SEO & Digital Marketing

Customer Engagement in B2B Marketing with Kris Rudeegraap

Published

12 months ago

October 6, 2023

What do B2B marketers need to know about customer engagement in 2024, and why is it more important than ever to utilize all relevant channels for making connections?

Kris Rudeegraap, CEO at Sendoso, knows the importance of both, and for the newest episode of our Elevate B2B Marketing Podcast, he sat down with our founder Lee Odden to explore the power of customer engagement when B2B marketers are able to take advantage of all available channels, where to find joy in B2B marketing, and much more.

The Elevate B2B Marketing Podcast features uniquely insightful conversations that inform and inspire by some of the world’s leading B2B marketers, with each episode digging deeply into the issues and topics that are vital to B2B brands today.

In this interview, Kris shared his insights on many of the key issues B2B brands are facing today, including:

Heightened focus on the customer
Customer engagement in B2B marketing
Utilizing all relevant channels
The power of handwritten notes
Prioritizing intent data
Making B2B marketing fun
Finding the whole data story

You’ll find the full interview podcast here, and you can also listen on your favorite podcast platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Libsyn:

You can also check out the full video of Kris’s fascinating conversation with Lee here:

Be sure to also subscribe to the Elevate B2B Marketing Podcast to stay up-to-date as each new episode premiers.

B2B Marketing Insights From Kris Rudeegraap

You’ll also find a complete transcription of Kris’ fascinating podcast episode below.

Lee: Hello and welcome to the Elevate B2B Marketing podcast, the show where we have conversations that inform, include, and inspire with the best in B2B marketing. I’m your host, Lee Odden, co-founder of TopRank Marketing, and today we’re talking with Kris Rudeegraap, CEO of Sendoso. Chris has extensive experience in the B2B space, is a entrepreneur, an investor, and an advisor. He’s got a lot going on, and I’m really excited about sharing his insights with you today. Welcome to the show, Kris.

Kris: Thanks for having me, Lee. I’m really excited to be here.

Lee: We actually met at the BtoB Summit in Paris, and what a great experience that was — sharing insights in English to people in France. It was my first time speaking in France, I don’t know about you.

Kris: Yes, it was my first time speaking in Europe. I’ve gone to a couple of panels, but this was my first time leading a keynote.

Lee: When we met, you shared a brilliant idea, about something that you implemented early on and you’ve continued at Sendoso, where you’ve been nurturing and managing a community of influential leaders in the industry in which you operate. Can you share more about that and what it does for you?

Kris: I call it my personal industry advisory group. Another way to think about it though is that I have a community of what I call micro advisors. What’s different about this than what most founders, entrepreneurs, or CEOs do is that a lot of founders and CEOs will create a kind of executive advisory group — maybe 5, 6, or 7 people. They might also have a customer advisory group that again, might have 10 or 15 people involved in it. My program has a hundred plus people involved.

It includes folks who I’ve met along this journey over the last five years. There’s a group of customers who are a part of it. There are CMOs, CROs, CCOs — the gambit of different types of people around the world who I will provide an update to once a month, giving them highlights and milestones and interesting updates on the business.

I’ll also come to them with optional asks throughout the month, probably one or two asks that could be related to, “Hey, can I get your feedback on X, Y, Z?” Or, “Can you be a part of this talk track and case study, or a blog post we’re writing?” Or, “Can you help me with some market research? I’m thinking about X, Y, Z — can I get your opinion or referrals? Can I get your referral for someone who we’re hiring or someone who we’re trying to get a meeting with?”

It’s been quite unique, and quite fun seeing that group grow, meeting with them virtually and in person over the last few years, and really having this kind of mini think tank group who I can go to, who all are personally interested in seeing the success of Sendoso happen.

Lee: I think that’s so smart on many different levels. I mean, you’ve got this brain trust, this collective wisdom that you can tap into. And at the same time, I suspect a lot of these folks are influential in their own right. You know, everyone’s influential about something. There are a lot of companies that do what you’re talking about in terms of a customer advisory council or a board of advisors or something like that. And a lot of times they even go and implement influencer engagement types of initiatives, but they usually stop at these small numbers, you know? The idea of you managing a relationship, or building a community really around something that everyone can understand and be invested in, really provides motivation and inspiration for them to help you be successful. I just think that’s great. It’s like influence at scale almost, and from my biased perspective, it’s pretty impressive.

At the conference, you gave a keynote presentation as you mentioned, and the topic was full-funnel marketing. In the session description, it talked about seven plays that you can add to your playbook today, and I was wondering if you could share a takeaway, and give our audience a short version, if you will, of what advice you shared with those B2B marketers in Paris.

Kris:

My goal for the conversation was really talk about a lot of the changing trends we’re seeing, and one of them is the heightened focus on your customer, especially over the last year and a half where times have been difficult, with headwinds from the macroeconomic situation.

