The search for the perfect compact vlogging camera is an ongoing quest for many content creators. Many photographers and videographers wait patiently for “the best camera for vlogging” to appear. Well, the long wait may finally be over with what is currently the world’s most compact, lightweight full-frame interchangeable lens camera: the Sony ZV-E1. 

Does this full-frame mirrorless camera give content creators everything they could wish for? Let’s dive in.

A mirrorless camera designed with content creators in mind

The Sony ZV-E1 is a lightweight, full-frame mirrorless camera that caters to the needs of content creators by combining the best aspects of Sony’s Alpha and Cinema line, offering exceptional image and video quality in a small package. Throwing out the gauntlet as the best Sony camera for vlogging and content creation and one of the best cameras for YouTube, Sony is offering the benefits of full-frame capture without the bulk. It’s a mirrorless camera for vlogging, and it knows it.

Equipped with remarkable image stabilisation, Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, and a Cinematic Vlog mode, the ZV-E1 is an invaluable asset for content creation. Essentially taken the mantle as the ultimate Sony vlog camera, the ZV-E1 is compatible with over 70 Sony E-mount lenses, enabling boundless creative opportunities that come with the larger sensor and all the extra goodies that Sony has thrown into the mix.

We’re talking 4K/60p and 4:2:2 10bit video capture, powered by the latest image processing engine, alongside AI processing for some of the best subject-recognition capabilities in the business. Or, in their own words, “expressive imagery that emphasises the subject”.

With so many incredible features, it’s clear that Sony is gunning for the mantle of the best mirrorless camera for video.

Stunning photos and smooth cinematic videos

So let’s start with that 12.1MP EXMOR R CMOS Sensor, borrowed from pricier Sony full-frame mirrorless cameras. Boasting 15+ stops of latitude, low noise, high sensitivity and exquisite full-frame bokeh, alongside dynamic image stabilisation and automatic subject framing, capturing stunning stills and videos has never been easier. 

Inside is the BIONZ XR image processing engine, offering up to eight times more processing power than previous Sony processors for increased data processing like recording 4K (QFHD: 3840 x 2160) footage at 120p in real-time.

Then there’s Sony’s dynamic-active image stabilisation system, which is so effective it could potentially make gimbals obsolete thanks to the 5-axis in-body image stabilisation, Dynamic Active Mode and Framing Stabiliser.

Paired with the camera’s rapid and precise AF system boasts 759 phase-detect AF points across the frame and enhanced subject tracking, getting perfect focus on your subject is as straightforward as tapping the screen.

Vloggers will also enjoy the ZV-E1’s Intelligent 3 Capsule Microphone, which grabs clear audio, including your main subject’s speech. 

But if you really want to take your content further, you’ve got to check out the Cinematic Vlog mode. A standout feature, in our opinion, Cinematic Vlog mode enables users to create polished cinematic content with a simple button press. This mode includes a cinematic-friendly anamorphic aspect ratio (2.39:1), S-Log and S-Cinetone, and 15+ preset camera options. With upwards of 409600 in expanded ISO mode, the ZV-E1 captures natural-looking images in various lighting conditions.

Modern connectivity for content creation

The ZV-E1’s Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity facilitate rapid and intuitive sharing and remote capabilities. The camera also features Sony’s MI hotshoe, which supports accessories like microphones and lighting equipment.

A 3-capsule microphone provides excellent in-camera audio, while microphone and headphone ports offer greater sound quality control. The ZV-E1 also includes an HDMI type D port, a USB-C port, and a high-speed UHS-II SD card slot – all in a body weighing under 500 grams with a battery and memory card installed.

Numerous accessories are available to assist vloggers during shoots, ranging from high-quality external mics to an easy-to-handle grip for smooth, one-handed operation.

The verdict: A top choice for vloggers & content creators?

The Sony ZV-E1 is a fantastic option for vloggers and content creators seeking a compact, feature-packed camera. Its compatibility with over 70 Sony E-mount lenses and various accessories makes it highly versatile for diverse content creation needs.

Based on its features and capabilities, the Sony ZV-E1 is an outstanding investment for content creators looking to elevate their work. Its powerful performance, convenient features, and compact size make this lightweight mirrorless camera a potential game-changer in the world of content creation.

While this independent review emphasises the Sony ZV-E1’s impressive offerings, potential buyers must consider their specific needs and preferences before purchasing. The most expensive camera doesn’t always mean it’s the best camera for content creation. Fortunately, the Sony ZV-E1 is a strong contender for those seeking to take their vlogging and content creation to new heights. Visit a camera store near you and get a first-hand look at the all-new Sony ZV-E1.

The team of marketing tech experts at Taguchi know first-hand how a well-executed marketing automation program can materially improve ROI. They’ve developed a platform to make the highly sophisticated feel simple, where communication, timing and content are influenced by individual consumer behaviour. 

In a collaboration with ITWire TV, Ben Dyer CTO of Taguchi highlights the powerful tools of ultra-modern marketing automation tech and how they deliver top performance. But first, it’s important to understand what marketing automation really means. 

What is Marketing Automation? 

Marketing automation is very much ‘the now’ of tech marketing. Marketing automation software helps marketers implement and manage multiple aspects of a marketing strategy with speed and efficiency by letting the software do most of the work. Dyer defines the term as automating the execution, targeting and delivery of messages to individual recipients. Through the use of software, it improves operational efficiency and increases revenue growth by targeting and engaging with customers through various channels. 

Dyer explains that it provides more powerful capabilities. It is able to create individualised messages to a specific person, separating it from a traditional marketing model.

Marketing automation bridges the gap between sales and traditional marketing. Sales people form a 1:1 relationship, creating a dialogue and getting to know the customer. In contrast, traditional marketing like TV advertising has typically been a mass single-message execution. Marketing automation sits somewhere in between, 

Think of marketing automation like creating a prototype conversation with customers, and the systems in place will enable those conversations to happen over time, at scale.

What makes Taguchi different from traditional marketing? 

The Taguchi system has been developed like the letter T, meaning that the cross on the ‘T’ resembles the wide breadth of capabilities within the platform, such as reporting, asset management and CRM. 

The stem of the ‘T’ represents the depth of the marketing automation functionality, which is able to execute personalised content en masse. 

Dyer says that the platform’s key point of difference is its ability to automate content production, which consists of targeting, segmentation and delivering the message to the right person at the right time. 

Australia’s most trusted brands use Taguchi 

Domino’s is just one Taguchi success story, with the multinational pizza chain incorporating next-generation marketing technology into its strategy. Dyer explains that Domino’s is able to tailor customer messages by generating thousands of variations of email content. This is broadcast across  its user base, with the sophisticated high-volume email program returning great success. 

The enhancement of personalised messages allows franchise owners to gain access to the best in marketing capabilities. The personalised messages are produced based on two main ideas. 

The first is individual buying behaviour.The second is based on the idea that individual franchise owners may have different variations of the products they would like to sell in the market. 

The email sent to customers may look like a generic email, but it is personalised based on those factors. Dyer says that, because of this, Domino’s has been thriving and doing well in its space. 

“You think selling pizza is not really a technical thing, but they get digital at a corporate level and they are executing very well,” he adds. 

The future is privacy 

As data breaches have severely impacted large corporations such as Medibank and Optus, Dyer explains the importance of managing privacy and data security in the field of marketing. 

Taguchi places a large emphasis on maintaining privacy and data security, stressing that trust is critically important with data sovereignty requirements. 

The future of marketing automation 

As technology evolves, Dyer explains that traditional media such as billboards, radio and TV will be complemented by digital means. 

