Napier Listed as One of the Top Digital Marketing Agencies in London
We are thrilled to announce that HubSpot has listed Napier as one of the top digital marketing agencies in London. With fierce competition, this is a great achievement that demonstrates Napier's consistently high standards and accomplishments.
Mike Maynard Managing Director says" As a HubSpot agency partner, it's fantastic for the Napier team to receive recognition after all our hard work this year, and we look forward to maintaining this momentum and achieving even more success in 2019!" 
Winner of the Elektra Selfie Competition Revealed!
Congratulations to Alex Price, Marketing Manager at Vicor, who is the winner of the Napier Prop Selfie Competition recently held at the Elektra Awards. See Alex's winning picture below:
Top things we learnt at INBOUND 2018
Earlier this year, I attended INBOUND – one of the best and biggest marketing conferences around. I attended last year’s too and as always, I took full advantage of the advice and tips that INBOUND provided.
One of the key sessions I went to at INBOUND this year, was ‘Content is the key to the email Inbox’. An interesting session that covered what is really needed to build trust, generate leads and cultivate a customer’s loyalty.
Rules for Inbox Placement and Determining Optimal Cadence
The session was held by Liz Ryan of Mojo Media Labs, who has over 20 years marketing experience and specializes in email marketing and marketing automation. She believes there are 3 rules for inbox placement including: permission, cadence and content. In this session Liz also explained how to determine optimal cadence.
To determine optimal cadence, agencies should use preference centers to explicitly ask how often subscribers want to receive your email content and monitor campaign reporting by looking for thresholds when unsubscribes increase and/or click through rates fall. It is also imperative to segment your audience into groups based of behavior engagement and email them more often than the less engaged segments; consider your content – remember, emails need to create value for subscribers.
Monitoring campaign reporting and knowing to segment your audience is great, but it’s good to know things like when the best day is to send an email or how often you should send them. Within the session, Liz mentioned ‘Seventh Sense’, a provider of email analytics who have partnered with both Marketo and Hubspot. The partnership will empower users to optimize the performance of their email outreach which personalizes delivery times and segments their lists based on user engagement level.
Seventh Sense is a fantastic new platform to use as it builds profiles on every person to identify their engagement times – the time of the day, day of the week and the level of brand fatigue. Regardless of how many emails you are sending out, with Seventh Sense, every email will be automatically sent at the optimal time for each individual.
How to make content relevant
The next part of the session was about how to make content relevant and compelling. Liz provided the following tips and advice:
- Define value proposition – this tells prospects why they should do business with you rather than your competitors.
- Buyer Persona – Buyer personas disclose insights about your buyer’s decisions – attitudes and criteria that drive prospective customers to choose you.
- Create content for lifecycle stages – Have original content in order to boost SEO rankings, gain leads and have content for your website and blogs.
- Tailor content based on targeting - Content needs to speak to a specifier person with a specific need .
Creating a content strategy
A content marketing strategy helps prepare and plan for reliable sources of website traffic and leads. A good starting point for this plan is to set out a mission statement to make it easier to focus on what is important and what’s not. The strategy should reflect your goals and buyer personas.
Second thing is to segment your data by engagement levels and to have an ‘opt-out’ unengaged segment. Segmenting audiences is crucial as customers are more empowered than ever, making purchase decisions at a faster pace than ever before.
Finally, you should identify issues at specific domains and segment that data for sending in smaller amounts or to those who are super engaged.
Why not take a look at our other posts on INBOUND?
HubSpot's State of Inbound Report 2018
The Top 15 Things We Learnt at INBOUND 2017.
INBOUND 2017 Taught Me: The Importance of Look-alike Campaigns
INBOUND 2017 Taught Me: Topic Clusters
Huthig Welcomes a New Member to Their Team
Martin Probst is the latest member to the join the team at publishing house Huthig, whose key areas will include Sensors/Sensor-ICs, Optoelectronics, Analog-Mixed-Singal-ICs, Power (Supply), Inverter and Battery-Technologies.
Here at Napier, we thought it would be great to learn a little bit more about Huthig's latest editor and Martin kindly agreed to participate in a interview with us. We were thrilled to receive his responses telling us a little bit more about himself:
- How long have you been working within the electronics industry?
I’m quite new to electronics. I started volunteering in October 2016 at Hüthig and its electronic magazines. Volunteering is somewhat like an apprenticeship for journalists that lasts around two years. However, I became a full time editor at Hüthig since August 2018.
- Why did you decide on a career within electronics?
Well, I wasn’t looking for a career within electronics, rather was I looking for a career within the media. I wanted to work for print or online and so I found the job offer from Hüthig. I hardly had any background with electronics back then, but I said to myself that I can do it and I have to at least try. The challenge was exciting. Two years later I am still here and still as excited as I was on my first day.
- What are your key areas of interest within the industry?
I think sensors are super interesting. They are in a way the senses for a lot of electronic systems. They see, they smell, they feel, they hear. They also enable a lot of the current trends like autonomous driving or smart applications.
- Do you have a favourite electronic gadget?
I guess my smartphone, if you consider it a gadget. It’s just fascinating how far they’ve come in the last decade or so. Nowadays you can do so much stuff on them like watching movies, reading newspapers, sending news out to millions of people and so on. And it looks like the technology will just keep getting better.
ecsn Driving Innovation with ‘Powering Innovation Workshop’
The Electronic Components Supply Network (ecsn) have invited members to the ‘Powering Innovation Workshop’, in an effort to help them investigate how they position their organisation for innovation and revenue growth.
Presented by Dr Dave Richards, the workshop is designed to inspire members, and provide a framework to embracing a more strategic approach when leading innovation within their organisation. Aimed at the leadership teams of ecsn, the workshop will investigate some of the latest thinking and practise on innovation and how it may be practically applied to their organisation.
Dr Dave Richards is a globally recognised and published thought and practise leader, who has previously helped organizations achieve their full potential for all kinds of innovation; including new product development, technology applications, business improvement, customer engagement and open innovation.
It is encouraging to see that the ecsn association is providing support to their members, by trying to help them drive innovation within their organizations. With the workshop due to take place on the 29th November 2018, I look forward to hearing the positive feedback the workshop is sure to receive.
