Want To Sell More? Online Events and Webcasts Could be the Content B2B Marketers are Missing.

The cornerstone of B2B marketing is giving prospective customers what they need, when they need it. This helps them find the information and resources they need and, equally as important, it helps B2B marketing teams move those prospects along through the sales process, ultimately ending with a handoff to the sales team and the holy grail—conversion.

It probably goes without saying that understanding the B2B buyer’s journey is a critical component to delivering the right value at the right time. Often, the vehicle for delivering this value is content. We talk a lot about content marketing—its potential and its challenges—and for good reason: Those white papers, articles, eBooks, and other content marketers are creating today assist with everything from overall brand awareness, generating leads, to creating personalized customer experiences that turn prospects into repeat business.

Two content tools that are extremely effective as lead generation tools are often under-utilized by B2B marketers: Online events and webcasting. These lead gen tactics have much to offer marketers and if they aren’t yet on your radar screen for 2017, they should be. That’s why we’re excited to feature Katherine Jordan of INXPO over on our sister site, The Marketing Scope, where she has shared some insights on how you can most effectively integrate these secret weapons into your marketing arsenal.

Intrigued? Here are some tidbits from Katherine that will hopefully whet your appetite for more. For instance, in the Awareness stage, she recommends you consider bringing your informational guides and infographics to life with industry-specific online events that include presentations that motivate success.

Focusing on the Interest stage? You should still produce your data sheets and feature analyst reviews, but try breathing new life into that data by hosting an online subject matter expert doing a question and answer session. What better way for prospects to get right to the heart of the matter than to be able to get up close and personal with a SME and ask the questions on their minds? And talk about a goldmine of information for a sales and marketing team—the information you’ll get as a result is likely to be incredibly valuable.

During your buyer’s Consideration stage, bolster the power of your customer case studies by turning those documents into digital stories, capitalizing on the sharing power of digital outlets and the accessibility of video as a medium.

If your B2B customers have moved to the Purchase stage, don’t stop your content push. Try offering a best practices webcast series to keep them engaged or holding user conferences that keep the lines of communication open. Not only does this serve to connect them more closely to you after the sale, it serves them in a myriad of ways—which is really the point, isn’t it?

There’s more, too. Want to know how you can use these B2B lead generation tactics to Grow business, potentially cross-selling and upselling your B2B customers in the process? Katherine has done a terrific job of covering all this and more. Head over to The Marketing Scope to get the whole story. Read: Impacting the Buyers Journey with Online Events & Webcasting

Photo Credit: mariusebert Flickr via Compfight cc

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Shelly Kramer

Shelly Kramer is a Principal Analyst and Founding Partner at Futurum Research. A serial entrepreneur with a technology centric focus, she has worked alongside some of the world’s largest brands to embrace disruption and spur innovation, understand and address the realities of the connected customer, and help navigate the process of digital transformation. She brings 20 years' experience as a brand strategist to her work at Futurum, and has deep experience helping global companies with marketing challenges, GTM strategies, messaging development, and driving strategy and digital transformation for B2B brands across multiple verticals. Shelly's coverage areas include Collaboration/CX/SaaS, platforms, ESG, and Cybersecurity, as well as topics and trends related to the Future of Work, the transformation of the workplace and how people and technology are driving that transformation. A transplanted New Yorker, she has learned to love life in the Midwest, and has firsthand experience that some of the most innovative minds and most successful companies in the world also happen to live in “flyover country.”