One notable example of this shift is the replacement of traditional billboards with digital billboards. Digital billboards are able to provide a more dynamic and engaging advertising experience, allowing businesses to change their message in real time, targeting specific audiences and gathering valuable information on  audience response to the ad. 

Dyer stresses the importance of collecting data to target and track consumer behaviour. The future of marketing automation technology will lead to success for businesses. For Dyer, Taguchi’s technology advancements are pivotal to ensure continuous improvement to their marketing automation program. 

To see Taguchi in action, sign up to the weekly Marketing Mag newsletter.

When it comes to digital asset management, or ‘DAM’, there are marketing teams that have it, those that think they have it because their system can store and share images, and those that probably know their stuff isn’t up to scratch.

Put simply, DAM is software that helps companies organise their digital content and manage it across the whole content lifecycle. It allows users to store, organise, and distribute digital assets quickly and at scale from a centralised platform. 

This doesn’t mean DAM is an expensive Dropbox. Over time, it has evolved to cover a broader spectrum of content management. This includes search capabilities, tighter control over usage and sharing, and improved ability to track asset performance.

DAM has emerged in tandem with the sheer proliferation of assets that a brand will need in its inventory, as well as the growing number of channels to distribute those assets. In 2023, marketers need to be able to create engaging – and often personalised – content for segmented audiences with a moment’s notice. Automation and templating allow businesses to create more content faster, while safeguarding branding consistency and freeing creative teams from repetitive, grunt work.

And DAM continues to mature with us. Companies like Bynder offer strategic digital asset management platforms that help to conquer the chaos of content, touchpoints, and relationships. From experience, Bynder says there are five things every strategic DAM system should have in 2023. 

Don’t find yourself checking these boxes? Perhaps it’s time to “re-platform”.

1. Flexible and expandable use cases

Step one involves looking far ahead. Marketers should ask themselves: why have a DAM in the first place? What is the size and scope of their DAM deployment and how might that need to change? 

Over time, businesses will find that they’ll want to expand their DAM to other use cases outside of the original implementation. Perhaps this means bringing on teams, new brands, additional external partners or stakeholders, or even new entities inside the larger business. 

Everything about the DAM, from its permissions and taxonomy to its services and support, has to make users feel good about its potential to expand in future.

2. Personalisation and localisation at scale with templates

Templates are a super hot topic in content creation right now and will continue to be in 2023. 

With branded templates, brands can safely play with variations within their defined parameters. This can also make all content look like it was designed by the creative team (even if it was really Sam from sales!)

With a global DAM deployment and one system of record, teams can push out core assets and content to all markets, agencies, partners, and distributors. Templates allow marketers to scale up their content to make it more relevant for local markets, and it’s especially useful for campaign-specific content. 

3. Universal brand guidelines for collaborators 

Most DAM platforms will accommodate a basic brand guidelines setup. But in 2023, as platforms consolidate across the enterprise, and collaborator networks get much more complex, a more universal brand guidelines capability is required. But what does that mean?

For many large organisations, it means having all brands in their portfolio under the same guidelines deployment tied to their DAM. And any brand collaborating with the creator economy – which is many in 2023 – will need guidelines to empower individual creators to produce content on their behalf in a way that confidently reflects the brand’s identity.

4. DAM integrations

If you must have only one of the must-haves let it be this: a strategy to integrate your DAM, broader tech ecosystem, and your go-to-market approach. 

This goes for all brands. An integration strategy elevates the DAM deployment to the strategic level – ensuring the greatest return on investment (ROI). 

Remember to keep in mind: integrations are a strategy and a roadmap, not a checkbox. You need a roadmap that spells out which integrations should occur, in what order, and how exactly each integration will work. Ask yourself what the main goal of each integration is or the direction of the data flow.

The ROI of a well-executed integration strategy comes in the form of less time spent messing around with assets between platforms and more on quality collaboration. This will evolve into a strategic contributor to your business. More content will be at the ready on your customer-facing channels, enhancing the experience, and often directly contributing to more sales. 

5. Combine text and visual workflows

Finally, look for a DAM that combines text-based and visual-based content workflows. 

Many brands separate the two, which can be detrimental, with context-switching reducing employee productivity. Bynder saves time by allowing users to brief, ideate, comment, and work through text as well as visual content intuitively, in one place. 

Armed with these five must-haves, it’s a good time to hunt for a new DAM solution or evaluate the one you have. Bynder’s DAM software comparison guide can help you compare vendors and features so you can see which solution is perfect for you.

Bynder goes far beyond managing digital assets. Our digital asset management platform enables teams to conquer the chaos of proliferating content, touchpoints, and relationships in order to thrive. With powerful and intuitive solutions that embrace the way people want to work, and a richly integrated ecosystem, we are the brand ally that unifies and transforms the creation and sharing of assets, inspiring teams, delighting customers, and elevating businesses.

Read more on the latest in Technology and Data news.

In a world of information excess and low trust, the B2B buying party is becoming harder and harder to engage.

According to Seth Godin, marketing guru and author of many best-selling books, including Purple Cow, Tribes, and This Is Marketing, “The two scarce elements of our economy are trust and attention.” This message rings loud and true for those in sales and marketing tasked with trying to engage busy executives to complete forms, attend events, or simply talk on the phone.

B2B sales and marketing is inherently complex, with buying cycles that stretch for months, even years, and a multitude of decision-makers and influencers involved along the way. The stakes are high, with big dollars and reputations on the line if things go awry.

Research by Green Hat and Gartner shows that the B2B buying party typically consists of between 6 and 10 people. This complexity is exponential, given each buying party member’s different roles, requirements, and priorities. We all know and understand the importance of strategic planning and thinking. However, real-world workloads, timelines, and resources often make this difficult.

In this article, I want to explain why it is essential to think strategically about this buying party and how this importance is intrinsically linked to account-centricity and genuinely empathising with the buying party to engage them effectively. This strategic approach needs to be underpinned by sales and marketing working as one team across the entirety of the buying journey.

I want to kick things off by discussing several macro trends. While these trends are not new, their impact on sales and marketing has been exponential, given the digital acceleration that has taken place over the last two and a half years.

These trends can be summarised as follows:

1. the battle for the B2B buying party’s attention,
2. the ever-diminishing role of sales influence on customer decisions, and
3. a lack of trust and concerns about sharing personal data.

The battle for the B2B buying party’s attention

A war is raging for people’s attention, and the more influence the buying individual has, the more intense the battle. Rest assured, the members of your buying party will be the focus of many organisations, and you will need to compete for their attention.

Attention scarcity is a real thing. The concept was first derived from attention economy literature, which describes how the internet has changed how people acquire information and conduct business. Attention Scarcity refers to consumers being more selective with their attention than ever before, focusing on relevant stimuli while ignoring other stimuli from the environment.

Success in the attention economy is about maximisng the value of your audience’s attention by understanding what is important to them, when, and why. Not until you intimately understand your buyer’s world can you start planning how to engage with them.

Attention Scarcity of the B2B Buying Party. The human brain will respond to stimuli that are relevant and timely. If members of the buying party are ‘in-market’ for a particular B2B solution they will Be far more likely to engage.

The ever-diminishing role of traditional sales influence on customer decisions

Salespeople have fewer and fewer opportunities to influence customer decisions. The availability of quality information through different digital channels means potential customers can self-educate independently. This process of self-education, underpinned by a wariness to provide personal information in exchange for content out of fear of being inundated with unwanted emails or receiving a dreaded cold call, means buyers have formed strong views long before they talk to a supplier.