Napier Competition - Can you Name this Industry Figure? - Winner Revealed!
Congratulations to Todd Bria, who is the winner of our competition 'Can you Name this Industry Figure?'
We can reveal that our industry figure is in fact a younger version of Johnny Waddell. Congratulations to Todd who guessed correctly!
Napier Welcomes Jennifer Deroche as Account Manager
Jennifer joins the Chichester team bringing a wealth of experience from France and the United Kingdom, having developed her PR and Marketing skills in both agency and in-house. Her expertise includes public relations, strategic marketing, email campaigns and events. Jennifer’s previous experience covers a range of different industries, from academic publishing to agriculture. This year, Jennifer was awarded the Chartered Institute of Marketing Diploma in Professional Marketing.
”Jennifer is a fantastic addition to the Napier team,” commented Mike Maynard, managing director of Napier. “Our clients will value her international experience and deep knowledge of PR and marketing. The growth of Napier is driven by our talented team, and bringing in experts such as Jennifer will help the agency continue to expand.”
Napier’s Toolbox
As a marketer you are often faced with a combination of problems that are your responsibility to fix. The marketing world is filled with tips and tools that all promise to solve your problem instantly; but at Napier we know this is often not the case.
It can be overwhelming when faced with advice from several sources that all tell you different ways on how to improve your SEO or the things you must include when creating a persona. But what happens if you are given access to tools that allow you to find the solution for yourselves?
Napier’s Toolbox - a collection of the most important marketing tools is the answer to your problems.
We’ve created the best tools to help you in all aspects of marketing. From your website, to your ROI and even your MQL’s, we’ve got your covered. Our toolbox includes:
Napier’s Marketing ROI Calculator
ROI is often a marketer’s top priority, and when creating a campaign, it is one of the most important outcomes to calculate. Our ROI calculator allows you to calculate the potential increase in profit and ROI for a campaign where you can estimate its impact on the sales funnel.
For three simple steps on how to use the calculator it to its full potential read our blog.
B2B Persona Creator Tool
As customers continue to grow and change, it can be hard for marketers to pinpoint exactly who they want to target. A persona is so important because it allows you to create a targeted campaign, with the right content and the right approach; ensuring the most successful possible outcome.
Our B2B Persona Creator Tool allows you to develop B2B personas for a specific campaign, and truly understand your target audience from the beginning. All you need to do is answer the questions provided, sit back and watch the tool do the work for you.
To understand about the value of personas, read our post ‘Buyer Persona’s – Why are they so Important?’
MQL and SQL Definition Tool
As a marketer it can often be hard to determine the difference between a MQL and a SQL, with the biggest question often being asked ‘when should I hand over to sales?’ With so many different versions of a MQL and a SQL, it can be hard to know what these terms mean for your company.
Our MQL and SQL definition tool allows you to identify what information and behaviour qualifies your leads for either marketing or sales. The tool will then provide an easy to read breakdown of what information determines whether they are a MQL or a SQL.
For more information on how use the tool to its full potential, read our blog.
Understand the difference between MQLs and SQLs with Napier’s Definition Tool
In today’s world of modern marketing, it can be hard to understand what behaviour determines a lead as a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) or a Sales Qualified Lead (SQL). Unfortunately, there is no one universal answer that states if a lead behaves a certain way then it is almost certainly a MQL or SQL.
Item Media define MQL’s as a “lead that definitely has value” and has been identified as a likely customer in the future. In comparison they describe an SQL as someone who has “clear and qualified buying intent” and is often already or nearly at the buying or decision stage of the funnel.
But how do you piece together what behaviour qualifies a MQL or a SQL for your company? At Napier, we have the answer with our MQL and SQL definition tool. We know it can be hard to identify what type of a lead you have, and when working closely with sales, it can be difficult to know when to hand your lead over to the sales experts.
Our MQL and SQL definition tool allows you to personally identify what information and behaviour qualifies your leads for either marketing or sales. The tool achieves this through asking select questions for each section, and then providing an easy to read breakdown of your information; which successfully defines the behavioural features you look for in a MQL and a SQL.
Try out our MQL and SQL definition tool now, and get in touch to let us know if our tool has helped you!
Buyer Personas - Why are They So Important?
It is clear to see that the marketing world has evolved over the years, with online platforms now playing a significant part in targeting customers. But with so many options, marketers can often struggle to break free from the crowd and target the right audience successfully.
The solution? A buyer persona.
As a fictional representation of a company’s typical customer, a buyer persona is applied in the early stages of campaign planning to help marketers pinpoint exactly who they want to target. A persona provides a detailed background on a specific target customer; including their age, education level, skills in terms of using the internet and their understanding of the product, as well as a set goal or objective that they are trying to complete when visiting the website. These elements create personas that are representative for a business’ larger target audience, as well as providing the team with shared understanding of customers in terms of goals and capabilities.
An important purpose of personas is the ability to develop solutions, products and services based upon the needs and goals of your customer. This allows you create a targeted campaign, with the right content and the right approach; ensuring a successful outcome.
At Napier, we know how important a persona is to your campaign, but also how time-consuming it can be to create one. This is why we’ve built Napier’s very own B2B Persona Creator Tool. Our tool allows you to develop B2B personas for a specific campaign, and truly understand your target audience from the beginning. All you need to do is answer the questions provided, sit back and watch the tool do the work for you.
In an easy to read format, the B2B Persona Creator Tool will then generate a report of your persona detailing all the information you need to create a successful targeted campaign. You can then create multiple personas and easily compare their similarities and differences and work out how to best target their needs.
Why not try out the tool today? And let us know how it helped you!
Clarion Events acquire PennWell to Expand North American Presence
Clarion Events, one of the oldest independent event organizers in the UK, has acquired PennWell Corporation – a private B2B media, conference and exhibition company. The acquisition brings together two of the industry’s most respected companies, as it enables Clarion events to expand its North American operations, as they form one of the largest event companies in the world.
