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Turning “Traditional” Marketing Tools into Interactive Digital Marketing Assets

Corporate Branding, Lead Gen Tactics /

Many companies have been increasing their digital marketing assets over recent years. With a large number of Americans reporting that they continue to work remotely, the need for those materials remains crucial. Right now, fewer sales teams, product managers and service reps are face-to-face with existing customers or new potential sales. With less in-person factory tours, on-site meetings and trade shows, the need to ensure your communications are effective is critical. Marketing assets need to support brand positions, look professional, be high-quality, and work even harder than before, especially if you and your team can’t always be there to talk directly to the customer. Features to Make Your PDFs More Engaging If you are looking to shift your marketing presentations to be more digital and more engaging, consider how you can leverage your existing “traditional” sales tools – like brochures, line cards or sell sheets – and change static PDFs into something more interactive. While many businesses already use basic features, like embedded hyperlinks or signatures, there are other useful tools that are often overlooked. Here are some suggestions that can make traditional PDFs feel and function more like an interactive presentation: 3 Video Tutorials to Make Your PDFs More Interactive in Minutes 1. Make Sales Tool Easy to Navigate Your customer may not need (or want) to read the information you are presenting in a 1, 2, 3, 4, page order. Similarly, if you are in a teleconferenced presentation, accessing visuals that support your commentary quickly and easily is critical. Consider adding a navigation menu on every page of your PDF, slightly adapting the design to allow for a clear and understandable user experience. This will help readers move quickly through a multi-page document and access the pertinent information they are looking for. 2. Make a PDF Easier to Browse with Hide/Show Details Allowing a reader to quickly review and sort content allows people to find the specifics they want more easily. An interactive PDF can include features such as rollovers or click animation effects. These features can allow a reader to consolidate dense information into clearly organized content blocks – revealing product specifications, features boxes and technical descriptions easily by simply clicking on a button. 3. Embed Videos into the Layout Little compares to the power of video when communicating information. Whether showing product demonstrations, instructional tutorials or customer testimonials – video can quickly tell a story with little reader effort. By including video assets in your document, a simple PDF instantly becomes more robust. Depending on the final delivery of your PDF, or your file size limitations, you can also embed video links or “calls” to a video hosted on YouTube or Vimeo. 4. Embed & Capture Form Data If you have gotten a customer to engage with your document, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to continue their journey through the sales funnel. Considering including forms in your PDFs – either to collect general contact info, allow customers to submit a quote request, or even to collect orders. Like website forms, PDF forms can be individually set, sending unique form information directly to the right person in your organization. Be Sure Your Team is Using the Right Materials It may sound simple but putting in place a process to ensure your team has the latest files is a critical step when using digital marketing assets. From the first new PDF asset to revision updates, to controlling what content can be customized by the sales team member – some basic processes will help maximize value and brand compliance. One way to ensure that the latest version of documents are used is to set up a web-based marketing portal housing sales tools on your website or a shared drive, which can only be accessed via a password-protected portal. This allows your sales team to download and share digital marketing assets, or automatically synch up assets whenever a computer has WiFi access. Similarly, your sales team can also share sales assets directly with customers via links, assigning them a unique (and trackable) password to access and view documents. Instead of sending PDFs as attachments, by using a link to one central document, customers will always see the most current version of the file. Support for Your Digital Needs Many B2B marketing teams have adapted to new market conditions and new business requirements. If you need some support to increase your digital library, or with any digital or integrated marketing campaign needs, our team is here to help. Whether you are looking for a specific scope of work, or a full-service B2B marketing agency partner, we bring two decades of proven results to every project. Contact us for a free consultation or let us know how we can help. We’re ready to help you Power Up Your Marketing. Stifel Marcin – The B2B Marketing Agency Unlike many advertising and marketing agencies, B2B isn’t just something that we do, it’s all we do. We’ll work to help your brand achieve its goals through the strategic combination of creativity, communication and technology. Our focused client intake processes give us the ability to thoroughly understand your business, products and objectives, working to identify the competitive advantages and opportunities that will grow awareness, leads and sales. We develop innovative marketing plans with strategic, data-driven processes, presenting complex ideas and compelling messages that position your business ahead of the competition. As your cooperative partner, our integrated B2B marketing agency is dedicated to your success. If you need help with digital marketing assets, our solutions can help. Let’s talk.

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5 Digital Marketing Tips to Help B2B Marketers Stay In Tune and On Target in an Evolving Marketplace