A confronting statistic by Gartner explains that buyers spend only 17 percent of their time with suppliers, well below the 27 percent of time spent researching independently or the 22 percent of time spent talking to the other members of the buying party. This is also a total number, so when considering time spent with each individual seller, this time allocation could be as low or lower than five percent.

A lack of trust and concerns about sharing personal data

Forrester’s 2021 Brand and Communications Survey discusses the B2B trust gap, which is the gulf between how B2B vendors rate trustworthiness and how customers rate them. This trust gap has never been wider. Forster goes on to reinforce the importance of trust and that it is the number one brand attribute for B2B Buyers.

Trust is critical for engaging the B2B buying party because of its intrinsic link to customer experience. In the Salesforce State of Marketing Insights report for 2022, the authors make a bold claim; Marketing is spelled D-A-T-A. This is for the simple fact that data is what enables a highly personalised, timely, and curated experiences. Trust is the fundamental tenant required for businesses to collect customer data, given the reluctance to share personal details and the inherent and growing conflict between personalised experiences and privacy regulations.

These three macro trends significantly impact how an organisation targets the buying party. Business is conducted in a digital-first world that has experienced many years of unexpected digital acceleration due to a two-year pandemic. A good question is how much has your organisation’s GTM changed over the past two years. The answer should be ‘significantly.’

A range of foundational elements must be covered to engage the buying party effectively. These include clarity on your ideal customer profile agreed between sales and marketing, in-depth knowledge of your buyer party personas, messaging architecture, content strategy, content map, etc. While I cannot over-emphasise the importance of these activities, they are table stakes and don’t need to be covered yet again.

A different perspective

In the context of a digital-first world, how do we think differently about engaging the buying party? I talked earlier about empathy and want to expand on this. An area that does not get enough focus is what all this means to the organisation and the people trying to make complex B2B buying decisions. The bottom line is that the process for buyers has become increasingly difficult.

Brent Adamson, distinguished VP of advisory at Gartner, sums up the above nicely “As hard as it has become to sell in today’s world, it has become that much more difficult to buy. The single biggest challenge of selling today is not selling, it is actually our customers’ struggle to buy.” A recent 2022 Harvard Business Review article provides some data behind the B2B buying party’s difficulty in making decisions. HBR’s large-scale study of more than two and a half million recorded sales conversations spanning both transactional and complex sales found that 40 percent and 60 percent of deals today are lost to customers’ inability to make a decision!

The way we think about engaging the buying party should be with the buyer front and centre. Members of the buying party do not delineate between sales, marketing or any other part of your organisation. What they are looking for is a seamless and consistent experience.

What does your organisation need to do to engage the buying party on their terms? How do you get as close as possible to the age-old marketing maxim of delivering the right message, to the right person, at the right time and in the right place?

A new way to engage the buying party

A few years ago, Gartner published what is, in my opinion, some of the most insightful research for sales and marketing in many years. The underlying narrative of this research highlights the complexity of the B2B buying process. To help buyers navigate through this complex purchase process, Gartner has identified six “Jobs” buyers must complete successfully to finalise a purchase.

Here is the Gartner research. The new B2B buyers’ journey.

This research also helped dispel any notion that the B2B buying party went through a nice clean linear path to purchase. Buyers engage in “looping,” revisiting each of those six buying jobs multiple times through the purchase process, this is more akin to a maze. This perspective highlights the importance of sales and marketing working together as one team to help customers move seamlessly from one buying job to another and back again. A team sports analogy is more appropriate than the traditional marketing-to-sales baton pass.

While the buying process is not linear, this does not mean a framework can’t be applied. Thankfully by mapping the non-linear account journey to a linear set of buying stages, we can measure progress and guide sales and marketing tactics to help complete the buying jobs. The critical thing to remember is to view engagement at an account level and understand that the account will move forwards and backward through the various stages. Your GTM and customer experience must be able to track and support the complexities of this process. Getting this right starts to negate the limited opportunities we have to influence the buying party in the digital-first world.

The function of the decision is increasingly complex, given that multiple decision-makers are required to complete multiple ’buying jobs’. These decisions then need to be validated, all while building consensus. Source: Gartner

Pulling it all together

Starting to plan your engagement with the buying party in terms of job completion can be an eye-opening experience when you begin to think about how to leverage your digital assets to guide accounts and the associated buying party through the buying process. When you map your content and activities against these buying jobs, you will get a feel for the completeness of your strategy and any potential gaps. In my role as Head of Account Based Experience at Green Hat and working through this process with different organisations, we often see gaps in high-value digital assets such as ROI calculators, benchmarks, and business case templates.

Once you have mapped your content assets against the 6 buying jobs and have carefully re-evaluated your gating strategy, think fewer forms and low friction, you are ready to start the actual targeting and engagement piece.

Mapping content to these buying jobs is a foundational element. However, remember that content consumption is the goal. Engagement tactics are needed to get the right message to the right person at the right time and in the right place.

Tech, data, and the ‘dark funnel.’

I have not spoken directly about technology and data’s role in enabling effective engagement with the B2B buying party. The long and short of it is that your ability to engage the buying party will be limited without specialised tech and data. The dark funnel is one of these limiting factors.

For those unfamiliar with the dark funnel, there’s no need to panic. This mysterious beast is not as sinister as it sounds. The dark funnel refers to all the anonymous research the buying party does to complete the required buying jobs. Think of it as an extension that sits on top of the traditional funnel but is ‘dark’ because conventional marketing tools can’t track these activities, so they are invisible or in the dark.

Using technology to illuminate the dark funnel provides visibility into which accounts and buying parties are researching what. These insights are then used to identify which accounts are actively somewhere in the purchase process for the types of products and services your organisation sells. We call these accounts ‘in-market.’

Focusing your efforts on these in-market accounts is critical in the pursuit of engaging the buying party because we now have relevance. The attention economy talks about the importance of relevance because people are more selective with their attention. In a world of information overload, we focus on relevant stimuli while ignoring all other environmental stimuli. If the buying party is in-market for your solutions, they will be much more open to your engagement tactics.

The ‘dark funnel’ – this is where most of the B2B buying party do anonymous research and form strong opinions and preferences.

That’s a wrap

B2B is complex and requires a strategic approach, and successfully engaging the buying party in a way that drives growth while simultaneously providing a great experience is no exception. Getting this right requires a systematic and disciplined approach.

As mentioned at the start of this discussion, there is an intrinsic link to strategically and collaboratively engaging the buying party and account-centric thinking. At Green Hat, we think about this account-centric process in five steps:

1. Identify the right accounts and buying party members
2. Craft your story for these accounts and buying parties
3. Engage effectively through the buying journey
4. Collaborate closely with sales to enable buyers to make decisions
5. Measure what matters and optimise

Top and tail the above with goals and objectives (top) and building your tech and data (tail); you are on your way to more effective engagement in an increasingly complex buying process for buyers and sellers.

Scott Caulfield is the Head of ABM at Green Hat, Australia’s largest B2B agency.

With Taguchi technology, Domino’s can tailor their customer messages in email and SMS for effective outcomes, and they can measure the return on investment for each message sent.

“Taguchi is an invaluable marketing tool for our business, which allows us to personalise our eDM and SMS marketing to ensure customers receive the most relevant information and deals.”

Domino’s Head of Digital for Australia and New Zealand, Stephen Wyber

The success of centralised marketing

The franchise model owes a lot to the power of centralised marketing. By joining together, franchisees have gained access to the best in marketing capability.

However, centralised marketing is too often a one-size-fits-all approach and may not always suit a particular market or location. Traditionally, localised granular-level marketing has been difficult to achieve on a meaningful scale.

