There is an old expression, “Use a picture, it’s worth a thousand words”, which was first voiced by the noted newspaper editor Arthur Brisbane in the context of publicity and journalism at an instructional talk to Syracuse Advertising Men’s club, in March 1911. From this point onward, visual imagery has become pervasive in the realm of persuasive communication and rightly so. Numerous studies have backed that visual content holds superiority over verbal content when it comes to conveying a lot of information quickly and succinctly, stimulating a perceptual and emotional response among viewers that ultimately influence their purchase behavior. These are welcome findings at a time when everything is innately visual around us – from smart phones, web pages, TV screens, tablets, video cameras, appliances, vehicles, billboards, books, maps and the list goes on. As Professor Paul Martin Lester points out in “Syntactic Theory of Visual Communication”, “we are becoming a visually mediated society… For many, understanding of the world is being accomplished, not through reading words, but by reading images”. In this high-tech era where visual imagery is not just confined to images; social networking sites, info graphics, blogs/vlogs, online videos, games, 3D movies and so forth take visual stimulation to another level. Over the past few years, content marketing has been on the lips of every B2B. And every form of content marketing relies heavily on the marriage of text with strong visual elements, whether it is a content-heavy blog post with images and video, or a webinar containing audio and images. There is an upward trend in content marketing toward all things visual.  Relevant findings from industry reports and trends have supported this claim –

This brings us to our main topic – Does your content marketing provide any kind of visual stimulation? Have you embraced the new way of visually telling your brand story? Not quite there yet, then you need to harp on the visual media bandwagon ASAP!

Content Marketing + Visual Media = happily ever after!

And who does not like happily ever after? When content marketing and visual elements are closely entwined, we create something magical!  This magical potion provides killer benefits which includes –

1)     With Social Sharing buttons for Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and like, sharing of content with images/videos/infographics is much easier than sharing huge chunks of text.  To put things in perspective, below are some ideal scenarios for B2B to look at -

2)     Leverage your brand story with entertaining and engaging YouTube videos that would capture the attention of the target audience much quicker than text. Some compelling statistics that reinforces the use of YouTube as a hub for B2B marketing -

3)     More sharing/subscribes/comments/re-tweets/likes/click-through-rates results in better visibility of the brand, thus boosts your online SEO (search engine optimization) ranking.

4)     Improved SEO results mean increased website traffic, which further opens opportunities in terms of building trust/relationships and driving lead generation effectiveness and beyond, among customers and prospects.

With so many powerful visual tools at your disposal, the road to finding your happily ever after is not going to be that tough, or in better words capitalize on the power of visual content marketing to attract, engage and persuade customers. Let Grant Marketing help you create visual content for your business that can increase brand recognition and help you reach more customers.

Take Away – Start creating, sharing and exploring great visual content today!

Written by Vidushi Bhardwaj

Vidushi Bhardwaj is the Content Marketing Strategist at Grant Marketing. She possess a strong background in content marketing and integrated marketing communications. Passionate about innovation in the digital marketing and social media space has driven her to the marketing world. You can connect with her by sharing your thoughts on her blog.

It’s no secret that content is the holy grail of B2B marketing.  But for many B2Bs, it’s a challenge to produce great quality and engrossing content that resonates with their audience. And to top it off, we live in a world filled with voluminous clutter where content and information abounds. Every effort that goes in to breaking through the clutter is just more clutter. No matter how good and powerful the content is, consumers rarely would pause to note its origin. With media channels becoming increasingly blurred, good content requires more than the simple assemblage of information, now more than ever.  According to a new content ROI study by the CMO Council and Net line, “B2B annually spend 25 percent of their marketing budgets on content creation and yet it is poorly rated in value and performance by the B2B buyers”. That being said, content marketing can only take you so far.  What is the point of posting content when it fails to reach the target audience? We need to look beyond the rhetoric of content and go back to the basics of marketing – which is really about reaching the right customer with the right message at the right time using the channel that customers prefer. As we do all things B2B, we keep revisiting this rule of thumb quite frequently.