Corporate Branding /

As customers’ needs and behaviors change – adjusting to the continued impact of COVID-19 – marketers must proactively adjust to an evolving landscape. Business operations and customer actions have changed at one of the fastest rates in recent memory, leaving some marketing plans in need of TLC.In late 2021, studies showed that 45 percent of full-time U.S. employees continued to work remotely some or all of the time.  With supply chain disruptions and inventory shortages on-going, now is the time to make sure your marketing strategies are up-to-date with a changing marketplace. 5 Digital Marketing Tips to Maximize Effectiveness and Value 1. Check Your Goals, Targets and Realign Be mindful that your target customers, and the way you had delivered messaging to them, may have changed since the onset of the pandemic. Business continues to shift – with companies changing expectations, plans, personnel responsibilities, and in some cases, even changing what they sell. Your ideal customer profiles, personas and behaviors may be dramatically different than just a year ago. And the strategies that were months in development, may need to change as well. Consider what your KPIs (key performance indicators) are right now. Do those KPIs shift from lead generation to contact building, or perhaps to brand engagement? And how do your marketing tactics and messaging need to evolve to achieve these new goals? Are your current marketing materials going to work with an evolving economic outlook and new customer engagement patterns? Now ask the same questions for what we predict conditions to be like 3- and 6-months from now. Be nimble and strategic at the same time. You can’t put a pause on your brand or your marketing “until this is over”, because who really knows if, and when, things will return to what they were. For the foreseeable future there will be changing conditions, and marketing needs to be able to refocus and meet the right KPIs, probably more than once. 2. Be Mindful of Message Tone, Timing & Delivery Marketing messages and sponsored content need to pay attention to the emotional pulse of the reader, as well as consider timing of when it is released. Right now the content your marketing may appear within, or directly alongside, could be highly-charged. Be thoughtful when creating messaging and materials so that you are sensitive to the current situations. Appearing to be too “hard sale” or business-focused may be off-putting to customers, and potentially even damage your brand’s position. Carefully consider the words you select in your messaging: 3. Be Relevant and Stand Out Good marketing connects with a reader emotionally. It’s critical that messaging and ad materials still make those valuable connections that draw in hearts and minds, while not appearing to capitalize on reader sensitivities. It’s also critical for brands to stay on track. The marketing plans that were created during 2021 may have to be changed, but your core brand positions probably are the same – positions which should remain a cornerstone of your communications. Artfully combining relevant content, marketing messaging and brand positions (that – as noted in the above – are mindful of tone and timing) will connect with customers in a powerful way, get attention and generate response. 4. Stay on Top of The Digital Trends Many marketing strategies have shifted to be, or are working to be, increasingly digital. When correctly deployed, digital platforms reach customers with highly-specific profile targeting, leveraging features such as Google’s custom intent audiences. Even though that many are working remotely from their home office, marketers are still able to target and communicate key messaging with potential customers. However, we must consider how users are engaging with content much differently than just a few months ago. Right now, interest-based campaigns that reach customers higher in the marketing sales funnel are outperforming text search campaigns. Be sure your digital marketing team, or the agency you partner with, is remaining nimble – interpreting data, watching the shifts and repositioning ad campaigns to continually maximize return. Digital behaviors and routines have also shifted. The data you built your digital campaign strategies around has probably changed – and now must be evaluated and readjusted for today’s customer behaviors. For example, if social marketing (paid or organic) is part of your mix, have you revisited those campaigns in depth? Some platforms are reporting a 66% increase in social media engagement, and across some demographic groups, people are reportedly spending 3-7 hours per day on social sites! Beyond just increasing social activity, how are you altering your desktop verses mobile ad deployment, ad timing, content delivery and platforms? 5. Track and Shift Whenever you shift marketing messaging, targeting or objectives, you need to track and analyze. Right now, many organizations have changed all three of those considerations. Add to that an economy and a workforce that has undergone huge changes, and major parts of your marketing plan may need to be addressed. Be flexible, be fast and be smart – and get help when you get spread too thin. One positive point is that most marketers already have heavily integrated data tracking tools into their performance reviews. The increases in digital engagement over past months has provided enough data for marketers to extract trends, analyze patterns and make predictions. Staying attuned to performance metrics is critical now. Marketers on top of the data and can be nimble – adjusting while staying on plan – have an opportunity for significant success. Stay Results-Focused, With Partners That Can Support Your Needs Today’s climate requires dedicated attention and a proactive approach to effectively navigate changes. It takes time, attention to details, and a collaborative approach to address what virtually none of us have dealt with before. If you’re looking for a B2B marketing agency partner to help you with marketing strategy development or digital marketing, we’re here to help. Contact us for a free consultation and let us help you Power Up Your Marketing. Stifel Marcin – The B2B Marketing Agency Unlike many advertising and marketing agencies, B2B isn’t just something that we do, it’s all we do. We’ll work to help your brand achieve its goals through the strategic combination of creativity, communication and technology. Our focused client intake processes give us the

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B2B Social Media Best Practices