The franchise model is evolving to become more effective than ever. Thanks to new technology, there’s now an enormous opportunity to adapt and tailor messages to specific customer demographics, behaviours and tastes. This is significant for franchisees who may operate in widespread geographic locations, servicing communities in a variety of languages, operating different sized stores, or requiring different price points.

The rise of Smart technology

Customers are increasingly engaging with businesses using a combination of electronic and instore interactions. Whether the engagement is via website, email, text or mobile device, the line between marketing and purchasing is blurring.

Advanced marketing automation technology combines the best elements of electronic communication, sophisticated data management and artificial intelligence to empower franchisee involvement locally while maintaining head office oversight.

Cutting edge firms such as Taguchi Marketing Pty Ltd (Taguchi®) are leading the way in developing this technology.

The Taguchi platform features powerful analytics, advanced automation and patented optimisation technology, enabling accurate targeting of customers and advanced local message customisation.

Central oversight, local flexibility

Individual franchisees can now have significant input into their group’s digital marketing campaigns.

Taguchi’s technology provides flexibility to easily tailor product offerings and messages based on specific customer demographics, behaviours and localised knowledge. Franchisees can target their communications at their local customers, while franchisors retain comfort in the knowledge their franchises are operating within the group’s strategic, marketing and compliance frameworks.

Brand management capabilities enable franchisees to access brand-approved templates and content which they can adapt to suit their local clientele, while franchisors remain assured of brand consistency, data security and compliance.

Franchisees can easily participate in the deployment of highly advanced data-driven marketing campaigns, backed by the support of Taguchi’s Australian software developers.

Thinking locally and delivering nationally

Domino’s Pizza uses Taguchi’s marketing automation platform to drive customer communications. The Domino’s national marketing team provides approval oversight, including the marketing direction and expertise, and they retain control of the strategy, branding and overarching message.

Franchisees also have access to the Taguchi system and can contribute to national communications by localising product offers and other content to suit their specific store.

“As a franchised business it’s important that our franchisees have the ability to customise the pricing and special offers for their stores. Taguchi makes this process incredibly easy through a custom-built portal,” says Wyber.

The combination of head office and local expertise ensures that Domino’s customers are provided with relevant, localised product offerings and messages that are more likely to encourage them to engage and buy.

As national retail organisations explore better ways of improving message personalisation to promote increased customer loyalty, this collaborative marketing model will continue to evolve and expand.

“We refer to it as ‘weaponising’ your local area marketing capability,” says Dean Maidment, managing director of TaguchiMarketing Pty Ltd.

“Franchisees and store managers know their customers and understand what is currently selling in their area. Empowering them with the technology to share that knowledge and easily infuse it into the national marketing initiatives provides a genuine competitive advantage.”

Staying ahead of the pack

The Taguchi and Domino’s teams work together to make the most of Taguchi’s technology advancements and ensure continual improvement to the Domino’s marketing automation program.

“There’s no question that Domino’s leads the way in this space,” says Maidment.

“They are constantly striving to stay ahead by leveraging our technology in the most efficient manner possible. It’s a dynamic process involving close collaboration between our respective experts. Testing and learning also play an important role, so the location of both companies in Australia is an advantage. It enables us to work strategically while being responsive to changing market conditions”.

“Taguchi’s real-time customer engagement data and library of pre-saved offers allow us to display personalised customer content based on interaction and purchase history, and to react quickly to market changes. This enhances Domino’s marketing capabilities and ensures we are best-in-class in this space,” Wyber says.

Power at the coalface

Customers’ expectations have changed and now they seek a more personalised experience. Automation technology and data management are becoming critical to customer relationship management and particularly suitable to the franchise model, where the best of head office marketing expertise and franchise local area knowledge can be combined to provide a powerful competitive advantage.

It allows marketing to be handed back to the shopkeeper, while retaining the economies of scale, knowledge and compliance that come from being part of a larger franchise group.

What’s looming large on the horizon? Is it a bad economic moon rising? Enquiring CMOs want to know: should I stay or should I go? Where to? Don’t know?

So don’t leave me now. Stick with the frequency. I’m Joel Thomson, the Head of Strategy at Green Hat, Australia’s largest B2B agency, and it’s time for my Top Ten Recession Hits. 

At Green Hat, we’re working with marketers here and overseas and getting some interesting insights on the strategies and tactics they’re exploring to escape too big a hit on their business and their reasons for taking their approach. 

In this article and at our upcoming speaker event we want to give Australian B2B marketers ideas to challenge the BAU of B2B marketing; that’s what Green Hats do. 

You see, recession times mean one big thing: new customer growth will slow, and customers will scrutinise every dollar they spend, so even if you have a great solution, deals will slow down, you’ll have to deal with more decision-makers, and those decision-makers will often be decision-stallers. So, doubling down on lead-generation activity isn’t the best plan, and doing nothing isn’t an option. What’s a marketer to do? One of the key strategies we recommend is short-term (12-18 month) pivots.

For example, are there any long-term initiatives whose time and investment can pivot into shorter-term revenue drivers? SEO is a great example; it’s a vital process that takes months to start moving the needle. However, Facebook, Google and Amazon paid ads may help lock down faster results and sustain the business more efficiently for the short term. And pivoting some paid media investment (meant to attract new customers) and creating an updated email marketing strategy to concentrate on (retargeting current customers). Whatever the shift, look at the data, time and budget, and consider what short-term strategies may serve to keep the engine running and where else to invest marketing dollars for the longer-term benefit of the business.

Right, let’s get into it; what to do? Our top 10 picks for B2B marketing through a recession.

At number 10: Da-ba-dee-do less.

Always a favourite, it’s quality over quantity time. At the best of times, we see marketing strategies attempting too much; a common recession reaction is to drive more activity in an attempt to maintain a position. It’s wasteful and doesn’t work. 

If the budget gets reduced, use it as a motivator to critically assess (and then reduce) the volume of activity. Executing the same volume of activity for less is another recipe for failure.

Our clients are focusing their efforts around fewer, more tightly planned and focused activities on achieving more with less. Messaging has changed to reflect ‘recession drivers’; for example, less push on ‘growth’ language and more on ‘efficiency’. Segmentation is all-important, too, as clients look to target segments likely to be less affected by the recession.

We’re seeing a greater focus on new research, refreshing customer and market insights, and account-centric programmes. 

Number 9: Get your business on.

Know what motivates the CFO? It’s time to get to know one another really well.

Marketing is an investment, not a cost, but if the business doesn’t get that, now more than ever is the time to build that understanding. Use financial terms, not marketing ones; for example, do you know what your ‘moat‘ is? The big thing differentiates and empowers the company to hold a competitive edge. What is marketing doing to re-enforce and grow that moat? Our clients say they’re pitching their revised approaches to the CEO and CFO, bringing the business along, using the language of business, getting that alignment on KPIs and protecting those budgets. Protecting budgets was a repetitive theme; internal competition between budget holders will increase with each looking to protect their own area of spending responsibility. 

Number 8: Stop, innovate and listen.

This entry was a surprise, but it makes sense, and it’s all about the product and its value. As marketers, you know your current and target customers, their needs and what the competition is doing. What insights can marketing bring to the product to affect its shape and make it more of a must-have and must-keep? And to keep the disruptors from the gates. There’s a history of disruptors moving in during a recession—AirBnB, Netflix, Lexus, Apple and Microsoft— were either born in or flourished during bad times.

Our clients are taking a seat at the product table, exploring high-customer value gaps and opportunities in their offerings across products and services; their marketing lens means they’re bringing product ideas that can market powerfully. 

Number 7: Whoooo are you?

