the first ever ABM Lounge. "We're excited to have such a strong presence at INBOUND this year, which reflects our market-leading end-to-end partnership with HubSpot. Our integration drives account-focused organizations' strategies by enabling teams of all sizes to identify high-fit, high-intent accounts and buyers, reach them efficiently, and measure impact — truly democratizing ABM and illustrating the power of ABM and inbound marketing," said Mike Stocker, VP of Partnerships at RollWorks. RollWorks ABM Lounge (Level 0, East Side of Boston Convention Center): Inspire your marketing programs, optimize your inbound, and accelerate your impact. Stop by 8:30am - 4:00pm ET to check out the sessions and for your chance to win $25K in RollWorks advertising media credits! Custom design a screen-printed t-shirt or tote bag of your choice, pick up one of our limited-edition ABM hoodies, and grab a coffee and snacks. Schedule a meeting with an ABM expert and learn how to get started with ABM and RollWorks or optimize your ABM program. ABM Lounge special events: Happy Hour: On Thursday, September 8th, from 5:30 - 7:00pm ET, come grab a custom Aperol Spritz or your drink of choice. RSVP for happy hour here. Customizable Donuts & Bottomless Espresso: On Friday, September 9th, from 8:00 - 9:00am ET, join us to celebrate our last few hours at INBOUND with customizable donuts and bottomless espresso drinks. RSVP for breakfast here. 2022 RollWorks + HubSpot Continued Product Innovation Throughout 2022, RollWorks has continued to deepen its commitment to adding more utility in its platform for HubSpot users. This summer, the company launched two new ABM tools: Journey Events for HubSpot®: delivers consolidated account-level visibility within the HubSpot interface to enable B2B organizations to understand what activities are working to drive accounts through the stages of the buying journey, and which activities need to be further optimized. Sales Insights for HubSpot: uses data science to provide a 360-degree view of accounts throughout the buying journey, helping B2B marketers and sales teams to eliminate the guesswork and create timelier and more efficient sales outreach. "RollWorks is a fantastic complement to HubSpot, combining best-in-class inbound marketing and account-based marketing capabilities to effectively grow B2B revenue," said Scott Brinker, VP of Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot. "RollWorks is a fantastic complement to HubSpot, combining best-in-class inbound marketing and account-based marketing capabilities to effectively grow B2B revenue," said Scott Brinker, VP of Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot. RollWorks + HubSpot Customer Success In April, the RollWorks ABM HubSpot App achieved a significant milestone for surpassing 500 installs (150% more than the nearest ABM competitor). Global organizations that leverage the combined power of RollWorks and HubSpot include: SnapFulfil: SnapFulfil leveraged RollWorks and HubSpot to launch and maintain a sales-aligned ABM program that generated high-value leads. Within 10 months, the Cloud Warehouse Management System (WMS) saw 27% of new website visits come from RollWorks and 4,000 new top-of-funnel leads with a 6% conversion to MQLs. "The prospects generated from all of our marketing activities get pulled into HubSpot automatically, where we then narrow our target list to sync with RollWorks. That automatic bi-directional syncing alone saves us a lot of time on manual input." - SnapFulfil Goverlan: Within 13 months, Goverlan identified 95% of closed/won deals were influenced by RollWorks and generated revenue 15x the initial investment cost—all with a nimble, two-person marketing team. "Things have changed since we started targeting accounts, as opposed to just contacts. We're generating 40-50 demo requests a week thanks to this happy marriage between our HubSpot inbound and RollWork ABM program." - Goverlan To learn more about how the market-leading combination of RollWorks and HubSpot drives even more value for your ABM programs, schedule a custom demo today. About RollWorks RollWorks, a division of NextRoll, offers ambitious B2B companies an account-based platform to align their marketing and sales teams and confidently grow revenue. Powered by proprietary data and machine learning, RollWorks' solutions address the needs of organizations large and small — from those with best-in-class ABM programs to those just beginning their exploration. By empowering teams to identify their target accounts and key buyers, reach those accounts across multiple channels, and measure program effectiveness in their system-of-record, RollWorks is an indispensable platform for marketers and sellers who believe that an account-based approach is just good business. To learn more visit www.rollworks.com.

