Well, we didn’t produce a teen slasher movie that turned into a successful franchise, but we did host a chilling event on a dark rainy afternoon. Now when I say chilling, I’m talking about groups of clients and vendors enjoying ice-cold beverages and great food at the Summer Marketing Camp we held back in August. We hosted food trucks from Barrio and East Coast Custard, much to the delight of our guests who were willing to step out in the rain (umbrellas provided) to partake of the tasty treats. It was more than just fun and games though; we also shared some valuable advice on how to deliver “Measurably Better Marketing” from a variety of industry experts. 

With the widespread adoption of digital marketing methods, the crowded technology landscape is enough to scare even the most experienced marketer back to choosing an easier profession (like brain surgery). We focused on some effective solutions to differentiate your brand and deliver an impressive ROI. 

Clients are dealing with clogged inboxes (269 billion emails sent a day and 13 hours a week spent reading them), so it’s not enough to just send out more white papers and e-blasts in hopes that you’ll capture their attention. Today’s decision-makers are more responsive to a Connected Content strategy that reaches them at different levels of the sales funnel. This means providing the right content at the right point in the process from awareness to investigation to consideration and finally, at the point of purchase. For example; sending them a white paper when they are already educated enough about your product to make a decision is not relevant. Just as bad would be sending them a how-to-video when they are not even aware of your product. Personalization of communication platforms also helps to persuade the customer to pay attention to your message. 

Besides getting social with our guests at our Summer Marketing Camp, we also got to talking about the impact social media can have on B2B lead generation. This wasn’t always the case, of course, but it’s a growing trend that can help deliver results. Did you know that: 

• 75% of B2B buyers use social media to make buying decisions 
• 50% of B2B buyers use LinkedIn as a source for making purchasing decisions 
• 76% of B2B buyers prefer to work with recommendations from their professional network? 

If you haven’t already, now would be a good time to “get social” with your clients. 

We also discussed the best ways to convert visitors to your site into reliable leads and showed an example from one of our own client success stories. As you know, lead conversion is one of the best ways to deliver a healthy ROI for your marketing efforts. 

Here are the top ten best practices: 

1. Content Campaigns 
2. 80% to 20% Rule 
3. Side Flags 
4. Live Chat 
5. Before you leave…  
6. Remarketing 
7. Optinmonster 
8. CallRail 
9. Blog with Calls to Action 
10. Contact Us form in website footer 

Our vendor partner from AspenCore gave us a snapshot into the “Mind of the Engineer” from their 2018 research project, and Jill Fratianne from HubSpot shared “8 tips on Customer Delight -- How to Keep Customers Happy After They Find You.”  Both were excellent speakers with great insight for our B2B attendees. 

All in all, it was a great day and a great summer. Of course, we couldn’t predict the rainy weather, but we can forecast that we will continue to deliver measurably better results for our customers in 2019 and beyond.   

It's not too late to plan your budget with our 2019 budget planning worksheet. Get it here.