I really want to know, when did you last review your positioning? How does your business fit in the marketplace? When did you last look at your higher-order stories, or has everything become a bit tactical? In tough times you need your customers to understand your product, service and value more than ever; they need to know how you fit. 

Our clients are auditing competitive positioning before a squeeze and exploring how to express their stories better. We see a demand for sharper, consistent, single-minded narratives. When the sector our clients live in feels too samey and crowded, we step outside it for inspiration and look to adjacent brands, not near neighbours; think, a finance brand that takes the best attributes of a fashion brand.  

Number 6: Get by with a little help from your friends.

No-brainer. For all, this is the number one safety play; look after your current customers because they’ll see you through the recession. For many companies not selling tech and office equipment, COVID turned off the growth tap and taught them to get close to their customer base and service their needs. Lessons learned over that time need to become baked-in behaviour. Our clients are building long-term retention strategies, and development within accounts is fast becoming a primary focus. This would seem like a pure CX challenge. Still, we’re seeing more campaign activity at an account level and more content development that helps customers get additional value from what they have purchased or subscribed to.

Number 5: (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding.

When we researched this story, the same words that came from every marketer’s mouth were: “We need to get back to basics!”. And what are those basics? First and foremost, customer understanding. From there, we get the insights to drive that product innovation, focus the communication strategy, create relevant content, and find those truths that lead to engaging ideas. It should probably be number one because sound customer understanding is the base for all marketing activity. Our clients tell us that as the economy tightens, their customers are naturally putting more scrutiny on spending. This is already leading to an increase in the size of the buying party, with additional stakeholder influencers coming into the mix. Our clients report the same level of scrutiny being placed today on a 100K as a 1,000,000K deal. This means they need to pick their target segments and target accounts well. We’re seeing an increased focus on our B2B customer research and strategic marketing tools, data-driven personas, and multi-persona buyer journey maps.  

Number 4: Tainted likes.

Tough love, but we can’t keep on patting ourselves on the back for vanity metrics like ‘likes’, impressions, clicks, or opens, and much-loved Last-click attribution. The challenge is that measuring marketing performance is hard work. Channel-specific metrics cause headaches, and reporting is a mess of data sources and dashboards from multiple Martech and measurement tools. Still, now more than ever, marketers need to measure marketing’s impact on the business and demonstrate their ability to drive revenue and profitability. For the past 24 months, analysing the ROI of individual campaigns and ongoing activity and visualising it through one interface has been a strategic imperative for Green Hat to give our clients a better understanding of performance as a whole. Today we’re developing dashboards for our clients for marketing measurement and analytics, using tools like cross-channel attribution and marketing mix modelling to focus spending. We’re also integrating planning, budgeting, and marketing ROI tools, including marketing measurement and optimisation for owned channels. 

Number 3: Long live the king.

And the king is still content. So, what changes in a recession content-wise? First and foremost, the concerns and drivers of the readers; many will be in survival mode and looking for subject matter that helps them in their changing business environment. But also the target, you may be creating more content to serve and keep current clients over new business activity.

From our clients, we have conflicting views; on the one hand, there’s the voice that says ‘reduce the volume’, and focus on the value, which assumes you’ve developed a rich content library and regular cadence. And there’s the other that says as deal velocity slows down and as more stakeholders join the buying party, additional scrutiny will add additional steps; this, in turn, means that you require more content to keep the buying party engaged over a longer period.

Number 2: Stayin’ Creative.

B2B goes to Cannes, and creativity is indexing high in B2B; well, it is in B2B articles talking about creativity. But there’s more talk than walk; many clients accept that emotion in B2B marketing is okay until faced with the idea that engages with emotion, humour, and anything that’s non-literal; then, run for the nearest factual statement and a big stat. Our clients ask and expect creative ideas from us; we’ve made ideas mandatory because the work becomes more engaging and effective, and we have ex-B2C agency creative guns on staff who understand B2B so they can make the creative connect. We see great ideas, big, long ideas continuing to be the silver bullet for our work, ideas born from insights, from customer truths (back to that customer, peace, love and understanding!).

And holding at Number 1: Let’s talk about brand, baby.

As the marketing budget recedes, so do thoughts of brand investment. But this is the time to take the long view; back to the point made at the start, recession-times slow down growth marketing; this is the time to direct budget and effort to brand. The long-lasting impression brand marketing makes is evidenced by the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute research on The 95-5 rule, which shows that 95% of potential buyers aren’t ready to buy today (during a recession even less). This 95% are “out-market” today, but will be “in-market” sometime in the future.

This 12-18 month recession window can be the opportunity for businesses with the vision (and grit) to invest in their brands, and prepare for the return to growth with a brand people know, understand, and will consider. 

Many of our clients have been product marketing-led with minimal attention to their brand other than visual identity. They are now establishing or revisiting their brand strategy. Our clients with established brands are planning increased brand activity for the coming 12-24 months, creating their brand messages to align with a changing marketplace.

So, that—my Listening Faithful—is that. Ten top tracks to ease you through these uncertain times. But before you touch that dial, let’s twist back to the buttery kernel in this popcorn bucket, namely—the possibilities and advantages of a recession for marketers. Sounds loony tunes, but maybe there’s more to all this madness than simply tightening the straps, hunkering down, and waiting for the storm to blow by. Maybe this is the minute for savvy marketers to prove their metal. Reframe. Reconnect. Reinvest. Reimagine. Ride the thunder, Star Children.

As always, the Hatters are here to help.

Over and out.

The death of third-party cookies is coming

Are you ready for a cookie-free future? Google certainly isn’t.

It is difficult to escape the constant noise around third-party cookies. Every advertising network is talking about it – and rightfully so as they are the ones in the firing line.

Cookies themselves aren’t dead. It would be difficult to find a website operating without them these days. They’re just small text files stored in your browser, which we will need to remember that we’re already logged into our favourite websites. And, of course, websites are still going to use first-party cookies to keep track of the articles we have been reading or the products we have looked at.

It’s only third-party cookies that are on the way out and that’s a good thing for privacy.

Was it right that Facebook could track every website its users visit, even when they weren’t logged in? Too much data is being collected and is only a small security breach (or disgruntled employee) away from hitting the public domain. Most of us wouldn’t feel great about our entire web browsing history being out there.

The difference between first-party and third-party cookies

Simply put, first-party cookies are only accessed by the website the user is visiting. Meanwhile, third party cookies can be accessed by websites other than the one the user is visiting.

First-party cookies are used to store your login details (that is, session IDs – hopefully not passwords) and site preferences, such as font sizes or colours (e.g. dark mode). But they can also track a list of the articles you have read to avoid showing them to you again, or track a list of products you have been looking at to show you similar ones next time.

Third-party cookies are predominately used by advertising networks to track users across and around the wider web. The most common use case is remarketing. This is where a display network can set a cookie and show recently viewed products across the wider web (instead of just your own website) based on products a user has looked at (or even added to their shopping cart without purchasing). Display networks will read this cookie on visits to other websites to recognise the user and then show ads based on their browsing history and behaviour across the web.

When it comes to the end of third-party cookies, Google is moving at a snail’s pace. It is now aiming to phase them out by the middle of 2024, delaying the date another year.

Safari and Firefox have already done so, but only own 19 percent and three percent of the global browser market share respectively. Google owns 66 percent.

What does it all mean in the world of B2B?

Advertising networks are rushing for alternatives, as third-party cookies are an excellent way to follow users around the web. They provide great insight into behaviour, buying intent and interests.

It’s likely we will end up with cohort-based advertising, which means some niche B2B solutions will be more difficult to target if they don’t hit minimum audience sizes.