PennWell previously organised more than 40 exhibitions and conferences around the world. They also handled 130 media properties for many industries, including: oil and gas, electronic power generation and delivery, hydropower, renewable energy, fiber-optics and cable and aerospace. In the electronics sector they are particularly known for the title Military & Aerospace Electronics.
The acquisition will clearly benefit both sides of the table, as PennWell’s roster of market-leading events will enhance Clarion Events' portfolio whilst Clarion’s global network and depth of resources will no doubt strengthen PennWell’s offerings.
With an impressive presence across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Clarion Events' has the reach to enhance PennWell’s offers to worldwide customers, including their diversified portfolio of events, such as the POWER-GEN series, DistribuTECH for electricity distribution, as well as media brands such as the Oil & Gas Journal.
PennWell is the latest in a series of global acquisitions by Clarion, who purchased Urban Expositions back in 2015, and announced in February the acquisition of Hong Kong based Global Sources, a leading events organiser and online B2B marketplace operator.
It is interesting to see Clarion Events' making moves across the globe as they reinforce themselves as a widely established company in the industry. Their latest acquisition of PennWell presents their commitment to building a strong and competitive presence in North America as they continue to build their portfolio and the innovative events within it.
Napier continues to grow with 2 New Client Wins
Napier continues to prove itself as a successful B2B PR and Marketing agency with 2 new clients wins – Redis Labs and NetSpeed Systems.
Redis Labs, a leading computer software company, has appointed Napier to help them increase their Brand Awareness through PR activities in the UK. Using Napier’s technical expertise and relevant experience, they will secure coverage for Redis Labs in a diverse range of vertical markets.
Napier has also been appointed by NetSpeed Systems, a company that provides scalable, coherent on-chip network IPs to SoC designers. Napier has been selected to run a pan-European PR campaign to increase the awareness and preference of NetSpeed Systems in Europe.
Napier are excited to be working with two such innovative companies and look forward to promoting their brands through high quality PR activities.
Our Latest Competition - Winner Revealed!
Congratulations to Jacki Elwell from Vicor, who is the winner of our 'Tell us What the Teddy Bears are Saying' competition.
See below for Jacki's Winning entry:
Could Google’s New Rules Mean Death of the Welcome and Pop-Up Ads?
Google has implemented new ad blocking rules on its Chrome browser, in a move to improve what they think is an acceptable ‘ad experience’.
Chrome’s built-in ad blocker means that all advertising on websites that serve ‘annoying’ ads, such as autoplay videos with sound, full page pop-ups and some welcome ads will be blocked. This means Google won’t block all ads, just those that don’t conform with the Better Ads Guidelines.
Although this is a welcome improvement for users of the browser, it is understandable to see why online publishers are fretting about this move as they are the most affected by this change.
Many publishers use the Doubleclick for Publishers system (DFP) to display their advertising. As the system is owned by Google publishers are in a tight corner, as Google has the control to practically ‘dictate’ what ads can be run on their site.
If you run adverts that break the rules and cause a ‘Google ad violation’, this could result in Chrome blocking all advertising featured on the given site. This is potentially a huge penalty to any publisher.
Although the new ad blocking rules are currently only affecting USA and Canada, they are already affecting European publications who expect Europe to follow suit with Chrome’s built-in ad blocker.
Electronics Weekly, is already one key publication that is being affected by these new rules; they say they have no choice but to remove their use of ‘pop-ups’ that are no longer allowed by Google and ‘Welcome Ads’, which are now restricted in how they operate. The publication has alre+ady removed these types of ads from their advertising in USA and Canada, and will eventually remove ‘Pop-up’ and ‘Welcome’ ads from their standard inventory altogether.
Although it is clear to see why publishers are worried about this change, there has to be positives to improving the user experience. The big question is whether the new standard not only decreases the number of readers using ad blockers, but if it will improve the experience of website users to such a degree that the effectiveness of “better” adverts is improved.
Incisive Works Reveal Insight into B2B Tech Marketing for 2018
Incisive Works has released a report which provides valuable insight into IT decision-makers and the tech marketing that they respond to. Titled ‘B2B Tech Marketing: Are Tech Marketers Delivering What Decision-Makers really want?’, the report gains information from surveying 181 IT buyers, 153 business technology marketers and interviewing specially-selected IT buyers and marketers.
With opinions differing from across the industry on the best tactics to make IT decision-makers respond, this report has produced a definitive picture of the current state of the market, challenging previous perceptions of the industry that marketers may have held.
Probably one of the most surprising reveals in the report was the change within the buyer’s journey. In 2018, IT decision-makers will not focus on the features of the technology, but will direct their attention to how products help them achieve their goals to improve business effectiveness.
The report reveals that business drivers are now the key force in motivating IT decision makers, with 21% of respondents stating cost savings as one of their key reasons to be investing in new tech.
IT Tech buyers said that professionals, peer-level contacts and product websites are their main information sources, with buyers claiming that when they are interested in a product, they want to see cold, hard facts on what the specific technology can do, rather than a long drawn-out less than informative conversation.
A notable change in the industry is the importance of influencers in the decision-making unit. IT buyers commented that often marketers fail to be successful because they always approach the top of the chain, when many rely on their team around them to provide the information and research first before making any decisions. 55% of respondents disclosed that they were involved in the decision-making process, from inputting their opinions to contributing background information and research on the tech in question.
Although surprising, it seems that there are now layers to the decision-making process, and often this will start on the lower half of the business chain with some interviewees commenting that they will always hand their team the opportunity to research the tech, and will listen to their advice before making a final decision.
The report also features research on marketing tools which found that many tech marketers were now using marketing automation. 20% of respondents are using HubSpot, and 17% are using Marketo. This is not surprising considering how much marketing has changed in the last few years, with a firm focus on lead generation, conversion and revenue.
Although there is the worry that the customer is forgotten due to technology, there is no denying that IT buyers can benefit from these marketing automation platforms.
It is obvious to see that the industry is undergoing a change, and this report offers a window for tech marketers to seize opportunities and update their tech marketing to reflect the current state of the IT market.
Note this report is no longer available. Contact us for more information about how to optimise B2B campaigns.
