8 of the Top Marketing Challenges Marketers Face (And Their Solutions)

November 03, 2015 at 02:00PM

Every marketer faces different challenges. Although we typically share similar goals, some teams are stuck on hiring top talent, while others are having trouble finding the right technology for their needs.

Whatever the case may be, there’s always at least one area that you can stand to improve. In other words, there’s always room to optimize the various components of your strategy and turn your marketing into an even more effective revenue generator.

Curious about what kinds of obstacles other marketers are up against? We polled thousands of marketers on the challenges they face, as well as the tactics they’ve used to meet those challenges head-on. Here are some of the most common challenges marketers reported to be struggling with ... and their solutions.

To learn more about the challenges marketers face today, download the free 2015 State of Inbound Report here.

The Most Common Marketing Problems We Face, According to 2015 State of Inbound Report

According to our report, proving ROI and getting more budget are the leading challenges marketers face. Here's how each marketing challenge breaks down, by company size:

Image Credit: The 2015 State of Inbound Report

Let's go through each of these top challenges and how marketers can address them.

1) Providing the ROI of Your Marketing Activities

Why It's a Challenge

Measuring the ROI (return on investment) of your marketing activities was the top marketing challenge, according to the 2015 State of Inbound report. But it's a vital way for marketers to understand the effectiveness of each particular marketing campaign, piece of content, etc.

Plus, proving ROI often goes hand-in-hand with making an argument to increase budget: No ROI tracking, no demonstrable ROI. No ROI, no budget. 

But tracking the ROI of every single marketing activity isn't always easy, especially if you don't have two-way communication between your marketing activities and sales reports. 

What Can You Do?

When it comes to providing ROI, there's a strong case to be made for dedicating time and resources to establishing links between marketing activities and sales results. This means using both marketing software (like HubSpot) and a CRM solution (like HubSpot's free CRM), and then tying them together to close the loop between your marketing and sales efforts. That way, you can directly see how many leads and customers are generated through your marketing activities.

Leading marketers also check their analytics frequently. In our survey, respondents who achieved greater ROI in 2015 than the previous year were approximately 20% more likely to check their marketing analytics 3+ times per week (or have someone on their team do so).

Finally, when it comes to increasing ROI, inbound marketing is proven to be the best bang for your buck. Every company we surveyed -- regardless of marketing spend -- was 3X as likely to see a higher ROI on inbound marketing campaigns than on outbound.

(Use this ROI calculator to simulate the potential ROI you could realize by conducting inbound marketing.)

2) Securing Enough Budget

Why It's a Challenge

Securing more budget has been the second-most pressing challenge for survey respondents the last two years running. But marketers know getting more budget is often easier said than done -- especially for smaller organizations that aren't working with sizable nor flexible marketing spend.

And an increased budget is important: Our data showed that the more budget marketers have to begin with (until they hit the $5 million dollar ceiling), the more they’re likely to receive next year. More than half of all marketers with budgets over $25,000 saw a bump in funds since 2014.

But the key to securing more money for your team might not be that complex. Here's what you can do.

What Can You Do?

The key to unlocking budget lies in being able to prove the ROI of your marketing efforts. According to our report, respondents whose teams demonstrated positive marketing ROI in 2015 were more than twice as likely to receive higher budget.

We found that, for marketers who did see a change to their inbound budget from 2014 to 2015, the most important factor to driving a higher inbound budget was past success with inbound marketing. However, past failure with inbound marketing also resulted in a higher budget: Of those who failed with inbound last year, 81% increased budget as a result. This means that top marketers realize inbound marketing is a long game. If you get off to a slow start, you shouldn’t back off -- in fact, you might consider doubling down.

Again, the only way to have that data is to track it in the first place. Respondents who tracked ROI were over 20% more likely to receive higher budget than their counterparts who failed to keep tabs. Marketers can't afford to be loose about their ROI tracking.

3) Managing Your Website

Why It's a Challenge

Managing a website was the third biggest challenge for marketers in 2015 -- especially for small companies fighting to reach the growth phase, as well as for nonprofit organizations. For nonprofits, managing a website was actually the #1 concern, ranking above providing ROI and securing more budget.