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How a Fearless Content Marketing Strategy Paid Off for Under Armour, IBM, and GE

Business 2 Community | June 05, 2018

There are some truly inspirational brands out there in the world of content marketing. These companies are leading the pack when it comes to innovation, creativity, quality and, crucially, results. There are many examples of fearless content marketing spanning both B2B and B2C organizations. Venerable technology companies like GE are reinventing themselves for a new digital era, while fast-growing new consumer brands like Under Armour are threatening their more established rivals with their content marketing strategy. Here’s a look at 5 of these inspirational content marketing brands, how they’re doing it, and what you can learn from them.

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SmartBug Media Adds InfoSec Marketing Veteran Ken Mafli to Award-Winning Consulting Team

Business Insider | December 07, 2017

SmartBug Media—a leading intelligent inbound marketing agency that assists businesses in generating leads; increasing awareness; and building brand loyalty through inbound marketing, digital strategy, design, marketing automation, and PR—announced today its hire of Ken Mafli as Marketing Strategist. He will work to grow client revenue through digital marketing strategies.Previously, Mafli was the Demand Generation Manager for Townsend Security where he was part of a team that increased inbound leads by 93 percent in 2017 and saw a 50 percent increase in referral leads."SmartBug is committed to continual innovation while achieving impressive results for their clients," said Mafli. "This is an exciting opportunity to collaborate with great minds while helping to create winning campaigns for our clients. I look forward to helping our clients grow a large audience of delighted and engaged customers."Mafli will work with the SmartBug team to move the needle forward for clients through a dynamic mix of cutting-edge ideas and best practices.

