Pinterest for B2B marketing

Pinterest is great for planning weddings and decorating your home, but can
it be just as effective for B2B? As Kevin Knight, Head of Creative and Brand Strategy at Pinterest says, other social media platforms inform you of what your followers have done in the past, but Pinterest gives you insight into what they will do in the future

So how can this help B2B marketers? For obvious reasons, the information obtained from Pinterest followers can be highly predictive of their intent and their phase in the buyer journey. Whether the customer prospect
is researching potential purchases, or u
sing the “Buyable Pins” feature to actively seek out a purchase, data obtained from well-maintained Pinterest accounts can be highly valuable.

Finally, how can we better cater our Pinterest accounts to the B2B purchasers? Consider about the information search process preceding a B2B purchase. A board of infographics allows prospects to scan snackable pieces of information in an easily digestible and captivating way. Another board should house case studies. Case studies are the perfect proof point for prospects to assess the performance and benefits of your offerings, and when paired with a captivating image suitable for the Pinterest feed, your content will be more discoverable than ever. Other content like eNewsletters and blog posts can also be organized into boards, allowing customers and prospects to save valuable information for later. Creating boards with keywords will also allow you improve

to be ranked on a Google search. Just like your website, there are SEO practices for Pinterest to  your pin ranking within the Pinterest Smart Feed.

While not all target audiences can be found on Pinterest, it is a platform to consider adding to your marketing mix, as it’s functionality differs so greatly from other platforms.

Unconventional marketing automation

You may be familiar with marketing automation as a means of carrying out promotional email campaigns, maintaining customer relationships, or for easily priming unqualified leads; but how else can we be using automated efforts to make our lives easier? The following are some creative examples of companies thinking outside the box to make their brands stand out!

1. Onboarding new hires: It sounds weird… I know, but Eloqua has uncovered a way to
   reduce manpower during the onboarding of a new hire. Throughout the employee’s first 45 days, they are periodically sent informational emails which introduce the employee to different facets of the company. This process gives the individual a chance to digest information at a reasonable pace, ask questions along the way, and is far more productive than bombarding them with lengthy onboarding decks.
2. Alerting the sales team to new leads: The disparity between marketing and sales is becoming increasingly evident, meaning there are more opportunities than ever to miss a new lead opportunity amongst the noise. Using automation to alert the sales team of new leads offers more efficient organization and and communication between marketing and sales, and ultimately diminishing missed opportunities.
3. Drip campaigns: These campaigns bring marketing automation to the next level. Strategically developed and distributed content is sent out to sales leads, depending on their position in the sales cycle. Drip campaigns ensure leads are always receiving information that is relevant to them in hopes of moving them into the next phase.
4. Artificial Intelligence: As the data gets bigger and technology becomes smarter, automated have begun to possess new, more human-like. Quill, a product designed by Narrative Science, is the best investment to boost a content marketing campaign. Using Artificial Intelligence, Quill is able to use Big Data to create perfectly written, intelligent narratives to efficiently communicate insights buried within the mountains of numbers. Natural language generation software allows Quill to create content that is indistinguishable from human-written content.

What IoT means for marketers

To many of us in the Twittersphere, Internet of Things (or IoT) may just seem like the next big inescapable buzz word. But what does this newly interactive network mean for marketers? The answer is: a lot.

1. Increased brand loyalty. IoT products both reinforce and shorten the link between

   

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   consumer and seller, ultimately making their repeat-purchasing decisions no-brainers. It’s too easy to replenish any grocery item in your home with the literal press of a button. Additionally, many companies are working to create reward programs for these loyal customers, such as location-specific coupons. Ultimate ease and convenience are main selling points for many IoT products. Brands like Tesla are using data from their IoT vehicles to diagnose potential issues, avoiding recalls and saving their customers time and money.

2. Big data – meet bigger data. While accurate targeting of customer prospects has proven to be a never-ending struggle, the amount of data obtained following the sale of an IoT product is astronomical. While even more qualifying research is required, the reward associated with finding the golden goose is invaluable to customer retention. Greater connectivity = more data. Can you imagine achieving 100% CTR? The nerdiest of dreams may soon become reality.
3. Adding value. The customer is more concerned than ever about value-added products and services. Why would I buy a regular light bulb, when I can have a smart
   bulb that will reduce my energy costs and better my mood? Why would I want a
   regular wristwatch when I can have a smart watch that allows me to receive information without disrupting my task AND see the time? You can see the emerging trend here: the line between our lives and our technological accomplices is becoming increasingly blurred. “No longer do we “access” the internet,” says Neil Patel, as ahuge part of our daily life is lived online
4. The interaction between people and their belongings is a social one. With IoT, your belongings now have the ability to learn about your habits and preferences, likes and
   dislikes, making the customers experience even better. At what time of the day are you brewing coffee? How often are you reordering your boyfriend’s favorite Kraft Macaroni and Cheese? Your products are talking to marketers! Since IoT is designed to complement social media, marketers can use this combination to more accurately predict at which phase of the buying cycle a customer or prospect is currently in.
5. Creating a billion markets of one. Given that our lives have become so entangled in the web of… The Web, marketers now have the ability to deliver us highly relevant offers and content. Based on our interactions taking place online (consciously or unconsciously), we are providing companies with the info needed to truly propagate a billion markets of one, rather than one market of a billion.
6. Marketing has never been so direct. If a customer is dissatisfied with a product, not only can a company find out in real-time, they can immediately work to rectify any possible issues before the negative WOM spreads like wildfire. What’s the point of having real data in real time if you’re not going to use it?