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B2B Technology Buyers Prefer Blogs and White Papers for Pre-Sales Decision-Making

B2B Technology Buyers Prefer Blogs and White Papers for Pre-Sales Decision-Making

download-buttonThe Eccolo Media B2B Technology Content Survey reveals that small business, mid-market, and enterprise technology decision makers prefer to read blogs and white papers during the pre-sales cycle. While the study reveals a number of nuances between small and large business decision makers, there are also noteworthy differences between the content consumption preferences and behaviors of technical purchase influencers versus decision makers.

For example, mid-market company technology buyers are more likely to receive vendor content via Facebook than LinkedIn while enterprise buyers are more likely to consume vendor content via LinkedIn. Furthermore, small business buyers don’t believe that post-sale vendor content is as important as large company buyers do. Overall, technology buyers who want to receive ongoing vendor content prefer white papers (98%), case studies (66%), and technology guides (37%).

However, content preferences (presented in 16 categories, including blogs, white papers, case studies, videos, brochures, data sheets, podcasts, infographics, email newsletters, and more) vary based not only on business size but also on roles (purchase influencer vs. decision-maker) and where the buy is in the sales cycle (pre-sales vs final sales process). For example, decision-makers consume more vendor content in 15 of 16 different types of content than influencers. Eccolo Media highlights the following findings from its survey:

  • Small Business: Influencers rely primarily on infographics and video during the pre-sales process while decision-makers rely mostly on blogs. During the final sales process, decision makers rely primarily on technology guides.
  • Mid-Market: Influencers consume all types of content equally and at greater rates than decision-makers during the pre-sales process. Decision-makers also consume all types of content equally during the pre-sales process. During the final sales process, influencers rely on technology guides.
  • Enterprise: Influencers and decision-makers rely mostly on blogs and white papers during the pre-sales process. During the final sales process, decision-makers rely on technology guides and infographics.

Not only does the individual’s role and the company’s place in the sales cycle effect how technology buyers use content but the level of interactivity of that content can also impact purchase decisions. Two-thirds of respondents to the survey indicated that they will interact with content to get more information from vendors and they very often click on links in content to get more information. However, mid-market and enterprise survey respondents were more likely to click on links in vendor content (63%) than small business respondents (43%). When asked why they don’t click on links in vendor content, respondents said it was because they weren’t sure where the links would take them (37%) or whether the link content would be relevant to them (36%).

Content marketing can play an important role in building relationships and trust before, during, and after a sale is made. Technology buyers want access to useful and relevant content in a variety of forms. With these research results in mind, create a B2B content marketing strategy that is highly targeted by segmenting your audiences by role and placement in the sales cycle to continue moving them through the cycle to making a purchase or repurchasing. The type of content you send and when you send it can make a significant difference to your sales success.

Image: Ariel da Silva Parreira

Online Advertising Traffic Fraud Best Practices Released by IAB

online advertising traffic fraud handcuffsOnline advertising has been plagued with bad press in recent years with traffic fraud and click fraud being some of the most talked about problems for online advertisers. This month, The Internet Advertising Bureau’s (IAB’s) Traffic of Good Intent Task Force released a new report titled “Traffic Fraud: Best Practices for Reducing Risk to Exposure.” The report explains the various types of traffic fraud as well as best practices to reduce traffic fraud for advertisers and ad buyers, for publishers, and for ad networks.

In a press release, the IAB Traffic of Good Intent Task Force is calling for all advertisers, ad buyers, networks, and publishers to work together to stop online advertising traffic fraud. Not only is it illegal, but it’s also costing advertisers a lot of money. Gavin O’Malley of MediaPost reports that Steve Sullivan, vice president of advertising technology at IAB, believes traffic fraud equates to a minimum to $6 billion to $7 billion wasted per year.

Fighting Online Advertising Traffic Fraud

To help brand advertisers fight traffic fraud, the IAB created the following questions to ask publishers. While it’s unlikely that small publishers will have all of the requested information, advertisers should speak up and demand that larger publishers provide it.

  • Do you have your audience measured by verifiable third party systems?
  • Do you have a clean record with third-party brand safety reports?
  • How do you determine which impressions are exposed to real humans?
  • How do you assure that ads are served as reported, and that URLS are visible to the advertiser?
  • How do you determine whether ads are auto-initiated or user-initiated?
  • Do you provide protection from malware?
  • Are impressions generated by malware redirecting to a site?

Far-Reaching Negative Effects of Online Advertising Traffic Fraud

Not only does online advertising traffic fraud mean wasted budget dollars for brand advertisers, but it also means skewed tracking data. Accurately analyzing the performance of online ads that have been compromised by click fraud is impossible, but most often, the advertiser doesn’t even know that the performance data should be questioned. Ultimately, future marketing strategies, tactics, and ad buys will be created based on this inaccurate data, which means the negative effects of online advertising traffic fraud are far-reaching and can last for a very long time.

