In this insightful episode, podcast host Mike Boyle and Paul dove into the state of B2B marketing in 2024 and forecast trends for 2025. They also talked about how AI transforms the marketing landscape, the shift from SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to LMO (Language Model Optimization), and the importance of community in demand generation. 

In addition, we explored the critical role of CRMs in modern marketing, including best practices for leveraging these systems effectively. 

Here are some audio highlights from our conversation.

B2B Marketing Trends for 2025 – Part 1

The conversation with Paul started with his look back at the B2B Marketing trends that were most prevalent in 2024 (Hint: AI, AI, AI…). He also looked into his crystal ball with his trend prediction for 2025. Here’s the ‘big” one…

B2B Marketing Trends for 2025 – Part 2

So, now that you have been warned about LMOs (Language Model Optimization) in Part 1 above, Paul looked further into his 2025 crystal ball and informed us to be ready for more AI agents, vertical videos, and lo-fi content.

Marketers and CRMs – The Biggest Challenge

As we moved into the marketers and their relationship with CRM portion of the podcast, we asked Paul about the biggest challenge marketers face when it comes to effectively using CRMs, and how poor data management contributes to this. Here’s what he said…

The Importance of a Clear CRM Strategy

We asked Paul his thoughts on the importance of companies having a clear CRM strategy, and he said that the biggest risk companies take in the beginning is treating it like an old-school Rolodex (look it up, kids!). 

Listen to the entire B2B Marketing Strategy: CRM, AI, Challenges & Trends podcast episode.

Related Resources:

The Role AI & GenAI Are Playing in Today’s B2B Marketing

Maximizing Your CRM Investment: How Budget-Conscious Businesses Can Make the Most of Salesforce

Why Traditional CRM Falls Short in Healthcare

Subscribe to the AdVic Salesforce Blog on Feedly:

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On a recent Ad Victoriam “Salesforce Simplified” podcast, we invited Refine Labs CEO Chris Walker to talk about the state of B2B marketing today. 

Chris and his team help B2B companies change how they think about measuring and executing marketing so they can stop worrying about lead volume and start generating revenue.

In addition to his CEO duties at Refine Labs, Chris also hosts Revenue Vitals podcast, which mixes live Q and A and chats with some of today’s top B2B leaders to share some tangible advice and tactics. 

Here is just a taste of the many B2B marketing topics we covered with Chris on the podcast.

Common Mistakes B2B Marketers Making Today

On this subject, Chris remarked, “I think basically you can categorize the challenges that B2B marketers face today into three core buckets. You have mindset, you have metrics and measurement, and you have execution. And my strong belief after advising and working with more than 200 high-growth B2B companies in the past four years is that the actual issues start at mindset, then get driven down to measurement, and then negatively impact execution. And so the actual way to solve this is not to have your B2B marketer try and run their ads better or make a better piece of content. You actually, as executives and business leaders, need to look at this at a much higher level and think, ‘What is the actual mindset of marketing?’”

Chris expounded, “The overall mindset inside of B2B companies is that marketing is a servant to sales. Marketing’s job is to get leads or other types of signals through MQL scores, buying lists, scanning trade show booths, running content syndication to get “leads,” contacts at an account so that their sales team can try to sell to people. And the fundamental shift in the mindset has to be our job for marketing inside of our company is to drive buying processes at scale independently with all of our target accounts all the time, to create an ecosystem with all of our target accounts so that they’re learning, progressing, understanding the business problems inside of their own business, what the metrics should look at, what the solutions could be, what people try that fail. And you need all of the key people inside of all your target accounts to be getting that information all the time.”

Tips for a Strong Digital Presence

We were curious as to Chris’ thoughts on the amount of effort companies are putting into their online presences today. Here’s what he told us:

“A lot of companies over-prioritize their websites. They build a ton of website pages and they spend a lot of time doing SEO content, which was the “best practice strategy” in the early to mid-2010s popularized by HubSpot and other vendors.

“And when those strategies were developed and popularized, social media was in its infancy. Facebook was only used by college kids. A company like Pepsi didn’t have a Facebook page when this stuff was happening. And the progression of what’s happened with social networks, private communities, a lot of places like this over the past 10 years is that it’s basically how people use the internet and get information today through social networks. And so if you are not present in these key places where your buyers log in multiple times a day, some people 10-20 times a day log in to LinkedIn to consume content and collaborate, if you’re not there, then you’re missing out on potential business.”

Measuring B2B Campaign Success

Many B2B marketing teams today struggle with measuring a campaign’s success, and so we asked Chris to talk about what marketers should be paying attention to today.