ETN to Organise the 2nd Annual Embedded Conference Finland
ETN has announced that they will be organising the 2nd Annual Embedded Conference Finland for 2018. The event will be held at the Lighthouse at Akavatalo in Pasila on April 12th.
The event will cover topics including IoT, but will focus heavily on Artificial Intelligence including a panel debate on the meaning of AI.
The technology industry is one of the most important in Finland, despite the fall of Nokia after it was acquired by Microsoft. With a newly launched artificial intelligence group which aims to help Finland accelerate the development of new businesses based on the use of artificial intelligence in Finnish companies, it is clear to see the reason why Embedded Conference Finland is using artificial intelligence as the main theme for this year’s event.
ETN has also announced their expansion as a digital magazine as they plan the first ever ETNdigi for the end of May which will focus on the IoT as well as different network technologies and their testing.
To find out more information please take a look at their website or contact either Veijo Ojanperä and Anne-Charlotte Sparrvik .
Napier Feature in this year’s B2B Marketing Agencies Benchmarking Report!
Napier were recently invited to participate in the B2B Marketing Agencies Benchmarking Report for 2018; and we are happy to announce that we are ranked in the top 15 UK B2B PR Agencies.
Our Managing Director Mike Maynard was also asked to partake in an interview for the report where he discusses why Napier sees 2018 as a year of opportunity, and the latest technology on offer, including ABM and Chatbots.
Want to read our feature for yourself? Email us for a copy of the interview or click here to get your own copy of the full report from B2B Marketing Magazine… Don’t miss us we’re on page 72!
INBOUND Taught Me: How to Win in the ever-evolving world of Social Media
During the time we spent at the HubSpot INBOUND Conference 2017, we attended partner day. As proud partners of HubSpot, we joined other agencies for the day, where we learnt the latest news about HubSpot features, and attended special sessions, not available during the 3-day main event.
One session that stood out, and stuck with me was the ‘How you can Win in the New, Ad Powered, Video Driven, Ever Evolving World of Social Media’. Although a mouthful, the session covered many valuable points; offering advice on how you and your clients can stay ahead with Social Media, and how HubSpot has rethought its approach to social, to lead a new and more modern charge alongside their customers.
Daria Marmer from HubSpot, and Ali Parmelee and Dawn Barson from THINK Creative Group, were the key speakers throughout this session. Drawing from their own experiences, they discussed amongst themselves and to their audience about the way to approach campaign strategies with social in mind. The tips and information provided throughout this session is what I will share with you throughout the rest of this post.
Tips for Successful Social Media Posting
Whether we are aware of it or not, social media is beginning to drive and lead our campaign strategies, and with 30% of the world’s population on Facebook, companies are now selling their products through social media sites. Although organic reach on Facebook is very low, whether this is video, images or text. Paid traffic including banner ads, sponsored posts and boosted posts has been proven to be very successful.
The one problem companies are facing by selling through social media sites, such as Facebook, is that networks want people to stay on the platform rather than being redirected back to a website. There are many ways for companies to achieve this, by posting videos, or specific content, allowing companies to be able to target or retarget their audience without necessarily leading them back to their website.
Video has only become more important over the years, and today it is included in many campaign strategies, as it is considered greatly beneficial, whilst helping companies engage with their audience. Research has revealed that companies receive great engagement from their audience with videos up to 2 minutes, but often see a decrease in views in videos that are between 2 to 6 minutes long. Surprisingly, research has also revealed that the second ‘sweet spot’ where companies have seen increased engagement in videos, is between 6 to 12 minutes.
It seems the results for video engagement can vary, and often the best solution is to test, test and test again. Facebook Live is a good way to test engagement of video, and clients have previously been surprised to see how many people actually stay till the end of the video.
With 82% of Facebook’s revenue from mobile phones, a drastic difference from 10% in 2012. Companies also need to be aware of creating mobile ads which can successfully attract and engage their audience. Luckily, changes are being made to make mobile ads more effective for the B2B industry.
HubSpot and Social Media
As promised, HubSpot has rethought its approach to social, leading their buyer journey alongside their consumers social strategy. For example, when pairing their buyer journey with the Inbound approach and Facebook Ads, it presents a successful plan to ensure potential consumers convert. As you can see below, (a photo of a slide shown in the presentation) video ads, brand awareness, reach and traffic are all components of the attract stage, which are top of the funnel content and draw in strangers to look at your products.
HubSpot also presented a significant awareness in improving and paying more attention to the delight stage of their funnel. The use of the delight stage in the buyer funnel, partnered with a social media strategy, means converted customers can turn into promoters by writing reviews, or talking about their customer service online.
ROI Calculator
The HubSpot calculator has also been recently introduced, a new and beneficial tool for many B2B marketers. This ‘calculator’ was established to help marketers work out their advertising ROI. By inserting key figures such as your projected monthly budget and your expected CPC, marketers can work out an estimated return on their ad spend. This is key to HubSpot’s new approach to social, as they offer the opportunity for their consumers to take less risk when it comes to their social media strategy, as they can now work out the ROI for specific ads, such as key Facebook ads.
At Napier, we created our own version of a ROI calculator, why not try it out for yourself?
A step up with Instagram...
HubSpot also revealed a new publishing feature for their HubSpot social tools. As Instagram has become larger and more popular, the platforms influence is beginning to create a significant impact in the B2B sector. Following this rise in popularity, HubSpot has introduced a new feature called Instagram reminders.
This feature will allow customers to create and schedule photos and videos on the HubSpot platform. When the time comes to publish, a notification will then be sent via the HubSpot mobile app, and from there you can open the app, copy and paste the text into Instagram and publish. As Instagram does not allow direct publishing from a third-party to their network, HubSpot has introduced the next best step to handling the demand of Instagram, something many marketers were pleased to hear, and are looking forward to when this goes live.
HubSpot Leads Ad Integration
The final and arguably most noteworthy reveal of this session, was the announcement of the lead ad integration with Facebook. This update brings Facebook lead ad creation, tracking and lead sync to both HubSpot marketing free and paid. The integration is exclusive to Facebook lead ads, which were specifically built for an B2B audience.