Social & Video /

With 84 percent of B2B decision-makers and buyers looking at social media during their purchasing journey, the importance of social media as part of an integrated and strategic marketing plan can’t be understated. Whether your organization is new to social media or is looking to improve engagement results and reach, here are five B2B social media best practices to help your business shine: 1. Carefully Select Your Social Media Footprint With so many social media options available today (TikTok, Clubhouse, Instagram…oh my!), it can be tempting to feel like your organization needs to be represented on every channel. It’s important to recognize that just because a social media platform is popular, doesn’t mean it’s right for your business. Each organization is different, with varying audiences and goals. What works for one business might not work for yours. A social media marketing agency can help you define your goals, target audience(s), KPIs and budget to develop a smart and sustainable plan that best suits the needs of your business. It is far better to be strategic and successful on one or two channels rather than trying to maintain five and falling short. 2. Be Engaged Social media is social! It’s simply not enough to post a video or photo and walk away. Community management is crucial. Be sure to take the time to answer questions or comments in a timely manner (both public messages in your feeds and private messages in your inbox). Use posts to ask questions of your audience and then respond. Social media at its core should be a two-way street. Follow relevant hashtags and find opportunities to engage in conversations about like-minded topics. 3. It’s About Them, Not You When developing your social content, always ask the question “why would my reader care about this?” It’s easy to self-promote with facts and information about your products (and that has its place) but it’s important to remember that buyers are typically turning to social media to hear from thought-leaders and find answers that help them solve a pain point. Your content should provide value to your reader, whether it’s to educate, inform or entertain (think infographics, articles, video demonstrations, etc.). At Stifel Marcin, we take this balance so seriously we even have a formula we use to evaluate our social mix. 4. Use Consistent Branding While the tone across channels can vary, your branding should not. Several studies show that even minor inconsistencies in branding can have a negative impact on brand loyalty, causing potential and current customers to lose trust in a brand. Your look and voice should be consistent across all digital channels, from your web site to your social media channels and other online profiles. Maintaining and controlling your brand ensures your organization is seen as reliable, professional, and dependable. Learn more about why your organization needs consistent brand standards here. 5. Evaluate and Measure Your Results Last, but certainly not least, on our list of B2B social media best practices is to decide which key performance indicators (KPIs) that you’d like to track (perhaps engagement is high on your list or clicks or shares). It’s important to set defined metrics and then evaluate them regularly so that you can see what’s working and where there are opportunities for improvement. Analytics can help you see what topics are resonating with your audience(s), which hashtags are generating traffic and what types of content your audience likes best (videos vs photos vs polls, etc.). If you don’t have the resources or bandwidth to track data regularly, working with a social media agency partner can be a wise investment. Let’s Power Up Your Social Media Stifel Marcin understands the unique needs and challenges of B2B organizations. We’re happy to talk with you about these B2B social media best practices, building a winning social media strategy and pay-per-click social media marketing to increase traffic, conversions and brand loyalty. Contact us and a member of our team will be in touch shortly. Stifel Marcin – The B2B Marketing Agency Unlike many advertising and marketing agencies, B2B isn’t just something that we do, it’s all we do. We’ll work to help your brand achieve its goals through the strategic combination of creativity, communication and technology. Our focused client intake processes give us the ability to thoroughly understand your business, products and objectives, working to identify the competitive advantages and opportunities that will grow awareness, leads and sales. We develop innovative marketing plans with strategic, data-driven processes, presenting complex ideas and compelling messages that position your business ahead of the competition. As your cooperative partner, our integrated B2B marketing agency is dedicated to your success. If you are looking to elevate your social media strategy, or want to discuss where to start, our experts are here for you. Reach out today.

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Manufacturing Website Design

Websites /

B2B Web Design vs. B2C Websites B2B websites are different than “retail” websites. There is more content, more specifics and a stronger need for branding. Manufacturing website design means promoting a company’s capabilities and products, defining that business’ image, and effectively illustrating what makes you a leader in your field. Industrial, technological, medical and life sciences, and manufacturing website design must present a lot of information very quickly including product specs, order capabilities, customization and more. Combine that amount of information with the fact that people only read about 30 percent of the words on a web page, and you can see the challenge. Website design for a B2B organization needs to highlight the key facts quickly. The Importance of Keyword Research and Refinement Keyword research helps marketers determine which “key words” or best phrases can be used to help reach your right target audience. Once you have key data points, you will want to expand and evaluate. If some terms are too broad (or too expensive), look deeper at the opportunities. Are more specific phrases available with good search traffic volumes? Are some keywords showing lots of search traffic and relevancy, and we should explore similar phases, synonyms, etc.? One effective strategy to help determine keyword viability is to simply conduct a Google search – see the results that appear and be sure what you expected to appear is what is displayed – and appropriate for your marketing goals. If more than 50 percent of search results are not relevant – especially when using a long tail B2B keyword phrase – this should be a signal. Either you have identified a great opportunity, or you are not using the right phrase. The more irrelevant the expected search results are, the more likely the target that you want is going to change their search query and re-check a new phrase. Getting a final keyword target list is a time-consuming process. It takes evaluation, review, additional research and discussion. Check out our blog post for more about keyword research and how we can help maximize your targeting.  Doing It Better Stifel Marcin has developed an extensive portfolio of industrial, technological, medical and manufacturing websites including: We understand how to drive leads, and more importantly sales, to your websites. We Speak Manufacturing Our technological and manufacturing website designs target the right audience. Our designers and search engine optimization experts understand the language of the B2B world. Often the audience is made of engineers and purchasing agents who are in search of a specific part or service to fit a specific need. Your website must quickly show them how and why you’re the right choice. Looking for an Industrial or Manufacturing Website Design or Refresh? B2B website design must perform in one of the most competitive fields in the market today. Manufacturers are running leaner, smarter and more efficient than ever before. Defining what makes your company better is what Stifel Marcin does best. Give us a call and someone from our expert team will get in touch with you. Stifel Marcin – The B2B Marketing Agency Unlike many advertising and marketing agencies, B2B isn’t just something that we do, it’s all we do. We’ll work to help your brand achieve its goals through the strategic combination of creativity, communication and technology. Our focused client intake processes give us the ability to thoroughly understand your business, products and objectives, working to identify the competitive advantages and opportunities that will grow awareness, leads and sales. We develop innovative marketing plans with strategic, data-driven processes, presenting complex ideas and compelling messages that position your business ahead of the competition. As your cooperative partner, our integrated B2B marketing agency is dedicated to your success. See how our B2B website marketing services can elevate your manufacturing website for maximum return and reach out today.