But, chances are, your website's performance is high on your list of priorities. It's an asset that works around the clock to draw in visitors, convert them, and help you hit your goals, after all. 

Issues with website management includes a variety of different factors, from writing and optimizing the content to designing beautiful webpages. Here are a few things marketers can do to deal with this challenge. 

What Can You Do?

First, read this report to see how your website stacks up against 26,000 other websites. It also includes a deep analysis on the four most critical elements of website performance and design, from average load time and website security, to mobile friendliness and SEO.

If your primary challenge with managing a website has to do with the skills and resources you have available, you aren't alone. This is especially true for small companies who don't have all the talent in-house required to cover content, optimization, design, and back-end website management.

One solution? Hire freelancers and agency partners. This year, our data showed an increase in the number of respondents who indicated they use freelancers and agency partners for content creation. To find freelancers, we recommend:

• Tapping into your personal and professional network by posting on LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social networks with a description of what you're looking for.
• Browsing freelance writers and designers based on their portfolios and areas of interest. For writers, check out Zerys and Contently. For designers, check out Behance & Elance.
• Browsing HubSpot's Services Marketplace, which lists a wide variety of designers from partner companies and agencies we've deemed credible.

Overall, you can make website management easier on your team by hosting your website on a platform that integrates all your marketing channels like HubSpot's COS.

Finally, for the projects you want to keep in-house, here is a list of blog posts that might be helpful to your team:

• Blog post: 15 of the Best Website Homepage Design Examples
• Blog post: Lead Gen 101: How to Create an Intuitive Website Conversion Path
• Blog post: Web Design 101: How HTML, CSS, and JavaScript Work
• Blog post: The 8 Elements of Modern Web Design (And Web Design Trends to Watch)
• Blog post: The Beginner's Guide to SSL: What It Is & Why It Makes Your Website More Secure
• Blog post: Designing a Website Blueprint: How to Create Your XML Sitemap
• Ebook: The Ultimate Workbook for Redesigning Your Website

4) Identifying the Right Technologies for Your Needs

Why It's a Challenge

Finding the right technologies was the fourth biggest concern for marketers this year. Oftentimes, this is because feedback on technology is scattered. Marketers might turn to colleagues, friends in the industry, and/or analyst reports to figure out which technologies best fit their needs -- only to find that feedback is spread across emails, social media, and so on from people of varied reputability.

When you're looking for a tool, software, or piece of technology to solve a specific marketing problem, where do you go to find it?

What Can You Do?

For those of you looking for a tool, software, or piece of technology to solve a specific marketing problem, we recommend taking a look at Growthverse: a free, interactive, online visualization of the marketing technology landscape that focuses on the business problems marketers are trying to solve, and leads them to specific pieces of marketing technology that aim to solve those problems. We've found it to be a really well visualized map of carefully curated marketing technology resources. (Click here to read a blog post about how Growthverse works.)

It's worth noting that the main tool in top marketers’ arsenals is a platform for automating their team’s marketing efforts. We found that although our respondents indicated using an array of specific products, the larger trend was telling: The top marketers use marketing automation software in some form or another. Specifically, those who saw a higher marketing ROI in 2014 were more likely to have used marketing automation software than not. In addition, those same respondents were more likely to see more budget unlocked as a result, and had almost no chance of receiving a lower budget.

5) Training Your Team

Why It's a Challenge

Marketers found training their team to be the fifth biggest challenge this year. Whether it's training them on the concepts and tools they'll be using every day or making sure they're achieving their full potential, the struggle was real across the board. 

To combat this, I’ll share some tips I’ve used during my trainings to make sure the concepts and tool tips stick and have a lasting effect on your team and your marketing. 

What Can You Do?

To get an overall idea of where your team stands, take a few minutes to assess each of your team members' marketing strengths and weaknesses, levels of expertise, and passion/commitment to your company. Then, objectively rate the priority (or level of importance) of their expertise and their contribution to bottom line objectives (ROI) to date. Here's a simple assessment tool from Lean Labs to help you evaluate your team so you can figure out who needs recognition and who needs coaching.

Next, check out this awesome resource from HubSpot Academy, The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Training. It's a guide that'll help you navigate all the marketing training options you have, from quick daily habits to more rigorous, career-launching investments. 