It’s five times more expensive to find a new customer than it is to keep your existing customers. With that, a lot of people have been using the term ABM — account-based marketing — for years and years, and some of it implies that you’re going to be doing marketing to your existing customers for expansion. But I wanted to debunk that, and really call it full-funnel marketing, mainly because I see a lot of marketers kind of end with the one opportunity and they’ll say, “OK, I’m doing ABM and I found a target account list, and I’m going to run targeted ads and run programs to target these prospects, and then I’m going to help sales get them to the finish line, and then our job’s done, and we’re going to do more of that.”

“It’s five times more expensive to find a new customer than it is to keep your existing customers.” — Kris Rudeegraap @rudeegraap of @sendosohq Click To Tweet

For me, it was really like, well — are you doing ABM to market to your customers? And if not, here’s a better way to look at it from the lens of full-funnel marketing, and really the takeaway with that is rather than really thinking about expanding your customers as a salesy sales motion, think about driving usage, adoption, and advocacy. And once you have those really honed in, then expansion comes easier after that. I talked about some of those nuances.

Lee:

That’s great. It’s kind of like an adage we have, in our case, the best investment in marketing is the quality of the product, but you know, it’s the usage of the product, the adoption of the product, right? Because no powerful form of marketing exists other than word of mouth and advocacy and that sort of thing. As you mentioned, there’s a lot going on in the business environment right now, including generative AI, AI in general, and autonomous AI — these challenges both economically perceived and real. In the midst of this sort of uncertainty and chaos to some degree, if you had to pick one thing — and I know this is a tough question — but if there is a feeling of uncertainty for a market or a business leader in the B2B space, what’s one thing you think they should focus on first?

Kris:

You mentioned the AI piece, and I’d say tangential to that, I think it’s really worth marketers being educated on what are the trends in AI and which are the solution providers they’re working with, and how are they leveraging AI so that they’re not left behind? I think that’s table stakes.

If you were to ask what is one thing, I have to go back. I know data is kind of all encompassing, but if you have a strong data strategy, you can really use that when you need to use AI, or when you’re looking at personalization, or when you’re prioritizing ABM target lists. So I think data is still the core foundation for a lot of the new things that are coming out. And if you don’t have data right, it’s going be harder to do anything else on top of it.

“Data is all encompassing, but if you have a strong data strategy, you can use that when you need to use AI, when you’re looking at personalization, or when you’re prioritizing ABM target lists.” — Kris Rudeegraap @rudeegraap of @sendosohq Click To Tweet

Lee:

You know, that makes so much sense. And of course, data, just what is that? That’s customers interacting with things, and the evidence of those interactions are your North Star, right? To always know what you should be doing, if you believe in the idea of finding out what people want and giving it to them.

Kris:

When I was back in my early sales days, more than a decade ago, there was a phrase that stuck with me —”If it’s not in Salesforce, it didn’t happen.” And the reason really behind that is because you really need the whole data story in order to layer new technology and reporting on top of it. I think that’s critical — even for this new AI stage — if you have some new AI copilot that’s going to overlay on your Salesforce data to provide smart insights, if you have bad data from the start, it’s going to be bad AI.

I think that going back to the foundation, and a lifelong lesson for me, was if it’s not in Salesforce, it didn’t happen —it’s something that’s still really critical for today’s business, even though that’s a saying from a couple decades ago.

Lee:

Sure, and it really resonates. It’s funny, I recently gave a presentation talking about man versus machine, or human versus machine, and about AI. And one of the takeaways there was, “Garbage in, garbage out.” You know, AI makes you more of what you are. When you put poor prompts in and poor data in, yes, of course, you’re going to get garbage out. Can you tell us the Sendoso origin story? How did the company come to be, what are the key offerings, and who are you selling to?

Kris:

I probably should have started with this, so listeners can understand what Sendoso is for those who don’t know. Sendoso is a gifting platform that helps other companies send out different types of gifts — whether it’s swag, promotional products, handwritten notes, wine — you name it, we can get super creative with it.

It’s really helpful because it integrates into your tech stack, whether it’s through HubSpot, Salesforce, Outreach, or any of the marketing tools that you’re currently using, or your sales tools or your CX tools.

About a decade ago when I was in sales I had really seen first and foremost the power of email, and how people were super responsive. A decade ago, I could send a hundred emails and probably get like 95 replies, and then that started diminishing. It was pretty quickly when these mail merge tools came out and it made it so easy to send a gazillion emails with personalization. It kind of commoditized that space a bit, at least for me personally.

So I said, “Hey, when others are zigging, I’m going to zag.” What other creative ways can I get in front of prospects or build better relationships with customers? I found myself writing handwritten notes and mailing them out. I’d find myself on a call and hear a dog bark, and follow up with a dog toy from Amazon or these different one-off little gifts or thank yous —different ways for me to build better relationships and break through that digital noise that was harder than ever to do. And it worked really, really well. It was just super manual and time intensive to pack boxes, to click on tracking links, and to make expense reports.

