B2B Nation

How many times, B2B marketers, have you sat on a pipeline call reviewing open opportunities and heard someone comment on how long an opp has been open and what can be done to move it along? Quite a few times, no doubt. Outreach from the sales rep, an open opportunity nurture sequence, and even executive outreach are all possible solutions. But wouldn’t it be better to avoid the problem to begin with? In this episode of the B2B Nation podcast, we talk with Trinity Nguyen, VP of Marketing at UserGems,about her team’s approach to closing deals faster. And it relies on a rather old tactic from the B2B marketing toolbox – personas. Trinity’s team discovered that when three personas were involved in the buying process,her company closed more sales. The personas were dubbed “The Three Musketeers,” and today Trinity and her team strive to marketo to these roles to get them involved as early in the process as possible. Also on this episode, we’ll talk about Trinity’s hopes for the second half of 2023, the most important relationship she has in her organization as a marketer, and Trinity’s favorite tools.

Because we live in a world surrounded by technology, we often equate innovation with devices and software. But innovation is about taking a different approach to just about anything. If you can make something faster, more efficient, and more productive, you’re innovating. During times of economic uncertainty, innovation and experimentation are often cast aside in favor of short-term returns. Testing out new systems and approaches carries risk, and companies and their employees have a lower tolerance for risk during a slow economy. If you slow your pace of innovation too much, however, you can find yourself at a disadvantage when things pick up. In this episode of the B2B Nation podcast, Jonathan Sedger, DIrector of Innovation and Partnerships at B2B marketing agency Twogether, talks about how B2B marketers can use innovation to improve outcomes for their customers and prospects and help achieve goals quickly and efficiently. We’ll also touch on creating a culture and frameworks for innovation and experimentation, Jonathan’s favorite tools, and more.

Resource constraints are hitting B2B marketers hard. The teams are often smaller than they were two years ago. The tools are fewer. But the goals are often headed in the other direction. Many marketers are tired of hearing “Do more with less.” And a better approach to economic uncertainty might be rethinking what your company is doing to see if it still makes sense. That’s true in both your messaging, where prospects are in a different reality than they were two years ago, and in your tactics. In this episode of the B2B Nation podcast, we’re talking with Ting Ting Luo, VP of Marketing at Orum, a sales tech company that aims to make sales calls as efficient as email. Among the topics we discuss: Ting Ting’s career journey from management consulting in one economic downturn to VP of marketing in another; building the marketing team at Orum from the ground up, and the challenges her team faces when marketing to prospects whose tech investments are under increasing scrutiny from executives. Episode Guide 2:40: How did beginning her career during the 2008-2009 downturn impact Ting Ting’s career journey? 5:00: Does the volume of information at people’s fingertips help or hamper their outreach efforts? 9:19: How the new dynamics of tech purchases change the sales-marketing dynamic. 12:00: How macroeconomic conditions are affecting the buyers’ journey. 14:49: How Ting Ting built her marketing team at Orum. 17:30: What are the most significant challenges facing Ting Ting and her team? 21:05: What are Ting Ting’s favorite tools?

The modern marketing and sales organization often integrates several platforms to deliver a comprehensive view of prospects and customers. But when it comes to recruiting talent, the systems are often years behind what’s available to marketing and sales. Recruiters, for example, often can’t target potential employees the way their colleagues in marketing can target potential customers. Add all of this up, and it means pain points for recruiters and hiring managers. On this episode of the B2B Nation podcast, we’re talking to Sam Kuenhle, VP of Marketing at Loxo. We’re going to talk about a different approach to recruiting and hiring talent, his team’s challenges and goals, and the difference between content that matters versus content that converts.

Businesses in the technology sector understand the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) better than most. But the full scope of AI’s potential lies beyond tech, in industries that have been slower to adopt tools that can rapidly analyze data and help manage risk. The construction industry, for example, touches almost everything we do. But it’s an unlikely place to find tools like predictive analytics and artificial intelligence. But like any area of the economy, construction companies and their leaders are interested in tools that will help increase speed, better manage costs, and make more efficient use of resources.And that’s where artificial intelligence can help. Stephanie Seril is VP of Marketing at Avvir, which uses AI to help construction companies and their clients compare projects to digital twins and identify errors long before they become expensive and time-consuming to fix. RELATED EPISODE: There’s More to Generative AI Than Content Creation On this episode of the B2B Nation podcast, Stephanie talks about the challenges Avvir faces in its marketing, how marketing tech to an industry like construction differs from her days in Silicon Valley, and why steel-toed boots are now part of her work attire.