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Your Company Branding Kit: Protecting Your Business in a Digital World

Corporate Branding /

A company branding kit may just be the most important marketing asset your company produces. Thorough brand standard documentation not only helps to guide the direction of every piece of marketing, from ads to presentations to packaging, but it also informs your employees, vendors and partners about how to best present your look and voice at all times. In a digital world when even your logo can be edited with the quick click of a mouse, providing a clear blueprint about your brand identity and how to preserve it pays dividends. This is especially true if multiple stakeholders within your organization localize marketing assets or have access to your website, social media and other digital components. Brand Consistency Matters Seventy-seven percent of B2B marketers say “building a strong brand is key to their company’s growth.” Yet only 25 percent of companies have formal brand guidelines that are enforced. Consider the following statistics: · Presenting a brand consistently across all platforms can increase revenue by up to 23 percent –  indicating the impact of marketing and improved brand recognition.· 60 percent of millennial consumers expect brands to be aligned across different platforms.· Consistently presented brands are 3.5 times more likely to enjoy excellent brand visibility than those with an inconsistent brand presentation. A different color used here, or an incorrectly cropped logo there, may seem insignificant, but over time these subtle inconsistencies can negatively influence your target audience, who is looking for dependability and stability in the brands they choose to trust. Even minor discrepancies in visual or verbal communication can lead to a loss of that trust. If you are unable to create an effective brand presentation, customers may wonder how they can trust you to be effective when fulfilling their needs. What to Include in Your Company Branding Kit While a brand guide is unique to every company, there are common components that should likely be included, such as: · A corporate messaging overview (which may include mission statement, core values, elevator statement, etc.)· Tone of voice· Logos – including sizing, usage and reproduction guidelines· Fonts – primary and secondary· Approved color palette with both print and digital standards, such as breakdowns for CMYK, RGB, Pantone®, Hexi, etc.· Stationary (including business cards, letterhead, invoices, etc.)· Email signatures· Social media graphics and guidelines· Digital assets and approved imagery· Marketing and branding project workflow management and contact information to support questions regarding compliance and usage It’s All in the Details Your company branding kit should also clearly detail the do’s and do not’s, especially related to your logo, fonts and colors. Thoroughly detail rules like “the logo should never overlay a photographic image” and communicate the specific formats for different applications – such as Pantone, Hexi, RGB and CMYK primary and secondary brand colors. While some traditional brand manuals speak solely to its visual representation, don’t overlook the importance of addressing your company’s tone of voice and critical content such as tagline usage, mission statement language, social media and more. Your brand voice is how you communicate and connect with customers – consistency in that messaging is just as vital as the visuals. A company branding kit can quickly become a dense document. At Stifel Marcin, we often consider developing one-sheeters for internal usage for staff that are simple to reference and encourage easier adoption of the guidelines. More on that below. Craft Brand Guidelines That Encourage Your Employees to Share Your Story Social media is an area where additional support for staff can be crucial. Internally, those working to support social media on company accounts should be well-armed with a blueprint that is specific to your social channels   – think approved messaging and subject-matter, appropriately sized imagery, channel-specific recommendations, and instructions on how to make any modifications if necessary. Just as important to your company profiles, providing all of your employees with guidance on how to share your company messaging, news and industry updates with their personal networks can reap rewards as well. Often an employee will want to share more about your organization on their social media channels but may hesitate to do so for uncertainty about what to say or how to share it. Or their well-intentioned posts may inadvertently include inappropriate subject matter – like a poorly cropped logo or perhaps a photo that shows people on the shop floor which is not compliant with safety standards. Here are some helpful hints about what to include on an internal social media one-pager: · Approved/suggested hashtags· Links to approved images/article links· Correct company social handles· Guidelines on what is not permissible to show· Recommended subject matter, or tips for common post types· Internal social media contacts to support your team in case of questions If your B2B organization has a large announcement or campaign planned, providing your staff easy ways to become actively engaged online can benefit your brand as well. You may not even realize it, but some of your biggest brand influencers may just be within your own walls. Creating a unique social content distribution guide that supports your overall branding guidelines, and provides campaign/announcement-specific recommendations, can be a worthwhile investment to help staff spread the word while staying true to your branded messaging and visuals. At Stifel Marcin, we’ve supported clients in specific initiatives on social channels. For example, if an organization is promoting the launch of a new product, a campaign-specific company branding kit might include: · Specific messaging – what is the correct way to promote and present the announcement (remember small words can matter, for example “acquisition vs merger”)· A clear CTA to define the action your followers can take when they see the news· Links to approved imagery/video assets (sized appropriately for each social channel)· Sample templated messaging that includes correct company handles and external links· Branded hashtags· Specified embargo dates if applicable – be clear when employees can start sharing online Social impact and reach can be a powerful tool, but it also must be thoughtfully and purposefully managed