So all those things happened, and I said, “Hey, what if there was a platform where you could just click a button or set up an automation, and wallah! — behind the scenes things were sourced, things were kitted, things were shipped and delivered, and things were tracked. That was really the early “Aha!” moment, and it was really about the time ABM was starting to get going too, which was even more of an aha moment for us in our first year as well. It’s kind of snowballed from there, and now we’ve seen millions and millions of things being sent through our platform — tens of thousands of of customers using the platform, and hundreds of millions of dollars being spent across this channel.

Lee:

Wow, that’s amazing, and really speaks to how important customer engagement has become, right? And to differentiate and stand out, when you have something tactile. I mean, I don’t think there’s anybody who isn’t — especially after COVID and the increase in getting packages from Amazon and others — you know, everyone especially now loves getting stuff, right? Who doesn’t like getting something that is gifted to them?

Kris:

One interesting stat is that FedEx boxes have a one hundred percent open rate. If it’s at your door, there you go — no one is taking a FedEx box, seeing it at their door or on their desk and saying, “I’ll just throw it in the trash immediately.” There’s too much human curiosity, and willingness to open a box at the very least.

“One interesting stat is that FedEx boxes have a one hundred percent open rate.” — Kris Rudeegraap @rudeegraap of @sendosohq Click To Tweet

Lee:

You can’t argue with that a one hundred percent open rate, right? I’m curious, what are some creative use cases that you’ve seen from your customers when it comes to gifting?

Kris:

There are a couple of favorites that stand out over the years, in terms of creative ways people are using our platform to send things. One was from one of our sales reps, probably three years ago — right before COVID — was at a conference, and someone was coming by from one of our named accounts on crutches, and he mentioned that he had broken his ribs in a snowmobile accident. We had some conversations back and forth, and our sales rep followed up with a rack of barbecue ribs in the mail that was delivered when the person got back home with a funny note mentioning something like, “Here’s an extra rib for you, and enjoy these, which are my favorite.”

So again, it’s personal and quirky, and how can you not respond to that? It’s personalized, it’s unique, and it’s kind of clever. It has that creativity and that human-to-human touch that I think people really want to see. So that was one example.

Another one that I liked, which was just as interactive involved those red and blue decoder glasses. They’re pretty simple, I mean, they’re nothing high tech or anything, but again, the interactiveness of sending those glasses with a note and some other things in a box, and you know, you are curious — the curiosity of like, well now that I have the glasses and the note, let me see what it really says. I like that interactivity as well. For listeners, if you go to Sendoso.com slash customer-examples, there are hundreds of examples, along with some statistics on how they work, and some of the return-on-investment (ROI) on them. I love sharing other customer examples.

Lee:

Thanks for sharing that. I’d heard of Sendoso and I had a rough idea, but then I thought about the digital and the real world combination, and how important it is to engage with people these days, in the sea of information overload and distractions. So those are great examples.

These days I think there’s a lot going on in terms of what’s effective, and there’s a bigger push for personalization now than ever before. I’m wondering what you think that means for how companies should be implementing their demand generation, their ABM, and their go-to-market?

Kris:

It goes back to the importance of good data, number one. I think the other thing is there’s now interesting tech that you can bolster onto your tech stack to really personalize all aspects of your ABM programs or demand gen markets. Whether it’s personalized ads, landing pages, or your website that changes based on visitors or emails or gifts. I think at the end of the day, you have to personalize, and now it’s easier than ever to personalize every aspect of your marketing touch-points, and every channel. It does create some complexities for B2B marketers because there’s so many moving parts, but I think it’s one of the core competencies that really successful companies do — using personalization at scale.

Lee:

It’s an expectation, isn’t it? You know, you get this sheer volume of inbound to you as a potential buyer of something, and when something is thoughtfully personalized — and you talked a lot about what really resonated with you about gifting is the thoughtfulness. I don’t think it’s just the gifting, it’s the thoughtfulness behind the gifting, and the thoughtfulness behind personalization — winning combination for sure.

Kris:

A hundred percent.

Lee:

You know, LinkedIn* — which I’m sure we’re both equally friends with — we love. As B2B folks, their research shows that 95 percent of buyers are out-of-market, and that leaves only 5 percent in decision-making mode. At times like these, it seems like B2B marketers are focusing 95 percent of their efforts on just that end of funnel, that just that 5 percent. I’m curious if you have advice about how to find a balance between warming up your buying audience and actually engaging them for sales?

Kris:

I think this is an interesting topic, because I think intent data is very over-hyped. At least the focus of saying, “Hey, you should only focus on intent data in market accounts, and focus all of your energy on going after those.” And to your point, what happens to all those other accounts that are not getting hit up, that likely are good fits, that maybe don’t know you exist yet, or aren’t searching yet, but when you hit them up, they could become interesting and they could become interested in converting too. I think there is a bit of a fallacy there. I think pre-intent data in this, like in market data, people were always focused on, “How do I prioritize better?” When intent data and in-market — that 5 percent of accounts that are in market — I think the pendulum shifted over to that field very quickly.

