J-P De Clerck Archives - B2B Marketing Blog

Three Things Smart B2B Marketers Will be Doing in 2016

January 25, 2016 by Tom Pick

What will successful B2B marketers to be doing more of, or differently, in 2016?

That question was recently posed to the expert contributors at the B2B Marketing Zone, and two dozen responded with a range of insights about content marketing, measuring results, employee advocacy, customer experience and other topics.

The answers to that question—from influential bloggers like Michael Brenner, Paul Gillin, Cheryl Burgess, Jeff Cohen, Carla Johnson, Neal Schaffer, and J-P De Clerck among others—have been compiled in a free eBook, B2B Marketing Trends for 2016.

Download the eBook to read all of the thoughts from these experts regarding the keys to B2B marketing success in the coming year. Here are three key takeaways plus some additional musings.
[Read more…]

88 Expert Content Marketing Posts Worth Another Read

January 5, 2016 by Tom Pick

As noted here previously, content marketing is now ubiquitous, with 93% of all marketers saying they do content marketing. All of those marketers are creating an enormous amount of content, which is making it difficult to stand out and rise above the noise.

How much visual content is created every minuute?

Image credit: HubSpot

To help marketers address that challenge (and others), content marketing experts are also creating an enormous amount of content—about content marketing. These writers face the same challenge.

So what are the secrets to developing content that gets read, shared, and compels action? Here are 88 posts that have risen above the noise, designed to answer that question. Some date back a year or more but remain timely and helpful.

[Read more…]

14 Dazzling Digital Marketing Stats and Facts

July 28, 2015 by Tom Pick

Digital marketing activities and budgets are growing, because they have an impact: more than half of all employed adults say that “digital media has changed the way they work.” The ability to analyze the vast amounts of data generated by digital marketing activities, and translate that analysis into digital marketing strategies and tactics, will be key skills for marketers in the next decade.

Change in digital marketing budgets 2015

Image credit: AdWeek

Here are four more key takeaways based on the digital marketing facts and statistics presented below:

• Digital marketing (and customer service) are growing… Companies spent, on average, 25% of total marketing budgets on digital in 2014. But that figure is projected to jump to 75% within the next five years. And while less than a third of customer service interactions took place online last year, volume is expected to grow 53% this year.
• …because it matters to buyers. 80% of consumers do “a lot” of online research for major purchase decisions, and 46% say they count on social media when making such choices.
• But getting results isn’t easy. Digital marketers spend more than half of their online advertising dollars on direct response goals, yet consistently generating leads or revenue remains one of their top two challenges.
• Rethink display? Marketers in the U.S. will spend nearly $24 billion on online display advertising this year, and 59% of CMOs view display ads as an effective marketing channel. But with their low click-through rate, display ads make sense only if they support other measures of digital success, such as brand awareness.

You’ll find more insights in these 14 dazzling digital marketing facts and statistics.

14 Digital Marketing Stats and Facts

1. 80% of consumers say they do “a lot of” online research before making significant purchase decisions. (Digital Marketing Philippines)

2. 46% of online users count on social media when making a purchase decision. (Marissa’s Picks)

3. 38% of companies will hire more digital marketing professionals in the coming year. But about half of those positions will be filled by temporary or contract help, not full-time employees. (MediaPost)

4. 2015 pay ranges for digital marketing positions:

– Chief digital officers: $148,000 – $280,000
– Chief marketing technologists: $140,000 – $241,000
– Chief marketing officer: $142,000 – $230,000
– Director of digital marketing: $128,000 – $190,000
– Director of eCommerce: $100,000 – $166,000
– UI/UX Architect: $103,000 – $155,000
– Web designer: $65,000 – $110,000 annually
– Creative services director: $75,000 – $170,000
– Interactive designer: $73,000 – $113,000
– Art director: $67,000 – $135,000
– Graphic designer: $60,000 – $90,000
– Content creation / social media digital content strategist: $80,000 – $125,000
– Content producer: $58,000 – $105,000
– Director of social media: 42,000 – $105,000

(MediaPost/Mondo)

5. More than a third of CMOs say that digital marketing will account for 75% or more of their spending within the next five years. (AdWeek)

6. 60% of all digital advertising goes toward direct response goals. (eMarketer)

7. 42% of CMOs say that analytics skills will become a core competence in marketing (really – only 42%?); 27% believe earned media will become more important than paid or owned media. (AdWeek)

8. Despite their low click-through rate, 59% of CMOs view online display ads as an effective marketing channel. 56% say the same for social media. (AdWeek)

9. 54% of responding companies spent less than $1 million per annum on digital marketing in 2014. At the other end of the scale, 4% of companies spent more than $100 million. (MarketingProfs)

