5 Ways the Pandemic Has Forever Changed the Voices & Visions of B2B Marketing
How has B2B marketing changed forever during the pandemic?
The voices and visions of B2B marketing have been forced to shift over the past few years, as have many of the goals and methods we strive for and use to connect with our current and potential customers.
Some of these changes are subtle while others are decidedly not, yet each brings with it both new opportunities for embracing the future of B2B marketing along with risks for those who don’t heed the call when the winds of digital change shift.
Let’s take a look at five of the most substantial changes in B2B marketing that the pandemic has driven, and explore new insights that can inform and inspire your efforts in the push towards 2022 and beyond.
1 — Remote Yet Closer B2B Relationships
The remote Zoom, Slack, phone and email communication we’ve all had to embrace over the course of the pandemic have surprisingly brought closer B2B relationships in many cases.
How being physically distanced from each other has actually brought us together in new and fascinating ways is a phenomenon that will likely be studied for years to come, yet successful B2B marketers have already embraced this shift and are doing everything they can to nurture our new world of remote business relationships in creative digital fashion.
The heart of online communication are the people at either end of the conversation. The particular tools they use come and go like the shifting seasons, and in my 37 years of online digital communication this fact has become more pronounced.
The way our communication tools today are generally able to work together seamlessly is a far cry from the days when I operated a 300-baud computer bulletin board system and each person had to take turns phoning in with their modem. Two formats carried over, however — email and chat — and both are still successfully used today by countless B2B marketers.
Relationships between brands and influential subject matter experts have also taken on new qualities since the pandemic began.
For Ann Handley, chief content officer at MarketingProfs, a new variety of these opportunities has been arising.
“I think in B2B what we’re seeing, and this has been fueled by the pandemic, is that we are seeing those relationships start to happen between brands and influencers like me where they’re reaching out to me proactively and saying, ‘Hey, we don’t have a thing right now, but we want to work with you. Can we sort of get to know each other?’” Ann recently told our chief executive and co-founder Lee Odden in “Inside B2B Influence 14: Ann Handley of MarketingProfs on Content Marketing and Influence.”
[bctt tweet=”“Integrating influencer content is a direct line to building trust and customer confidence.” — Ann Handley @annhandley” username=”toprank”]2 — A Digital Communications Deluge
Advertisers, consumers, brands and pretty much everyone in between have all had to vastly increase their use of digital communication during these challenging recent years, which has led to more competition than ever to be heard.
For advertisers, the pandemic propelled digital advertising past the 50 percent mark, and the margin between digital and all other formats is now only increasing.
Even among B2B marketers, in the U.S. advertising spending is expected to top $30 billion by 2023, with almost half of that going to digital advertising (eMarketer.)
Just because we have great tools for communicating, however, doesn’t mean we’re using them to full effect in our marketing efforts.
The combined art and science of effective B2B marketing communication is a subject we’ve explored in the following articles:
- 10 Marketing and Communications Leaders to Inspire You in 2021
- Remote Communication Opportunities For B2B Marketers
- The Universal Translator: How Marketers Can Improve Communication with Internal Stakeholders
3 — Heightened Customer Journey Expectations
The touch-points that B2B customers now look for along their purchasing journey in the coronavirus era run from well before the starting line to long past the finish line of sales.
Before the pandemic, B2B buyers had long-standing way-points for predictable interactions with brands.
Now, businesses that rely only on those traditional touch-points for customer interaction risk not being there for their potential customers in the new places buyers expect to find brands — whether it’s a new batch of social media platforms such at Clubhouse, human or chatbot live chat, or text messaging.
The more we can learn about our customers and the digital journeys they set out on today, the better we can get front and center at those key points where we want to provide the best-answer solutions our audience is searching for.
It’s rarely possible to truly be there at every possible spot in today’s vast and circuitous digital routes, even with substantial resources, so it’s important to pick the right locations for meeting your customer on their journey, and to make each one count.
One approach to tackling this complex issue is through the use of account based marketing (ABM), or better yet, account based experiences (ABX), as Lee recently explored in “Is ABX the Next Evolution of B2B Marketing?”