You also might consider requiring your team members to rack up some online marketing certification. HubSpot Academy, for example, offers certifications, documentation, and training programs to help people master the basics of inbound marketing. Google also offers training and certifications on analytics with their online Analytics Academy.

What about new hire training, specifically? We recommend creating a training plan for new team members. Here at HubSpot, each new marketer is given a 100-day plan like this one to lay out specific goals and help new hires demonstrate their effectiveness.

6) Targeting Content for an International Audience

Why It's a Challenge

Targeting is a key component of all aspects of marketing. To be more effective at targeting, one of the first things any marketer needs do is identify their buyer personas to determine who it is they should be marketing to. If you're expanding internationally, it can be a big challenge not only to figure out the best ways to market to an international audience, but also to organize and optimize your site for different countries.

What Can You Do?

Start by reading this blog post on 22 global marketing hacks and resources. There are some really helpful tips in there that'll help give you some direction on global marketing, including how to identify your top three growth markets, how to explore local trends, and tips on choosing the best localization providers. (For a more in-depth guide, download our free ebook, The Global Marketing Playbook.)

Remember, your website visitors might speak a plethora of different languages and live in totally different time zones. To make your content appealing to a wide audience, you'll need to keep your global visitors top-of-mind when creating all your content. This means being aware of seasonal references, translating units of measure and monetary references, and giving translators the tools and permissions to customize and adapt content for a specific audience when they need to.

Finally, be sure you're optimizing your website for international visitors, too. One of the first and most important decisions you'll need to make is determining which domain structure should be used for additional languages and countries. (For more tips and resources on global marketing expansion, browse our international inbound marketing hub.)

7) Hiring Top Talent

Why It's a Challenge

Hiring top talent was the seventh biggest challenge marketers reported experiencing this year. Why? Many companies are shifting more resources to inbound marketing, which means higher and higher demand for top marketing talent. But supply simply isn't keeping up. From sourcing the right candidates to evaluating for the right skills, finding the perfect person could take months ... or more.

What's more, the type of marketing talent companies are looking for is changing, too. In Moz and Fractl's analysis of thousands of job postings on Indeed.com, they concluded that employers are seeking marketers with technical and creative skill sets. And the quick rate at which the demand for these jobs are rising has caused a marketing skills gap, "making it difficult to find candidates with the technical, creative, and business proficiencies needed to succeed in digital marketing."

What Can You Do?

Employers are looking for marketers with a diverse skill set that includes digital marketing, content marketing, SEO, and social media marketing. To find the best inbound marketer for your team, the first thing you should do is decide what that person needs to be able to achieve for your business.

Ask yourself: What will the new marketer's tasks and duties include? What skills do those tasks and duties require? What goals or challenges will the new marketer face? Use your answers to these questions to write a compelling job description. (Here are 37 pre-written marketing job descriptions to help you get started.)

Next, post your jobs where talented inbound marketers will find them. While traditional job sites like Indeed.com, CareerBuilder.com, or LinkedIn will help you cast a wide net, we recommend checking out Inbound.org, which is the only job listing service in the world that's exclusively focused on inbound marketing and sales jobs.

Finally, download this free kit on building and managing an agile, modern marketing team. The kit includes eight more, ready-made marketing job descriptions, information on finding and hiring the perfect inbound marketer, interview questions for candidates, and how to recruit and evaluate marketing interns. 

8) Finding an Executive Sponsor

Why It's a Challenge

Having an executive sponsor usually means you have someone in a highly placed position pushing your agenda for you. While finding one is eighth on the list of top marketing challenges, we've found this priority has become significantly more important for marketers in 2015 as compared to 2014. Specifically, finding an executive sponsor was more than 7X as likely to be cited as a challenge in 2015 as it was in 2014.

This makes sense, given that our survey respondents skewed toward SMBs: Marketers who are highly focused on securing more budget (and proving the ROI of their marketing spend) are likely interested in getting executives on their side to secure buy-in for inbound marketing practices. 

We also found that senior executives favor inbound marketing more than managers do:

Image Credit: The 2015 State of Inbound Report

Among managers or senior managers, outbound was perceived to be the best marketing approach in terms of generating ROI. Inbound catches up to outbound at the non-executive VP/director level, and passes it at the executive rank (executive-level personnel represented over a third of all survey respondents).