“Depends what the goal of the campaign is,” Chris remarked. “In a high-intent search, you sell FP&A software and there’s a buyer in Google Search that’s searching FP&A software and you’re going to buy that keyword, you should be measuring it on dollars of pipeline created versus dollars of ad dollars spent. You should have a ratio of pipeline dollars per ad dollar. And then eventually, if you go at it long enough, you should be able to get to a close one revenue over at ad spend dollar and just get ROAS. So for demand capture type of stuff, you should be measuring ROAS and cost of acquisition.

“And then when you think about demand creation, this is where a lot of B2B companies get stuck. And I’m sure B2C companies get stuck on it too because everybody’s looking for the attachment to revenue. And the core thing about demand creation, especially inside of dark social channels today, is that the measurement is very difficult to accomplish with the current measurement methodologies and technologies that are used in companies.”

Skills B2B Marketers Need Today

Oh, sure, Chris could have just given some blanket advice here on the skills today’s B2B marketers need, but he went a little deeper.

“It really depends on what your goal is,” he acknowledged. “If you want to be a senior marketing manager, make $120K, and take care of your family and have all the weekends, you’re going to have a different plan than the person that wants to be the CEO of a $100 million run rate company.

“But some blanket things that I think would make marketers far more effective at any level and get increasingly important as your level goes up, business acumen and financial basics. You have to be able to read a P&L. You have to understand how to calculate the cost of acquisition. You need to understand key metrics that your finance team is looking at every day, every month, every quarter. Getting primary market research directly from customers in qualitative and quantitative formats. Every marketer should be doing this, not just the product marketing team. So all marketers should be engaging with customers, understanding them, coming up with perspectives on overall strategy and tactics. I’d be hard-pressed not to say that if you are a marketer today and you don’t create content for yourself or your business, then you’re really missing out. The number one driver of business results today is content that gets put in social networks.”

There were a lot more B2B marketing topics we talked about with Chris during the podcast, including his thoughts on misconceptions about B2B marketing, we talked deeper about the relationship of B2B marketing and social media, and how B2B companies can better target their ideal customers. Listen to the entire podcast here. 

Is your business in need of a B2B solution? No worries, because the AdVic® B2B Commerce team has the skills and expertise needed to get your branded storefront up and running quickly so you can drive new revenue. Let’s explore your options and start creating your roadmap to success today!

Related Resources:

B2B Marketing Tips You Have Not Thought Of (Podcast)
B2B Marketing Tips You Have Not Thought Of – Part 1 (Blog)
B2B Marketing Tips You Have Not Thought Of – Part 2 (Blog)

Subscribe to the AdVic Salesforce Blog on Feedly:

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B2B companies often have long sales cycles, complex decision-making processes, and multiple stakeholders. Therefore, it’s important for B2B companies to follow certain best practices to maximize their chances of success. Here are 10 best marketing practices that B2B companies should follow.

1. Define Your Ideal Customer Profile: B2B companies should have a clear understanding of their target audience. This includes identifying the industries, company size, job titles, and other relevant factors that define their ideal customer. This helps in creating more effective marketing strategies and sales outreach.

2. Develop a Strong Brand Identity: A strong brand identity helps B2B companies stand out in a crowded market. It’s important to develop a consistent brand message across all channels, including website, social media, and sales collateral.

3. Create Valuable Content: B2B buyers are looking for information and insights that can help them make informed decisions. Therefore, B2B companies should create high-quality, informative content that addresses the pain points and challenges of their target audience. Create content that has value to your audience, minimizing “selling” content.

4. Measure and Analyze Results: Finally, B2B companies should measure and analyze the results of their marketing and sales efforts. This allows them to identify what’s working and what’s not, and make adjustments to improve their strategies over time. Key metrics to track include website traffic, conversion rates, customer acquisition cost, and customer lifetime value.

5. Leverage Social Media: Social media is an effective tool for B2B companies to reach and engage with their target audience. LinkedIn is particularly effective for B2B marketing, but other platforms such as Twitter and Facebook can also be used to build brand awareness and drive traffic to the company’s website. Maximize your social posting with employee engagement. Encouraging employees and leadership to post independently and share company posts maximizes exposure and is shown to increase sales.

6. Embrace Account-Based Marketing (ABM): ABM is a targeted approach that focuses on a specific set of accounts that are most likely to become customers. ABM allows B2B companies to personalize their messaging and outreach to each account, which can lead to higher conversion rates and stronger customer relationships.