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B2B Account Based Marketing 101

ABM /

For businesses looking to leverage B2B account based marketing (ABM), there are often challenges, from assembling the right people to limited resources and knowledge about ABM. Read on for a crash course in B2B account based marketing 101. What is B2B account based marketing and how can it work for you? Account based marketing is a tactical strategy that can help B2B companies improve sales, generate better leads and achieve long-term business growth. There are a variety of factors that B2B organizations must consider before deploying an ABM campaign and understanding the nuances and requirements of this approach helps to ensure its success. ABM is used by marketers to target an account or customer persona to gain the best leads and sales. Often targeting criteria includes a variety of information such as prospect job title, industry, employer, organization size, professional interests, trends and more to build out a customer profile. Marketing works to reach these prospects via a variety of digital, inbound, content and in-person methods, all of which are crafted specifically to engage with that ideal prospect. ABM is focused on sales and lead quality rather than quantity, ultimately using that “quality lead” to grow sales within a target organization. Why is ABM important to B2B companies? As the marketing landscape continually evolves, and the necessity to reach customers with digital tactics increases, account-based approaches can be critically important to a company’s success. In the initial planning stage, an ABM approach helps to align all stakeholders in an organization – providing understanding of just what types of targets a company should be pursuing and helping everyone focus resources on those targets. As a campaign is in development, it helps a company identify how well it is truly serving that target customer – what level of expertise does it have, what tools does it need to develop or improve, and what processes should be created to help improve the sales and order experience. Beyond planning, account based marketing can help focus critical dollars on the leads and sales that help a company grow. As human and financial resources become more focused on the best leads, the quality of each sale improves, and ultimately the business is able to achieve greater results with the same amount of effort. How is ABM different from other marketing approaches? Unlike some marketing tactics which focus solely on promoting the benefits of a company’s products and/or services, an account based approach creates marketing materials that work to connect with target profiles, positioning a brand as a valuable, leading resource, and building a brand image within a key market segment. Beyond standard materials like brochures and sell sheets, AMB materials can include thought-leadership pieces, technical content and tools that helps those target prospects in their everyday lives by addressing concerns that are top-of-mind. Additionally, ABM helps to make sales connections “laterally” within a company, allowing a brand to grow within a customer group as it becomes known for having the information, tools and capabilities that the specific account is most concerned about. How does ABM strategy work with B2B digital marketing? Digital tactics offer great benefits in an account based marketing approach. With Big Data profiling becoming more detailed and valuable in B2B verticals, our ability to reach very specific targets has increased. Once a company has identified the ABM target profiles, and campaign assets have been designed to specifically engage with that target, a B2B marketing agency can leverage a variety of digital platforms, with information such as: Beyond just one platform or one event, digital marketing allows us to leverage a variety of Big Data to reach specific ABM profiles on a granular level. How can B2B companies leverage industry-specific data in ABM marketing? Data collection has grown significantly in recent years, and B2B profiling has become more granular and reliable. While trade events, conferences and publications can offer opportunities, with AI and Big Data, marketers have access to a variety of detailed profiling information that is valuable in account-based campaigns. This not only includes information like geographies (to help reach target company locations), job titles and education – but also interests, the type of content that a user engages with, and even the websites a person has visited. Understanding how to properly leverage data and target customer personas is critical in ABM campaigns – and can be optimized through the services of a B2B marketing agency. How can a B2B company use ABM in their business model? ABM campaign development occurs not only within a marketing or sales team, but needs to have input across an organization to collectively identify which prospects are the ones that should be prioritized and offer the best value to the company. Companies must review lead-to-sale conversion timelines, how much nurturing is required during customer acquisition, the difficulty of engineering or customization support, as well as the efforts required by internal company resources. What may appear to be the “best” target for one department in an organization, may be significantly different to another department. Gaining understanding across a company can help refine business targets, goals and expectations – allowing marketing to achieve greater results that help drive a business forward. What resources are needed from a B2B company before considering ABM? First, there needs to be a cross-departmental commitment to invest at least some time in developing customer profiles, which needs to include representatives not only from marketing and sales, but also management, production, engineering/support, and accounting. If a company partners with an outside B2B marketing agency, that agency can help streamline the process and reduce internal resource requirements. A company needs to balance the availability of its staff, the value of their time, and the expertise of their marketing department in account-based campaign development. Additionally, it must be certain that the integrated marketing tactics needed in ABM approaches are properly created and deployed. To achieve the best results, all aspects of prospect profiling, asset development and inbound/digital/traditional/content mix must be carefully planned, executed, monitored and responded to throughout the life of the campaign. With a focused approach in ABM, reporting and data review is critically important in success. A B2B marketing agency