This brings us to the main topic, why e-mail marketing is imperative for B2B? Unlike B2C, B2B faces the unique challenge of reaching the niche target audience on a micro-level. Putting it in perspective, the most used mode of business communication today is e-mail. And, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that e-mail has made it possible to identify and target prime customers and engage with them in a much more personalized manner. According to the research conducted by BtoB online – 2012 Email Marketing: A Legacy Channel continues to deliver, “e-mail marketing is considered the workhorse of B2B marketing. Social media may be all the rage… But e-mail remains the bedrock of customer communications, transactional messages and lead generation, despite being virtually a legacy channel”. Furthermore, E-mail as the distribution channel can also be synergized with other digital media platforms such as social media and mobile to maximize ROI.

Now that we have covered the “right channel”, let us revisit the other key components in the mix – right content, right time, and right audience. In order to get the most out of the e-mail marketing efforts, segmentation and targeted messaging is the key. Here’s another reality check, the e-mail database is made up of contacts, who are at various stages in the sales funnel. This implies that the contacts are at different points in their sales cycle and they require different types of information and communication, depending upon different purchase behavior patterns. In other words, segmenting the e-mail database into separate variables, such as – demographics, industry type, customer, leads and so forth, can help in building an accurate representation of the target audience and may also boost the deliverability rate of the overall e-mail campaign.  Then comes the targeted messaging, the word “relevance” is over-used by marketing professionals, bloggers and like. But it is rightly so and backed by proof, according to Hub Spot’s own research, they found that timely, pithy and relevant lead nurturing emails generate an 8% click-through-rate compared to general e-mail sends, which generate just a 3% click-through rate. This signifies that targeted e-mails result in more clicks, which means recipients engage with the content within the segmented e-mail and drive conversation around it more than its non-segmented, non-targeted counterpart. Thus, relevance should dictate the e-mail campaign and not the other way round.

Aside from highly targeting niche audience in a split second, one of the ways in which e-mail marketing adds value in the B2B space is through the realm of measurement. There are numerous metrics available to measure the effectiveness and relevance of the e-mail campaign. For instance- click-to-deliver rates, open rates, bounce back rates, unsubscribe rates, subscriber-retention rates, social sharing rates to actual conversion rates of the overall e-mail campaign. The best practice in e-mail marketing involves not only tracking e-mail engagement activity but also comparing it with previous e-mail campaigns in order to optimize future e-mail campaigns.

In the end, it is important to remember that effective e-mail campaigns cannot just happen by fluke, they require attention to detail, careful planning and setting up of tracking mechanisms to measure success.

Takeaway note: Start building your existing and prospective customers e-mail list, and be sure your emails are content relevant!

Written by Vidushi Bhardwaj

Vidushi Bhardwaj is the Content Marketing Strategist at Grant Marketing. She possess a strong background in content marketing and integrated marketing communications. Passionate about innovation in the digital marketing and social media space has driven her to the marketing world. You can connect with her by sharing your thoughts on her blog.

At Grant Marketing, we like to stay ahead of the curve and that’s also the reason why we spend a great deal of time researching, monitoring current marketing trends, gathering consumer insights and pushing beyond this to deliver customized marketing solutions. This year we bring the concept of marketing automation into our zeitgeist. Although it is an evolving concept that many companies particularly in the B2B space are still grappling to acquire the right knowledge in order to leverage this technology to its full potential which exists today. This blog aims to impart a degree of understanding on the importance of embarking on a marketing automation journey for B2B, as there is a general consensus now more than ever, the value of marketing automation capabilities needs to be understood by both small and medium-sized B2B to large enterprises.

To start with, there are several marketing automation definitions floating around the internet, but the one that fits well with B2B marketing automation is defined by Marketo, “marketing automation is the use of technology to manage and automate the process of converting prospective customers into actual buyers. By automating the various tasks and workflows involved in demand generation, lead management, and sales and marketing alignment, marketing automation contributes to shorter sales cycles, increased revenue, and better marketing ROI.”  Modern Marketing automation platforms play a critical role as we move towards an era of personalization, with the use of sophisticated technology they have become purveyor of highly personalized marketing. It is important to note that the foundation of marketing automation is laid by gathering in-depth information on the existing and potential customer’s preferences and behavior. And that is something which is on every B2B company’s wish list. But according to Sirius Decisions Benchmarking report, only 25% of all organizations (B2B and B2C) have invested in marketing automation and are utilizing it to the fullest.   To make the case for marketing automation even stronger and viable, particularly in the B2B space, where marketing is complex, involves multiple stakeholders and longer sales cycle; there is a greater need for a defined, track able marketing process or platform and marketing automation provides that platform to achieve success in terms of driving customer intimacy, productivity and revenue growth.