What Can You Do?

One key way to help convince an executive to help push your inbound marketing agenda -- and hopefully become a sponsor -- is to use data to make a compelling case for inbound marketing. It's much harder to refute data than it is mission statements and philosophies. Read this blog post to learn more about using data to make your case. (Bonus: You'll also find in there 100 stats, charts, and graphs to get inbound marketing buy-in.)

Does Your Company Face Any of These Challenges?

A thorough analysis of your marketing strategy and its current performance will help you discover where your biggest marketing opportunity lies. This will allow you to focus on improving the areas that need the most attention, so you can start making your marketing far more effective.

If you're faced with a challenge and want ideas on how to best tackle it, you can always consider getting some help by any of the various types of marketing training that are available.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in November 2012 and has been updated for freshness and comprehensiveness.

 

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The Media and Advertising Industry Has a Trust Issue: Here's How Publishers Can Fix It

November 03, 2015 at 01:00PM

Earlier this year, AdAge made a profound yet controversial statement that “no one trusts advertising or media.” Only 4% of Americans think the marketing industry behaves with integrity, and nearly half of consumers surveyed say that they don’t trust any news source.

Ouch.

This trend is a blow to the media industry, which is built on trust. Shady and dishonest internet marketing practices have left a sour taste in consumers’ mouths: they’re inherently skeptical of any information your brand puts out to the world—especially your native ads.

The word “sponsored” is enough to make anyone raise an eyebrow and evoke an instant fear of skepticism. Consumers may instantly assume that your messaging has an ulterior motive--even when your goal is to simply provide entertainment or share educational materials.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Creating an Advertising Strategy That Garners Trust With Your Readers

There are simple steps that editors can take to improve trust in media and advertising. Here are some recommendations to guide you:

1) Develop Ads That Audiences Find Interesting

A recent report from Nielsen points out that one third of online advertising campaigns don’t work—they fail to drive awareness, lift, or purchase intent. Compare this stat to another in the same study: branded websites are the second-most-trusted advertising format, behind recommendations from friends and family.

Cliff notes:

• As a whole, advertising is ineffective.
• As a subset of advertising, branded content is highly effective.

The big question is why. To answer that question, let’s look at sponsored content. It may be labeled an ‘advertisement,’ but it’s so much more—most importantly, it’s a way for brands to better engage their audiences.

The difference between sponsored content and advertising is that sponsored content is typically developed by trained editors and journalists. These creators are content experts, in the business of entertaining audiences and publishing creative stories. According to recent data, 56% of publishers indicate sponsored content and native ads are the most likely ad offering to increase in value over the next two years.

The bottom line? Focus on what your audiences care about: educate and engage. This level of authenticity and transparency builds trust.

2) Be Helpful

The Nielsen study uncovered a link between trust and action. Why? Consumers take action on ad units that they find valuable when they come from a reputable source. It's content + context, with one more factor tacked on. Curator.  

How does this work for media companies specifically?

Media companies can use ads to guide consumers through the decision process, while still providing the value that caused readers to visit their site to begin with. They can make it easy to purchase a product in the moment, or provide a resource to download additional information. Native can build trust between advertisers and consumers, in ways that display cannot. As Nielsen points out, the strongest online and mobile formats make it compelling to ‘live in the moment’—a quality that you can take back to your company’s native ad strategy.

Focus on educating and delivering value rather than selling.

Native ads and branded content make it easy for audiences to have fun, take a break, and live in the moment. Make it easy for your viewers to take the next step, make a purchase, or surface more details about your advertisers.

3) Don’t Forget Emotion

It can be easy to forget your editorial voice when building educational content. But whatever you do, don’t restrict your communications to corporate-speak. According to the Nielsen survey, successful marketing campaigns require more than identifying the right channels for reaching consumers. You also need to deliver the right messaging: in doing so, you’ll capture your audience’s attention, improve conversion to long-term memory, and improve emotional engagement. 

And depicting real-life situations? This strategy resonates most powerfully, according to 44 percent of global respondents—and publishers know what resonates with their audiences (that's their job!) bring the same emotions to the ads they help create.