[bctt tweet=”“In many ways, Account Based Experience (ABX) is the next generation of Account Based Marketing. ABX is a fundamental customer centric rethinking of an account based go-to-market.” — Jon Miller @JonMiller” username=”toprank”]4 — The Natural Shift to Influence
One big winner the pandemic has surfaced for brands, marketers, and customers alike is the enduring power of influence.
It’s no wonder that U.S. influencer spending is set to surpass $3 billion in 2021, an increase of over 33 percent (eMarketer), and that paid branded content and influencer marketing have accounted for 20 percent of 2021 digital advertising budgets, while influence marketing has been seen as the second most important digital ad option for 2021, according to recently-released Advertiser Perceptions survey data.
These past two years are likely to go down as the turning point when influencer marketing truly showed its potential in the world of B2B industries.
We’ve examined this important shift to B2B influencer marketing recently in the following articles:
- Top 5 Benefits of Influencer Marketing for B2B Brands
- Mindful Marketing: 5 Uncommon Ways To Work With B2B Influencers
- 5 Examples of B2B Brands Rocking With Influence in 2021
- 9 Questions to Ask When Hiring a B2B Influencer Marketing Agency
5 — Hybrid Work Hotbeds Go Mainstream
I’ve worked remotely for the past 5,241 days — since March 23, 2007 — and one genie-from-the-bottle change the past two pandemic years has brought is the immense increase in the number of people working remotely around the world.
B2B brands that facilitate remote communication have undoubtedly thrived the past two years, with Zoom and clients such as Slack and monday.com upping their game to make hybrid and remote work a much more friction-free and less frustrating experience.
Digital video too has exploded since the pandemic began, a trend that newly-released forecast data clearly shows, with online video and eCommerce advertising expected to add $40 billion — some 11.2 percent — to advertising spending worldwide, an increase of more than six percent from its peak before the global health crisis.
Professional talent in all areas surrounding the great circle of B2B activity is now more global than ever, and successful firms are strengthening their teams by adding great and diverse voices from the four corners of the digital world.
[bctt tweet=”“The more diverse your workforce is, the better your ideas, innovation, and problem solving are, because you don’t have a bunch of heads that look like one another nodding in agreement, which doesn’t get us anywhere.” — @TamaraMcCleary” username=”toprank”]Crank Up & Amplify Your B2B Marketing Voice & Vision
Being mindful of these changes can help make the journey to 2022 and beyond a more successful one, as we move forward towards a future shaped not only by the pandemic but also by the many powerful changes and improvements B2B marketers have crafted.
By cranking up and embracing new closer B2B relationships and the digital realm where they largely reside, savvy marketers will meet those heightened customer journey expectations.
Utilizing the multifaceted power of influence will propel tomorrow’s most successful marketers and B2B brands, all in a new work landscape that will henceforth be far more hybrid and remote.
Crafting award-winning digital experiences and storytelling featuring each of these elements takes significant time, resources, and effort, which is why many of the world’s top B2B brands choose to partner with a leading B2B marketing agency. Contact us today and learn why for more than 20 years brands from LinkedIn and 3M to Dell and Adobe have chosen to work with TopRank Marketing.
The post 5 Ways the Pandemic Has Forever Changed the Voices & Visions of B2B Marketing appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog – TopRank®.
Italy’s capital of culture: Parma
The cultural scope of the beautiful Italian Peninsula never ceases to amaze people all over the world. But the possibility of getting to know the traditions and peculiarities of many Italian gems has been drastically reduced since the pandemic hit. Among such treasures is Parma, a delicate city set in the very heart of Italy. Beyond being the capital of iconic food such as Parmigiano and Prosciutto, Parma is a city of incredible cultural heritage that gained the prestigious title of “Italian Capital of Culture for the year 2020” but had to put a year-long calendar of events on hold due to the pandemic.
Eighteen months later, the city is ready to celebrate its cultural heritage with the world on Google Arts & Culture. The collaboration between the Municipality of Parma and Google brought online the work of 33 institutional partners in the Parma area, including over 17,000 images from the archives of the municipal museums, 30 places digitized with Street View and much more. It’s a project of true cultural valorization that highlights the magic behind this city.