ChatGPT and other generative AI tools that create content are capturing a lot of attention. But content is only one application of generative AI. It can generate just about anything in terms of data. Getting AI and machine learning projects off the ground remains a significant hurdle for many businesses. One of the biggest obstacles companies face is access to the datasets they need to properly build and scale their machine learning models. Let’s say you work at a financial institution and you want to use machine learning to improve customer service or help introduce cross-sell and up-sell opportunities. Because of the sensitive nature of customers’ financial information, training the tech on real data isn’t a good idea. That’s where synthetic data comes into play. MOSTLY AI generates synthetic data that looks and acts just like an organization’s real data. It can be used to train machine learning models, so they can work with seemingly real data without introducing additional risk. On this episode of the B2B Nation podcast, we’re talking to Sabine Klisch, VP, Global Marketing at MOSTLY AI about the market for synthetic data, challenges, and goals for the year ahead.

There are some things about the art and science of media buying that haven’t changed much in recent years. But other elements of media buying are in a constant state of flux. Social media is one example. Would you have predicted even one year ago that brands would be skittish of Twitter but taking a serious look at Reddit? Jason Gladu is the president of Avani Media, a demand gen agency that specializes in working with B2B tech companies. Back in early 2021, Jason joined the B2B Nation podcast to talk about media buying strategy. The episode was so popular, we decided it was time to revisit the subject again. In this episode of the podcast, Jason guides us through the media buying landscape of 2023. This time around we’re talking about the impact of economic uncertainty, old approaches to media buying that are making a comeback, and the quest for more engagement and shorter sales cycles. Episode Guide 1:42: What has changed the most for B2B media buyers in the last two years? 4:46: What is the “temperature" of marketers and media buyers right now? 8:08: Are media buyers still setting aside precious budget for testing? 10:10: How has the media that marketers are buying changed in the past two years? 13:30: What are the most overlooked opportunities for marketers buying media today? 15:37: What are the downsides of being “safe” with your media buys? 20:05: What is Jason’s advice to marketers for the rest of 2023?

Location, location, location. That’s the age-old advice given to real estate investors. And like the age-old advice given to many areas of life and business, today it’s often tweaked just a bit. Location, location, location – and data. Today’s real estate investors and developers have access to millions of data points to help them gauge the potential of a property. That level of insight is especially helpful during times of economic uncertainty, when investments carry more risk. Max LeBlond is the Director of Marketing at Local Logic. According to his company, location impacts 48 percent of a property asset’s value. That’s why decisions fueled by location data provide a competitive advantage in today’s real estate market. In this episode of the B2B Nation podcast, Max talks about the proptech market, what 2023 has in store for the Local Logic team, and more.

The pressure is on finance teams to better control spending and account for every dollar spent. And that probably doesn’t sound like a great time to be pitching new software to finance roles. But if tracking and managing an organization’s spending is the primary focus of your product, this might be your time to shine. In this episode of the B2B Nation podcast, we’re talking to Idan Gol, VP of Marketing at Mesh Payments. Like many marketing teams, Idan’s team is trying to convince businesses of the benefits of its platform at a time when many are working to reduce their spending. And Mesh Payments is not the only one in the increasingly crowded spend management space trying to make their case. In the episode, Idan talks about standing out in the payments and spend management space, goals for 2023, lessons from 2022, why “efficiency” will be vital to marketing in 2023, and more.

How to Put Your Product at the Center of Your Revenue Organization by TechnologyAdvice

Branding might be the most undervalued aspect of B2B marketing. Just take a look at any list of the dominant brands in the world, and you might see a B2B brand or two, but branding remains synonymous with the B2C world. But the lack of investment in branding is putting many B2B brands at a disadvantage. Demand generation is the dominant marketing philosophy in the B2B space, and your demand gen efforts are much more effective when your brand works to support demand. Without brand recognition and trust, B2B buyers are much less likely to respond to demand gen tactics and give up personal information. On this episode of the B2B Nation podcast, we talk to Jordan Liebman, Vice President, Global Demand Generation and Brand Marketing at Blue Jeans by Verizon. Among the topics we discuss are the state of branding in B2B marketing; Jordan’s career journey, from agency to brand and from B2C to B2B; and the trend toward consumer-like B2B experiences and more.