You can visit the IAB website to view the complete traffic fraud report as well Digital Simplified, the IAB’s short overview of what online advertising traffic fraud is and why all stakeholders should take action to stop it.

Image: Foxumon

Video Ad Sharing Has Increased 50 Times in Eight Years

video spiral film stripGood news for brand marketers—a new “Viral Spiral” interactive infographic from Unruly Media reports that sharing of video ads via social media has grown nearly 50 times in the past eight years. This is a trend that shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, the top 10 ads in 2013 were shared 28.8 million times, which is an increase of over 52% since 2012, and Unruly Media is currently tracking 500,000 shares of brand video content each day.

Unruly Media recognizes the 2010 Old Spice “The Man Your Man Could Be” ad as “the game-changer.” Since that ad debuted, shares of the top three branded videos have grown seven-fold. However, that Old Spice ad is not the most shared branded video of all time. That honor goes to Volkswagen’s “The Force” ad with 5.58 million shares, which debuted during the 2011 Super Bowl.

The growth in brand video sharing has changed the way advertisers do their jobs. In 2006, the “Evolution” ad from Dove was the third most shared ad of the year with 60,954 shares during that year. In 2013, the Dove “Real Beauty Sketches” ad was the most shared brand video of the year with 4.24 million shares (it’s also the third most shared video of all time). Combine those shares with the second and third most shared video ads in 2013 (“Hump Day” from GEICO and “Baby & Me” from Evian), and those three ads have been shared nearly 50 times more than the top three ads shared in 2006 (from 244,035 shares in 2006 to 11.6 million shares in 2013). In total, eight out of the top 20 most shared video ads of all time debuted in 2013 (40%).

Advertisers have learned a lot about creating videos that people want to share via social media in the past eight years. For example, Unruly Media reports that the average length for the top three most shared brand videos has increased by 178% since 2006 (from 35 seconds to 96 seconds).

Unruly Media has tracked 365 billion brand videos since 2006 using a combination of its own proprietary technology and social media APIs and used that data as the basis for its infographic. You can view the Viral Spiral below. Not only can you filter the results by year, number of shares, sector, and more, but you can also watch all of the video ads without leaving the interactive infographic.


Are you creating brand videos that people want to share with family and friends across the social web?

Image: Malgorzata Gluchowska

Tumblr Launches New Mobile Advertising Opportunity for Brands

Tumblr adsSince Yahoo! purchased Tumblr, there has been a big focus on monetizing the popular blogging platform. Earlier this year, Tumblr launched its first mobile advertising unit, Sponsored Mobile Posts, and now, brands can also purchase space through the new Sponsored Trending Blogs unit.

The new Sponsored Trending Blogs ad unit will appear in a popular area for mobile Tumblr users. CNET explains that Sponsored Trending Blogs, “will push advertisers’ Tumblr blogs in front of people checking out the Explore tab in the Tumblr for iOS and Android application.”

The Trending Blogs section of Tumblr debuted in July of this year and is a quick place for users to find popular, curated content from Tumblr’s editors. The Sponsored Trending Blogs will look just like non-sponsored content in the Explore tab of the Tumblr mobile app except for a dollar sign icon that will be used to disclose content has been paid for by a brand advertiser. Tumblr already uses this symbol to distinguish paid content, so the new native advertising of Sponsored Trending Blogs will be flagged similarly.

While Sponsored Trending Blogs won’t fully debut until January 2014, Tumblr has rolled out a soft launch with beta advertisers including Calvin Klein, Turner Broadcasting, Delta, Twentieth Century Fox, and Sony Pictures Entertainment. Currently, Sponsored Trending Blog ad units are being sold at a flat fee, and according to Mashable, they will be targeted geographically but not demographically or behaviorally.

Tumblr’s focus on monetizing its mobile traffic shouldn’t come as a surprise. In February, Tumblr CEO David Karp told Mashable that mobile traffic was expected to overtake desktop traffic before the end of 2013. The company has come a long way since 2010 when Karp told The L.A. Times that Tumblr was “opposed to advertising” because it “turns our stomachs.”

Taking a look at the story from Yahoo’s perspective, Tumblr was a huge acquisition that cost a lot of money. Tumblr needs to bring in big revenue. For Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, failure is not an option.

Only time will tell if Tumblr users are willing to accept the various advertising units being rolled out. So far, results seem to be positive with ad units released previously. With over 153 million Tumblr blogs and over 100 million posts published on Tumblr each day, according to Venture Beat, Tumblr is certainly a place brands need to be.

Image: Josh James

Attention Brands: U.K. Is the Most Social Country in the World

united kingdom flagAccording to research compiled in an infographic by Offerpop, the United Kingdom has the highest proportion of social networkers in the world (52%). In fact, 95% of 16-20 year olds in the U.K. have logged into Facebook in the last month. However, social media penetration in the U.K. is highest in the 25-34 year old demographic, followed by the 18-24 year old and 35-44 year old demographics, respectively.

