Earning the permission to persuade. Building the power to do it.

B2B Marketing Expo, InsightBee Event Report

2016 Innovation Award for Best Lead Generation Tool

Speakers

Speakers

Seminars

Seminars

Exhibitors

Exhibitors

Attendees

Attendees

5000

3000

95

56

81

85

79

69

The B2B Marketing Expo and Sales Innovation Expo were co-located, running concurrently across 2 days.

B2B Marketing Expo

Sales Innovation Expo

Welcome to the B2B Marketing Expo, InsightBee Event Report. In this report, we bring you the key insights from the event’s key speakers, condensed into a concise framework – so you can get the full picture in a few minutes, rather than couple of days.

On the one hand there was the discussion around how marketers– by harnessing technology – can create a customer journey that engages well before the conversion stage. On the other, there was the subject of businesses’ underlying relationship to their audience. We heard how fundamental changes in the way we work, live and interact with the people we buy from has altered the approach marketers must take.

For a long time voices in the b2b sphere have argued that the key to success is adopting a more human-centric mindset – one that understands that, whilst they’re being targeted as professionals, people are still people.

“You’re talking to individuals, not companies. So the key is to be human and to be helpful.”

Alfonso de Sousa, LinkedIn

The move from a work/life balance to a work/life blend and the consumerisation of work has further blurred the naturally hazy line between our private and professional selves.

So it makes little sense to talk to audiences as if they are in ‘business mode’.

of executives ‘blend’ their personal and private activities.”

Rosie Duncan, Saatchi Masius

“ We are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion.”

Dale Carnegie, Author of How to Win Friends and Influence People

78%“

But that doesn’t necessarily mean marketers should be taking a lead from how things have traditionally worked in the b2c world, as the landscape is shifting there too.

“ Do we believe CNN? Fox news? No, we don’t. And do we believe brands? Absolutely not. The age of mass broadcast is over.”

Graham Ruddick, Communitize

“ We need a mindset shift from telling and selling to building relationships.”

Jim Strengel, Procter and Gamble

In the modern milieu, audiences expect those reaching out to them to offer value rather than just a sales message.

“ I don’t mind giving you data, I don’t mind being contacted as long as I’m getting relevant, useful material back. That’s the exchange. You have to give me a reason to trust you.”

Iain Lovatt, The Blue Group

“ Advertising Age called us ‘The Kings of Content’ because we moved from promoting ads to sharing knowledge.”

Alfonso de Sousa, LinkedIn

“ You have to lead from a place of education not manipulation.”

Mark Masters, The ID Group

Businesses do, however, have an advantage over other institutions in the trust stakes.

And trust is set to become the advantage that matters most.

of people in the UK trust businesses. Only 36% trust the government and the media.”

Mark Masters, The ID Group

“ Bad product doesn’t exist anymore. Competition killed that. And when you do have an edge, it’s never lasted such a short time. So we need to move from transactions to relationships. Those last longer – they’ll smooth the highs and lows of a volatile world.”

Derrick Walker, Saatchi Masius

46%“

The new channels available to businesses bring unprecedented opportunities for building these meaningful relationships. But only if they’re used correctly.

“ We have all this open ground where there are no gatekeepers, no barriers. We have webcasts, blogs and social. But we need to tend to this ground. Some of us are still bringing a 20th century mindset to 21st century channels. Just look at the hashtag for this event. A lot of people are riding it and just making noise. We’ve got a situation where 70% of creators say their priority is making more content and only 46% say understanding their audience better is the priority – that’s wrong.”

Mark Masters, The ID Group

Changing this means focusing on the sort of messages that resonate with audiences at the top of the sales funnel and less on those that actually lead to conversions. After all, converting is only a small part of a long process.

“ We focus too much on the comprehensive, detailed messages that go at the end of the funnel and not enough on the short, emotional messages at the top.”

Derrick Walker, Saatchi Masius

“ Two thirds of a customer journey takes place before they’re ready to talk to you, but they don’t just pop up at the end – it’s a process.“

Robert Norum, agent3

Measuring these efforts requires a different set of priorities and a different set of metrics.

