"The Growth Blog" - A resource for B2B Business leaders & marketers

Just when you thought you understood SEO...How you get ranked by the search engines has changed...

Again...

And this time its a big change which has some significant implications for B2B Marketers. The way you design your site, your content and the keywords you chose will all need to change. The following article was published in September 2017 by HubSpot. 

Human search behaviors have changed, and so have the technologies used to interpret and serve up search results. Optimising blog content to rank for long-tail keywords is no longer the best way to rank in search engine results -- and your blog architecture has something to do with that.

In this blog post, we'll walk you through the ways search has changed, the scoop on topic clusters, and how pillar pages fit into the equation.

Marketing automation tools are the not-so-secret weapon for B2B marketers. It allows you to focus on thinking... designing and creating compelling lead generation campaigns, rather than the doing...as the automation software should do the grunt work for you.

Sounds great right? Well yes, but making a decision on which automation platform suits your needs best, requires some thinking and some research. Here is a list of topics to consider:

Do you ever feel like a hamster on the B2B sales and marketing wheel? Running faster and faster just to stand still? Executing the same old campaigns quarter after quarter because...well you simply don't have the time or capacity to stop and think of a better way.  While a nagging doubt is growing in the back of your mind; that your same old tactics just aren't working very well any more - No wonder you have to run so fast.

Perhaps only a few of the most "experienced" B2B marketers (a.k.a. old) may remember Monty Python's classic Parrot sketch, when the shop owner declares "That parrot isn't dead...it's just resting!" Many B2B Content producers are openly questioning if content marketing is in fact dead. It certainly feels that content has failed to deliver the expected returns it promised in terms of brand awareness, new visitors and leads. Its under increasingly intense scrutiny from those who have to pay for it, and those who produce it.

Is B2B content dead or just resting?

Want to have successful conversations with your boss? 

Understand and use these "Fab 5" Marketing Metrics, to prove to your boss Marketing is WAY more than the (highly insulting) so called colouring-in department and build a different relationship with the senior executives within your company.

In a face-to-face environment, experienced B2B sales professionals can determine through research and thorough questioning who plays what role in the purchase process and ensure each of the influencers have bought in to their solution.

But what happens in the new world in which we find ourselves, where B2B buyers are self-educating using online research and are often 70%-80% of the way through the purchase process before they even reach out to a vendor- In this environment, how does the seller wield influence over the different buyer types? 

Sales and Marketing alignment is difficult for most organisations causing many internal and external challenges that affect the bottom line. Now more than ever, fundamental changes in your buyers behaviour are increasingly creating misalignment between these two functional areas. Misalignment breeds inefficiency. This misalignment causes propose to close rates falling, the quality of leads falling and the cost of acquisition increases.

As discussed in part one of this blog a solid sales and marketing strategy is the key first step to achieving growth. Just to recap,  in part 1 we discussed how to develop "The 4xWs" of strategy, namely:

• To Whom
• With What
• Through Whom
• Against whom

The 4xWs sets up a clear framework for your sales and marketing team to align and focus their efforts around your buyer. 

Estimating your go to market funnel

Now we'll turn our attention to the next critical step. Tying your go to market strategy and investments to your business' financial goals. Firstly, clearly understand your businesses new revenue goals that are coming from marketing's activities and then, using an average sales value,  work out the number of net new clients you need for each time period.

Your sales and marketing are like the heart and lungs of your business. They provide crucial oxygen to your business which it needs to survive and thrive. In this week's blog, we discuss how the business environment in which we all exist is changing rapidly. If your sales and marketing fail to adapt to these new conditions, your business will fail to thrive and potentially survive.