There’s a lot of thought leadership content around that right now, and I think there is a balance. At the end of the day, I think you should still focus on intent data accounts and how you prioritize them — potentially with a subset maybe of a group of your sales development reps or account executives who are focused on those, while also looking across your closed one customers, your close loss customers, your ICP, and really looking at what are these named accounts that you have that you want to go after, that should be marketed to, should be running ABM programs to, should be having sales reps outbound to, that aren’t “in market,” but still look like good fits. I think it’s just that a combination of focusing on one versus the other isn’t going to be as beneficial to pipeline or close one revenue.

“At the end of the day, I think you should still focus on intent data accounts and how you prioritize them.” — Kris Rudeegraap @rudeegraap of @sendosohq Click To Tweet

Lee:

It’s kind of like responding to short-term opportunities, obviously with good insight, makes sense. But it’s also kind of like a brand investment in familiarity, trust, recall, and all those other things that shorten the time it takes for someone to go from, “Hmm. I’m not even sure I have a problem,” to “Gosh, who’s the best solution?” You want to be the best answer. You want to be the first choice in someone’s mind when the time comes.

Kris:

Demand creation and demand capture — and I know those have been talked about for some time now — but I think it goes back to that, how do you capture the people that are already in-market, but then how do you drive awareness for people who don’t even know they’re in-market yet, but should be? You don’t want to miss out on either of those.

Lee:

Fantastic — that’s great advice. There are a lot of aspiring CEOs, especially with AI as hot as it is, in all the funding recently, that’s being just thrown at AI startups right now. What advice do you have for budding entrepreneurs and marketing leaders?

Kris:

I think depending on the stage, there are a few different pieces of advice. If you’re not an entrepreneur yet and you’re kind of a “launch-preneur,” you want to be there but you’re on the sidelines, you should jump in. I think now’s a better time than ever to jump in and be an entrepreneur, with the tools that are out there — the resources.

For those who’ve made the jump, for those marketers, founders, or CEOs who are already out there, a couple of things come to mind. One is, you’ve got to have fun. You know, don’t take your job too seriously. I know it’s stressful. I know there’s the Silicon Valley vibe of working 18 hours a day and don’t do anything else. I think you’ve got to take a step back here and have fun.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint. It could be a 10 year journey for you from the time you raised your first dollar to the time you IPO’d or exited, and if you sprint, you’re going to burn yourself out.
Really think about it as a marathon, and have fun running that marathon.

The last thing is to talk to customers every single day if you can. I talk to hundreds and hundreds of customers a day. If you’re a marketer, I think you should be talking to customers. If you’re a founder or an entrepreneur, you should be talking to customers, or to prospects who should be customers, who will eventually become customers. At the end of the day, you’re trying to solve a problem, and you need to talk to as many people as you can who have that problem, and get as many perspectives as you can so that you can market and solve that problem.

Lee:

Fantastic advice. I’m going to ask you a few more questions, including one about engagement. When you think of engagement opportunity today, and obviously you’re in the business of helping brands create engagement, what is the future of engagement? What should we be looking for when it comes to engagement? Is it some shiny object? Is it data solutions? Is it, if a company’s not prioritizing customer engagement right now, what’s your argument convince people that this is important, and here’s why — what do you say to them?

Kris:

We are in a world today that has a gazillion distractions and so much noise, so driving engagement through as many different channels and touch-points as you can is going to better your chances of success. You might have one channel that you’ve relied on for years — maybe you’re really good at email marketing — and I say great, go do that, but make sure you’re covering all your bases, because you don’t want to miss out on a customer relationship because you’ve sent them an email and they’re just not fond of receiving emails.

Maybe the next customer is, and maybe they love their inbox and they get to inbox zero every day, and read each and every one of them. But I think you have to diversify. You have to know that it’s noisy out there, and you have to look at every single channel that you can touch them with, whether it’s email, SMS, direct mail, gifting, ads, even the ways that they’re searching and finding you. through, you know, s e m and s e o every specific possible way that you could have an engagement you need to be optimizing for.
It’s no longer a nice-to-have, but every single channel needs to have a focus area.

Lee:

Great advice — ABO — “Always be optimizing,” right? My last question for you Kris is what is it about B2B marketing that gives you joy?

Kris:

Good question, and I’ve got to go back to the human creativity side of things. You know, it’s never a dull day in B2B marketing. You have infinite resources in front of you, and you can be as creative as possible. And I think creativity is one of those skill sets that we’ll see that won’t be kind of commoditized with AI anytime soon. It’s something that, sure, you can learn, but the best and most creative people in the world will always have a leg up. Anything that you can do to be more creative, the better. It’s one of the things that wows me when I see an interesting campaign, a really thoughtful message, a really unique way of using a channel, or engaging with a prospect or customer. Creativity — if I had to sum up with one word, is the reason I love marketing.

“It’s never a dull day in B2B marketing. You have infinite resources in front of you, and you can be as creative as possible.” — Kris Rudeegraap @rudeegraap of @sendosohq Click To Tweet

Thanks To Kris Rudeegraap For Helping To Elevate B2B Marketing

We offer many thanks to Kris for taking the time to share his B2B marketing energy and insight with us on the Elevate B2B Marketing Podcast, and for his ongoing work to help elevate the B2B marketing industry.