“ We have a four-level framework for customer intent. ‘Seeing’, ‘thinking’, ‘doing’ (where they buy) and ‘caring’ (where they become a repeat customer). Most businesses running a search campaign will cut it if CPA is too high. But CPA only measures ‘doing’ – not ‘seeing’ and ‘thinking’ which are also vital. Looking at something like dwell-time could be an indicator of the impact you’re having at those earlier stages.”

Raja Saggi, Google

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It also means having a willingness to invest in strategies that don’t offer immediate pay off.

“ Creating a video that is both fun and instructional will help establish your brand even if a lot of the people watching it aren’t currently interested in buying.”

Raja Saggi, Google

“ It isn’t a quick win, but setting up a video channel that regularly posts using an editorial agenda relevant to your business can have great results. Natwest have doubled the return on their media spend since setting up the Money Clips channel.”

Simon Baker, ITN

And strategies that involve being a little bold.

“ Setting a world record is a great way of capturing people’s imaginations – even if the product or service in question seems ordinary. HP were able to base a hugely successful campaign for one of their printers around breaking the world record for the fastest time to produce 500 colour prints.”

Sam Prosser, Guinness World Records

But just because b2b marketers need to engage customers who are yet to reach out, it doesn’t mean they have to be in the dark about them.

“ But just because b2b marketers need to engage customers who are yet to reach out, doesn’t mean they have to be in the dark about them. In the future dynamic ABM (Account Based Marketing) will allow us to combine all the internal account data with a comprehensive external view of their activity to build a picture of their intent. We can already track companies, individual executives, what they’re saying, and what’s being said about them and then use that data to target them before they show themselves.”

Robert Norum, agent3

As costs associated with taking a data-driven approach fall, businesses of all sizes have less excuse for operating with blind spots.

“ Simply by using a specialist interface you can leverage data sources that are completely free, such as Google or aggregators like the UN or World Bank. If you still need to build a business case, remember to consider how often you’ll be able to act on your data and how much it will cost you not to know.”

Peter Holland, Arkevista

It also needs to be remembered that the opportunity cost involved in working without any sort of data strategy is twofold.

“ Data is helping us be more efficient with our ‘known knowns’ – the everyday things we have to do. But in exploring our data we often find opportunities in the ‘unknown unkowns’ – the things we’d never even considered.”

Louis Archer, Tableau Software

Good data (and good processes to leverage it) can also be key in ensuring that functions are working together to maximum effect – from awareness to conversion.

“ Too many people believe that sales begins where marketing ends. That’s not true at all. One of the reasons automation in marketing is so valuable is that it can clean your data and make sure the leads you give sales are red hot.”

Matt Williamson, Drumbeat

“ The dialogue between marketing and sales is often antagonistic. ABM can help break up siloed ways of thinking.”

Robert Norum, agent3

“ We used a partner to look at our historical data and devise a better methodology for scoring our leads, and conversions improved by 20%.”

Louis Archer, Tableau Software

And if b2b businesses are using data, segmentation and automation to ensure their messages are always timely and relevant, they don’t need to fear being direct.

“ We know that email subscribers are nine times more likely to convert. So when the time is right, we should be pushing our messages out there. I’m not saying inbound doesn’t have its place, but if you’ve just left the intern to run a bit of social activity it will never be as effective.”

Ross Howard, Insight box

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With that in mind, b2b businesses should be mindful not to overlook valuable channels while obsessing over others.

“ Are you on Facebook just because everyone else is and you feel you have to? Is that decision data-driven?”

Matt Williamson, Drumbeat

“ It may not be the sexiest channel but the fact is 78% of executives keep informed using email newsletters and 48% are more reliant on email than they were last year.”

Rosie Duncan, Saatchi Masius

Whatever the channel, whatever the point in the customer journey a message comes at, the important thing is that it’s welcome and valuable.

“ Creating communities is more important than creating content.”

Mark Masters, The ID Group

“ Alfie Deyes just sits in front of a camera and chats. Yet he has 10 times more YouTube followers than The Rolling Stones. Why? Because he treats them as a community.“

Phil Calvert, Professional Speaker

Ultimately success depends on using technology to engineer a customer journey that is engaging and relevant on a human level – from start to finish. Whilst modern tools can help b2b marketers create this experience, the vital ingredient is still human interest.

“ Algorithms can do a lot for us. What they can’t do is create an emotional tie.“

Derrick Walker, Saatchi Masius

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2016 Innovation Award for Best Lead Generation Tool