The ads feature a strong CTA and use Facebook data to auto populate forms; and with the integration installed, immediately send leads to HubSpot. These lead ads are shown to the most relevant audiences across Facebook desktop, mobile app and Instagram. This integration not only offers a new and improved way to capture leads through Facebook, but also creates a place for the leads to land together and quickly be converted through HubSpot.
Why not take a look at other posts in our INBOUND 2017 Series?
- The Top 15 Things We Learnt at INBOUND 2017.
- INBOUND 2017 Taught Me: The Importance of Look-alike Campaigns
- INBOUND 2017 Taught Me: Topic Clusters
- INBOUND 2017 Taught Me: HubSpot Finally Reveals the Secrets to Achieving Explosive Success on LinkedIn
HubSpot announces Data Centre in Germany
HubSpot has further proved its commitment to Europe this year, by not only opening a new Berlin office, but also announcing a new Germany based data centre for 2018.
HubSpot's findings from a recent survey has identified Berlin as the fastest growing tech city in Europe, with a vast majority of respondents positioning the city as a growing hub for startups and tech companies.
The survey was conducted on consumers who live and work in the Berlin Metro area, and a massive 95% of respondents confirmed that they see the number of technology jobs in the city growing; whilst 90% said Berlin also offers access to the technology and digital talent needed to grow a tech company.
As Berlin continues to grow, it is no surprise that HubSpot has decided to place roots in the city. President and COO of HubSpot, JD Sherman stated "Opening an office in Berlin is a smart choice – from the wealth of local talent to its growing digital infrastructure, the city offers a great opportunities for us to continue HubSpot’s growth across Europe".
The announcement of the opening of a Germany-based data centre in 2018, also strengthens HubSpot's foothold in Berlin, with the company to rely on a facility in Frankfurt to store customer data according to EU legislation. The new data center will provide redundancy as well as outage and data protection for HubSpot customers. Both marketing automation and HubSpot are doing well in Germany and this is one of the reasons why Inbound marketing is a great way to run permission-driven campaigns.; and with HubSpot's new announcements this is bound to continue being successful.
With this being the 2nd European office HubSpot has opened, it is clear to see that HubSpot are serious about proving their commitment to Europe. As the company continues to grow, they provide benefits to Berlin also, promising to create 75 new jobs over the next three years to meet the rising demand for HubSpot’s software solutions in, and the rapid growth of the DACH market.
INBOUND Taught Me: How to Overhaul Lead Nurturing and Double Conversions
Throughout my time at INBOUND 2017, I spent a lot of time listening about HubSpot’s (rightly so) ‘awesomeness’. This is why it was almost refreshing to attend a presentation where HubSpot admitted to their mistakes, and presented to us a journey of how they overcame their challenges.
The presentation in question was held by HubSpot’s very own Senior Marketing Manager Laurie Aquilante, who discussed the challenges HubSpot faced within their marketing funnel, and how they re-invented their approach to overhaul lead nurturing and double their conversions.
Laurie explained how HubSpot were failing with their lead nurturing. They were overloading prospects with too much information and were not achieving the high number of conversions they were aiming for. To gain a greater sense of what they were doing wrong and how to improve, HubSpot narrowed down their problems to three main challenges to overcome:
- HubSpot’s lead nurturing content was too educational. They were so busy promoting educational content, that most of their prospects didn’t realise that HubSpot sold software.
- HubSpot were failing to move people along their buyer’s journey.
- At no point in the funnel did HubSpot introduce a human connection.
With these challenges in mind, HubSpot decided the best way to move forward was to collect information about their prospects first. They formed a survey which asked their audience what they wanted, when they wanted to be approached in the funnel and what could help their experience.
By collecting this information, HubSpot essentially ‘got to know’ their prospects, and were finally equipped with the right information to attract their audience. The survey revealed that their prospects wanted to speak to a salesperson at the consideration stage of the buying process, while 61% of respondents believed their customer experience could be more positive if sale representatives provided more relevant information.
Equipped with these new insights, HubSpot made changes to not only overcome the challenges they were facing, but also their approach on how to nurture prospects through their marketing funnel.
HubSpot made three key changes to their approach:
- They introduced a human connection. HubSpot introduced ‘Edward Gahr’ an Inbound Growth Specialist, an expert who answered questions and provided faster replies to prospects. This achieved an increase of an 40% conversion rate.
- They personalized based on need. Rather than guessing what their prospects were interested in, HubSpot actually asked what marketing or sales challenges their prospects were facing. Through one simple email, which guided HubSpot to provide the right content to the right person; a 50% increase in workflow conversions was seen, and 172% increase in higher engagement.
- They found new ways to connect with their audience. HubSpot offered their audience a chance to sign up to a webinar through Facebook messenger by their HubSpot chatbot. This saw an increase in engagement between HubSpot and their prospects, with many praising HubSpot for the original way they were connecting with their audience.
Conclusion: Even HubSpot can Improve Lead Nurturing:
It is comforting to realise that even HubSpot has made errors along the way, and that attaining the ‘perfect’ way to achieve successful lead nurturing, takes practise and hard work. From this presentation, I learnt that overhauling leading nurturing and doubling your conversions isn’t easy. But if you understand your buyer intent and fit, provide helpful education, and test, change, and test again; you’re definitely heading in the right direction to achieve it.
Why not take a look at other posts in our INBOUND 2017 Series?
- The Top 15 Things We Learnt at INBOUND 2017
- INBOUND 2017 Taught Me: The Importance of Look-alike Campaigns
- INBOUND 2017 Taught Me: HubSpot Finally Reveals the Secrets to Achieving Explosive Success on LinkedIn
- INBOUND Taught Me: How to Win in the ever-evolving world of Social Media
The DPN Release Guidelines to Justify Processing of Data under the GDPR
The Data Protection Network (DPN) has released guidelines around the use of Legitimate Interests to justify processing of data under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). These guidelines have been supported by the UK Information Commissioners Office and the Data Protection Commissioner of Ireland, but as we’re not lawyers please do take proper legal advice (although we can’t believe anyone would really trust legal “advice” from a PR agency).