Travel to Italy from home and check out some of Parma’s wonders. Explore the masterpieces, enjoy the sound of music and get a taste of that Italian cuisine:
-
Deep into a towering dome: Step inside and see the details of a 27-meters-high dome like you’ve never seen before and learn about the artist Correggio’s devotion to the Benedectine congregation.
-
Get your artists in place: Thanks to the Google Art Camera, the online experience faithfully reproduces over 200 masterpieces by international artists such as Picasso, Francis Bacon, Goya, Monet and Tiziano Vecellio but also by Italian artists including Ligabue, De Chirico, Boccioni, Filippo Lippi and Parmigianino.
-
300,000 bamboo plants: Did you know Parma holds the largest existing labyrinth in the world? Labirinto della Masone was created by the visionary mind of Franco Maria Ricci. It is composed of 300,000 bamboo plants and is considered a magical place, all waiting to be discovered!
-
Music to your ears: The land of renowned musicians Verdi and Toscanini, Parma is a favorite destination for opera lovers, who can now immerse themselves in a collection of 10,000 stage photographs, sketches and posters from the newly digitized Casa della Musica(literally “House of Music) archives. Several museums are now online, with the goal of bringing the history of sound reproduction to all ears.
-
No stereotypes when it comes to food: Known worldwide for Parmigiano Reggiano, the digital hub also features the Parmigiano Reggiano Museum to discover all about the history of one of the world’s most loved cheeses.
-
Did you say Pasta?: “Pasta” is synonymous with Italy so of course the online hub also includes the famous Pasta Museum to virtually transport you from the wheat fields to the traditional Italian household to make pasta. Check it out to truly understand the role that this type of food has played and continues to play in gastronomy, art, culture and in the lives of people around the world.
The journey into the beauty of Parma doesn’t end here. Continue to discover the wonders of the Capital of Culture 2020 and 2021and let yourself be amazed by the art, music and culture of the city.
Want to continue traveling to Italy from home? Look behind the curtain of one of the world’s greatest and oldest theaters, La Scala Theater in Milan or take a virtual tour of some of Italy’s most iconic sites through the “Wonders of Italy” experience.
This and so much more, on Google Arts & Culture and on the Google Arts & Culture app foriOS and Android
LA CRYPTO ARTE SUPPORTA LA SARDEGNA
Per la prima raccolta fondi in NFT prestigiosi artisti contemporanei italiani e internazionali hanno donato una propria opera per mostrare vicinanza all’isola colpita dai roghi. GLI NFT saranno venduti sulla…
L’articolo LA CRYPTO ARTE SUPPORTA LA SARDEGNA scritto da Michele Ficara Manganelli ✿ proviene da Assodigitale.
Anche Instagram si adegua e allunga la durata dei Reels
Samsung presenta Odyssey Neo G9, nuovo monitor curvo
Parma Capitale italiana della Cultura: un viaggio tra le eccellenze del patrimonio su Google Arts & Culture
Parma è stata nominata Capitale italiana della Cultura per il 2020 e 2021 ma con l’arrivo della pandemia, la città ha dovuto mettere in pausa un calendario di eventi lungo un anno. Diciotto mesi dopo, Parma è pronta ad aprire le sue porte al mondo grazie al digitale, con cui supera i confini geografici per celebrare il proprio patrimonio. È per questo che il Comune di Parma ha collaborato con Google Arts & Culture. Insieme, è stato portato online il lavoro di 33 partner istituzionali del territorio di Parma e Provincia comprendendo oltre 17.000 immagini provenienti dalle collezioni dei musei e dagli archivi comunali del territorio, 30 luoghi digitalizzati con Street View e molto altro ancora. Un progetto di vera valorizzazione culturale che mette in luce la magia di questa città portandola nelle case di tutti.