Read More

Account Based Advertising

RollWorks Presents the ABM Lounge at INBOUND 2022

RollWorks | August 12, 2022

RollWorks is bringing ABM to INBOUND! Today, the account-based marketing (ABM) platform and division of NextRoll celebrated its powerful partnership with HubSpot and announced its presence at HubSpot INBOUND® 22, September 6-9, 2022, in Boston. RollWorks has 16 inspiring sessions designed to help B2B teams ABMify their inbound strategies, as well as the first ever ABM Lounge. "We're excited to have such a strong presence at INBOUND this year, which reflects our market-leading end-to-end partnership with HubSpot. Our integration drives account-focused organizations' strategies by enabling teams of all sizes to identify high-fit, high-intent accounts and buyers, reach them efficiently, and measure impact — truly democratizing ABM and illustrating the power of ABM and inbound marketing," said Mike Stocker, VP of Partnerships at RollWorks. RollWorks ABM Lounge (Level 0, East Side of Boston Convention Center): Inspire your marketing programs, optimize your inbound, and accelerate your impact. Stop by 8:30am - 4:00pm ET to check out the sessions and for your chance to win $25K in RollWorks advertising media credits! Custom design a screen-printed t-shirt or tote bag of your choice, pick up one of our limited-edition ABM hoodies, and grab a coffee and snacks. Schedule a meeting with an ABM expert and learn how to get started with ABM and RollWorks or optimize your ABM program. ABM Lounge special events: Happy Hour: On Thursday, September 8th, from 5:30 - 7:00pm ET, come grab a custom Aperol Spritz or your drink of choice. RSVP for happy hour here. Customizable Donuts & Bottomless Espresso: On Friday, September 9th, from 8:00 - 9:00am ET, join us to celebrate our last few hours at INBOUND with customizable donuts and bottomless espresso drinks. RSVP for breakfast here. 2022 RollWorks + HubSpot Continued Product Innovation Throughout 2022, RollWorks has continued to deepen its commitment to adding more utility in its platform for HubSpot users. This summer, the company launched two new ABM tools: Journey Events for HubSpot®: delivers consolidated account-level visibility within the HubSpot interface to enable B2B organizations to understand what activities are working to drive accounts through the stages of the buying journey, and which activities need to be further optimized. Sales Insights for HubSpot: uses data science to provide a 360-degree view of accounts throughout the buying journey, helping B2B marketers and sales teams to eliminate the guesswork and create timelier and more efficient sales outreach. "RollWorks is a fantastic complement to HubSpot, combining best-in-class inbound marketing and account-based marketing capabilities to effectively grow B2B revenue," said Scott Brinker, VP of Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot. "RollWorks is a fantastic complement to HubSpot, combining best-in-class inbound marketing and account-based marketing capabilities to effectively grow B2B revenue," said Scott Brinker, VP of Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot. RollWorks + HubSpot Customer Success In April, the RollWorks ABM HubSpot App achieved a significant milestone for surpassing 500 installs (150% more than the nearest ABM competitor). Global organizations that leverage the combined power of RollWorks and HubSpot include: SnapFulfil: SnapFulfil leveraged RollWorks and HubSpot to launch and maintain a sales-aligned ABM program that generated high-value leads. Within 10 months, the Cloud Warehouse Management System (WMS) saw 27% of new website visits come from RollWorks and 4,000 new top-of-funnel leads with a 6% conversion to MQLs. "The prospects generated from all of our marketing activities get pulled into HubSpot automatically, where we then narrow our target list to sync with RollWorks. That automatic bi-directional syncing alone saves us a lot of time on manual input." - SnapFulfil Goverlan: Within 13 months, Goverlan identified 95% of closed/won deals were influenced by RollWorks and generated revenue 15x the initial investment cost—all with a nimble, two-person marketing team. "Things have changed since we started targeting accounts, as opposed to just contacts. We're generating 40-50 demo requests a week thanks to this happy marriage between our HubSpot inbound and RollWork ABM program." - Goverlan To learn more about how the market-leading combination of RollWorks and HubSpot drives even more value for your ABM programs, schedule a custom demo today. About RollWorks RollWorks, a division of NextRoll, offers ambitious B2B companies an account-based platform to align their marketing and sales teams and confidently grow revenue. Powered by proprietary data and machine learning, RollWorks' solutions address the needs of organizations large and small — from those with best-in-class ABM programs to those just beginning their exploration. By empowering teams to identify their target accounts and key buyers, reach those accounts across multiple channels, and measure program effectiveness in their system-of-record, RollWorks is an indispensable platform for marketers and sellers who believe that an account-based approach is just good business. To learn more visit www.rollworks.com.

Read More

How a Fearless Content Marketing Strategy Paid Off for Under Armour, IBM, and GE

Business 2 Community | June 05, 2018

There are some truly inspirational brands out there in the world of content marketing. These companies are leading the pack when it comes to innovation, creativity, quality and, crucially, results. There are many examples of fearless content marketing spanning both B2B and B2C organizations. Venerable technology companies like GE are reinventing themselves for a new digital era, while fast-growing new consumer brands like Under Armour are threatening their more established rivals with their content marketing strategy. Here’s a look at 5 of these inspirational content marketing brands, how they’re doing it, and what you can learn from them.

Read More

SmartBug Media Adds InfoSec Marketing Veteran Ken Mafli to Award-Winning Consulting Team

Business Insider | December 07, 2017

SmartBug Media—a leading intelligent inbound marketing agency that assists businesses in generating leads; increasing awareness; and building brand loyalty through inbound marketing, digital strategy, design, marketing automation, and PR—announced today its hire of Ken Mafli as Marketing Strategist. He will work to grow client revenue through digital marketing strategies.Previously, Mafli was the Demand Generation Manager for Townsend Security where he was part of a team that increased inbound leads by 93 percent in 2017 and saw a 50 percent increase in referral leads."SmartBug is committed to continual innovation while achieving impressive results for their clients," said Mafli. "This is an exciting opportunity to collaborate with great minds while helping to create winning campaigns for our clients. I look forward to helping our clients grow a large audience of delighted and engaged customers."Mafli will work with the SmartBug team to move the needle forward for clients through a dynamic mix of cutting-edge ideas and best practices.

Read More

Events