Remarketing is also likely to suffer if only small numbers of users are coming to your website – which is more likely in B2B than B2C.

What can B2B marketers do about it?

Let the advertising networks worry about the technicalities (they have a vested interest to come up with something usable). B2B marketers should focus on getting the most from their first party data; it will become more and more important.

Did you know only 22 percent of B2B marketers say they regularly ‘test and learn’ to improve their marketing outcomes? This will need to change if they want to come up with the right formulae amid these changes.

The end of third-party cookies might do to contextual advertising what COVID did to QR codes: giving good tech another lease on life.

Contextual advertising means the display networks are analysing each webpage a user is looking at and serving ads based on what the webpage is about, without any cookies.

Advances in machine learning have improved this targeting method over the years, making it easier to target topics instead of just keywords. It’s an old concept, but hard to argue against. Showing ads based on a website’s content can make a lot of sense.

It’s also a good time to look at all your digital channels to see where there might be risks. Some channels are more likely to suffer than others and targeting will probably become broader, increasing wastage. You wouldn’t want to be caught out having all your eggs in the wrong basket when third-party cookies are finally gone!

Cookie changes are pushing all the way into Analytics

Google also had to rethink the way Google Analytics can work with all the privacy-related cookie changes coming their way. The new version of Google Analytics is ready for a cookie-free future and uses machine learning to fill the gaps.

The combination of statistical modelling and actual data signals is meant to provide a better replacement for the current, cookie-reliant version. Google will retire that version (Universal Analytics) in July 2023 and it is high time to plan ahead.

Is your team ready for Google Analytics 4? It feels different and offers a lot more than the current version, but you won’t even touch the surface without spending a good amount of hands-on time in it, ideally combined with training.

One less weapon in the fight against bots

Bots are going through every marketer’s emails, “clicking” every link to scan for security threats. Marketers might see them as bad bots, but their intentions are good.

We can all feel for IT teams who are constantly cleaning up laptops because someone clicked a link in an email to purchase yet another bulk order of iTunes gift cards or redeem their free Bitcoins. The problem is that these bots are messing with email marketing statistics more than ever.

Are your “above benchmark” email open rates real, or are they inflated due to bot activity? Could well be the latter!

This is causing significant issues for marketers who are relying on open rates for sophisticated nurture programs where one email might follow the open of another email (ideally with a delay!).

Apple is pushing this problem even further by downloading every image in emails through proxy servers, including the important tracking pixel (actually a transparent image the size of one screen pixel).

Luckily for B2B marketers, this is only the case for paying iCloud+ subscribers. This makes it less of an issue for B2B emails, but the trend is here to stay.

Marketing automation platforms previously relied on third-party cookies to filter bot from real traffic. The focus is now on finding other (better) ways to identify bots.

Writing first-party cookies on behalf of marketing automation platforms through plugins and APIs creates more work for IT teams, but it’s likely the best solution.

So, where to from here?

Worry less about open rates, and even click-through rates, and focus on actual engagement.

Are your users really engaging with the content on offer? What is their time on your landing page and how many other pages do they visit? Are they converting? Having separate landing pages for your email campaigns can make tracking a whole lot easier – and is also likely to create a less distracting experience.

Lastly, make sure your marketing automation platform has tools to measure, filter and block bot activity. Our marketing automation health check can point you in the right direction.

For B2B marketers wanting to keep abreast of the latest trends in B2B, we are launching our annual B2B Outlook research study soon with insights from B2B CMOs around the world. You can download the current version, which will let you know how to participate in the upcoming study.

Jakob Naumann is the Head of Digital Experience at Green Hat, Australia’s largest B2B agency.

If there’s one thing that all marketers know, it’s that the marketing world moves at the speed of light.

In just the last year, marketers embraced digital transformation more than ever as they adapted to constantly changing virtual and hybrid business landscapes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Then, as countries cautiously reopened, and more consumers left the house, some businesses saw slumps in the virtual engagement and online traffic they’d recently relied on. 

As a marketer at any experience level, keeping up with these changes isn’t always easy. But, to succeed in the fast-paced marketing world, it’s vital to stay ahead of them. Here are some of the top trends that HubSpot has recognised in 2022.

Influencer marketing will evolve from trend to a common marketing tactic

When we asked global marketing professionals which trends they planned to invest in for 2022, 34 percent said influencer marketing, putting it at the top of the list — above other trends like mobile web design and short-form video marketing. 

While 57 percent of marketing professionals that currently leverage influencer marketing say it’s effective, 46 percent of them plan to increase investments in 2022. Additionally,11 percent say it’s the top ROI-generating trend they’ve tested.

How and why has influencer marketing gone from an intriguing trend to a commonly-used marketing tactic? Well, influencers are often masters of the platforms they use and the field or topic they talk about. They already have an audience that is engaged, interested in their content, and influenced by the information they provide.

When marketers collaborate with influencers and industry thought leaders in their industry, they can expand brand awareness and gain fans from the influencer’s own audience. 

Can’t afford to hire a celebrity influencer with millions of followers? That’s okay. In fact, more than 56 percent of marketers who invest in influencer marketing work with micro-influencers.

Micro-influencers are social media promoters with a smaller following (typically, thousands to tens of thousands of followers). Although they have fewer followers, their posts often pack more punch due to their higher level of engagement.

These influencers have found a niche in their industry, too — which is why they’ve started to play a bigger role in converting leads, connecting with audiences, and boosting brand awareness.

Because micro-influencers are still considered “everyday” people (unlike hard-to-reach celebrities), their audiences are actually more likely to trust their opinions and recommendations.

For example, Rosie, who’s known as The Londoner, is a popular travel and lifestyle influencer with over 330,000 loyal followers who interact and engage with her posts. Her success is also aligned with her engagement rate. Her posts get around 11 percent engagement, a huge increase on the market average. 

Although it’s tempting to only look at just follower count when determining if an influencer is right for your brand, remember that true influence lives in engagement rates (clicks, subscribers, and purchases).

Video marketers will keep content short

In our survey, we learned that short-form content is the second most effective trend marketers are currently leveraging. 

More than 31 percent of global marketers currently invest in short-form video content, 46 percent of them consider the strategy effective when it comes to performance and engagement. And, in 2022, 89 percent of global marketers plan to continue investing in it or increase their investment. 

While long-form videos can offer depth and large amounts of information about a product, brand, or services to audiences, both B2C and B2B marketers have learned that getting to the point with short-form videos can actually be much more effective. 

Not only does it take less bandwidth to create a short-form video, but this type of format aligns well with the fast-paced attention spans of online audiences in a variety of demographics. This is likely why platforms like TikTok, Reels, and — in previous years — Snapchat have gained quick growth and marketing interest. 

Still not convinced that short-form videos can be effective in your marketing strategy? Check out this great example of a TikTok video from Canva that informs viewers of just how easy it is to make professional-looking graphics with the website. 

More consumers will hear branded audio content

In the summer of 2021, marketers were perplexed by Clubhouse – an invitation-only audio chatroom app that quickly gained millions of users without publishing any visual content. And, as Clubhouse took our field by storm, platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook unsurprisingly rushed to start investing in, testing, and/or launching similar features. 

Meanwhile, throughout the year, a number of big brands, like HubSpot, expanded podcast content and networks to meet even more listeners. 

Now, as audio content becomes much more common in the online world, marketers might be wondering if this format could benefit their brand. 

According to our research, 53 percent of professionals whose companies leverage content marketing find “podcasts or other types of audio content” effective when it comes to engagement and brand awareness. However, only one percent of marketers that leverage audio content say it yields ROI. Still, 80 percent plan to invest the same amount or more budget into audio content and podcasts in 2022. 

