content marketing

Are Asian marketers mastering digital?

This is one of the more interesting titbits contained in Econsultancy’s report titled State of Digital Marketing in Asia

And the answer is- yes and no. There is a mismatch between digital skills and business knowledge. Senior management is not as enthusiastic about digital while most are overwhelmed by the fast pace of changes and can’t keep up.

In other words, much like Asia, the answer is complicated and has several facets.

Marketing has changed in Asia Pacific

The Asia Pacific region is in the middle of an economic churn. Led by China and India, populations the size of mid sized European countries every month are bridging the digital divide.

And because of this, digital marketing is no longer getting the leftover treatment.

Budgets are actually being allocated to digital instead of it having to do with whatever scraps fall off the table. Companies outsource social media campaigns and hire SEO experts to get to the top of the search results.

And I am bombarded by spam SMSes that promise to teach me English, book a cheap flight or find me a girlfriend if I reply back with a code. *bangs head on desk*

Have a look at these stats from the report

B2B prospects turning back because they can’t afford you? Do these 7 things

By Bhaskar Sarma 4 Comments

Let me paint you a picture.

Your prospects need you. They know what you are offering is going to rock their world and solve their problem.

You have even helped them sell their wives, their bosses and their bosses’ wives on the usefulness of your offer.

But then you hear these dreaded words…

“We wish we could have signed the contract, but we just don’t have the budget now. But next quarter/year, definitely. ”

As a B2B marketer selling products and services worth thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in a slow economy, you will come up against this grim scenario.

Prospects who are as psyched about your solution as an Apple fanatic is over a new iDevice might not even pick your follow up calls 8 months down the line

The content marketing lie B2B marketers in “boring” niches keep falling for

By Bhaskar Sarma 5 Comments

No, it’s not the “there is no ROI from content marketing” myth.

I am going to debunk that in the first sub-heading.

I am talking about the “we don’t need to do content marketing because our customers don’t read blogs/research online” myth.

It’s 2012. Are you really going with that excuse in B2B marketing and expect to survive?

To be clear, I am not arguing for or against specific types of content. I am no blogging wingnut and if your market is more responsive to video I will be the first person to urge you to get on that bus.

In fact, I will send you off with a list of best practices and examples so that you can race to the front of the pack.

But you have to realize that you are bringing a knife to a gun fight if your competition is killing it with their blog…

Are your B2B videos unwatched? Maybe these tips from YouTube will help

By Bhaskar Sarma 3 Comments

Video is the new bright, shiny thing in B2B marketing.

Do a Google search and you will be hit with reports, blog posts and articles about the ubiquity of videos and its impact as a marketing medium.

But when you roll up your sleeves and start getting your hands dirty, you face questions that have no ready answers.

What metrics should you focus on while reviewing analytics?

Should you avoid flashy effects, or can they work sometimes?

What’s the best way to optimize the video for SEO?

Will content marketing make B2B companies money? Yup, says these 3 infographics

By Bhaskar Sarma Leave a Comment

Around these parts, I keep talking about how important content marketing is for business and sales.

And since this is not celeb gossip, I try to spice it up through crazy stories like content marketing and wars in the ME

But after a while, it kinda gets boring.

After all, how many times will you read the same words?

We all want us some eye candy, baby. Pictures tell more than a thousand words, and if the picture has words in it the level of awesomeness just increases.

In other words, hello infographics.

You might have seen a few of them before but hey, do you listen to the Beatles only once?

What content marketers can learn from the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war

By Bhaskar Sarma 4 Comments

In the summer of 2006 Israel and Hezbollah, a militia based in Lebanon and designated as a terrorist organization were engaged in an all out war.

On paper, this was no contest. Israel’s military was the most advanced in the Middle East. Hezbollah was a guerrilla army and while it might have some chances in hit and run attacks it was no match for a conventional army in a face to face fight.

Besides, Hezbollah had fought Israel a few years ago and as expected was handed out a brutal beating.

So it shocked everyone when this time around Hezbollah did not fold as expected and in many engagements even beat back Israeli troops.

When the dust settled and an UN imposed ceasefire signaled the cessation of hostilities, Israel was left with more than a bloodied nose economically and a seriously dented military reputation.

For a nation whose aims were to exterminate one of its most strident enemies, the survival of Hezbollah was widely recognized as its defeat.

Video content strategy for B2B companies- zero theory, one real world example

By Bhaskar Sarma 1 Comment

Have you seen EA Sports’ Walk on Water video? This video was a response to a user YouTube video where a bug in a golf game showed Tiger Woods walking on water, a la Jesus, to take a shot.

This is a perfect example of content marketing in action- tell a story of your product or your brand without boring your audience to death. A number of savvy B2C companies have been using these kind of off beat videos on social sharing sites to establish their unique brand identity.

However, the number of B2B companies adopting the same tactic is abysmally low. And that is sad, considering how engaged people are with video as a medium.

In the past there might have been valid reasons for this video phobia among B2B marketers.But when you have sites like YouTube where millions of people watch millions of hours of video daily you can’t afford to take video out of the equation.

« Previous Page