One of the most impactful ways to connect your message to memory? It’s storytelling. And native ads provide the perfect format to accomplish this goal through video, text, and photos.

Create sponsored content that makes your audience’s feel something and help your advertisers illuminate their human sides.

Final Thoughts

Editors are in a strong position to help their advertising partners build trust. Both brands and publishers should treat their editors as consultants.

Editors can help advertisers look beyond marketing messages in sponsored content to build a transparent yet emotional rapport with audiences. They can also make sure that the advertising message is backed by the ultimate investment—integrity.

The bottom line: Be true to who you are, and trust will follow suit.

http://bit.ly/1Menc6O

What Makes a Great Leader? 6 Defining Qualities to Strive For [Infographic]

November 03, 2015 at 12:00PM

There are a lot of misconceptions about leadership floating around in the business world. Think great leaders love the spotlight? Or that they have all the answers? Or they got to where they are by taking a lot of credit for big wins?

These leadership myths are all too common. In fact, great leaders don't seek attention; they find pride in helping others succeed. They aren't all-knowing; they use their resources to turn ideas into executable plans. And they don't take all the credit; the best leaders are humble, self-aware, and shoulder a little more share of the blame and a little less share of the credit.

What else makes a leader stand out? Check out the infographic below from ELIV8 to learn more about the characteristics of excellent leadership. And remember: Leadership is a skill, not a genetic disposition. Work on improving these qualities and you, too, can become an exemplary leader.

What other qualities make a great leader? Share with us in the comments.

http://bit.ly/1MEjHIT

A Simple Guide to SEO for Local Businesses [Infographic]

November 02, 2015 at 06:00PM

When you find yourself in an unfamiliar area and you're looking for a restaurant, coffee shop, sports store, or some other local business ... how do you go about finding it?

Most of us pull out our smartphone, open up a search engine, and search for a specific type of local business. That's called a local search, and it's for customers in a particular area who use online search engines to find a business in that area.

According to Google's own research, "50% of consumers who conducted a local search on their smartphone visited a store within a day, and 34% who searched on computer or tablet did the same."

With local businesses competing for the top spots in those searches, knowing how to optimize your website accordingly is key. To help you learn more about local SEO, SurePayroll created the infographic below. Check it out to learn the anatomy of a local Google search results page, how to optimize your website for local searches, and how to separate your search result from everyone else's.

 

What local SEO tips can you add to the list? Share with us in the comments.

http://bit.ly/1NlNyEx

How to Make Your B2B Content More Lovable: 9 Tips to Try

November 02, 2015 at 02:00PM

One of my life missions has been to rescue B2B blogs from their backwater boring status and bring them to the forefront of awesomeness.

Thankfully, I’m seeing the trend grow.

More B2B blogs are nailing it and putting forth the level and quality of content that B2B readers truly crave ... but there is still progress to be made.

I’ve assembled this list of tips that can help you bring your B2B content up to the next level.

9 Tips for Creating Content that B2B Readers Love

1) Use jargon appropriately.

Whenever you spend a lot of time in a particular niche, the jargon rubs off on you. If you’re in the military, you’re going to talk about BFO, CFB, BOHICA, BZ, EOD, JO, FTN, and everyone will know what you’re talking about. (I’m honestly not sure. I just pulled those off military.com.)

If you’re into SEO, you expect to be able to use that acronym -- SEO -- and everyone knows what you’re talking about.

Every industry has its jargon.

Image Credit

While overuse will muddy up your content, using jargon strategically can make people feel included, welcomed, respected, and appreciated for their knowledge.

The first few paragraphs of this Moz article are all that you need to alert you to the fact that this is an insider’s piece. You can expect some jargon, and that’s okay.

Keep in mind that jargon can be seen as pretentious, so make sure you’re using the right jargon, in the right way, for the right reason, and with the right readers.

2) Go deep.

B2B readers are proud of their knowledge, and rightly so. They have invested their lives, their education, their careers, and their time into acquiring professional skills.

They love it when people speak to them on their level -- a deep level.