The GDPR has set out 6 lawful grounds for processing personal data. Along with consent, one of the most important grounds is the “Legitimate Interests”. As one of these legitimate interests is processing data for direct marketing purposes, this is an important topic for marketers.
Although processing can be necessary for the legitimate interest pursued by the controller or by a third party, there are interests which can be overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject. So it’s not possible for an organization to simply cite direct marketing as a legitimate interest and carry on processing data for this purpose without any impact from the GDPR.
There are 3 stages that organizations must go through to assess whther a legitimate interest applies:
- Assess whether the legitimate interest exists
- Establish whether the particular processing activity is essential for the pursuit of the legitimate interest(s)
- Perform the balancing test to decide whether a particular processing activity can be undertaken on the basis of the legitimate interest’s condition.
Transparency is also a key part of the GDPR. So even if a legitimate interest applies, organizations must fulfil GDPR’s enhanced transparency requirements: they must inform individuals when the process is being undertaken on the basis of legitimate grounds and what they are. The individual(s) then have the right to object to any process being undertaken on the basis of the legitimate interests’ condition. The DPN has suggested taking a more layered approach, with a click through to a more detailed information on the legitimate interests ground. It was then suggested that more innovative businesses may want to take advantage of privacy enhancing tools, such as adding branded logos, videos and dash boards.
Although more businesses are focusing on the legitimate interests ground to justify certain activities as consent is hard to obtain under the GDPR, legitimate interests grounds still requires a careful thought process and it’s important to document the analysis as part of an organizations compliance story.
Each individual still continues to have the right to object any personal data being used, and although businesses may be able to override this on the basis they can show compelling legitimate interest it’s unlikely that direct marketing will trump an individual’s objection. So it’s essential to allow subjects to opt out easily, and provide capabilities to erase their data.
The GDPR have suggested that organizations should all aim to process data for activities that are in a controller’s or a third parties legitimate interests and benefit individuals. The orgnaisations should explain the benefit to the data subjects; for example to ensure that they are shown adverts for products or services they might be interested in. Organizations need to positively enable individuals to choose not to have their personal date used in a certain way, such as brand friendly privacy dashboards. They should also ensure they have the technical means to act on an individual’s objection.
Disclaimer: We’re not lawyers, so please do not take any of this information as legal advice. Hopefully it gives you some ideas, but please do consult with trained legal professions, particularly as it looks like some of the GDPR will be open to interpretation by the courts.
INBOUND 2017 Taught Me: HubSpot Finally Reveals the Secrets to Achieving Explosive Success on LinkedIn
Throughout my time at INBOUND, I attended several conferences surrounding a variety of subjects. This varied widely from ABM to lead nurturing, and although admittedly a few of these conferences were slowly forgotten, there were many which made a significant impact.
This included the presentation on creating explosive success with content marketing on LinkedIn. Undeniably I did arrive slightly skeptical, wondering whether this talk would be truly helpful, or spout the same thing we’ve all heard before. In fact, I was amazed at how helpful and informative the presentation was, and I left with a whole new view on how to approach content marketing on LinkedIn in the future.
The presentation in question was held by Viveka von Rosen, co-founder and Chief Visibility Officer of Vengreso, the largest full spectrum digital social selling provider in the world. Viveka is also known as a contributing expert on LinkedIn, with over 10 years of LinkedIn experience.
Viveka began with the obvious, highlighting how LinkedIn publisher helps build engagement, and revealing the most popular type of content people share on LinkedIn. These included:
- ‘How to’ Posts
- Posts with ‘Tips’ in the Title
- Top Ten Lists
- Research Focused Posts
- Infographics
This type of content encourages the audience to share, read and most importantly take notice. A new feature on LinkedIn has also increased the chance of engaging your audience, with the announcement of the LinkedIn video feature. Although it is only available via mobile phone, this new feature is bound to increase engagement, not only within the B2C sector but the B2B industry as well.
After this encouraging news, I sat with my pen in hand, ready to learn the tips needed to improve our content marketing on LinkedIn, and more importantly how to implement them to ensure success.
Customize your Content
Customizing your content is vital to engaging your audience. Without knowing the interests of your targeted audience your content could be missing all the right spots.
Correcting this is simpler than it may seem, by purely asking what your audience wants. Whether this is through an update, email, or on your social media channels, this is a good way to grasp what content your audience is searching for.
Fortunately, this doesn’t mean all content needs to be created from scratch. Often existing content can be altered or updated and used again, a clever way to get the content you need uploaded on LinkedIn as soon as possible.
Article Writing
When publishing on LinkedIn publisher, it can be hard to know whether your article is going to be a success. These tips will ensure you will never have to worry again:
- Larger articles with words between 500 – 10,000 are in fact the most popular.
- E-books are a big hit on LinkedIn, with bigger articles published having achieved more success.
- Call-to-actions are vital within an article. They give clear guidance to the reader of where they should go next or where they can learn more.
- Use Cohesive and Strong visuals. This will instantly draw attention to your article.
- An additional bio at the bottom of your article is significant. Providing information about yourself and your company, means you offer crucial information to your audience, making it easy for them to contact you with any questions.
- Post your article on LinkedIn Publisher but also as a normal LinkedIn post. By changing the introduction and conclusion on one post, you technically have two different pieces of content which gets double the exposure.
Share, Share, and Share Again
HubSpot also revealed a ‘Ninja Trick’ for achieving explosive success on LinkedIn for content marketing.
One of the main benefits of LinkedIn, is that there is no limit to the amount of times you share your posts. One of the best things you can do for your content is share and then share again. For both articles and normal posts, it is highly recommended to share as many times as you see fit.
The sharing doesn’t have to stop there though. On LinkedIn once you have published your article, you can click on the article and copy the URL from the pop up window. This allows you to take the URL to other social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and promote your article through posts on these sites.
This ‘Ninja Trick’ provides the opportunity for you to increase the awareness of not only your content but also your company and what you represent.
To Conclude…
At Napier, we take immense pride in our LinkedIn page, and work hard to ensure we are continually improving. After attending the HubSpot INBOUND event, and in specific this fantastic presentation, we are excited to begin putting these tips into practice and watch the Napier LinkedIn become even more successful.
