What inhibitors are currently slowing your business growth? Now is the best time to turn a critical eye on your B2B marketing initiatives to root out and eliminate marketing inhibitors.
What inhibitors are currently slowing your business growth? Now is the best time to turn a critical eye on your B2B marketing initiatives to root out and eliminate marketing inhibitors.
Topics: marketing agency, Branding, Online Marketing, Brand Development, video, Client Relationships, Content Development, b2b marketing, Award winning marketing agency, Creative Agency
At BayCreative, our heart and soul are our team of expert-level designers and creatives. Their creative work speaks directly to our approach to branding and marketing with in-depth collaboration and support to truly connect our B2B clients with their customers. Our team has been in the business for over 25 years, and we have great passion and dedication to provide the best creative work that the industry has ever seen.
Topics: Branding, Online Marketing, Brand Development, Client Relationships, Content Development, creative marketing, Collaboration, b2b marketing, Advertising, Award winning marketing agency, Creative Agency
Want to learn what hundreds if not thousands of presentations have taught us? This knowledge you can apply to your presentations today, for all sorts of uses in B2B sales, events, internal communications, executive communications, and others.
Topics: Branding, Brand Development, Client Relationships, Content Development, creative marketing, Power Point, Presentation, Collaboration, b2b marketing, digital marketing
"We are incredibly honored to be nationally ranked by Agency Spotter as the leading creative agency for B2B brands in San Fransisco," said Scott Danish, CEO of BayCreative, "This is a testament to our amazing clients at Cisco, Salesforce, DocuSign, Palo Alto Networks, ServiceNow, Enverus, Chime, SiFive, Early Alert, Twitter, Hazelcast, Experian, Smartsheet, Community First Credit Union, Wella Company, Outreach and more! Their contribution and collaboration with us on our work have helped make it possible for us to be listed as a nationally ranked, top marketing agency. We look forward to more great work with them in the future."
Topics: strategic marketing, marketing agency, Branding, Online Marketing, Brand Development, Client Relationships, Content Development, full service marketing, Collaboration, Messaging, b2b marketing, Advertising
"We are incredibly honored for BayCreative to be recommended by Business 2 Community as the Best Creative Marketing Agency for B2B Businesses of All Sizes," said Scott Danish, BayCreative CEO. "This is a testament to our amazing clients at Cisco, Salesforce, DocuSign, Palo Alto Networks, ServiceNow, Enverus, Chime, SiFive, Early Alert, Twitter, Hazelcast, Experian, Smartsheet, Community First Credit Union, Wella Company, Outreach and more! Their partnership is much appreciated!"
Topics: marketing plan, marketing agency, Branding, Online Marketing, Client Relationships, Content Development, marketing strategies, b2b marketing, digital marketing
In Demand Gen’s “2017 Content Preferences Survey Report,” nearly half of B2B buyers said they rely more on content to research and make purchasing decisions than they did the previous year. And 77 percent of respondents said they used white papers for that research.
When asked reasons why they selected a particular vendor over others, 66 percent of respondents in Demand Gen’s “2018 B2B Buyers Survey Report,” rated “Demonstrated a stronger knowledge of the solution area and the business landscape” as significant; 65 percent ranked “Provided informational content that was easy to consume” significant.
Finally, 56 percent of respondents in that survey said thought leadership content such as white papers was important when they visited the website of potential solution providers.
So, do you have white papers on your website?
A white paper is a persuasive, authoritative, in-depth report on a specific topic that presents a problem and provides a solution. It’s not an overtly promotional document—the best white papers won’t mention the producing company’s solution until the end—but many or all of the features needed for the solution can be found—twist ending!—in the solution sold by the company that produced the white paper.
Why Would You Want to Produce B2B White Papers?Topics: strategic marketing, marketing agency, Client Relationships, Content Development, marketing strategies, customer profile, Messaging, b2b marketing
Not to brag, but we’ve helped a lot of enterprise, mid-market and SMB companies tell their B2B customer success stories. Doing so is always fun, and it helps our customers show prospects how the vendor’s solution has solved a problem that a company similar to the prospect’s company was having—and that they likely have themselves.
