THIS IS THE YEAR

THAT WAS IN B2B

MARKETING 2014

CRUNCHEDAll the facts, the stats,

the quotes and more

♯yearinb2b

2014 was the year…

Inbound Marketing was hot to trot.

B2B Buyer Landscape, Demand Generation

No surprise when:

54% of B2B buyers begin the buying process with an informal search around business challenges.

78% of the time they use the Internet to initiate that research.

Brian HalliganCEO and Founder - HubSpotImage @ Flickr. Creative Commons.

“Google is the

trusted advisor in

the sales process.”

Lori WizdoPrincipal Analyst,Forrester Research

“Today’s buyers might be anywhere from two-thirds to 90% of the way through their journey before they reach out to a vendor.”

Source: Gartnervia Marketing Profs

“The last person your buyers want to talk to is one of your sales people.”

Brian HalliganCEO and Founder - HubSpotImage @ Flickr. Creative Commons.

“The sales rep

used to have all

the power, now

the prospect has

all the power.”

The thing is…

And the message was clear…

www.earnest-agency.comwww.earnest-agency.comwww.earnest-agency.com

David Meerman ScottOnline marketing strategist and authorImage @ Flickr. Creative Commons.

“You can sell more when you stop selling.”

In 2014, B2B marketers realised it was time to be helpful.

www.earnest-agency.comwww.earnest-agency.com

“You can’t always

out-spend. But

you can out-think,

out-tech and out-

help.”

Dharmesh ShahCTO and Founder - HubspotImage @ Flickr. Creative Commons.

Content was

the buzzword of

the year

Source: Google

There are about 357,000,000 search

results for ‘Content Marketing’ on

Google. And that’s just people talking

about Content Marketing.

What’s all the fuss about?

Source: LinkedIn:Nurturing the IT committee

“Senior IT decision

makers need, on average,

7 pieces of marketing

content before they’re

ready to talk.”

Source: Aberdeen – Content Chaos

“Website conversion rate is

nearly 6x higher for

content marketing adopters

than non-adopters (2.9% vs

0.5%).”

“90% of consumers find custom

content useful, 78% believe the

organisations behind the content

are interested in building good

relationships.”

Source: McMurray/TMG

“82% of marketers who

blog see positive ROI for

their inbound marketing.”

Source: HubSpot

So ‘Content is King’, right?

Image @ Flickr. Creative Commons.

www.earnest-agency.comwww.earnest-agency.comwww.earnest-agency.comwww.earnest-agency.com

“If content is king –

there are 27,000,000

pieces of content

shared every day –

that’s a lot of kings.”

Well…

Kieran FlanaganMarketing Director - HubSpotImage @ Flickr. Creative Commons.

“The amount of available web-

based content is doubling every 9-

24 months.”

Our ability to consume is finite.

There are only so many hours in a

day.”

Source: Content Shock,Businessgrow.com

It’s getting to the point where we can’t see the wood for the trees.

Elizabeth Smyth, EMEA

Marketing Director, Marketo

“Every day we are served on

average 2,904 media messages.

Of which we pay attention to 52,

and positively remember 4.”

The truth is…

“1% of content marketing posts receive 30% of all shares.”

Steve Rayson,

BuzzSumo

So you need to stand out.

Simple.

5 top tips for content success in 2015:

1. Keep it brief. Make it snackable.

2. Help. Don’t sell.

3. Maximise the use of visuals.

4. Innovate with channels and formats.

5. Deliver value, everytime.

“We call it ‘Youtility’ - providing free information and resources that delivers value without selling to a customer.”

Kirsty Dawes, Really B2B

“No one watches 30 minutes of video recording. Chop it up into 30 second or 1 minute videos. Decide what the best takeaway is and capture that.”

Ricardo Molina,

BrightBull

“To give your content a ‘wow’ effect and boost shares use effects like parallax, 3D infographics, or animated infographics.”

Neil Patel, Crazy Egg and

KISSmetrics

Everything has an optimal length for sharing:

• A tweet — 71 to 100 characters

• A Facebook post – 40 characters

• A Google+ headline – 60 characters maximum

• Width of a paragraph – 40 to 55 characters

• Length of a domain name – 8 characters

• A hashtag – 6 characters

• An email subject line – 28 to 39 characters

• An SEO itle tag – 55 characters

• A blog headline – 6 words

• A LinkedIn post – 25 words

• A Blog Post – 1,600 words

• A YouTube video – 3 minutes

• A podcast – 22 minutes

• A presentation – 18 minutes

• A SlideShare – 61 slides

• A Pinterest image – 735px by 1102pxSource:

Buffer

With so much content – and everyone campaigning on the same issues, it’s time to really get under the skin of what makes your buyers tick.

“The next revolution will be psychological –not technological.”

Rory Sutherland, Ogilvy

Because:

www.earnest-agency.com

“85% of decisions are

made by the

unconscious part of

the brain.”

Martin Lindstrom, Buyology

It means we need to be more

aware of how people think as

it influences how they buy.

www.earnest-agency.com

Chris Wilson, Earnest

“Global campaigns

have to be based on a

universal behavioural

insight if they are to be

successful. Otherwise

you end up with brand

camouflage – a lowest

common denominator

approach.”

“The buyer’s

pipeline

requires a

series of

micro-yesses

before

getting to

that macro

yes.”

When push comes to shove:

Brandon Stamschrar,

MECLABS

But those micro-yesses even for the biggest decisions are less rational than you think.