7. Use Marketing Automation: Marketing automation tools such as Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Management (formerly Pardot) can help B2B companies streamline their marketing efforts and automate repetitive tasks. This allows marketing teams to focus on higher-level tasks such as content creation, strategy, and analysis.

8. Focus on Customer Experience: B2B companies should focus on providing a seamless and positive customer experience. This includes everything from website design to customer service to post-sale support. A positive customer experience can lead to repeat business and referrals.

9. Emphasize the Value Proposition: B2B buyers are looking for solutions that will help them solve their problems and achieve their goals. Therefore, B2B companies should focus on emphasizing the value of their product or service and how it can benefit the customer.

10. Prioritize Sales Enablement: Sales enablement refers to providing sales teams with the tools, training, and resources they need to be successful. B2B companies should invest in sales enablement programs to ensure that their sales teams are equipped to sell effectively.

Summary

Initiating these 10 best practices can go a long way toward helping B2B companies improve their marketing and sales efforts, build stronger customer relationships, and drive business growth. By focusing on their target audience, creating valuable content, leveraging social media, embracing Account Based Marketing (ABM), using marketing automation, prioritizing customer experience, emphasizing the value proposition, investing in sales enablement, and measuring and analyzing results, B2B companies can achieve success in a competitive marketplace.

Need to jump-start your B2B initiatives? Have a look at how quickly you can get in the game with AdVic’s B2B Commerce Accelerator.

How Can AdVic Help?

Ad Vic’s dedicated B2B Commerce team is ready to apply their knowledge and passion to your challenges. Whether you are migrating from a legacy eCommerce solution or just starting to dip your toe into the B2B eCommerce world, our U.S.-based team, who works on your hours,  has the skills and expertise needed to get your branded storefront up and running quickly so you can drive new revenue. Reach out and talk to us today!

Related Resources:

B2B Customer Success Story
B2B Commerce Accelerator
B2B Marketing Tips You Have Not Thought Of

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The post 10 Best Marketing Practices B2B Companies Should Follow appeared first on Ad Victoriam Solutions.

The B2B marketing landscape is continuously evolving. The last two years saw a few unprecedented changes and trends in the B2B marketing ecosystem. What trends can we expect in 2023? On a recent Ad Victoriam “Salesforce Simplified” podcast, Paul Slack, founder and CEO of Vende Digital discussed sales and marketing, SEO, and social media trends B2B marketers should watch – and possibly embrace – this year. What follows are some of the highlights of that conversation.

Video is Still King 

“Video,” Paul remarked, “as a way of delivering information, is becoming more and more important. We’re seeing video consumption just on the rise and short video consumption being the biggest form of that. I think we can thank our short attention spans, and maybe TikTok for that, but we all want these short videos. And so, video worked well in 2022. I think it’s going to work extremely well in 2023.” 

From a sales perspective, Paul added, “Video is also a really important tool. So I think the sales reps that were able to send little video messages to their customers, that’s something that if you didn’t try in 2022, I’d recommend that you try in 2023. Think about all the emails that you’re getting, unsolicited emails and things like that. And then every now and then I’d get an email and it’s a little video from a person where they’ve analyzed my website or they’ve got a specific message related to me, and that catches my attention.”

Creating Personalized Content Hubs

Championing the creation of personalized content hubs, Paul shared, “I think the more that you can deliver a message, whether it’s on the sales side or on the marketing side, that makes that recipient of that information think to themselves, ‘Wow, that was for me. That person spent some time sending me this email, delivering me this message on social media,’ whatever the case may be.” 

He added, “And there’s so many tools out there today that can help us really hyper-personalize. And so one thing that I like to bring up is, these personalized content hubs. And I know a lot of businesses are taking advantage of those now, but even into 2023, if you can have a landing page on your website for each of your sales reps and have that be personalized, which you can do with marketing automation and tools like that to where when that visitor… The sales rep drops a link, ‘Hey, check out this content hub I’ve made that’s got all this great information to help you, Mr. Prospect.’ But when they land on it, through marketing automation and personalization, it can look like it’s a customized landing page, not just for the rep, but actually for the prospect.”

Your SEO Initiatives

With an eye toward shoring up SEO initiatives, Paul suggested, “If you did a good job in 2022 of making your website technically sound and loading fast, etc., in 2023 you really need to focus on establishing really awesome content that’s tied to your content pillars where you’re calling out your niche.”