Let us now take a cursory look at the components that make up the concept of marketing automation:

Lead Generation: It involves creating demand or leads at the top of the buying funnel. These are the leads that begin the conversation between a prospect and an organization and later kick start the sales cycle.

Data Segmentation: This process includes classifying leads data on the basis of job roles, industry, region and various other criteria. Data segmentation can happen at different levels.

Lead Scoring: Scoring of leads is a relative ranking of prospective buyers over one another. It is an unbiased way of determining the prospects that are ready for more attention from the organization. Lead scoring is a way of learning the make-up of the buyer profile.

Lead Nurturing: Lead nurturing is the process of communicating with leads/customers/buyers, building better engagement and enabling better movement through the buyer profile.

Program Management: Program Management in marketing automation includes effectively automating management of essential campaign processes, customer communication management across channels, tracking responses, consolidating and reporting results.

Campaign Measurement: Measuring marketing campaigns is a procedure of creating, executing and measuring marketing programs with a specific target audience.

Workflow: It is a pre-determined path of interactions for prospects to experience based on their profile, demographic and/or behavioral data with a goal of nurturing and building relationships.

Revenue Cycle: The revenue cycle starts from the day the organization first meets a prospect and continues through the sale and beyond, to the customer relationship.

Bottom Line: Marketing automation provides method to the madness!

Grant Marketing offers a demo and free trial of marketing automation at Marketing Auto Demo.

Written by Vidushi Bhardwaj

Vidushi Bhardwaj is the Content Marketing Strategist at Grant Marketing. She possess a strong background in content marketing and integrated marketing communications. Passionate about innovation in the digital marketing and social media space has driven her to the marketing world. You can connect with her by sharing your thoughts on her blog.

As mentioned in our previous blog, B2B companies are slowly and steadily dipping their toes in the social media water, and rightly so. But there is another storm brewing in the present digital ecosystem, which is integrating mobile into the current B2B marketing mix. According to Forrester Research report for 2012, “By 2016, smart phones and tablets will put power in the pockets of a billion global consumers, and mobile is the manifestation of a much broader shift to new systems of engagement”.  This power shift is compelling not only for B2C companies to pay attention to mobile marketing, but B2B companies are also waking up to the innumerable opportunities, this evolving and interactive “touch point” can offer them.

Mobile smart phones and tablets are quickly becoming a way of life for all, especially for the on-the go workforce. To put things into perspective for B2B, mobile devices are MUST have business tools and are also the primary mode of communication used by many B2B professionals. More importantly, smart phones – sophisticated mobile devices have become an omnipresent all-in-one digital companion of the masses, which combines the capabilities of a personal computer/laptop, landline phone and Internet. Due to mass conversion in the consumption of communication and content on mobile devices today, mobile has the power to justify the status of being the biggest media platform.

By sheer virtue of the phenomenal adoption rate particularly in the B2B space, as mentioned in Marketing Sherpa Benchmark Report for 2012; B2B customers are using smart phones and tablets more than B2C customers. The growing use of mobile devices is driving the needs, attitudes, purchase behaviors and expectations among this new breed of B2B segment, which is more connected, more research-oriented, and more informed than their predecessors. Yet, B2B companies are slow to untap the full potential of this anywhere, anytime, always-on mobile media, in their pursuit to connect and engage with business audiences.

According to a research led by Oracle and Endeca in November 2011, published in an e-marketer article, “nearly one-quarter of B2B ecommerce professionals said that mobile web was one of the most influential touch points for their customers; In addition, 28 percent of US c-level executives used a mobile device to research business purchases, 21 percent used a tablet”.  The significance of how content consumption habits have changed among the senior decision-making business executives further implies that B2B companies need to embrace mobile in their marketing efforts more than ever.