10. Less than one-third of customer service interactions took place online last year (social media, chat or email), but that volume is expected grow 53% in the coming year. (i-SCOOP)

11. Asked to name their number-one challenge, 15% of digital marketers said “meeting the expectations of the always-connected customer,” 14% chose “executing consistent campaigns that drive desired business outcomes” (i.e., leads or revenue) and 13% cited the proliferation of channels across paid, owned and earned media. (B2B Marketing Insider)

12. Companies spent, on average, 10% of total revenue on marketing in 2014. 25% of total budgets were spent on digital marketing, with 51% of companies planning larger budgets for 2015. (Information Management)

13. U.S. spending on online display advertising will reach $23.6 billion in 2015. (MediaPost)

14. Roughly half of all employed online adults also said digital media has changed the way they work, including the number of people they have contact with (51% of respondents) and the number of hours they work (35%). (MediaPost)

This was post #7 of Marketing Stats Summer (#statssummer) on Webbiquity.

#1: Welcome to Marketing Stats Summer!

#2: 34 Compelling Content Marketing Stats and Facts

#3: 21 Spectacular SEO and Search Marketing Stats and Facts

#4: Five Intriguing Inbound Marketing Stats [Infographic]

#5: 31 Sensational Social Media Marketing and PR Stats and Facts

#6: 17 Excellent Email and Mobile Marketing Stats and Facts

#7: 14 Dazzling Digital Marketing Stats and Facts

31 Sensational Social Media Marketing and PR Stats and Facts

July 14, 2015 by Tom Pick

Business and consumer marketers are nearly unanimous in their belief in the importance of social media to marketing activities. As noted below, the money is following that belief: social media now accounts for about 11% of all digital marketing outlays, and spending on social media marketing will total nearly $10 billion this year.

Still, marketers sometimes struggle with strategy, tactics, and measurement in social media marketing. Here are five actionable takeaways from the two-and-a-half dozen noteworthy social media marketing and PR statistics and facts presented below:

Image credit: i-SCOOP

Be responsive. People expect to hear back from the brands they interact with on Twitter and other social networks. And when they report a problem or issue, they expect to hear back quickly: 53% of consumers on Twitter expect a response within the hour. Furthermore, nearly half of all social media users share content with their friends, family and co-workers at least weekly; so if they have a bad experience with your brand, the word is likely to spread.

Strategize and measure. 88% of marketers believe social media marketing is important, and 75% of consumers say they use social media in the buying process. Yet nearly half of marketers only “somewhat agree” that analyzing social media engagement can help improve the bottom line. The key to making social media marketing effective at the business level is to have a strategy in place and measure key performance indicators. Unfortunately, strategy and measurement are cited as the top two challenges faced by social media marketers. They aren’t easy, but those who get these two areas right will succeed.

Know your market (B2B). Twitter is the place to engage with companies: While just 20 of the of Fortune 500 companies actually engage with their customers on Facebook, 83% have a presence on Twitter—as do 76% of the NASDAQ 100, 100% of Dow Jones companies, and 92% of the S&P 500. For reaching top executives though, LinkedIn is the place to be. Though only 32% of Fortune 500 CEOs have a presence on any major social network, the majority of those (25% of the total) are on LinkedIn. And 59% of executives prefer video content to text.

Know your market (B2C): Nearly three-quarters of adult Internet users in the U.S. are active on at least one social network (predominantly Facebook)—but not all use social media the same way or have the same expectations. For example, while just 2% of all consumers prefer social media over other channels for customer service, 27% of Gen Y-ers favor it. On the other hand, consumers aged 55-64 are more than twice as likely to engage with brand content as those younger than 28. Older social media users favor Facebook and Pinterest; the 34-and-under crowd dominates on Tumblr and Instagram.

Get social PR right. While journalists are open to connecting with and being contacted by PR pros using social media, they prefer email for pitches and follow up. But 76% of journalists say they feel pressure to think about their story’s potential for sharing on social media platforms—so make sure that’s part of the pitch.

There’s much more in this collection of two and half dozen sensational social media marketing and social PR facts and statistics.