Additionally, Paul said that B2B marketers need to think about when they’re building content for 2023, “We cannot write a blog or an article, or a webpage and hope that we’re going to rank well, because that’s a key phrase that’s important for us. We’ve got to write content that answers the query of the user. So Google’s really looking at, did that user click over to your website? Did they hit the back button and go to another page because they didn’t get their answer on your page? That’s going to have a big impact. So when you write content in 2023, make sure you’re answering the user intent. And then the last thing for SEO is, just make sure you’ve got multimedia on there. So for example, audio or video or stats, things like that, that are going to really help the user along the way.”

Leadership Leading the Social Media Messaging

A huge proponent of turning employees into ambassadors for your company on social media – speaking to their audiences directly – Paul suggested it start at the top. “I call it founder branding… Positioning the head of your company as the face of your company on social media, I think is going to be really helpful in 2023.” 

Lastly for social media in 2023, Paul added, ”If you haven’t thought about advertising, you absolutely need to, but think about it as a way of getting your best content in front of your ideal customers.”

Is your business in need of a B2B solution that might include migrating from a legacy eCommerce platform? No worries, because the AdVic B2B Commerce team has the skills and expertise needed to get your branded storefront up and running quickly so you can drive new revenue. Contact us today, we’re ready to chat!

Related Resources:

B2B Marketing Tips You Have Not Thought Of (Podcast)

B2B Marketing Tips You Have Not Thought Of – Part 1 (Blog)

B2B Marketing Tips You Have Not Thought Of – Part 2 (Blog)

Subscribe to the AdVic Salesforce Blog on Feedly:

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The job of Sales and Marketing is to work together towards common goals, helping their company grow and securing business. While their job functions differ, working together as one maximizes business profits and growth. 

Companies that unify Sales and Marketing hold the advantage of collaboration. Rather than functioning as separate entities, exchanging information and ideas between Sales and Marketing can improve results and create a seamless buying experience for prospective customers. The responsibility of creating content that generates qualified leads lies on the marketing team. From customer stories, case studies, and collateral, Marketing uses methods of promoting services to warm up leads. It is then up to Sales to follow up, build relationships, and close deals.

For Part 2 of our “B2B Marketing Tips You Have Not Thought Of” blog series (Read Part 1), Vende Digital Founder/CEO/B2B marketing guru, Paul Slack, who recently guested on AdVic’s “Salesforce Simplified” podcast, offered a five-step guide of strategies that can unifying Sales and Marketing teams: 

1. Importance of Sales and Marketing Alignment

“Sales and marketing have to work together as a system within an organization,” Paul states. “It’s not the sales department and the marketing department, it’s sales and marketing working together because at the end of the day, buyers don’t buy the best solutions. Wouldn’t it be awesome if they did and we had the best solution? But what they actually buy are the solutions that they understand the most from people that they like. And so when you think about that statement, that they buy the solutions that they understand from people that they like, sales and marketing plays a role in both of those. 

“Marketing’s job is to make sure that there’s a solution out there that your solution is one that they understand. 

“Sales’ job is to make sure that the solution they’re buying is from somebody that they like. That’s that human component.”

Paul describes the content Marketing produces as “Chum in the water that attracts prospective customers, that then allows reps to go in for the sale.”

2. Content Warm Up

Marketing uses methods, tactics and a variety of channels such as content marketing, social media marketing, SEO, email marketing and ads to target consumers. The content that Marketing produces is used as bait. Paul describes it as “chum in the water that attracts prospective customers, that then allows reps to go in for the sale.”

3. Cutting Through The Noise: Create Meaningful Content

Cutting through the noise is providing your prospects with impactful content. There is an abundance of content available that may not resonate, empower, or educate them, be the brand that does. 

Paul provides us with questions and solutions to be successful in content creation:

“If you’ll take the time to really understand who your customer is and what are the problems that they’re trying to solve, and not only as a business, but what are they trying to solve as a human? And really began to talk about what we call kind of an aspirational identity. What is their business going to look like when they solve their problem with your solution? What are they going to look like? How are they going to be the hero of their organization? And you can create content around those things. Instead of speeds and feeds, instead of features and benefits, really talk about the customer where you can kind of begin having, engaging in the conversation that’s already going on in their head.”

4. Social Ads for Optimal Success

Paul advises, “Promoting your content [on social media] is just as important as creating it. Promoting content to your audience is a way to stand out. It provides their problem with solutions and allows them to make educated buying decisions.

5. Reps on Socials 

Social media is a powerful tool for digital selling and marketing. LinkedIn in particular is notorious for networking, job hunting and connecting with previous colleagues and classmates, but is also beneficial for B2B selling. 

Pauls says, “Sales reps on social media should present themselves as experts that solve problems, not candidates looking for the next big opportunity. Their profile should display expertise in their field.”