Moving forward, in the high-touch, highly personal selling environment of B2B, where building one to one customer-relationships is the Holy Grail, thus making it imperative for B2B businesses to have mobile-friendly assets. To make the case for mobile-optimized content marketing opportunities for B2B even stronger and viable, Donovan Neale – May, executive director of the CMO Council, mentions in the study “Engage at Every Stage”, “Mobile is an enormously impactful channel for differentiating a brand and creating much closer and more dependable relationships with customers, suppliers, and the entire value chain”.  For B2B companies to venture into the world of mobile, a haphazard approach to developing and implementing mobile marketing strategies just by having a mobile-friendly website is not sufficient. Like everything else in Marketing, mobile marketing initiatives require aligning of the complex and rapidly evolving mobile ecosystem involving different combinations of device, wireless operator, and operating system, with the companies’ objectives and needs.  Jim Hemmer, CEO of Antenna Software, emphasizes in a Forbes article, on the need for mobile undertakings to be interactive and agile rather than tactical one-off projects with a beginning and an end.

Below are some mobile marketing “best practices” to guide your lead generation and nurturing efforts, in the B2B landscape.

Assess: To start with, it is important to assess what specific pieces of the existing content library are best suited for the mobile-specific business audience in order for them to make informed decisions, perform tasks and stay up-to-date. This can mean providing users with shorter version of lengthy content through short videos, content feeds or text message alerts. And which mobile tools and approach can enhance the overall B2B marketing campaign? For instance, there are potentially dozens of mobile tools at the disposal of marketers such as, QR code, location-based mobile services, mobile apps, mobile-friendly websites, mobile web banner ads and mobile e-mail/text messaging and multi-media messaging, all depending upon which mobile tools support the needs of the business audience.

Optimization: The key is to optimize the content of the website for the mobile environment with a special focus on improving the readability and relevance of the content to ensure campaign success and stickiness. All content, links, destination pages should be mobile-optimized and presented in a consistent, simple and easy-to-use manner, which not only drives engagement but also leverages to extend brand value proposition among its target consumers.

Mobile Testing: According to 2012 Mobile Marketing Benchmark Report, only 13% of marketers are conducting mobile testing whereas 59% did not perform any mobile testing or optimization. But to be effective in this rapidly evolving digital landscape, the verification of cross-platform delivery should be a mandatory step in executing any mobile campaign. Mobile testing process encompasses various tests to ensure consistency and quality of the content across all types of mobile devices and platforms.

Analysis: One of the great things about mobile marketing is that you can measure the effectiveness of the campaign and make quick adjustments in real time. A mobile website can give you rapid data such as click-through rate, impressions, conversion rates, download counts and number of forwards. Furthermore, with the use of mobile SEO software it can help in tracking and analyzing which devices and mobile operating systems are most used by the business audience, and how engagement, abandonment and behavioral patterns vary across these devices. All of this data can play an important role in the overall analytics of the B2B marketing campaign.

Take-away Note: For B2B companies to design and build a mobile experience, they need to look at mobile in a holistic way by putting the customer experience at the core of their focus.

Written by Vidushi Bhardwaj

Vidushi Bhardwaj is the Content Marketing Strategist at Grant Marketing. She possess a strong background in content marketing and integrated marketing communications. Passionate about innovation in the digital marketing and social media space has driven her to the marketing world. You can connect with her by sharing your thoughts on her blog.

We’re all used to seeing consumer brands pop up on our respective news and twitter feeds, but the trend of industrial companies engaging in social media is becoming more and more apparent.  Products and services such as rigid plastic boxes and medical device coating services are slowly surfacing on the social media wave, thanks to B2B companies that have taken the lead on the social media learning curve such as Alpha Rho Inc. and DCHN. Industrial firms are now a part of the growing trend of business-to-business companies using social media actively in order to direct traffic towards their usually e-commerce websites or if the social media is intriguing enough then into their physical locations. According to Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst for social media at eMarketer Inc, “About 68% of business to business companies are engaged in social media marketing, where as 79% of consumer brands use social media for marketing purposes.” The gap is getting smaller.

Although the social media buzz is still relatively new within industrial companies and many firms continue to evaluate the effectiveness of social media in generating sales. According to the article, “87 More Vital Social Media Facts,” there is expected to be a 57% growth in buyers using social media to make purchase decisions, making it the second most used channel behind only face-to-face interactions. This rise can be attributed to the fact that social media provides a more cost effective and interactive way for B2B companies to generate leads, it has also proven to shorten the sale cycle for some. However, it is tougher for B2B companies to attract buyers online, as those companies do not have the same level of brand image or positioning as their direct-consumer-selling counterparts. According to Jeffrey L. Cohen in his article, “10 B2B Social Media Predictions for 2013,” “More B2B companies will see success in generating leads with social media, but it will still not be the norm.” The way to be effective on social media is by creating content, and the divide between B2B companies creating good and not-so-good content is widening. “Marketers who have mastered the art of blogging, e-books, visual content and video storytelling will forge stronger relationships with prospects, customers and advocates, while those who don’t will get left behind. Customer expectations will drive this disparity even more in 2013.” (Cohen)