When it came to investments in audio chatrooms, like Clubhouse or Twitter Spaces, we saw a similar theme. Although only 16 percent of marketers say they’ve invested in this trend, 34 percent of those marketers find it effective. While, again, around one percent of marketers that use audio chatrooms say it yields ROI, 84 percent of them plan to continue investing the same amount or more in 2022. 

Although audio platforms might not have great monetizing features or conversion paths, this data hints that they still provide the engagement and brand awareness companies need to see from them for a continued investment. 

Consumers will step into virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences

In 2021, 35 percent of marketers were leveraging AR or VR in their strategies. Of those marketers, 42 percent plan to increase investment in 2022.

And, of the marketers who didn’t leverage AR or VR in 2021, nine percent will experiment with it for the first time in 2022. 

Virtual reality is viewing a computer-generated, lifelike scenario. Augmented reality is viewing the real world augmented with visual, haptic, olfactory or visual additions. VR and AR offer different experiences, but both are making waves in the marketing world today.

This is affecting your lives, too. Ever watched a 360° video on Facebook? That’s VR. What about IKEA’s IKEA PLACE app which helps you visualise virtual furniture in your very real room? That’s AR.

VR and AR are used to supplement and improve customer experiences online and at events. Generally speaking, this is a trend marketers have been slower to adopt due to pricey equipment and bulky headsets. But, as VR glasses and AR apps become more accessible, businesses can expect to add this technology to the marketing strategy.

Want to know more? Download HubSpot’s trend report here.

I’ve been reading some recent commentary comparing B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) marketing – the similarities, the differences and the size of the gap in between. It is good to discuss. The complexity of the B2B segment is growing, so now is the time to deep dive on its marketing.

It’s good to discuss as awareness and complexity of the B2B segment grows. 

This article focuses on important gaps that require different thinking and strategy for B2B. It goes beyond ‘stating the obvious’ such as different market sizes and the fact that all buyers are humans. 

If you’re a CMO, CRO or CEO of a B2B business, read on to understand what skills and experience you need in a high-performance B2B marketing team that is not found in your traditional B2C team.

Fuelling this debate is as important now as ever. B2B has become its own specialisation in marketing. CMOs are under more pressure to have a measurable impact on growth, and in order to rise to the top, they need a deep understanding of the business buying process and strong alliance with the sales organisation.  

The five pillars of B2B and B2C marketing differentiation

The hybrid firms doing both B2B and B2C are the best placed to see the need for specialisation. They do not ask their B2B team to run B2C and visa-versa. 

Here’s five key factors driving this evolution.

Difference #1: the buying journey

Firstly, the average duration of the buying B2B process is long. We often quote it being three months to three years. B2C is typically a much shorter transactional process – from the daily spontaneity of FMCG to the more considered multiple-month purchase cycle in the auto sector. The B2B buyer rarely follows the breadcrumbs we may lay on the path to purchase. They usually start by researching online to find solutions to their business problem which requires the savvy marketer to have placed relevant content in the right places.

We know there are certain phases B2Bers pass through:

• Awareness – growing their understanding of the problem, the macro and industry trends, the benefits of solving the problem, how others has addressed the task.
• Consideration – unpacking the solution options which will include outsourcing, insourcing, hybrid models or even ‘doing nothing’. During this stage they will formulate a view around a preference and build out their business case.
• Decision – engaging the preferred vendor/s (if they have not already), delving into the details, refining the business case, getting references, negotiating the deal.

We do not rely on the buyer going through the stages, content and channels in a sequential process. It’s more a simultaneous backward-and-forward motion that might look like
a bowl of spaghetti.

Way back in 2012, Lori Wizdo from Forrester changed what the process and channels looked like.

The fact that the B2B journey is more complex than B2C is not new. Marketers need to run a 24×7 always-on program that provides insights and content that the buyer can self-serve at their convenience – not when the seller wants or expects that consumption to happen. And, by the way, the buyer will decide what channel and device that will be on, which also is variable. 

Difference #2: the buying party

What is the buying party? It is a group of decision makers, recommenders, influences and users who are involved in the decision to buy – as well as external advisors and influencers.

In B2C, the ‘buying party’ is generally one. The consumer decides what shoes, mobile phone, book or, for that matter, brand of spaghetti they will buy – solo. 

In a business, the buying party can vary from as little as three or as much as 30, if not more. The size is often a function of the investment – the bigger the investment, the more people involved. Our research (‘Dark Funnel’ online seminar survey March 2022) found that more than half of B2B marketers have between six to ten people in the buying party. 

Gartner quotes the same six to ten people on average in the buying party and that each of these people are armed with several information assets.

Gartner also refers to six core B2B buying jobs that align to the three stages mentioned above. As marketers, we need to consider which buying party members are involved in which jobs and what information they need at that stage. For example, we don’t want to serve up technical information to a CFO, nor want to send macro market insights to a buying party at the decision stage. 

B2C marketers have to address the buying journey of one consumer, usually with a focus on brand awareness with a single proposition followed by buy-now sales activation offers. B2B marketers have to address taking many buyers on a mid-long term journey with multiple personalised messages and content for many stages (jobs). They have to keep the virtual engagement alive and their brand front-of-mind for months/years until the buyer is ready to engage with the selling organisation.

Difference #3: the investment 

The next significant B2B/B2C difference is the investment involved. It’s true that there can be high investment scenarios in B2C such as house/property, education and luxury vehicles. These are ‘considered purchases’ that can mirror the B2B journey in terms of time but not complexity of decision making. 

B2B buying complexity grows in correlation to investment value which we see broadly across the $10,000 to $1,000,000 range. For larger investments, we generally stop talking about products and services and start talking about the marketing of ‘solutions’ to business problems which need a different mindset to B2C messaging.

As with B2C, B2B is interested in the customer lifetime value. However calculating this is more complex in B2B. 

B2Bers don’t have access to the vast lakes of data B2Cers have and hence have more difficulty in determining the likelihood of the next B2B purchase which in turn impacts calculation of CLV. And we want to understand CLV (or Annual Recurring Revenue for services related deals) so as to appropriate marketing spend. We of course want to invest more budget and effort in areas where we will get more return.

Difference #4: sales and marketing alignment

Herein lies the perennial opportunity space in B2B – ALIGNMENT. I don’t want to call it a problem as I prefer to take a positive stance. It’s a growth opportunity. 

B2B marketers generally do not collaborate well with the sales counterparts. Only 52 percent have a strategic relationship according to the Green Hat/BBN/AMI B2B Outlook Research report. In fact I think that is overstated when one unpacks the tactical activity.

Alignment of what I hear you asking?

• shared Goals – without sharing goals, silos can form;
• language – same definitions for Ideal Customer Profile, Target Account List, Marketing Qualified Account/Lead;
• process – sales and marketing working together on lead management through the stages versus throwing Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) over the fence to sales and hoping to convert Sales Qualified Leads (opportunities);
• systems – integrated CRM to marketing automation/website platforms for streamlined data flow; and
• customer/market insights – the collaboration ‘war’ room to share insights to drive targeting, messaging, content.

A B2C marketer would need to have a significant mind-shift to be able to fill the B2B sales and marketing alignment void – a challenge most B2B marketers still have not solved!

And let’s remember that B2B firms are primarily sales’ led, not marketing-led like B2C firms (with some exceptions like auto/property). The B2B sales leader has the louder voice and influence with the CEO/CFO which means the B2B CMO needs to be on top of this alignment opportunity and lead the firm through to the promised land. 