Why not take a look at other posts in our INBOUND 2017 Series?
- The Top 15 Things We Learnt at INBOUND 2017.
- INBOUND 2017 Taught Me: The Importance of Look-alike Campaigns
- INBOUND 2017 Taught Me: Topic Clusters
- INBOUND Taught Me: How to Win in the ever-evolving world of Social Media
Vector's Anna Barcelos - Marketing Expert Interview
Anna Barcelos, Director of Marketing at Vector Software, is the latest marketer to have been interviewed for our marketing expert series. As a marketer who has more than 25 years of experience in marketing, we were looking forward to getting to know Anna a bit better; asking her a range of questions:
- What do you like to do in your spare time/hobbies?
I am a very family-oriented person and spend a large portion of my time taking weekend trips to games to watch my son play football. My daughter is currently a senior at high school and so we are also using up a lot of time looking at colleges.
For myself, I like to keep healthy and try to go kickboxing at least 3 times a week. I also like to keep up on technology trends and read as much as I can.
- What football team do you like?
I am a huge fan of the Real Madrid team. I was born in Portugal in the same town as Cristiano Ronaldo, and soccer was always on while I was growing up, so I definitely root for the Real Madrid team. But out of loyalty, as someone who lives in New England I am also a big supporter of the Patriots for “American football.”
- What other career would you have chosen if you weren’t in marketing?
I have been a “purebred” marketer since day one, and have enjoyed over 25 years of experience in marketing, as it has been continually changing and evolving. However, if I was to choose another career I would want to be a data scientist.
Data fascinates me, and I love the notion of collecting huge amounts of information, and taking this information to be analysed and manipulated in order to create different models that could help companies become more successful.
I would have also liked to be a software developer. At the moment, it’s all about software and the importance of this career is only going to increase with time. Ideally, I would double major in both subjects to become a data scientist and a software developer.
We also asked Anna a variety of marketing questions, looking to find out Vector's biggest marketing challenge, as well Anna's future insights and opinions of effective marketing activities and best campaigns:
- What do you think have been the biggest changes to B2B marketing in the past 3 years?
In the past three years, data has become more and more prominent, with marketing automation tools allowing companies to take advantage and find ways to utilise data. The increased use of intelligence data and automation tools to create personalized experiences along the customer journey, is one of the biggest changes I’ve seen to B2B marketing.
I recently read a great report done with Google* which explored how leading brands are investing in a “first-party” future, that is using the data they’ve collected on their customers and creating individualized experiences. Within the report there is a discussion on artificial intelligence and the impact it will have on marketing in the future. The report proposes that the use of artificial intelligence through machine learning will grow, to more accurately predict and provide customers with instant, personalized experiences along their buying journey. As a marketer myself, this is something I fully agree with and what I see for marketing in the future. Exciting!
*An Audience of Individuals, 2017 Econsultancy and Google
- What do you think will be the biggest change in the way you approach your campaigns in the next 3 years?
In the next 3 years, I believe the biggest change in the way we approach our campaigns will be through our marketing expertise. Having people with digital capabilities who can create these online strategies will be essential. With the increase in data and the need to utilise it, we need data-driven people who are a cross between marketers and data analysts.
The challenge will lie in trying to find the people who have this added layer of expertise, as well as the resources to create and implement these campaigns.
- What are your biggest marketing challenges?
The biggest challenge we are facing at Vector today is the new GDPR regulation which is to be set into place next year. As a global company, data compliance is going to be challenging, and we need to have a strategy ready for this. Email campaigns will also be a challenge with this new regulation; knowing how to set them up and position them, while ensuring our database is compliant and clean.
- Describe the future of trade media – will it thrive or are there problems ahead?
Within the trade media, as with any company, lots of innovation needs to be done there. Trade journals are still very traditional and I firmly believe that if you don’t innovate you die. They really need to increase their use of digital channels, although it is hard with both Asia and Europe still using traditional ads.
From our own personal experience, we don’t advertise in trade journals as there is no ROI for us there. Instead we utilise digital campaigns such as syndicated content to gain leads, while advertising in trade journal e-newsletters.
I believe large media companies do need to innovate and have a long way to go. Although the modern day does have a traditional touch, trade journals who don’t have digital expertise, need to hire expertise to ensure they don’t fall behind with the times and continue to develop. It is critical that trade journals know how their customers consume media and do not get left behind.
- What do you think is the most effective and least effective marketing activity you, or your company undertakes (in terms of ROI)?
Success for Vector is measured through revenue, and so for Vector, trade shows are our least effective marketing activity. We still attend trade shows as a company, but limit ourselves to the amount of trade shows we attend. There is great value in face to face interaction and relationships created at trade shows. However, in terms of ROI, the cost versus business generated makes trade shows our least successful activity.
Our most successful activity comes from our website. This is our top lead generator with the highest qualified leads. Our web marketing efforts, such as utilising all our channels including social, organic search and Google AdWords are among our most effective marketing activities.
- What is the most over-hyped marketing tactic?
I am a huge fan of social media, yet I still believe it can be over-hyped. Making social media more quantitative in B2B is a challenge. You’ll have the greatest success by setting specific goals and measuring key KPIs including engagement, reach, leads, and conversions. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have been around the longest and can be extremely valuable. Social media needs to be taken seriously, starting at the top. If there is no management buy-in on its value, chances for success at your company are slim.
- What was the best campaign you’ve run?
Personally, the best campaign I’ve run was at a CRM technology company. We worked directly with the sales team to create email campaigns. We created two B2B email lists (one with first-party data and the other third-party to supplement our database) and sent a series of emails with the main goal of setting up demoes for our sales team. We ran the campaign for a couple of months, and there was a huge increase in requests for demos. It is one of the best campaigns (with a very basic goal) and cost-effective campaigns I’ve ever run.
With reference to Vector and our campaigns, email marketing remains our most successful and cost-effective channel. We have increased our internal capability to create more personalized, automated email programs to nurture leads along the buyer's journey and provide the highest qualified leads to our sales people.
- If there is one thing you could change about the electronics press, what would it be?