Among the company websites where we monitor their online activity, we’ve see a dramatic increase in mobile devices being used when browsing.  It is apparent that mobile marketing is becoming increasingly popular and is the new norm by which we check our email or browse the web. Soon, mobile web will dominate B2B site traffic, B2B companies must look into developing and creating mobile marketing strategies that will allow for them to effectively market their products. Companies can become more mobile friendly by creating a mobile friendly website, and if it fits in their budget and strategy to create a mobile application for IOS and Android platforms.

The majority of CEO’s of B2B companies continue to be skeptical about adopting social media, however this disconnect between B2B marketers and their CEO’s will become smaller in 2013 as farsighted CEO’s begin to see the value in social media. Many CEO’s are on edge about engaging their consumers through social media because it is believed that their target market simply does not use social media, this myth is slowly being debunked as about 55% of people between the ages of 45-54 have at least one social media profile; according to Convince and Convert.

By developing a social media presence B2B companies can enable themselves to increase the company’s SEO which is vital for when purchasing agents are looking for a company such as yours, it also allows for companies to strengthen the relationships that they have with their clients. Furthermore, engagement in social media also provides a place for employees to collaborate; this collaboration provides a more insightful perspective of the company at hand which again aids in creating more meaningful relationships with consumers. Additionally, social media can also aid B2B companies in monitoring public mentions of their companies which is integral in trying to portray a positive and inviting brand image.

The bottom line: The time has come for industrial manufacturers to get on board with Social Media before it becomes difficult to catch up with competitors who have already embraced this revenue-increasing-technology.

Written by Anushka I. Kassim

Content Marketing should be an imperative part of your strategy to drive traffic to your website and bring awareness to your brand. The main idea behind content marketing is to build engagement with potential and current customers. If you are unsure of what content marketing is then click here, but be sure to come back to finish reading this blog to view the 4 common challenges that content marketing tends to bring about.

1. Developing Meaningful Content that Engages Your Audience

Companies publish tons of content only to find that it is meaningless to their customers. Before publishing it is imperative to do some research as to what the customer wants to know and hear about your company.  A great way to conduct this type of research is to analyze your website and social media analytics, what topics got the most traffic and produced organic conversations? You should also take a look at what your competitors are doing. You may be able to learn something new about how they engage your audience.

2. Creating Enough Content

As buyers require more information before making buying decisions, it becomes more difficult to create just the right amount of information in order to satisfy their needs. According to Marketing Matter study on Challenges that B2B Content Marketers face, 64% of companies surveyed said that ‘producing enough content’ was their number one problem, ‘producing the kind of content that engages’ came in a close second with 52%.

One must be able to keep the buyer engaged throughout the buy cycle. You not only have to provide detail information about your company’s products and services, but you need to be able to highlight why your company is superior to your competitors. It can be rather difficult for a buyer to figure out which company is best for them, but you can make this process easier by placing a spotlight on your company’s best characteristics. It is the right content and the right amount of content that will aid in creating a long lasting and profitable relationship based on trust between your company and your customer.

3. Repurposing Content

Reusing content can be tricky, but to be effective you need to reach your buyers wherever they may be found.  About 45% of companies in the Market Matters survey placed ‘producing a variety of content’ as their top challenge in content marketing. Consumers may research information that relates to your company in many different places so you want to be sure they find information on your company in all of those places. For instance, a consumer could watch videos, subscribe to e-newsletters, listen in on webinars, or keep a tab on your social media presence. To decide where you need to be you must find out where your audience lives and researches information you may have. If it is mostly through social media then you need to be on sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Don’t panic! Instead of posting the same thing with a twist on each of these sites you can also just post it once and set up your accounts in such a way that the content gets posted on all of them.

4. Lack of Budget and Lack of Human Resources

The most difficult challenge with content marketing has got to be learning how to allocate your budget. About 39% of companies ranked their lack of budget at the very stop of their content marketing grievances in the study conducted by Marketing Matters. You can pay others to create content for you or you can try and create it yourself, either way you have to decide how much money or time you want to invest/. To reiterate some statistics from my last content marketing blog: In B2B Marketing’s research on content marketing it was approximated that marketers spent 25% or more of their budget in content marketing and that 60% of B2B marketers intend to increase their content marketing budget in the next 12 months.