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Experience the Benefits of an Expert B2B SEO Marketing Agency

SEO /

The next time you look up something on Google, or any other search engine, you should realize there is a lot of work, and in many cases an SEO marketing agency, behind the results you see. Achieving a coveted spot at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) takes time and resources, some of which your organization may not currently have. That’s when hiring an experienced B2B SEO marketing agency can be a smart investment.   Search Engine Optimization Process When Stifel Marcin is tapped to provide SEO for a website our general process follows these steps: SEO Maintenance Once we have your site set-up properly and fully optimized, we move into ongoing maintenance. We run monthly reports that track movement, activity, landing pages, bounce rates, and more. We look at which pages are successfully ranking for keyword phrases, and which pages we can improve. We continually tweak, modify and update your site until you are ranking number one for those target keywords and phrases. Some clients think once they have achieved a first page, or first place ranking, they no longer need a search optimization plan. This thinking is deadly because there is always a competitor ready to take your place or a shift in customer search habits. When your website goes stale, site code becomes outdated, content becomes old, and your target keywords can change. You open the door to a competing site that is ready to take your spot. Our most successful search engine optimization clients have worked with Stifel Marcin for years. Our B2B SEO marketing work is proven successful, and web leads are the highest source of new sales for our clients. Search Engine Optimization Quotes If you’d like us to review your site to discuss the ways we can improve your B2B SEO marketing, or if you’d like information on a web design and SEO package, we’re happy to help. Call us at 860-659-0777 or send an RFQ online through our contact form. Stifel Marcin – The B2B Marketing Agency Unlike many advertising and marketing agencies, B2B isn’t just something that we do, it’s all we do. We’ll work to help your brand achieve its goals through the strategic combination of creativity, communication and technology. Our focused client intake processes give us the ability to thoroughly understand your business, products and objectives, working to identify the competitive advantages and opportunities that will grow awareness, leads and sales. We develop innovative marketing plans with strategic, data-driven processes, presenting complex ideas and compelling messages that position your business ahead of the competition. As your cooperative partner, our integrated B2B marketing agency is dedicated to your success. Our B2B SEO marketing agency experts are available to answer your questions. Reach out and let’s talk.

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5 Benefits of B2B Social Media Marketing

Social & Video /

While some business-to-business organizations may think it’s not for them, today’s digital age makes social media marketing an increasingly critical component of an integrated plan. If you are a manufacturer, part of an industrial organization, or you’re leading a B2B marketing initiative, you may be asking questions like “Is social marketing for us?” or “How do I get my company to understand the value of B2B social media marketing?”. We are here to help. Considering that the average person in the US spends over 10 hours a day in front of a screen, and 77 percent of people engage with social media platforms, it is almost illogical to not be doing social media marketing. Here are five benefits of B2B social media marketing, compiled by our team of marketing experts: 1. Support Your Brand A smart, well-planned social media presence supports an organization’s brand image. Much more than just news items and tradeshow events, good B2B social media marketing includes knowledge, expertise, benefit positions and more. Your social feed is a place for you to highlight the news and details you want your brand to stand for. And best of all, you get to define it and present it exactly how you want. Of course, supporting that brand means you are also prepared to address customer comments. It will take time to grow your followers, and fast support of your social profile is necessary to ensure a quality experience. You can’t “set it and forget it” with social media. Actively monitoring and maintaining them is just as important as being there. 2. Provide Value When considering the role of B2B social media marketing, it’s important to remember that a strategic newsfeed should create opportunities for education and engagement. By presenting current topics, informative articles and engaging discussions, you help establish trust and position your organization as a thought leader. Think about the pain points that a potential customer is trying to solve and provide information on your social feeds in a variety of ways to pique their interest and make them want to learn more (think videos, infographics, article links, etc.)  3. Stay Connected with Your Customers Daily engagement in many social media platforms is high, and that engagement stretches across age, role and gender demographics. The traditional concept that B2B social media marketing is only to target young engineers and consumers is no longer (if it ever was) relevant or accurate. It’s important to remember that today’s consumer requires 8+ touch points to convert to a lead. Make sure you are actively monitoring your comments, direct messages, relevant hashtags and mentions, and respond. It’s especially important to be responsive to questions, as 49 percent of consumers will unfollow a brand for poor customer service. Digital users expect a quick response, usually within 2-4 hours. 4. Give Your Organization a Personality Modern consumers are bombarded by messages, and quite often B2B companies have stiff competition from similar products and services in the marketplace. It’s important that your brand has a personality – something it stands for – giving a face to that organization. Personality allows consumers to make emotional connections with your company. These emotional connections are strong drivers in the sales process, and sometimes overlooked by B2B companies that have very detailed and technical differentiators. While we love to see a B2B organization having a little fun in their social media personality, emotional connections can be created many ways – demonstrated through positive experiences like community involvement, through presentation of corporate stewardship and work beyond the organization, or even by showing that the company is a nice place to work. Creating emotional connections is an important role of B2B social media marketing and could very well be the differentiator that tips the scales in your favor for that order. 5. Recruitment Many of the above points regarding the role of social media in B2B marketing are customer-focused. However, in this extremely competitive labor market, a social media feed that demonstrates your organization as a positive place to work can reap untold benefits. During the evaluation process, potential employees will undoubtedly refer to your social media feed to learn more about the company. B2B organizations have a great opportunity to demonstrate that their company is a good place to work in the social media feed. For manufacturers, it’s a place to highlight that you are not of the dreaded three D’s of manufacturing: dark, dirty, dangerous; and for technical organizations it’s a chance to show that your people are not chained to their cubicle chair all day. Check out our article about the benefits of utilizing video in recruitment marketing, which can also help support your social media efforts. The overarching benefit, of course, is to show that your organization is a great place to work. Social media news feeds include employee-focused events, like company picnics, training, holiday activities in the workplace environment – and maybe even a few happy employees themselves. Giving a face and a personality to the company can help with recruitment significantly. And, as your employees start to engage with your organization in their news feed, the more your brand exposure will increase. Those employees are likely connected with a large number of potential new employees. A thoughtfully crafted and executed B2B social media marketing plan has increasingly become critical to strategic campaigns for industrial, manufacturing and B2B organizations. In business for two decades, Stifel Marcin has the expertise to help you and your B2B organization take the leap into the social world. Give us a call, or connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, and find out how we can help you create impact and return with a smart social marketing campaign. Stifel Marcin – The B2B Marketing Agency Unlike many advertising and marketing agencies, B2B isn’t just something that we do, it’s all we do. We’ll work to help your brand achieve its goals through the strategic combination of creativity, communication and technology. Our focused client intake processes give us the ability to thoroughly understand your business, products