L’arte nascosta nelle vie di Parma
Grazie allo strumento Art Camera, l’esperienza di Google Arts & Culture riporta fedelmente oltre 200 opere di artisti internazionali come Picasso, Francis Bacon, Goya, Monet e Tiziano Vecellio ma anche di artisti italiani tra cui Ligabue, De Chirico, Boccioni, Filippo Lippi e Parmigianino.
Tra la selezione di progetti artistici, è presente anche il curioso Labirinto della Masone, il più grande labirinto esistente al mondo e creato dal sogno della mente visionaria di Franco Maria Ricci. Il Labirinto Masone è composto da 300.000 bamboo e viene ritenuto un luogo magico, tutto da scoprire!
La meta per gli amanti della musica
Le meraviglie enogastronomiche
Helping digital news outlets serve local communities
Journalism has always been about bringing communities together, and delivering information that is valuable to them. But traditionally, the most influential outlets have focused on serving the majority, often inadvertently leaving people behind. The result is entire communities who are unable to find quality journalism which reflects their lives and values.
Today, it’s possible for digital publishers to reach local and niche audiences online with journalism readers care about and can see themselves in. Despite this, we know that achieving financial sustainability as a digital news business is often a major challenge.
That’s why we at Media Lab Bayern are partnering with the Google News Initiative and the European Journalism Centre to launch the GNI Startups Lab Europe – an intensive six-month accelerator program designed to help a group of up to 12 early-stage digital news organisations find solid financial footing.
The program has been designed specifically for news startups producing original content, drawing on our team’s collective expertise. This will be the GNI’s fourth Startups Lab, following runs in Brazil, North American and Hispanoamérica. The European Journalism Centre brings their deep domain knowledge and vast network from across the continent. We at Media Lab Bayern will leverage our experience as a media innovation hub for more than 200 European media startups over the past six years. During this time, we have learned how startups can build a sustainable business, with the three most important things to get right being building something your users need, getting the word out and finding a viable business model.
That’s why we have structured the program into three phases:
-
In the first two months we’ll work with the participating teams on their product and team. Which audience do they serve? Which problems do they solve for them? And do they have the resources inside their team to build an amazing product?
-
In the middle months, we provide inspiration on how to grow an audience. Do they have the right marketing strategy? How big is the addressable market?
-
And finally, for the final two months of the program we will help them develop a sustainable business model — something which no company can survive without. How many income streams do they have and what might be unconventional ways to monetize their content? Experimentation will be a key element of this phase, as there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
The GNI Startups Lab Europe will start this November. You can learn more and apply here; applications are open until September 20, 2021. If you are an early-stage digital news publisher who is passionate about reaching an underserved community then we want to hear from you.
Together we can build a sustainable future for digital news, so every European who searches for a community can find exactly what they are looking for.
Our quantum processor at the Deutsches Museum
In 2019, our Quantum AI team achieved a beyond-classical computation by outperforming the world’s fastest classical computer. Today, a quantum processor from the Sycamore generation that accomplished this important computing milestone will be donated to the Deutsches Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology in Munich, Germany.
The Deutsches Museum has one of the largest collections of science and technology artifacts in the world. This means that the Sycamore will share the same exhibition space as some of the world’s most important technological achievements: like the roundest object in the world – a silicon sphere that gives the kilogram a new definition; the Z3, one of the earliest computers; the Wright Flyer, considered the first serial motor plane; and automotive history from the first diesel engine to the Waymo Firefly. The museum has a long history of preserving artifacts that mark the start of new eras in science and technology, which is why we’re honored to have the Sycamore processor among these exhibits. The beyond-classical experiment ushered in a new era for exploring near-term quantum algorithms that could have tangible benefits to society, for example—design more efficient batteries, create fertilizer using less energy, and figure out what molecules might make effective medicines.
Handover of the Sycamore processor in front of Zuse‘s Z3 computer. Luise Allendorf-Hoefer, Curator electronics, Deutsches Museum, Wolfgang M. Heckl, Director General, Deutsches Museum, Markus Hoffmann, Google Quantum AI Partnerships and Hartmut Neven, Director, Google Quantum AI.