That’s why the B2B content that you produce should go deep. Take this expert excerpt from the Toptal blog:  

The final step is to iterate N elements once again replacing the element by its code for each element: element[i] = code[i]. The complexity is O(N). The complexity of FastSMQT is O(N) + O(2^L) + O(L*(2^L)) + O(N) = O(2*N) + O((L + 1)*(2^L)) = O(N + L*(2^L)) .

It’s gibberish to the average Joe, but it’s pure read-worthy gold to the software engineer.

Bear in mind, you can’t get content this deep from most “freelance writers” you find on Craigslist. Sourcing B2B writers is one of the first and greatest challenges to generating great B2B content.

3) Predict the future.

B2B blogs will thrive when they are dealing with present hot topics and future predictions. Predictive blogs tend to generate viral sharing and excited feedback.

Who wouldn’t want to know the future of their industry or the precursive power of daily trends?

A well-researched, thorough, and to-the-point prophetic piece is the kind of content that will give you a strong ROI. The blog, Acxiom, has an example of this kind of post:

This kind of content is especially popular around the New Year, when B2B readers are particularly interested in finding out what’s next.

4) Get to the bottom line.

Nearly every B2B reader shares an interest in the bottom line: revenue. When you can boil down the trade to this fundamental bedrock, then you’ve landed on a popular topic.

It is possible to chase everything back to this one point. Whether it’s an abstruse coding trick, a marketing move, or some other niche technique, everything somehow goes back to the bottom line.

This blog is a great example of getting down to brass tacks. (Or are those thumbtacks?)

The Proppelr blog uses revenue-driven content to advance the following article. And the title tells all: 

B2B content can and should deal with a wide range of topics. Be sure to trace these topics back to a core concern: revenue.

5) Be an expert.

There’s an alarming trend in B2B content marketing. It’s becoming challenging to find experts in niche fields, especially experts who have the time and ability to create long-form content for content marketing purposes.

According to a report from CMI, more B2B marketers say they are challenged with finding trained content marketing professionals this year (32%) than last year (10%).

It makes sense. If you have an expert, you’re probably using that expert to do great things, not just to write about them.

Toptal has managed to overcome this challenge. Their business model involves attracting and recruiting the finest engineers in the industry. Their marketing strategy includes getting these gurus to create content:

Even if you don’t know what optimized successive mean quantization transform is, you at least know that this B2B blog is getting an expert to wax eloquent on the subject.

6) Create case studies.

Case studies are a linchpin of great content.

Case studies aren’t just advertisements. They are revelations of data, information, technique processes, tutorials, and a bunch of goodness rolled up into a single piece of content.

Most marketers use case studies for their glaringly obvious benefit -- showcasing the skills and expertise of the business.

Yet case studies have a broader effect. In addition to acquiring clients, case studies bring value to the industry as a whole. Industry members and participants can learn how things are done, the techniques used, and the processes followed to achieve a certain goal.

Think With Google is a collection of case studies, each showcasing what a good case study looks like:

Beginning with the title, the case study promises to tell a story and bring value. The bulleted section of the case study makes for easy, digestible reading:

Even failure makes for a great case study, as per the following one on JeffBullas.com:

Case studies have immense value, and every B2B content marketing effort should contain them.

7) Be ruthlessly tactical.

The content has to make a difference.

The best B2B blogs will always be those that answer the toughest questions, solve the thorniest problems, and show the clearest solutions.

This article from Cardinal Path exemplifies the tactical approach: 

The writer explains exactly why he has written the whitepaper:  

"'But which one is best?' -- We get that a lot too….Our newest whitepaper, A Marketer’s Guide to Finding the Right Analytics Solution, provides an overview of the major analytics platforms and offer insights into ways you can optimize your solution."

There’s no need to keep your readers in the dark. A good B2B article should do the following:

• Address a problem. This should be a commonly-identified issue in your field. It’s something that your audience deals with.
• Sketch the problem for the reader. They’ve got to be able to relate to it -- to say, “Yeah, I have that problem!”
• Solve the problem. This is the meat of the article.

Such articles will be tactical to the bone. They explain clearly how to do, what to do, what it looks like -- with data to back it all up. The more specific, detailed, and actionable you can be, the better.

8) Bring forth the juicy data.

Ah, data, how we love you.