Be sure to also listen and subscribe to the Elevate B2B Marketing Podcast to learn even more from each new episode.

Catch up on the Elevate B2B Marketing Podcast.

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SEO & Digital Marketing

How Bot Traffic Is Impacting Digital Marketing?

Published

8 hours ago

September 19, 2024

Josh Kuku

Online bot traffic is increasing every year. This is having a marked impact on digital marketing campaigns. In this article, we discuss how bot traffic is interfering with your digital marketing exercises.

Gone are the days when you could feel happy about the growing numbers of visitors to a website. It is now estimated that almost 50% of internet traffic is dominated by software applications known as bots. They can be created to help you, but others can be created with ill intent. The bad news is that none of them will buy products or sign up for your services, meaning they can seriously hinder marketing campaigns. In the article below, we discuss how bot traffic is impacting digital marketing.

It’s a Robots World With Increasing Bot Traffic Online

A recent report by cyber security company Thales discovered that online malicious traffic has risen for a fifth consecutive year. The applications used to carry out these attacks, known as bots, now make up around 32% of all internet traffic. However, they also found that 49.6% of internet traffic is no longer human, but derived from bot activity.

A bot is an application used online. Generally, it is programmed to perform a repetitive task. Many of them come in very handy, helping crawl websites to see what they contain or even assisting in customer service chatbots. Yet many are malicious and are used to deploy malware attacks that can steal data and harm websites.

In addition to this, as a digital marketer, some bots that exist in grey areas you should be aware of. These include ones that inflate social media statistics.

Checking for Bot Traffic on Your Website

If you are running a digital marketing campaign, hoping to direct quality traffic to a website, you need to know how much of this is bot traffic. Once you remove bot traffic from your statistics, you can get quality data about what is and is not working.

You don’t need to pay for an advanced subscription program either. A free tool to check website traffic will suffice, providing you with information on traffic stats, any referring domains, and the top search ads. You can then upgrade if you need more functionality. By combining the results with the pointers below, you can help pinpoint bot traffic and remove it from your key performance indicators.

Analyze Page Views

One way to tell if you have bot traffic is to check your page views. An unexpected spike could mean you have been the target of bot traffic. However, it could also be a genuine interest in the page, so check where the traffic originates.

Referral Traffic

Referral traffic is a good place to look for bot activity. Bots can create fake referrals to get people to visit their websites.

Time on Page

This is a technique you can use by looking at your own on-site statistics. Start by checking your bounce rate. Bots won’t hang around looking at products, watching videos and reading news, so a high bounce rate can indicate traffic is coming and leaving fast, the key sign of bot activity. This can also be seen in pages with a low on-page time.

Check Where the Traffic Originates From

Bot traffic usually comes direct. Very seldom will it come from a search engine. If you are getting traffic from strange locations, it may also be bot traffic. For example, if you have an English-language website and most of your traffic comes from China, it is probably bots.

Bot Traffic and Its Damage to Marketing Campaigns

The damage bots cause to digital marketing campaigns comes solely from how they skew your data. Bots will make things look great in one aspect. They can be pushing your social media campaign to thousands of views, or sending streams of traffic to a website. However, it is not real people behind it and that is where bots can make your campaign come undone.

Without a human behind your traffic, you can not get a picture of your audience. Bots have no real location, income, gender, or anything else that can make up a user profile. Therefore, it makes it very hard to tailor landing pages for certain audiences using this data.

They can seriously increase PPC costs. As they scour a page they will click on ads and even fill out forms. With no conversions, you are left paying for worthless ads. If you host the ads, then other people’s marketing will soon see a lack of conversions and go elsewhere.

There are several ways to eliminate bot traffic, or at least cut down on it. Monitoring your traffic closely using a website traffic checker and on-page metrics is one of them. In a marketing campaign, try to switch to results-based payment, not one that tends to pay based on vanity metrics such as clicks or shares. Finally, make sure you vet anyone you work with in campaigns. This includes any affiliates, publishers, or websites you may be getting links from. By using this, you can cut down bot traffic and increase the efficiency of your marketing campaigns.

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SEO & Digital Marketing

A Complete Guide to Using Original Research to Elevate B2B Content Marketing – TopRank® Marketing

Published

1 day ago

September 18, 2024

Josh Kuku

Let me know if this sounds familiar: You’re drafting a masterful thought leadership piece and want to back up your thesis with a strong data point. After a bit of searching, you find the perfect one! But when you click through to the source, it takes you to one of those “Billionty Best Statistics For Marketers” lists.

Okay, so you find the stat again, click through, and it takes you to… an older stat round-up list.

Many (many…) frustrating clicks later, you find you’re back in 2012. Maroon 5 is topping the charts, London’s hosting the summer Olympics, and the stat you’ve been chasing is no longer relevant.

If you’ve ever found yourself at the bottom of the dreaded stat source rabbit hole wishing you just had reliable data – do I have a solution for you!