In the U.K., social media is a place where consumers actively engage with brands. Offerpop reports that 36% of U.K. consumers use social media to interact with brands. On Facebook, two Cadbury brand pages are included in the top three most liked Facebook Pages in the U.K., and on Twitter, Rockstar Games and Swedish House Mafia are the top two brands with over 1.5 million followers each (see the infographic below for details).

The Offerpop findings are in line with research conducted by eMarketer in February of this year, which predicted that 71% of U.K. adults will use social networks by the end of 2017. However, U.K. social media users are using Twitter, Facebooks, and other social sites for more than just interacting with each other. Separate research by video search website Blinkx released in August found that 43% of 18-24 year olds prefer to use social networks to look for content rather than using search engines like Google.

With so many people in the U.K. using social media, brands need to understand what type of content resonates with their audiences. A study conducted by Ipsos OTX and Ipsos Global @advisor in April found that 58% of U.K. social media users shared some kind of content via social media in the last month. The research report identified the following ranking of the types of content U.K. social media users share:

  • Photos = 36% of survey respondents
  • Links to articles = 22% of survey respondents
  • Links to other websites = 18% of survey respondents
  • Reposts from other people’s social media accounts = 18% of survey respondents
  • Something I like or recommend such as a product, service, book, movie, etc, = 15% of survey respondents
  • News items = 14% of survey respondents
  • Video clips = 11% of survey respondents
  • I haven’t shared anything in the past month = 42%

Back in August, The Daily Mail published an article reviewing the “meteoric rise of social networking in the U.K.” which included statistics from the Office for National Statistics and Eurostat. Bottom-line, Britons are prolific social media users, and while usage has grown quickly, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to any brand manager when The Daily Mail reported in August that over half of all Britons were using social media. If you’re brand is available for purchase in the U.K., it needs a social media presence, because that is where your customers are.

You can see more details from the research compiled by Offerpop in the infographic below.

Social-Media-In-the-UK

Image: Chris Chidsey

Investor Relations and Communications Channels

communication-channelsWe live in an age of multiple information channels.

In the old days, information for investors was principally delivered via paper in the form of press releases and annual reports, supplemented at times by a company actually speaking to an investor. Those were simpler times when markets moved at a slower pace.

Today, investor relations departments need to think in terms of their message being conveyed via a number of channels, each with its advantages and disadvantages. What follows is a brief overview of the main outgoing communications channels available to IR personnel, leaving aside a detailed discussion of the use of social media and blogs, which are a subject for another day.

Traditional Written Communications

Regulatory filings, press releases and annual reports are part of the core written communication tools available when communicating with investors. They offer the benefit of being completely within the control of the issuing company (at least until newspaper editors get hold of them) and are therefore most useful when conveying detailed or complex information.  They also offer the benefit of being stand-alone pieces, by which I mean that any questions they raise with investors can be handled in a private phone call rather than in a public forum, lessening the chance of a horrendous PR gaffe.

On the down side, traditional written communications are often over-edited by the issuing companies, resulting in tightly controlled information, which often raises more questions than it answers. Additionally, this editing process slows response times down, meaning that press releases move far more slowly than stock markets.

One way to think about this type of communications is that it is similar to long-form journalism, to be used when voluminous or complicated information needs to be disseminated.

Electronic Communications

Today, much information moves in electronic form. And not just a single electronic form, but a variety of methods, most designed for speed rather than detail. Some of this is simply a quicker conduit of traditional written communications, as when wire services send press releases to internet content providers. Other electronic means, such as Twitter, pick out snippets of information and quickly place it where the entire world can see it. Some forms of electronic communications that today seem almost old-fashioned, such as email, carry the burden of being easily forwarded and continually stored in someone’s computer or server, which should give pause to any IR officer concerned about things going to unintended recipients or information getting taken out of context at a later date. (This is also true of email’s younger cousins, instant messaging and texting.)

We are just now at the point where some companies are using their web sites as their primary distribution point for important company information, but undoubtedly this trend will continue.

Verbal Communications

Although old-fashioned and sometimes limited in scope, nothing can convey management’s credibility better than verbal communications. Verbal communications can be broad-based, as when done through television and radio interviews and conference calls, medium in scope, as when speaking at a conference, or personal, as in one-on-one meetings and phone calls. Institutional investors continue to rely heavily on this type of communications as they are committing large sums of money and doing due diligence requires that they “look management in the eyes”.

What all this means for companies engaged in investor relations is that the choice of communications channels can be as important as the message itself. For example, if the company is faced with a crisis, the choice of both a press release to get detailed information out quickly, coupled with a conference call so investors can judge management’s credibility makes sense. On the other hand, routine matters may require only a press release or perhaps a simple posting to the company’s web site. The point, as with all good communications, is to consider how to best accomplish your communications objectives while meeting the needs of your audience.