Tune into what really

motivates your buyers –

and you win.

Check out Earnest’s ‘YES FACTOR’ to find out how

So what else was on the up in 2014?

“There’s no longer a

digital marketing

discipline. All

marketing is digital.”

Caroline Taylor,

VP of marketing and CMO, IBM Europe

Source: CCS Insights

40% of all internet page requests worldwide now come from mobile devices.

But are you mobile friendly?

Andy Mihalop – Industry head for insurance sector, Google“Competitive

advantage awaits those brands that can adopt and accelerate programmatic (advertising).”

But there were words of warning:

Source: Forrester Business Marketing Association and Online Marketing Institute

83% of marketers can’t attach a tangible business value to the work they put into online marketing.

Google reported 56% of online display ads are never seen by a human being.

The New York Times reported that 47% of video ads are never seen.

Adweek estimated that online ad fraud in the U.S. may have reached $9.5bn.

Via Bob Hoffman, AdContrarian

To some surprise, traditional tactics are still packing a punch.

“The combination of inbound and outbound effort multiplies your chances of closing more efficiently.”

Source: MarketingTechBlog

“1 in 3 business buyers still attend live events.”

Source: Buyersphere Report, BaseOne

But only 8% of event marketers say their company has cracked them.

Check out how Event Wallet from Earnest is

set to solve this

When everyone’s upping their game, there were calls to think differently

“In the old world, the analogue CMO

would need to tap dance round the

board room to sell an idea….”

Caroline Taylor, VP of marketing

and CMO, IBM Europe

…Now it’s all about

evidence and analysis.”

“If you can’t measure it, don’t do

it. There’s a beauty in numbers.”

Phil Clement, Global Chief Marketing &

Communications Officer, Aon Service Corporation

www.earnest-agency.comwww.earnest-agency.comwww.earnest-agency.comwww.earnest-agency.com

Paul RoetzerFounder and CEO of PR 20/20Image @ Flickr. Creative Commons.

“76% of marketers believe measurement is

important. What about the other 24%?”

But:

Jade Tambini, DS Smith

“For a true marketing oriented business, everyone is the brand. We need people to realise that internally.”

And it’s not all about marketing:

“The greatest innovators are typically fearless. If you want great rewards, you need to be willing to take risks.”

Gareth Case, Xchanging

So the word from the wise is to step out of your comfort zone:

Graham Wylie, AppNexus

And in 2015 give it a whirl…

“What’s the worst that can happen? You fail.

If you’re not going to do it anyway, you’ve failed before you started.”

And finally, a few handpicked ‘best of the bests’ from the year that was…

Best presentations of 2014

1. LinkedIn: Nurturing IT committee lead2. 15 behavioural principles to increase

conversions3. Irresistible content for immovable prospects4. How Google works by Eric Schmidt5. Guy Kawasaki’s 10-20-30 Rule for Presentations

And some home grown ones:

1. Yes factor: How to get your buyers to say yes2. Event marketing: How to bridge the Content Chasm3. Essential Benchmarks for B2B marketers 2014

1. Things a little bird told me – Biz Stone2. Phantoms in the brain – V.S. Ramachandran3. Live at the Brixton Academy – Simon Parkes4. Truth, lies and advertising – Jon Steel5. Inbound Marketing – Brian Halligan & Dharmesh

Shah 6. Risk Savvy. How to make good decisions – Gerd

Gigerenzer

Not all published in 2014 but worth the read!

Must-reads of 2014

1. Risual’s Mind-numbing corporate video2. EMC jump a truck over a Lotus F1 car3. VW’s priorities TV ad4. Cisco’s IOT circle story 5. Ikea’s beautiful ad for beds

And some from us:

1. YouTube – Be here, there and everywhere2. Canon Maxify printers – Meet the Team3. Earnest – Expect the unexpected

Hot campaign videos of 2014

1. Social Media logo redesign for breast cancer awareness2. Teddy Rescue campaign – First Great Western3. Blah airlines 4. Honda – the other side – Type R

5. AirBnB’s rebrand

And a few B2B campaigns from Earnest for good measure:

1. Meet the team – Canon 2. Changing face of banking – ACI 3. Any which way - Worldpay

Campaign trailblazers of 2014

1. HubSpot marketing blog2. Dave Trott3. Northern Planner4. Marketing Pilgrim5. Moz

Blogs to write home about in 2014

1. Marketing Grader – see how your website fares 2. Wanna generate links that you can share? 3. Twitter now has audio cards 4. Oculus Rift5. Hipster business names 6. Fast 3D printers7. The ideal length of everything8. “I demand cheaper stuff!”9. Event Wallet 10. YouGov’s excellent profiler tool

Top tools and tech in 2014

1. Inbound 20142. B2B emotional engagement event 3. Event tech live4. B2B summit 20145. B2B marketing – the evidence

Events we’ve loved and crunched in 2014

Top challenges for B2B Marketers going into 2015

1. ROI from your automation platform

2. Harnessing the power of your data

3. Creative bravery

4. Differentiating your content offering

5. Embracing new (all) channels

Here’s to smashing them.

We’ve been

www.earnest-agency.com

earnest-agency.com

@earnestagency

A big thank you to all our, friends, contributors and sources.

Thanks to unsplash.com and Flickr.com/creativecommons for the images.

Share your highlights

#yearinb2b

…and that was 2014 crunched

B2B Marketing Agency of the Year 2014