Original research. At TopRank Marketing, we’ve partnered with several big brands on ambitious original research reports that have driven amazing results for lead gen and brand awareness. We’ve got tips to share from our experience.

Your guide to B2B original research

Publishing your own marketing research reports, on the surface, may appear daunting — they take budget, time, and certain skills to do well. That’s why we’ve broken down the benefits and best practices of conducting B2B original research.

B2B original research influences your bottom line

Here are a few high-quality data points that drive home the value of publishing your own marketing research:

84% of deals are already won or lost before vendors even know they’re on the radar.
Research reports are a sought-after form of content. 55% of B2B buyers regularly consume research reports, and rate them as the most valuable type of content when evaluating purchasing decisions.
High-quality research and data are the top factors that motivate B2B buyers to express interest in a sales conversation.

In short: Your buyers are looking for your company to be the voice of authority and to offer insights that make their jobs easier, ahead of ever contacting your sales team.

“Early-stage positioning can reduce the number of vendors that buyers consider before they arrive at the 70% Constant… and affect which vendors are top-of-mind when it’s time to engage sellers.” – The 2023 B2B Buyer Experience Report, 6sense

Brand benefits of B2B original research

From strengthening thought leadership to giving your customers information they’re hungry for, publishing your own research data has a number of benefits:

Becoming the primary source

Being the source of a data point or unique research positions your brand as the authoritative origin of valuable information. Your company owns the insights and findings, allowing you to control the narrative and provide exclusive content to your audience.

Positioning your brand as an industry leader

The most powerful way to build your brand’s reputation is to publish data-backed thought leadership that aligns with your company’s vision and meets the needs of your customers and stakeholders. B2B original research helps your company present fresh, data-driven insights, and establishes your business as a go-to authority on new trends and issues within your sector.

Cementing trust and credibility

By publishing the most sought-after data-backed insights under your logo, you gain the twin advantages of differentiation and credibility. Data-backed content builds trust with your audience by providing factual, relevant information that helps readers determine their own path forward. B2B buyers are often decision-makers looking for reliable information to guide their business strategies and purchases, and research-based content offers the credibility they seek.

Amplifying your brand

When you publish high-quality information, other B2B thought leaders and media outlets take notice. As the primary source of original research, your company becomes a go-to expert. Any publication that cites your work, every podcast that discusses your findings, and each webinar that invites your brand thought leaders on to share their insights amplifies your brand that much further.

Types of original research

The type of research you publish depends largely on your end-game: do you want the research to generate leads? Are you after greater brand awareness? Is this a marketing research report you want to publish on a regular cadence?

These are a few types of reports to consider adding to your marketing strategy:

Yearly benchmarks

These are annual studies that track key metrics or industry trends over time. They are useful for showing how specific areas evolve year after year.

Example: LinkedIn 2024 B2B Marketing Benchmark

One-off research

Research focused on a single topic, often related to emerging trends, industry disruptions, or niche subjects. These are useful for addressing specific questions or timely issues.

Example: Sprinklr and LinkedIn: Proving the Power of Brand*

Customer Insights and preferences

Studies that survey your customers or broader market to understand buyer behaviors, needs, or preferences. This data helps craft solutions that better address customer pain points.

Example: Global B2B Buyer Report, BigCommerce

Trend reports

Regular publications that analyze and predict key market trends in the B2B space. This helps your audience stay ahead of the curve with industry developments.

Example: TopRank 2023 B2B Influencer Marketing Report: Elevate & Ignite*

Reporting on disruptive trends

Research that measures how companies are reacting to major industry shifts, economic changes, or technological advances like AI positions your brand as responsive and in tune with industry needs.

Example: HubSpot: The Intersection of Marketing, Data and AI*

* TopRank Marketing partnered on or led these original research projects.

Repurposing marketing research reports: The content gift that keeps on giving

The dollars you invest in original research can be stretched far and wide as that research is repurposed into blog posts, infographics, white papers, webinars, video series, and so on … all unlocking different ways to reach and provide value for your audience.

Blog posts: In what we like to refer to as a “turkey slice,” you can break down key findings into a series of blog posts, each focusing on a different aspect of the research.

Infographics: Visualize data and insights from the report into easily digestible infographics.

Social media posts: Share individual stats, charts, or quotes across LinkedIn, X/Twitter, or other social media platforms, driving engagement.

Whitepapers: Combine the research with related content to create a detailed whitepaper or guide for your audience.

Ebooks: Expand on the research findings by providing additional context or case studies, turning the data into an in-depth ebook.

Webinars: Host a webinar discussing the report’s insights, with key speakers diving deep into the findings.

Case studies: Use the data to support a case study highlighting how a company benefited from the trends or insights revealed in your research.

Podcasts: Create a podcast episode discussing the findings, either with internal experts or guest industry professionals.

Presentations: Develop a presentation or slide deck to share at industry conferences or with prospects.

Video series: Create short videos discussing the top takeaways, explaining how the insights apply to your audience’s challenges.