Needless to say content marketing is on the rise, and it’s on the rise because it is effective!

Written by Anushka I. Kassim

Social Media Strategist

Grant Marketing

Grant marketing strives to be on the forefront of the marketing and branding industry, Grant Marketing is able to do that by not only embracing new trends and tactics where marketing is concerned but by perfecting its execution of said trends and tactics. Recently we have seen a new wave of marketing come through via mobile applications and QPR codes, in order to implement a successful campaign by these means one must understand why they have become highly effective over the years.

Since 2010 mobile searches have increased by over 400% and by the end of 2012 about 46% of US consumers will own smartphones, by 2013 more people will use mobile phones than PC’s to get online, and by 2015 there will be about one mobile phone per person on earth. After taking these statistics from Google into account it only makes sense for Grant Marketing to pursue more smartphone friendly routes when trying to leave a lasting impression in a consumer’s mind about a budding brand or coming-of-age company.

Smartphones have completely reorganized how we carry out even the simplest of transactions, for instance about 61% of smartphone users call a business after searching and 59% visit the location furthermore approximately 70% of mobile users have compares product prices on their phones.

From a business perspective launching separate mobile campaigns that only targets mobile devices with full internet browsers have caused the cost per acquisition to decrease by 15% and the click through rate to increase by an astounding 80%. According to Google Engage for Agencies, “Having separate mobile campaigns allows you to control the mobile cost-per-click (CPC) and thus influence the ad rank of your client’s ads. By allocating a separate budget, you make the costs for mobile campaigns more transparent. In addition, you can create separate reports and better monitor the success of your campaigns.”

Through mobile marketing Grant Marketing can target the right consumer more specifically than ever before by using sophisticated targeting features such as:

• Location targeting
• Targeting specific movable operating systems, devices, and mobile carriers
• Targeting user interests within the display network
• Targeting specific time of day

The market for mobile advertising is an increasingly large opportunity, so partner with Grant Marketing and let us guide you through the many ways that you can reach out to your clients with campaigns that are tailored specifically for mobile devices.

For more information please visit our site www.grantmarketing.com or email us on bob.grant@grantmarketing.com

By Anushka I. Kassim

Long gone are the days where a firm could be successful in any market without any social media, firms must adopt some form of social media if they would like to stay relevant and not lose their competitive edge. Our words may come off being too strong, but it’s the truth and we’ve got the numbers to prove it!

The three most effective social media sites are Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn and it is easy to see why. After all 77% of companies on Facebook have brought in clients through Facebook, and about 65% of B2B companies have attracted customers through their LinkedIn company pages. Having an updated company page is key for B2B companies to gain customers, companies can also track who is viewing the page and ensure that they are in fact targeting the correct audience.

One can also use social media such as Facebook and Twitter to drive traffic to the company website, Facebook created about 26% of traffic on company websites whereas Twitter created about 23% of traffic. Furthermore, friends of your customers are about 85% more likely to choose your company over another company if they have seen your company be liked or tweeted by their friends. This phenomenon has been dramatically enhanced due to search engines like Bing, as they not only aggregate web results for a search but include any relative information that may be posted on social media sites that you are on.

Users must also realize that social media’s sole purpose is not just to generate leads anymore but to allow prospective clients to gather enough information about your firm in order for them to make an educated choice of who they would like to work with most. A successful social media campaign has to be extremely content orientated, the best way to get content out is by publishing blogs on a regular basis. These blogs can be a deeper insight into your industry or your company, a rule of thumb that I go by is to make sure the content that I am publishing is something that cannot be easily found with a Google search. In other words, push yourself to put out something meaningful instead of simply regurgitating something that you read in this week’s Forbes. About 60% of companies have gained customers through blogs.

Other social media sites that tend to be content heavy are YouTube and Slideshare. Many firms have turned to YouTube to cost effectively release videos that either educate customers about the company culture or the basic company operations. SlideShare is a platform where companies can publish presentations, the objective of this is again to share information about the company or the industry. Sharing videos and presentations is a great way to connect with customers and ease them into trusting your brand over another brand.