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B2B Marketing in the Attention Economy: Expert Tips

ABM, Lead Gen Tactics /

If it is possible to offer a diagnosis on the B2B customer right now, it would be this one: We have forgotten how to pay attention, not because we wish to, but because we have too much to pay attention to. Inundated by messages, whether they’re on phones or laptops, means there is a lot of clutter, and much of this messaging will by necessity command little of our attention. In the B2B sphere, it has never mattered more that marketing content be easily understood and offer great value to a potential customer. Welcome to the Attention Economy, where human attention is treated as a scarcity. People only have so much time and smart B2B marketing is key to capturing attention, or you risk losing your audience altogether. Consider the Attention Cycle of a typical marketing initiative, an email campaign, that unless the messaging offers clear, valuable and long-standing customer connections, is just an exercise in generating volume, not results.  As you can see, message generation, without strategic intent and purposefulness, leads to less attention, not more. The idea that simply sending more emails will get more eyeballs is inherently incorrect. Attention is incredibly valuable. That’s why we don’t just “give our attention” – we “pay attention.” With an ever-escalating volume of marketing messages bombarding audiences online, creating brand-focused assets that resonate and cut through the clutter has become of great importance. Get noticed or get lost in the crowd – this has never been truer than today. If you want someone to “pay attention,” you must make sure what you offer is of value. Along with your marketing team, sales team, management and marketing agency, you must first decide who you want to reach. Get specific – exactly who are you targeting? Is it a potential customer who responds well to the latest technology and who will want to know more about the innovation at your plant? Is it a cost-conscious customer who will be motivated to act when they find out that your company can now do larger production runs for less? Your content marketing strategy doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does need to be effective. Using your outside B2B marketing agency can provide crucial insight into ways to make any marketing efforts more impactful. If you’re already uncertain that you’ve identified key targets, or are reaching them effectively, you might want to read more about Account Based Marketing. B2B marketing in the Attention Economy means creating content that matters to the reader. What do these key targets value and how can you develop invaluable content that will become a “must read” for them. In the new Attention Economy, capturing the attention of a prospect is only the first step. By serving value, you will “command attention” in the future. Your marketing efforts should be anticipated content your key target looks forward to receiving. It should be smart, aligned with your brand, and aligned with your goals – and make that recipient feel it is worthy of their valuable attention. What do you want your potential customer to do? Download a whitepaper? Sign up for a webinar? Come to a tradeshow or event? Good B2B marketing materials are always driven by clear calls-to-action, and in the Attention Economy, clarity and thoughtfulness in driving engagement is more important than ever. Consider how a marketing asset’s call-to-action will foster further engagement – and will give you the opportunity to turn a contact into an on-going relationship. Monitoring how readers respond to those calls-to-action, how they engage, and the feedback they provide also has benefits. By tracking those interactions, you may get insights that help you zero in on your potential customers’ concerns and needs. In the Attention Economy, tracking what does and doesn’t work is critical to long term returns. Work with your team and your marketing agency to make sure efforts are effective. Monitor each campaign asset, and use analytics, tracking and other measurable results to ensure you are having success getting attention – the attention of your target. Digitally, you can see if your efforts are returning results via more website traffic, directing new traffic to the site, offering content that makes people engage with your brand, or submitting website forms. It can mean more attendees at your next event, more people recognizing your name, or more requests for quotes coming in. Ensuring that you are getting a return keeps everyone motivated to continue the outreach to new clients. It may be a new way of thinking for your organization, but even though there are marketing costs associated with developing content-driven, strategic creative, the idea that you are offering something of value to your prospective customer base is critical in the Attention Economy. More than creating another B2B marketing asset, you are actually creating value in the mind of your potential customer. You Modernize Your Plant. Modernize Your B2B Marketing for the Attention Economy. The demand for content is huge. Marketing surveys reveal that 75% of B2B purchasers rely on content as a research medium when they look to make a buying decision. Provide value and attention will be paid. Thinking about how you can capture attention with your B2B marketing in the frenetic world of the Attention Economy? Contact us and we’ll help you identify key targets and develop smart, strategic, attention-capturing marketing initiatives. Let us help you Power Up Your Marketing today. Stifel Marcin – The B2B Marketing Agency Unlike many advertising and marketing agencies, B2B isn’t just something that we do, it’s all we do. We’ll work to help your brand achieve its goals through the strategic combination of creativity, communication and technology. Our focused client intake processes give us the ability to thoroughly understand your business, products and objectives, working to identify the competitive advantages and opportunities that will grow awareness, leads and sales. We develop innovative marketing plans with strategic, data-driven processes, presenting complex ideas and compelling messages that position your business ahead of the competition. As your cooperative partner, our integrated B2B marketing