The take-away: alignment is a tough ask for a B2C marketer with a limited understanding of the needs of B2B Sales and how to align marketing to meet those.

This is all without even touching on alignment for Account-Based Marketing (ABM) – an account-centric approach to B2B that is the strategy-du-jour and fast becoming the way B2B work will be done in the future. If you want to understand more about ABM, check out the BBN podcast here.

Difference #5: rational versus emotional connection

Finally there is ‘connection’ or, more often in B2B, what marketers call ‘engagement’. 

B2B decisions are more weighted to rational analysis than emotional connection. We know the buyers are ‘humans’ (please don’t tell me again) and so the buyer feels emotion with everything they do. 

In B2B, the message, creative and content needs to address business problems and challenges. The deeper insight the marketer has of the ‘rational factors’, the better chance of making a sustainable connection with the buying party of the business. 

Examples of these rational factors in B2B are ROI, functional fit, differentiation and proof of performance. They often lead to a binary response. It does or it doesn’t. Does this solution meet our internal investment benchmark? Does it have feature X or function Y? Can they provide evidence that validates their claim?

Don’t get me wrong here. B2Bers do want to find ways to emotionally connect and can see the value in doing so. The buyer’s personal value is a key territory for messaging. The B2B buyer thinks and feels the following:

• Is this brand I am intending to propose known? And if so, is it respected by the people internally and advisors that matter? 
• Do I trust the seller (their people and their capability) to deliver? 
• How will this decision impact my reputation in the firm?
• How will it impact my future promotional opportunities (and remuneration)?
• Can I work with this seller – especially relevant in long-term solution selling? Is the chemistry right as this seller relationship could be for the long haul?

Whereas the B2C marketer will spend more time thinking about how they can get the consumer to love their brand, the B2B marketer today spends more time making rational connections, with consideration here to the length of the buying cycle and size of investment covered earlier. Rightly or wrongly.

The times they are a’changing 

“Come gather round people wherever you roam, And admit that the waters around you have grown,” Bob Dylan.

Cannes Lions acknowledge the times are a’changing – it has now launched the Creative B2B Lion and an evolved Creative Commerce Lion to recognise great B2B work. 

We recognise that ‘Marketing is still Marketing’. The 4 Ps (or however many Ps in your pod!) remain the same in theory. Both marketing genres come from the same school of marketing and thankfully are learning from each other. For example, B2B is learning about the art of emotional connection with the buyer and B2C is learning about direct-to-consumer journey mapping and longer term engagement for considered purchases.

But there is no doubt the times a’changing for B2B marketers, Performance expectations continue to rise. The B2B CEO wants more measurable impact from his marketing team. Today, most aspects of marketing contribution are trackable with data-driven martech and advances in AI and machine learning. Further, the buyer has changed the way they buy and thus become invisible for much of their long journey.

As you can read in Green Hat’s annual B2B Outlook Research Report, best-in-class B2B marketers are honing their skills to better understand the spaghetti B2B journey, the buying party and personas, account targeting and sales alignment – all specialist skills unique to the B2B universe.

Andrew Haussegger is co-founder and CEO of Green Hat, born in 2001 and grown up to be Australia’s largest B2B agency.

With growth in Regional Australia out-pacing metro for the first time in four decades, it’s time for marketers to take a closer look at this under-addressed audience. 

Home to over 9.1 million Australians (or 36 percent of the population), it’s no secret regional Australia has undergone a dramatic transformation. The recent Census showed Victoria’s second largest city, Geelong, has grown 15 percent over the last five years. Newcastle, in NSW, grew 8 percent over the same period. So, you’d be foolish not to recognise that many regions across the country formally dismissed by marketers as unprofitable, unpalatable and hard-to-reach are instead transforming into vibrant, connected, and innovative hubs. It’s the perfect audience for ambitious brands looking for growth and high-performance ROI.

The data backs it up. ‘Mood Monitor’ is published by Boomtown. The report tracks the similarities and differences between metro and regional Australians. The most recent report shows regional Aussies are more ‘content’, ‘excited’ and ‘grateful’ to be living where they are than their metro counterparts. Two-thirds are also planning to travel in the next six months. What’s more, according to a study by Melbourne University titled ‘The Great Migration’. This tracked the sentiments behind residents who moved regionally during the pandemic. It showed that 79 percent of people who left the cities are “extremely satisfied” with the move. 

Metro versus regional

Of course, life isn’t always perfect. Like their metro counterparts, regional Australians are increasingly concerned about the rising cost of living. The residents are sticking to the budget and the price of fuel forcing many to think carefully about their purchase decisions. They’re re-evaluating some of the bigger-ticket items in their lives. These include vehicles, insurance, household appliances. In fact, according to Nielsen data, regional residents significantly over-index when compared with their metro counterparts. This can be deciding whether to buy or upgrade some of the bigger household items in their lives over the next 12 months. These include dishwashers, washing machines, ovens and stoves, and heaters.

What does it mean for marketers?

In a nutshell, it’s never been more important to stay front-of-mind in regional Australia. For value-driven brands or those looking to reward consumer loyalty, there’s never been a better time to get your message out there. After all, in every economic environment there’s winners and losers, and regional audiences are up for grabs.

Don’t know where to start?

Boomtown’s got you covered. A media collective founded by eight of Australia’s largest media owners, Boomtown offers marketers all the resources they need to find and research regional media and audiences, making sure you know exactly what the market you’re targeting is all about.

Introducing Boomtown City Spotlights: Shining a light on Australia’s key regional cities.

By the ABS definition of a ‘major urban area’, 14 of Australia’s 19 cities are in Boomtown. It’s an audience brands can’t afford to leave off its media buy.

Launching this month, the Boomtown City Spotlight series shines a light on these diverse, vibrant and growing regions in a series of reports designed specifically for marketers, advertisers and media-types.

Covering the economic overview, community demographics, major events and cultural attributes, these reports will get you ‘thinking like a local’ about regional Australia, likely busting a few myths and misconceptions along the way.

Did you know Toowoomba residents have on average $8,000 more in disposable income to spend per year compared with those living in Brisbane? While in Wollongong, the number of Single Income No Kids (SINKs) and Double Income No Kids (DINKs) households are on the rise due to the software and digital content creation boom being experienced in the city. In Newcastle, NSW, the average age of residents is just 41, while in Geelong, Victoria, there are more construction businesses than any other industry.

The message is clear. If you’re an ambitious brand leader looking to drive ROI and growth, it’s time to get to know Boomtown better.

Check out the reports here. 

Boomtown Masterclasses: Your 90 minute guide to ‘rethinking regional’

Launched in 2020, the Boomtown Masterclasses are an Australian-first designed to educate marketers, advertisers and brand leaders about the booming potential in regional Australia via energetic, interactive, 90 minute sessions.

Hosted online, these classes provide both a regional overview (including geographic, demographic and audience profiles deliver focused insights and industry tips, demographics and audience profiles, channels and effectiveness, and the future for regional, and a live panel discussion delivered by regional industry experts.

If you’re looking to brush up on regional Australia, don’t miss our next Boomtown Masterclass.

Find out more.

Need more? Boomtown’s got you covered.

Finding, searching and briefing regional media used to be tricky. With fragmented media owners and a lack of local understanding, it was traditionally difficult for metro-based marketers to know whether their message would be landing on the right channel (or billboard).

The Boomtown Hub has changed all that. Free for all users, the Hub offers brand leaders a one-stop-shop to finding regional media, with a direct line to brief media owners via the platform.

Sign up to a Boomtown Masterclass.