This also marks an important milestone in the collaboration between Google Research and Germany’s burgeoning quantum community. Since Google has a research presence in Munich and Berlin, it has given us the opportunity to partner with several German organisations to explore the future of quantum computing. For example, the Sycamore processor has already been used by some of our industrial research partners, like Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz, and will be the foundation for experiments designed with Boehringer Ingelheim, Covestro and BASF.
If you can’t travel to Munich to visit the Deutsches Museum in person, don’t forget that you can take a virtual trip through Google Arts & Culture.
Samsung, i nuovi pieghevoli sostituiranno i Galaxy Note 21?
50 anni fa, la prima missione lunare con auto elettrica: Apollo 15
Esattamente cinquant’anni fa al momento in cui scrivo queste righe, tre uomini erano in viaggio verso la Luna per una delle missioni spaziali più spettacolari di sempre. Con la missione Apollo 15, la NASA non solo ambiva a far arrivare due dei tre astronauti sulla Luna, in diretta TV mondiale, come nelle missioni precedenti: voleva anche farli viaggiare sulla superficie lunare usando un’automobile. Mentre Al Worden restò in orbita lunare, lanciando un satellite e svolgendo esperimenti scientifici e mappature fotografiche di altissima precisione della Luna, Dave Scott e Jim Irwin furono i primi esseri umani a viaggiare su un’auto al di fuori della Terra.
E che automobile. Interamente elettrica, con quattro motori indipendenti e quattro ruote sterzanti, comandata tramite un joystick, capace di portare due persone in tuta spaziale e i loro attrezzi, dotata di navigatore (basato su un sistema di sensori inerziali) e di telecamera e trasmettitore TV e soprattutto leggerissima (200 kg sulla Terra) e ripiegabile per poter essere alloggiata in uno scomparto del Modulo Lunare, il veicolo di allunaggio. Si chiamava Lunar Roving Vehicle, e in questo debutto trasportò gli astronauti per una trentina di chilometri, allargando enormemente il loro raggio esplorativo, visto che prima erano costretti a camminare dentro le loro rigidissime tute spaziali (leggermente migliorate per questa missione rispetto alle precedenti).
Apollo 15, la prima delle missioni più strettamente scientifiche del progetto lunare statunitense, partì dalla Florida il 26 luglio 1971 a bordo di un vettore Saturn V. Il modulo lunare Falcon, con Scott e Irwin, atterrò sulla Luna il 30/7/1971, alle 22:16:29 UTC, vicino al Mare Imbrium (Mare delle Piogge).
Scott e Irwin effettuarono tre escursioni lunari in aggiunta a una stand-up EVA: Scott, in tuta spaziale, si sporse all’esterno dal condotto di attracco del modulo alla sommità del veicolo e perlustrò visivamente e fotograficamente la zona circostante per circa mezz’ora.
I due astronauti restarono sulla Luna per due giorni, 18 ore e 54 minuti, raccogliendo 77,3 kg di rocce lunari e scattando 1151 fotografie in aggiunta alle trasmissioni televisive in diretta (incluso il decollo del LM) e alle riprese cinematografiche su pellicola. Nel loro bottino geologico ci fu la Genesis Rock, una delle pietre lunari più antiche mai recuperate (oltre 4 miliardi di anni).
Questa è la missione durante la quale Scott lasciò cadere simultaneamente una piuma e un martello per confermare l’ipotesi di Galileo sulla caduta identica dei corpi nel vuoto e collocò di nascosto sulla Luna una statuetta, il Fallen Astronaut, per commemorare gli astronauti statunitensi e i cosmonauti sovietici caduti dei quali si era a conoscenza all’epoca.
Come se tutto questo non bastasse, durante il viaggio di ritorno Al Worden fece la prima passeggiata spaziale nello spazio profondo, fra Terra e Luna, per recuperare le pellicole delle fotocamere automatiche di ricognizione.
La missione si concluse il 7 agosto 1971 con un ammaraggio nell’Oceano Pacifico dopo 12 giorni, 7 ore e 11 minuti.