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How to Target Prospects Strategically with “Big Data Marketing”

Lead Gen Tactics, SEM /

Digital marketing is complex and leading with a “big data marketing” mindset can seem daunting. Big data, AI and user tracking are top of mind for many marketers – but when it gets into the details of how, what and who – there can be confusion. As we add in multiple layers of interest targeting, geotargeting and the capabilities of different platforms, the intricacies expand. To help, we’ve compiled an overview of how our team uses big data marketing strategies to target new customers and expand touchpoints. What is Big Data and Who is Collecting It? Simply, “Big Data” is all the information digitally tracked about a person. The website pages you read, the words you use to search, the type of content you engage with – all this data is collected. That information is combined into a data set, which then combines with other people’s data sets, and is analyzed. Computer algorithms then create profiles about you – predictive patterns, interests and associations – that we marketers can leverage. Data is collected as you go through your day, so your profile is a full representation of you – what you do at work, what you do at home, what you like, etc. Keep in mind, data collected is not just from what you type and read after a Google® search, but also what you say and do. The Facebook App, Google Home Smart Speaker, Amazon Alexa, iBeacon tracking, etc. automatically collect data, image content, position tracking and more. This monitors what you do, where you go, what you say, and what you type. Advanced Big Data knows more about you than you probably care to imagine. How Do We Use Big Data Marketing in Digital Campaigns? The data available for B2B marketers has become more robust and refined. More than just a job type or industry, we can identify specific B2B interests – such as involvement in operations, supply chain, metals and more. Different platforms allow these data collections to be leveraged by marketers. While each platform offers different data options, similarities exist. Sites like Facebook, Google and Native platforms include a variety of interest settings, job information, demographic data as well as geographic statistics (including if you are home, at work, traveling, etc.). Sites like LinkedIn also provide job titles and past/current employers. These platforms have different dashboards, which require the understanding of interface settings and the nuances of each of them. By carefully targeting segments, overlaying settings and aligning our B2B digital marketing campaigns with client goals, we can serve ads to your potential customers. We can even tailor ad content, timing and messaging to the individual – serving them ads they are most likely to engage with – which we also know from Big Data tracking. Our digital marketing team is available to leverage a wide variety of Big Data – so that two people sitting right next to each other, both looking at the same website will see different ads. Accessing Information for Big Data Marketing  While the novice marketer can likely gain access to some of the profiling tools and platforms that leverage Big Data, an expert hand is needed to truly be effective. Understanding the complexities of these advanced tools allows marketers to correctly leverage all the capabilities. It takes time. It takes thought. And it takes skill. Don’t be lured by automated platforms and auto-generated targeting and ad content. B2B marketing is complex and must be carefully implemented. Remember that a smart marketer will not only maximize your visibility and return, but also protect your brand as part of a well-crafted digital strategy. Placements, pacing, spend, conversions and more should be regularly monitored data points. Big Data Marketing That Drives Results At Stifel Marcin, we have more than two decades of B2B digital marketing expertise. We’ve watched the growth of platforms, digital opportunities and data tracking, and know how to maximize its value. Let’s talk about your marketing goals, and how we can bring data-driven digital marketing into your mix to increase your visibility, brand positioning and sales. Contact us today to learn more. Stifel Marcin – The B2B Marketing Agency Unlike many advertising and marketing agencies, B2B isn’t just something that we do, it’s all we do. We’ll work to help your brand achieve its goals through the strategic combination of creativity, communication and technology. Our focused client intake processes give us the ability to thoroughly understand your business, products and objectives, working to identify the competitive advantages and opportunities that will grow awareness, leads and sales. We develop innovative marketing plans with strategic, data-driven processes, presenting complex ideas and compelling messages that position your business ahead of the competition. As your cooperative partner, our integrated B2B marketing agency is dedicated to your success. If you want to learn more about Big Data affects your company, we can help. Reach out today.

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