Newsletters: Feature snippets from the marketing research report in a company newsletter or as part of an email marketing campaign.

Best practices for B2B original research

Our team has a great deal of collective experience putting together high-quality reports based on original research. Here are the best practices we’ve developed along the way.

#1. Establish your research goals: Understand what insights you want to uncover, how they align with your company’s strategic goals, and how they serve your audience’s needs.

#2. Target the right audience: Ensure your research is aimed at your core audience, whether it’s clients, prospects, or key industry players.

#3. Ask neutral, focused questions: Design survey or interview questions that are free of bias. If the results of your surveys and interviews don’t support your original hypothesis, remember: that data still holds insights, and may be even more newsworthy!

#4. Don’t be afraid to outsource the research: For your data to be high-quality and accurate, you may want to work with a third-party research organization. They have the connections and expertise to ensure the quality of your questions, rapidly deploy your survey, and help you make sense of the responses.

#5. Validate and cross-check data: I once stumbled upon a data point that had been published far and wide, long after the original publisher pulled their report due to inaccuracy. Cross-checking data strengthens its credibility and prevents misleading conclusions.

#6. Use a blend of quantitative and qualitative data: While quantitative (hard numbers) data can provide a broad overview, qualitative (observable but not measurable) data offers deeper insights. Use both forms of data to give your report more dimension and support a compelling narrative.

Source: 2024 B2B Marketing Benchmark

#7. Get other industry experts involved: Data from a single voice is interesting, but a consensus of thought leaders backing up that data? That’s compelling! Partnerships can be accomplished through co-branded research, or by including quotes and feedback from experts.

Source: 2023 B2B Influencer Marketing Report: Elevate & Ignite

#8. Give your audience actionable takeaways: Data is great, but useful insights are what drive impact and motivate organic sharing. Highlight key findings and suggest practical applications that can help your audience use the insights to inform their strategies.

Source: The Intersection of Marketing, Data and AI

#9. Prioritize the report design: Design can make or break your report’s readability. Make your research accessible and easy to digest by using a combination of visuals (infographics, charts) and detailed insights to present your findings.

Source: Proving the Power of Brand

#10. Promote, promote, promote: Publishing a research report should never be a one-and-done campaign. Make sure you continue to leverage your research findings by promoting the report across various channels and through different content formats to reach a broader audience and maximize the impact of your research.

Source

Our friends at Content Marketing Institute have also drafted an excellent self-assessment for marketers who are considering diving into original research: Don’t Start an Original Research Project Before Answering These 8 Questions.

Learn to stop worrying and love B2B original research

Publishing a marketing research report is an excellent way for your company to share the next Big Idea with your industry. At TopRank, we’ve helped companies bring their research to life, as well as published our own proprietary insights.

Some highlights from this last year of report drafting include:

Interested in learning more about how we can help you develop a marketing report based on original research? Contact us.

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SEO & Digital Marketing

The New Creative Hub: Dubai’s Agency Scene Evolves

Published

1 day ago

September 18, 2024

Josh Kuku

We bet that, recently, at least one of your friends visited Dubai for a reason. Why are we hearing so much about Dubai these days—not only for its tourist aspect but also for digital marketing initiatives?

We will find out why Dubai is now a new digital marketing hotspot in this blog post – career opportunities and digital marketing agencies in Dubai.

Keep reading.

Key Takeaways

Dubai offers a sizable market to companies looking to increase their online presence.
Because businesses in Dubai are eager to take advantage of online platforms, digital marketing is one of the most in-demand skills in the job market.
Marketers predict that Dubai’s digital marketing ecosystem will continue to grow quickly in the coming years.
For professionals, agency owners, and brands, Dubai offers a plethora of opportunities in the digital marketing space.

What’s Inside?

An Overview of Dubai’s Digital Marketing Atmosphere

In recent years, Dubai has solidified its status as a hub for digital innovation, offering businesses a dynamic environment for marketing success. With widespread access to the latest tech and a business population that relies on the internet, the city presents unparalleled opportunities for brands to connect with their target audiences.

Dubai is a digital-first city. It is equipped with affordable high-speed internet, and almost all of its population uses smartphones. This makes effective digital marketing services in Dubai a foremost concern for businesses.

According to research on why Dubai is an attractive area for international business, Dubai has radically changed over the last thirty years.

It has become a major business state with a sustainable and branched-out economy. Especially over the last ten years, Dubai has noticed enormous economic development as a result of urban development that converted the uninhabited desert of Dubai into a commercial, residential, economic, and tourist state.

Additionally, it is well known that Dubai boasts a massive international trade network that spans nearly 180 states worldwide, offering investors many options for international marketing channels to promote a diverse range of products and services. Hong Kong and Singapore are the two largest export and reexport hubs globally, with Dubai coming in third.

Of course, the city also gains from all kinds of marketing efforts & channels, including digital marketing, as new businesses, investors, and clients come on board. So much so that recent research has shown that a wide range of industries in the United Arab Emirates profit from digital marketing, and they use related tactics to influence business profitability by raising brand awareness, driving more traffic to websites, and generating leads.