In addition, Paul suggests a ”3×5 LinkedIn Marketing Plan” for sales reps:

• Reach Out to Five New Contacts: Send connection requests to five new contacts. 
• Comment on Five Posts: Engage with content on your newsfeed, especially from prospects.
• Send Five Direct Messages a Day: Use five direct messages to provide connections with useful information.

“If you’re doing this in tandem or coordination with the marketing department,” Paul remarks, “again sales and marketing alignment, then you should have lots of great resources that you can DM (Direct Market) or the sales reps can DM to their audience.”

Download Your Free “Developing a Digital Marketing Plan” Template

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Related Resources:

B2B Marketing Tips You Have Not Thought Of – Part 1 – Blog

B2B Marketing Tips You Have Not Thought Of – Podcast

Commerce Cloud – Unifying the Buying Experience Across all Channels

What is B2B2C?

Subscribe to the AdVic Salesforce Blog on Feedly:

The post B2B Marketing Tips You Have Not Thought Of – Part 2 appeared first on Ad Victoriam Solutions.

When it comes to B2B marketing best practices, a digital marketing plan is key, because it’s a comprehensive blueprint that is designed to achieve company goals and objectives. A careful and perfect execution of one provides businesses with an edge over the competition, tells a story to consumers, and provides them with an abundance of information that allows them to make educated decisions. Including detailed research, a successful digital marketing plan maps out the target markets, distribution channels, and your business’ overall strategy.

In addition to planning, executing a solid digital marketing plan is another core fundamental part of business. And as the web becomes more and more intertwined in everything from shopping to research, digital marketing’s impact is apparent. 

During a recent AdVic “Salesforce Simplified” podcast, Paul Slack, Vende Digital founder and CEO, offered some B2B marketing tips across the topics of marketing strategies, sales and marketing, SEO, and social media. Here are a few highlights from that conversation.

Developing a Digital Marketing Plan in 2021 and Beyond

“Before you do anything online, you really need to take a step back and just think about what does winning look like for your business,” Paul remarks. “Where are we trying to grow? Who’s our target audience? What is that ideal customer profile that we’re trying to reach? What are the problems that they’re trying to solve? Because at the end of the day really, we’re just going to use digital as a channel to help our buyer solve problems. Sometimes that means we’re going to help them solve problems with information. Sometimes we’re going to help them solve problems with our products and services. We need to understand those problems that they’re trying to solve. 

“And then, also,” Paul adds, “what are the topics that they want to read about? Because when we think about digital marketing, it really is about consuming information to help a buyer make an informed purchase decision.” 

Download Your Free “Developing a Digital Marketing Plan” Template

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Generating Leads Tips

Paul’s roadmap for marketers for generating leads includes these tips:

Planning: Planning allows you to spread brand awareness through a solid content strategy.

Balance: Produce content that creates awareness and make micro commitment and caters to leads throughout the sales funnel. While bottom of the funnel, sales qualified leads are important, you will fail creating content that only caters to them.

Fair Exchange: Produce a quarterly, gated downloadable where visitors exchange their information for information produced by you. Using the download as a lead magnet, content should serve as a solution to a problem your visitor is facing.

Nurture: Use your CRM and your marketing automation platforms to really stay top of mind and nurture those relationships with email marketing over time.

Sales Funnel: Paul says, “Really focus on top, middle and bottom,” of the sales funnel. He adds, “Top is really content and promoting that content, middle is having a gated lead magnet and a new one every quarter and then using email marketing and digital selling and other things as a way to warm them up so that they raise their hand and say, ‘I’m ready to talk to sales.’ That’s a great way to generate leads online today.”

Website Conversions: “Do away with lengthy jargon and copy; give your audience what they need, where they need it, and allow them to be the hero.”

Paul’s biggest piece of advice regarding web conversions? Your web pages should answer these three basic questions:

1. What do you do?
2. How does it benefit me?
3. How do I take the next step?

OK, so you have a digital marketing plan ready to go that includes the elements discussed above, but you also know that you need to complement that plan with a B2B solution that includes migrating from a legacy eCommerce solution. No worries, because the AdVic B2B Commerce team has the skills and expertise needed to get your branded storefront up and running quickly so you can drive new revenue. Contact us today, we’re ready to talk!

Related Resources:
B2B Marketing Tips You Have Not Thought Of – Part 2 – Blog
B2B Marketing Tips You Have Not Thought Of – Podcast
What is B2B2C?

Subscribe to the AdVic Salesforce Blog on Feedly:

The post B2B Marketing Tips You Have Not Thought Of – Part 1 appeared first on Ad Victoriam Solutions.