16 Social Media Marketing Stats

1. People ages 55-64 are more than twice as likely to engage with a brands’ content than those 28 or younger. (Social Media Today)

2. People share content 49% more on weekdays than on weekends. (Social Media Today)

3. On average, social media accounts for 11% of digital marketing spending. (MarketingProfs)

4. 72% of adult internet users in the U.S. are now active on at least one social network, up from 67% in 2012. (Marissa’s Picks)

5. More than 70% of users expect to hear back from the brand they’re interacting with on Twitter, and 53% want a response within the hour. (Marissa’s Picks)

6. 49% of people say they share online content they like with friends, family or co-workers at least weekly. (Ber|Art)

Image credit: Ber|Art

7. 86% of marketers believe that social media is important for their business. (Ber|Art)

8. U.S. spending on social media marketing will reach $9.7 billion in 2015. (MediaPost)

9. Although 88% of marketers believe social media marketing is important, nearly half (48%) only “somewhat agree” that analyzing social media engagement can help improve the bottom line, and 15% don’t think analyzing social engagement matters at all. (eMarketer)

10. The top four challenges faced by social media marketers worldwide are assessing the effectiveness of social media activities (cited by 67% of marketers); designing an overall social media strategy (62%); making social media data actionable (61%); and educating staff on how to use social media (59%). (eMarketer)

11. Product/brand recommendations on social media mean more to younger people. 28% of those aged 18-34 say they are “very” or “fairly” likely to make a purchase based on a friend’s social media post, while just 33% say they are “not at all likely” to do so. The first figure gets smaller and the second larger with age; among those 65 and over, just 4% are likely to make a purchase based on a social media recommendation, while 78% are not at all likely. (Heidi Cohen)

12. 75% of customers say they use social media as part of the buying process. (Biznology)

13. 56% of marketers do not use any form of paid promotions on social media. (Cision)

14. Consumers may use social media for customer service, but they don’t love it. Although 67% of consumers have already used a company’s social media channel for customer service, just 2% say they prefer it over other options. Phone and email remain the most popular channels (66% combined). (MediaPost)

15. However–27% of Gen Y-ers favor social media for customer service. (MediaPost)

Image credit: Social Media Today

16. Facebook and Pinterest are among the “oldest” social networks in terms of their member demographics; 63% of U.S. Facebook users and 58% of those on Pinterest are age 35 and older. On the other hand, the 34-and-under crowd dominate on Tumblr (just over 50%) and Instagram (60%). Twitter is more balanced. (Social Media Today)

6 Social PR Statistics and Facts

17. While many journalists say they’d like PR pros to contact them via social media, less than half of PR practitioners have successfully pitched a journalist or outlet via social. So while engaging on social is a great add-on, traditional methods such as using a media database to target specific beats remains ever-important. (Cision)

18. The top three measures used by PR pros to show social media success increased website traffic (64%), increased engagement (61%) and increased followers (59%). (Cision)

19. 88% of PR professionals say their businesses or clients regularly engage on Facebook—more than any other social media platform. Twitter came in a close second at 85%. (Cision)

Social media is the #1 activity on the web

Image credit: B2B PR Sense Blog

20. Journalists receive, on average, 50-100 press releases every week. 44% prefer to receive them in the morning. 68% just want the facts. (B2B PR Sense Blog)

21. 76% of journalists say they feel pressure to think about their story’s potential for sharing on social media platforms. 64% say they prefer that follow-up on “pitches” be done via email rather than phone. (BentoBox Media)

22. When using video, 74% of journalists prefer content created by their own organizations. Just 3% use corporate / branded videos. (BentoBox Media)

6 Facts and Stats About Executive and Enterprise Social Media Use

23. Just 32% of Fortune 500 CEOs have a presence on any of the major social networks (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and Instagram). Most of those have a presence on only one platform, with the majority (25.4% of the total) on LinkedIn. Mark Zuckerberg is the only Fortune 500 CEO on all five major social networks — and he owns two of them. (MediaPost)

24. 59% of senior executives prefer video over text. (41 Stories)

25. Just 20 of the Fortune 100 comnpanies actually engage with their customers on Facebook. (i-SCOOP) [IMAGE maybe – good one – social customer service]

26. On a company level, 83% of the Fortune 500 had a Twitter presence in 2014, up from 77% the year before. 80% were on Facebook, up from 70%. (Sword and the Script)

27. Among 500 of the largest U.S. companies, Cisco and HP score first and second in their use of social media for corporate communications. But Facebook is only number 242, and Apple comes in 416th place. According to research by Investis, “Facebook was marked down because it did not engage with its corporate audience using the other social media platforms reviewed. Even on its own platform, Facebook’s investor relations page fell well short of best practice. For example, it does not use videos or hashtags and it does not appear to have responded to any of the posts left by users.” (Virtual Press Office)

28. Only 76% of Nasdaq 100 companies maintain a corporate Twitter account which compares with 100% of the Dow Jones and 92% of the S&P 100. (Virtual Press Office)

3 SMB Social Media Marketing Stats

29. 75% of SMBs use social media to promote their businesses–more than any other media category. (MediaPost)

30. Social media is not only number one in terms of utilization by SMBs, it is also number one in share of SMB media spending (21% of total media budgets). (MediaPost)

31. In the average firm of 100-500 employees, seven people are involved in a buying decision. (Biznology)

This was post #5 of Marketing Stats Summer (#statssummer) on Webbiquity.