Se l’argomento vi interessa, l’amico Gianluca Atti, collezionista di cose lunari e spaziali, e il sottoscritto vi offrono Apollo 15 Timeline, un sito-blog interamente in italiano che contiene una cronologia e un racconto della missione, con tante foto di altissima qualità, video restaurati, e trascrizioni e scansioni degli articoli comparsi all’epoca sui giornali e sulle riviste in Italia. Rileggere quella prosa e pensare con quali mezzi fu possibile scriverla è un tuffo nella nostalgia e anche un confronto impietoso con il giornalismo divulgativo di oggi.
Consiglio anche gli articoli di Astronautinews (in italiano) dedicati alla missione, scritti oggi come se fossero redatti da un viaggiatore nel tempo.
Questo articolo vi arriva gratuitamente e senza pubblicità grazie alle donazioni dei lettori. Se vi è piaciuto, potete incoraggiarmi a scrivere ancora facendo una donazione anche voi, tramite Paypal (paypal.me/disinformatico) o altri metodi.
La Combriccola, da un’idea di Filippo Marciano’
Lo speaker Filippo Marciano’ continua a condurre, con grande successo di pubblico, il pomeriggio di Radio Number One, dal lunedì al venerdì dalle 14 alle 17. L’idea di Marciano’ è…
L’articolo La Combriccola, da un’idea di Filippo Marciano’ scritto da Paolo Brambilla proviene da Assodigitale.
Leveling the playing field in sports — and at Google
As a middle schooler, Mackenzie Thomas would wake up at 5 a.m. to watch SportsCenter. “I hoped to see my childhood heroes Mia Hamm, Briana Scurry and Lisa Leslie,” she says, “but instead I memorized tons of MLB and NBA scores.” Even then, she saw how differently the media celebrated women athletes compared to men. Now she’s dedicated to driving equity on and off the court.
Today Mackenzie leads marketing inclusion, and her days are spent asking hard questions and ensuring that Google is focusing on historically underrepresented voices in tech and in media, where only 4% of television sports coverage is dedicated to women’s sports, for example. And she’s a core member of the team responsible for driving Google’s partnership with the WNBA and National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL).
Fresh off of Google’s sponsorship of the WNBA All-Star Game and presentation of ESPN Film’s latest 30 for 30 documentary featuring Maya Moore — and as we prepare to watch the world’s top athletes compete in Tokyo — we talked to Mackenzie about Google’s efforts to bring equity to sports and what it means to her personally.
FLY FREE AIRWAYS SI PRESENTA SUL MERCATO, E FA SUBITO IL PIENO
In corso l’aumento di capitale. Fly Free Airways ha spiegato il proprio modello di business e le attività di tour operator a una platea di quasi 100 investitori Grandissima affluenza…
L’articolo FLY FREE AIRWAYS SI PRESENTA SUL MERCATO, E FA SUBITO IL PIENO scritto da Paolo Brambilla proviene da Assodigitale.
Quiz: l’aumento di CO2 nell’aria causa i cambiamenti climatici. Ma allora perché è permesso venderla per rendere frizzante l’acqua?
Sfogliando un catalogo online mi è venuta spontanea una riflessione. Le automobili vengono tassate in base alle loro emissioni di CO2. I processi produttivi sono gravati da una tassa sull’anidride carbonica generata; idem i combustibili per riscaldamento. È la cosiddetta carbon tax. In Svizzera, per esempio, questa tassa incide per circa 30 centesimi di franco su ogni litro di olio da riscaldamento e aumenterà nel 2022.
La preoccupazione per i cambiamenti climatici è incentrata in gran parte sull’aumento della CO2 nell’atmosfera, che produce un effetto serra che aumenta la temperatura media planetaria. Dovremmo, insomma, fare di tutto per evitare di produrre e rilasciare CO2.
In queste condizioni, non è assurdo che invece la CO2 venga addirittura messa in vendita in bombolette, oltretutto per un’applicazione decisamente superflua come gasare l’acqua da bere? Ci sveniamo per ridurre le emissioni di anidride carbonica e poi andiamo a comprarla e la rilasciamo in atmosfera? Pare un controsenso.
Non ho ancora una risposta. Voi cosa riuscite a scoprire?