I would like to gain more analytical insight. If the electronic press used more tools to analyse their data and be a bit more proactive, they could provide more analytics to their customers and help them optimise their campaigns. I think companies would be appreciative of this.
- If there was one thing you could change about how agencies work with you, what would it be?
Personally, I would like more day to day interaction. I understand it can be hard, but working closer with each other, means the relationship could be more personalized. Napier is awesome, but agencies generally could be more pro-active and be a step ahead of us, thinking of things we haven’t yet thought about, just one step. Whether through a campaign or resource, agencies should be more pro-active and persistent.
- Can you explain how you define and measure success for your campaigns?
We try and implement most of our campaigns through digital channels because they can be measured. We track ROI from marketing leads that turn into opportunities and sales.
Our main aim, as probably with most companies, is to generate marketing and sales qualified leads (MQLs/SQLs) that have the highest probability of turning into sales.
The PR Professional's Definitive Guide to Measurement
At Napier, we are always looking at ways of measuring our PR campaigns to ensure they are effective; so we use a range of tools to make sure that we don’t miss anything! We believe evaluation is very important, and ultimately the key to producing a successful campaign.
AMEC, ICCO and the PRCA have combined their extensive knowledge on campaign evaluation and produced the latest edition of the definitive guide to public relations evaluation. The guide is available on all platforms including tablets, phones and PC. The guide they produced is a very effective tool for PR professionals, to measure and demonstrate the success of their campaigns.
The guide will ensure that PR professionals globally are all striving in the same direction and aiming to meet the same expectations. We are strong believers that if you aren’t able to measure something how can you be sure it was successful?
The AMEC framework ensures that you plan campaigns in a way that produces measurable goals and targets as well as showing the impact to the campaign will have by measuring what is most important. Using the framework to understand your brand and the objectives that you want to achieve will put you on the right path.
For a more in-depth insight about the framework and its effectiveness in measuring success visit the PR Professional’s Definitive Guide to Measurement.
Attribution... the Key to Understanding the Potential and Impact of our Marketing?
This week at Napier we are taking a look at the State of Marketing Attribution Report 2017, produced by AdRoll.
AdRoll believes that attribution is the key to understanding the potential and impact of our marketing. When dealing with a range of campaigns, it isn’t always easy to figure out what is and isn’t working in order for you to make the correct decisions regarding your business! We are no longer living in an industry when last click or first click is giving us the precise answers we need. AdRoll see this as an opportunity for a new system to arise.
Attribution Put Simply
For those who are unsure here is a simple definition, “In Marketing, Attribution is the process of identifying a set of user actions (“events” or "touchpoints") that contribute in some manner to a desired outcome, and then assigning a value to each of these events”.
The Current Issue
Businesses currently use a simplistic form of attribution which is delaying their decision making. A more detailed form of gathering data should now be used: last click and first click is becoming more irrelevant. A growing number of companies are making the switch over to custom attribution methods, which we also see as a great move.
The use of custom attribution has risen from 31% in 2016 to 39% in 2017. Companies implementing custom attribution on all or most of their marketing activities has risen from 31% to 39%, although North America is outdoing the UK with 51% of businesses implementing the strategy. Companies are currently either carrying out multi-channel marketing attribution strategies or ignoring its potential – this is the last thing that we want! We can see there is uncertainty on how to interpret data, but we don’t want this to be what’s stopping companies from moving forward in terms of attribution.
Types of Attribution
The systems of last click and first click are still the most popular, although their use has decreased, with the adoption of a wider range of methods. Both brand and agency respondents report an increase in custom attribution methods. Custom attribution methods are now seen as being the most effective; 48% of respondents agreed.
When companies were asked if they were actually using multi channel attribution, 60% said they did in comparison to 40% in 2016. Agency respondents stated that algorithm-based methods were most effective but difficult to gather for cross channel journeys.
Impact and Benefits of Attribution
From AdRoll’s research, optimizing media mix was the top goal in 2017. This has overtaken the main priority of 2016, which was understanding the journey and sales cycle. Justifying digital spending was third in line. There is no difference in the list of priorities when comparisons were made between 2016-17. Businesses getting the most out of attribution finally recognize how it is having an impact on their customer contact.
Attribution is said to provide more accountability for marketing, although it is still clear that not all companies are recognizing the positive impact attribution has on building stronger relationships. The respondents stated some of the best outcomes marketing attributions have influenced are, being able to remove activity that doesn’t contribute to customer activity. Having a better view of relative performance on various channels making it possible to relocate any budget to better the campaigns with use of improved resources.
Technology and Effectiveness
Over the years, companies have reduced their confidence in their technology’s ability to support attribution. They have seemingly become more reliant on spreadsheets, vendor technology and custom-built models to carry out attribution. The idea of attribution is to ensure different platforms are able to share relevant data with one another through application programming.
The Challenges of Attribution
One of the biggest issues is the restricted use of marketing attribution due to the lack of knowledge. It is more likely that a business will blame this on the differing data instead of their lack of time. The key to breaking down this barrier is defining the customer journey. This year it has been seen that a more effective use of cross device attribution has undergone, in hope that the right individuals will be employed to take advantage of marketing attribution – although this remains a challenge for many.
A large number of companies blame the lack of technology and too much disparate data. Marketers are struggling to gather the data from different platforms and finding a relevant consistency, there is seen to be a gap in the system somewhere. The report showed that campaign tracking/tagging and statistical modelling were the most frequently selected at 36% and 31%.
Insights to action is the area that was seen as the least biggest issue. Although it is still a problem area, there are other significant challenges to be dealt with first. It is clear that there are benefits of multi channel attribution, but respondents found it difficult to determine which channel delivers return on investment. 28% of respondents strongly agreed that multi-device behavior has increased focus on attribution.
Where do we go from here?
Well, it is clear attribution is moving forward with more effective models in place. Gathering more information and analyzing the customer journey are key elements to understanding how successful a campaign strategy has been. Ensure that you are using your employees’ knowledge to their full potential and that they fully understand the effects of how successful a new approach can be to gathering data.
To learn more, download the full report here.