Given these factors, effective digital marketing has become a priority for companies looking to thrive in this fast-paced market. This has led to an evolution in Dubai’s agency scene, where creative strategies and cutting-edge solutions are reshaping how businesses approach their online presence.

Digital Marketing Agencies in the UAE Worth It?

Let us continue with one of the most common questions people ask on the internet about the digital marketing ecosystem of Dubai. The answer is a resounding yes. In a market as competitive and digitally driven as the UAE, partnering with a digital marketing agency can make a significant difference.

According to our Exclusive Q&A with Sacha Christe, CEO of Emirates Graphic, digital marketing agencies in Dubai are especially worth working with.

In the said Q&A, Christie states that Dubai’s multicultural audience is indeed a “unique challenge and opportunity” at the same time. To tailor digital marketing strategies effectively, digital agencies conduct thorough market research to understand cultural nuances, language preferences, and consumer behaviors. And finally, they create content and campaigns that resonate with various cultural groups while ensuring sensitivity and respect for diversity. He adds:

Dubai’s business-friendly regulatory environment fosters innovation and attracts agencies and businesses to operate and expand in the region. It provides a stable and conducive platform for growth, which is advantageous for agencies like Emirates Graphic.

What’s more, it seems that in the next few years, marketers anticipate Dubai’s digital marketing ecosystem to continue evolving rapidly:

Brands should stay ahead by embracing emerging technologies, staying updated on local trends, and collaborating with innovative agencies. It’s crucial to remain flexible and adapt to changing consumer preferences.

Dubai for Working Professionals (Scope of Digital Marketing in Dubai)

As we mentioned earlier, Dubai has quickly become a magnet for working professionals, particularly in the digital marketing sector. With its thriving economy and constant push toward digital transformation, the city offers endless opportunities for those looking to build or expand their careers. Digital marketing is one of the most in-demand skills in the job market because businesses in Dubai are eager to take advantage of online platforms.

From social media management and content creation to SEO, professionals can find a diverse range of roles within digital marketing agencies and in-house corporate teams. With Dubai’s commitment to staying at the forefront of technological advancements and its large consumer base, there is always a need for innovative marketing strategies. For digital marketers, this city offers a dynamic work environment and the chance to work on projects that shape global perceptions.

DAN-member agencies like Crowd are playing a crucial role in promoting Dubai as a prime destination for business. As a creative agency, Crowd has actively worked on campaigns showcasing the city’s potential to global audiences, emphasizing its business-friendly environment and advanced digital infrastructure. This is just one example of how digital marketing professionals in Dubai can be part of projects that have a global impact, helping position the city as a leading business hub.

Let us wrap up that section with two thoughtful responses to the query, “Is it hard to find a job in digital marketing or SEO in Dubai?“

Dubai for Agency Owners

For agency owners in Dubai, several digital marketing domains present lucrative opportunities. With a significant portion of the population active on social media, social media advertising is a leading domain.

According to Statista, social media ad spending in the UAE is expected to reach approximately $388.40 million in 2024, indicating a high demand for agencies specializing in targeted campaigns on platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

SEO and content marketing are also crucial due to the competitive business environment. Brands seek agencies that can optimize their online presence, driving organic traffic and brand visibility.

Influencer marketing is another domain thriving in Dubai. The city’s diverse culture and global appeal make it a hotspot for influencers, and agencies that can connect brands with the right influencers are in high demand.

Paid advertising through PPC campaigns remains a key strategy. Digital ad spending in the UAE continues to grow, with businesses looking to agencies for data-driven strategies that maximize their ROI.

These popular domains offer agency owners a chance to diversify their services and cater to Dubai’s dynamic market, allowing them to position themselves as industry leaders.

Here are some hints as to why Dubai’s digital marketing sector is expanding, in case you decide to establish your agency there:

Dubai for Brands & Businesses

With digital advertising in the UAE projected to reach $1.48 billion by 2028, Dubai presents a vast marketplace for brands seeking to expand their digital footprint. This environment provides brands with the tools they need to drive growth and build a strong online presence.

Additionally, as a part of Dubai’s marketing ecosystem, brands and companies have many opportunities to collaborate with excellent, locally focused digital marketing agencies, such as WGG Digital Marketing Agency, a DAN member.

We live in Dubai; we work in Dubai; we know how to work with digital marketing to grow your business in this city.

WGG has established itself as one of the leading agencies in the UAE. For us, each campaign is not just numbers but also a representation of the vibrant life of Dubai and the UAE. With a team versed in the latest digital trends and tools, we offer a panoramic view of modern marketing. In the ever-changing digital marketing in the UAE, WGG is the most adaptive and evolving agency.”

According to the statement on their website, WGG begins each project “by diving deep into Dubai’s online market. It’s paramount for us to understand the digital platforms that have the most traction in the region.” Also, they are “committed to grasping the digital habits of both locals and the expatriate community, ensuring our campaigns cater to each distinct audience segment.”