Another aspect of content marketing that one must take into consideration as well is that content that tends to go viral is that which is usually shared within small groups first instead of being posted as a status update on Facebook or tweeted.

The information in this blog has been extrapolated from Tom Pick’s article titled “72 Fascinating Social Media Marketing Facts and Statistics for 2012.” The article can be found at www.jeffbulas.com.

For more information please visit our site www.grantmarketing.com or email us on bob.grant@grantmarketing.com

By Anushka I. Kassim

Content marketing is one of those buzz terms that has taken the traditional marketing world by storm. A pretty picture is not enough to catch the increasingly educated eye of consumers, instead consumers have begun to choose companies and brands that share content in order to influence the consumers’ decision towards the product or service in question. Content marketing is an umbrella term that encompasses all marketing materials that include sharing content with the objective to attract and acquire customers.

According to BtoB magazine’s recent study on content marketing, “Content Marketing: Ready for Prime Time,” found 34% of respondents are “very” or “fully” engaged with content marketing, compared with only 18% last year. For the future, companies’ commitment to content marketing will increase rapidly: 66% say they will be “very” o r “fully” engaged in content marketing by 2013. The study was based on an online survey of 440 b2b marketing professionals conducted in April and May.”

It is easy to see why content marketing is being increasingly implemented by companies across all industries; after all it does hold the ability to better engagement with targeted audiences this statement was confirmed by 56% of the survey’s participants. 47% said it increases the trust factor with companies, and 23% agreed that it also improves Search Engine Optimization.

According to Nick Panayi, director-global brand and digital marketing at multinational IT services company Computer Sciences Corp: “There are two parts to the content story… one is the raw intelligence and information it provides that allow you to rise above the clutter. And then there is putting those insights into a package that is consumable and attractive.”

The BtoB magazine study went on to say that marketers perceive content marketing as having its most significant impact on the following

• Lead generation – 51%
• Brand Awareness 38%
• Thought Leadership 34%
• Sales – 29%

Furthermore marketers can focus on multiple uses from a single piece or content marketing, for instance a content heavy video on YouTube could be a call to action and also link back to other social media outlets. The video’s transcript can also be molded into a white paper or into a blog post.

About 54% of the people that BtoB magazine surveyed for the study said that they were satisfied or more than satisfied with their use of content marketing. About 51% of marketers will be increasing their budgets for content marketing, and about 44% indicate that a sixth of their budget is directed by content marketing needs. The marketing industry is past the point where content marketing was just an innovative way to market a product or service; content marketing is now needed to ensure the success of any marketing campaign.

For more information please visit our site www.grantmarketing.com or email us on bob.grant@grantmarketing.com

By Anushka I. Kassim

Due to the success of our last workshop we’ve decided to hold yet another!

The workshop will be held on the 27^th of September from 8AM to 10AM at the Grant Marketing offices on the 16^th floor of the Prudential Tower which is located on 800 Boylston St, Boston, MA 02199.

The workshop will be led by Mr. Rob Levinson, the former “Marketing Strategies” columnist for the Wall Street Journal has refined his methodologies for Brand Strategy, Brand Marketing and Brand Development over the last 25 years. His expertise has allowed him to create a unique, compelling, and strategic brand narrative for his clients who are mostly in the technology, manufacturing, medical and financial industries. His clients in the past have included companies like Analogic, GE, Fidelity, and Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital.

Mr. Levinson will be discussing the following topics:

•    How to take a 360 degree look at your brand
•    How to assess your current brand positioning
•    How to research where your brand lives in the hearts and minds of key stakeholders
•    How to review the competitive landscape
•    How to create an updated brand narrative
•    How to measure the impact of your efforts
•    How to align your branding and business strategy
•    How to capitalize on having a powerful brand story

This workshop is highly interactive, conversational and entertaining. During the workshop you will be sure to gain a better understanding of Brand Development and its importance to your customers and internal stakeholders.

The first three companies that commit will be used as examples during the presentation including an assessment of current messaging, kudos for powerful positioning, and gentle suggestions for improvement.

What: Brand Workshop

When: September 27^th 8AM-10AM

Where: Grant Marketing, 800 Boylston St, Prudential Tower, 16^th floor, Boston MA, 02199

To reserve a seat please contact Bob Grant at Grant Marketing by emailing him at bob.grant@grantmarketing.com or calling him on 857-453-6744.