When a B2B blog publishes a solid mass of data, the data aficionados, bloggers, ponderers, thinkers, movers, and shakers pounce on it.

The Content Marketing Institute is a purveyor of data. Their research-backed approach gives to their B2B audience exactly what they crave — lots and lots of data.

The more statistics, pie charts, line graphs, and bar graphs you can pack into your article, the better.

9) Just say it, prove it, and be done.

Some writers obsess over style.

How does it sound? Is my tone correct? What’s the best word in this particular sentence? How should I wrap up this paragraph? Should I use a question here, or is a declarative sentence better?

I’m all about stylistic finesse. You don’t want your blog post to fall flat with a can-hardly-read-it style. On the other hand, you don’t want to obsess over it. Great B2B content simply says what it needs to say, proves it, and that’s it.

If you have a flair for style, so be it. But don’t make stylistic perfection your goal.

I'd argue that Invision has one of the leading design B2B blogs in the industry. Their content is typically packed with data and actionable information, but they don’t pursue a sizzling style.

An article that contains the words iterative, prototyping, methodology, articulate, and hypothesis in the first couple of lines?

It’s not exactly a man-bites-dog style.

Let me make the point clear with an example. ViralNova is B2C:

You don’t need this kind of content. You don’t need the "OMG!" approach or the cliff-hanging style for a B2B blog. Your goal isn’t to be Hemingway, let alone ViralNova. Your goal is to be as clear as possible.

Conclusion

This article has focused on articles as the primary portal of B2B content. The reason for this focus is because of the lack of quality I’ve noticed in many B2B blogs.

Keep in mind that B2B content can take myriad forms. For example, advanced and powerful webinars are an explosive source of producing high-value content with the extra advantage of generating direct leads.

Whatever the style, medium, approach, or goal, keep these tips in mind.

What trends, tips, or tactics do you have for creating killer B2B content? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Blogs, Books, Tools & More: Your Go-To Guide for Marketing Training [Free Resource]

November 02, 2015 at 12:00PM

2.4 million emails. 108,000 YouTube views. 50,000 Google searches. 10,000 tweets.

These numbers represent what goes down on the internet in just one second. I repeat, one second.

These days, the world spins too fast for formal, one-time marketing training. Our methods of communicating with each other are constantly evolving, and even while “content is (still) king,” the way we package and distribute that content is dramatically different than a few years ago.

Successful marketers have learned to make learning a part of their day job. They read, attend events, watch webinars, seek out mentors, and study their peers. It's this type of continuous marketing training that enables teams with varied skill levels to work more effectively.

“A CMO of a successful company taking the time to re-learn the fundamental skills she requires of her team so she can communicate with them better is the embodiment of an 'always be learning' team culture," explains Sarah Bedrick, Certifications Program Leader here at HubSpot.

So to help marketing teams navigate their options for continued marketing training and cultivate this type of culture, HubSpot Academy created The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Training.

The page organizes various types of marketing training based on how comprehensive they are, and by how expensive they are. For each training type, you can explore the pros and cons, dive into recommended resources, and discover hidden gems.

To find a marketing training that fits you and your team's needs, check out the free guide here.

http://bit.ly/1ixASxs

How to Become an Influential Leader: Tips on Hiring, Growth & Management [Podcast]

November 01, 2015 at 01:00PM

When you first start out in your career, growth seems straightforward. You do great work, and then you get promoted to the next level. Simple as that.

But as you start to progress up the ladder, figuring out how to get to the next level in your career becomes more complicated. 

If you're an ambitious leader looking to progress to the next stage, what should you be doing?

Charlene Li, Founder & CEO of the Altimeter Group, has literally written books on the subject. And this week on The Growth Show, Charlene joins us to chat about influence, leadership, and building high-growth companies in our digital, hyper-connected world. Some episode highlights include:

• The one similarity among high-growth companies
• The key to avoiding "groupthink" at your company
• Why every single job candidate at Altimeter Group takes a practical exam
• How leaders need to adapt when they hire empowered employees
• The secrets to growing in your career over time
  

Click the play button below to listen to this episode in your browser, or subscribe on iTunes to download episodes directly to your phone:

Check out the latest recaps of The Growth Show episodes by clicking here.

http://bit.ly/1MqfqlP