#1: Welcome to Marketing Stats Summer!

#2: 34 Compelling Content Marketing Stats and Facts

#3: 21 Spectacular SEO and Search Marketing Stats and Facts

#4: Five Intriguing Inbound Marketing Stats [Infographic]

#5: 31 Sensational Social Media Marketing and PR Stats and Facts

10 Top Marketing Thought Leaders in Social Media

May 21, 2015 by Tom Pick

If you were asked to name the top thought leaders in marketing today–the 10 marketers you’d definitely advise others to follow on social media–how would you proceed?

You’d probably start by looking at those you’re connected with on the major social networks, then do some additional research. Perhaps you’d look at existing “top” lists from other sites. You’d develop a “long list” of worthy experts, then gradually narrow it down based on followers, level of engagement, quality of posts, and other factors. You’d carefully develop your final list, possibly using a method like pairwise ranking.

But—what if you had to answer on the spot? What if you had to respond immediately, or within just a few minutes? You’d forget some important names, of course, but your answers would reveal those you keep top of mind.

If you’re up for it, try this now; spend no more than five minutes listing your top 10—then come back to this post.

This recently happened to me. Below is my list in response to the question:

“Tell me the top ten marketing people you would follow on social media, those people that you think are the top ‘thought leaders’ in the marketing space today?”

Cheryl Burgess would unquestionably be on the list. In addition to being an expert on enterprise b2b marketing, she’s the co-author (with Mark Burgess) of The Social Employee, and the authority on how to inspire employee social media advocacy inside large organizations.

Ann Smarty knows SEO inside and out, and is the guru-ess of online tools. She also hosts the highly popular weekly Viral Content Buzz Twitter chat.

Meghan M. Biro is an acknowledged thought leader at the intersection of HR, social media and marketing.

Carla Johnson is one of the top experts on enterprise content marketing. Plus, she went to grade school in a one-room schoolhouse, making her ascent all the more impressive (or perhaps that just explains it?).

Robert Rose is another top resource on enterprise content marketing, co-author with Carla Johnson of Experiences: The 7th Era of Marketing, and an original member of the Lebron team.

Jeff Bullas — does anyone know more about blogging than Jeff? He’s one of those guys who seems to defy the laws of time and space by being able to consistently churn out bookmark-worthy blog posts, speak at events all over the planet, write ebooks, and still engage actively and prolifically on social media.

Glen Gilmore has long been known as an author and expert on the intersection of social media and the law. But not content with that, he’s more recently emerged as a top authority on the Internet of Things (IoT) as well.

J-P De Clerck is a “digital business and marketing strategist” whose expertise stands in the crossroads of content, search, and social media. Plus he’s from Belgium, so along with Jeff Bullas (Australia) he keeps this list from being too U.S.-centric.

Gini Dietrich is a top PR pro, author of Spin Sucks and co-author of Marketing in the Round (incidentally a great primer on building a team to execute a web presence optimization strategy), and tweeter of consistently good stuff.

Wendy Marx is a brilliant b2b PR strategist whose B2B PR Sense blog is a must-read for any marketing or PR pro seeking wisdom and insights into b2b content marketing and social media.

In the moments after rattling off this list, my first thought was: not bad, for a group quickly compiled off the top of my head.

But my second thought was: wow, I missed a lot of important and worthy names!

How could I have left off some of the most engaging social media marketing and PR pros like Harry Hoover, Judy Bellem and Jayme Soulati?

Or within just the PR realm, thought leaders and key influencers like Deb Weinstein, Lisa Buyer, Jeff Domansky and Arik Hanson?

In the realm of content marketing, Michael Brenner, Neal Schaffer, Rebecca Lieb, Heidi Cohen and Ann Handley are certainly worthy additions. As are, getting more granular, experts in developing b2b buyer personas, like Ardath Albee and Tony Zambito.

Closer to home, I could have highlighted the fact that some of the smartest people in social media marketing are fellow Minnesotans, including Lee Odden, Marty Weintraub and Angie Schottmuller.

How about CMOs and others focused on leadership, like Patrick Strother, Tony Karrer, Chris Schenk, Kent Huffman, Eric Fletcher, and Margaret Molloy?

Or leaders in academics on social media, such as Gary Schirr, Mike Johansson and Dorie Clark?

Even at that, there are deserving names left off the list.

If I’m ever again asked to name a list of the top 10 social media marketers, I think I’ll answer—I can’t name 10. But I can give you 75 or so.

Who’s on your “top of mind” top 10 list?

Three Things Smart B2B Marketers Will be Doing in 2016

Recent Posts

Categories