It’s important to show prospects that their peers are getting benefits from your solution, and to do so in their own words, because studies show that 53 percent of B2B buyers rely on peer recommendations before making any purchase decisions.
But there’s commonly one challenge we come across when building those stories: The customer has a challenge communicating the measurable performance improvements (metrics or key performance indicators [KPIs]) they’re seeing as a result of the new solution/product/service.
They may say "sales have increased", or they "definitely have better relationships with their clients and prospects", but they’re not able to give tangible data that supports those claims. Sales increases could be attributed to a number of factors, they’ll mention. Or they’re not sure how much interaction they had with clients and prospects before the implementation.
And therein lies the problem: They don’t have enough “before” data for a great before-and-after comparison. And without strong, tangible data to support your solution’s impact, your success story will be weaker than it should.
For Convincing B2B Customer Success Stories, Start Early—Before The Implementation
But you (or we) can fix that problem easily enough. It just takes forethought.
You need to start collecting data before the implementation even begins. Early in the process have your marketing people ask the client questions like: "What are your specific goals?" and "What do you hope to accomplish with this solution?"
Based on their responses, you’ll be able to figure out two or three areas that should improve after the implementation. Look at those areas and collect metrics associated with them. Write those metrics down for later. Then, after the implementation has been successful and the customer has (hopefully) been getting those anticipated results, go back and get those same metrics, which will now show improvements.
That will make for a persuasive before-and-after comparison.
Other Roadblocks to Compelling Data—And How to Overcome Them
Sometimes, the lack of before numbers isn’t the problem. I have seen a variety of reasons why a customer hasn’t been able to provide solid measurable performance results: Some clients try to keep performance metrics confidential; others don’t invest in measuring performance results as well as they should; for others, the solution hasn’t been implemented long enough for good performance metrics; and, in some cases, the performance metrics aren’t that good, so they’re hesitant about divulging them.
I'd like to offer two quick tips if you’re having trouble getting great metrics from a customer:
BayCreative: We Get Them Talking
At BayCreative, we’re experts at drawing out the kinds of metrics that create strong B2B customer success stories. So if you’re looking to build your library, and tell some great stories, please let us know.
Topics: strategic marketing, marketing agency, Client Relationships, Content Development, marketing strategies, customer profile, b2b marketing
Every interaction with a prospective customer centers around one key question.
“How will you help me meet my business goals?”
The BEST person to answer that question is an existing customer. Happy customers are the most valuable asset for sales and marketing efforts. But are you maximizing the value of your current customers?
Prospects don’t want to be sold to all the time. They want to see how you work in the real world, how you'll help them if they become your customer. Success stories do that and more.
Through case studies, video customer profiles, and testimonials, you can help prospective customers understand the value and success they’ll experience by doing business with you. And, they provide valuable content for your website, email, and social media channels.
Showcasing your customer success can be as simple as:
Over the years, the BayCreative team has produced hundreds of success stories in a variety of formats. Click below for some examples.
See for yourself, and keep us in mind when you need to tell your customers' stories.
All the best!
- Team BayCreative -
Topics: strategic marketing, Brand Development, Client Relationships, Content Development, creative marketing, Presentation, customer profile, b2b marketing, customer experience, digital marketing
You’ve probably heard the saying, “No one ever got fired for buying IBM.”
IBM didn’t get its sterling reputation overnight. It achieved it by creating a superior product, being a leader in innovation, and building trust with its clients to ensure they would return.
Topics: Client Relationships, full service marketing, marketing strategies, b2b marketing
Not all things should be outsourced, but there are times when outsourcing your marketing makes more sense than struggling to see some return on your efforts. However, there are ways to make outsource marketing more successful, such as regular communication, accessibility to company information and team integration.
Topics: marketing agency, Client Relationships, Outsource Marketing, Collaboration