Twenty years ago, software vendors that wanted to sell into an enterprise organization would target the tech team and its leadership. They could develop and distribute whitepapers and product guides, and attend the conferences where technology leaders went to talk shop. Today, everyone is a software buyer. And that requires a radical shift in the way software vendors market their tools, support their customers, and even develop their products. On this episode of the B2B Nation podcast, we’re talking to John Ragsdale, Distinguished Researcher, Vice President of Technology Ecosystems at Technology Service Industry Association (TSIA). John and his team spend their time helping enterprise technology companies that are TSIA members evaluate their own business and technology needs. RELATED EPISODE: The Rise of ‘Product’ as an Engine for Growth With business buyers now playing such a prominent role in technology purchases, many enterprise software brands find themselves struggling to provide consumer-like experiences in their marketing, customer success, and sales motions. John discusses these challenges and more in our 35-minute conversation. Episode Guide 4:27: What do the technology companies John recommends to TSIA members have in common? 9:15: John identifies an under-valued revenue source for tech brands. 10:31: How business buyers have upended the world of software marketing. 13:22: What are the biggest barriers to providing top-notch customer experience in tech? 18:58: What are the growth opportunities technology companies are not taking advantage of? 24:45: What guidance does John provide to TSIA members that the B2B Nation audience would benefit from hearing? 26:30: Why software vendors have gone sour on customization. 30:50: What is John’s favorite tool?

One of the challenges B2B marketers face today is the perception that their brand is boring. As a new generation of B2B buyers takes control of the market, many of the tried and true – but potentially stale – tactics that worked in the past might not produce the same results. That’s why today you see more video content in B2B marketing, more brand building, and more top-of-the-funnel content that plays to emotions. This new generation of buyer expects the messages they see from B2B firms to be on par with B2C marketing. In this episode of the B2B Nation podcast, we’re talking to Megan Noel of Trava Security about introducing humanity, emotion, and education into your B2B marketing. RELATED: Follow B2B Nation from TechnologyAdvice on LinkedIn for more B2B marketing resources We’ll also discuss how Megan’s background in education helps her succeed with what she calls the “new marketing” and increases the appeal to Millennials and Gen X buyers who don’t research products and services by the same rules previous generations of B2B buyers used. Episode Guide 1:38: How will B2B marketers adjust to the changing demographics of the B2B audience? 4:58: What is the biggest challenge Megan’s team will face in 2023? 9:30: What does marketing bring to Meghan’s interest in education and how does her background in education impact marketing? 12:44: What is Megan’s favorite tool?

A surprising number of the daily activities that take place on revenue teams remain manual. Sellers still create reminders to follow up with prospects or customers. Data is manually entered into CRM applications and other tools, increasing the likelihood of human error in the process. It’s a little surprising when you think about it. The combination of automation and business process tools was supposed to save us from all of this, wasn’t it? In this episode of the B2B Nation podcast, Jim Kaskade, CEO of Conversica, joins us to talk about Revenue Digital Assistants (RDAs). These assistants are AI-powered bots that can take some of the manual, time-consuming tasks that hold back marketing, sales, and customer success teams. They don’t get tired, sick, or stressed. And they can work at a scale that most revenue teams can’t replicate. Jim also discusses the cultural shifts that make it possible for companies to deploy AI-powered assistants, the messaging that helps his team appeal to revenue leaders, and more.

Some people encounter a problem at work with no obvious solution and find a workaround. Others see roadblocks as part of their job or the task at hand and learn to deal with them. And for other people, the desire to solve a problem impacting their daily work fires up their imagination. Chad Waite came across a problem while working in partner marketing that lacked an obvious and easy-to-use solution. Many of his partners wanted co-branded materials to use in their own marketing efforts. So many materials, in fact, that his colleagues in creative couldn’t possibly deliver what was needed. That experience led Chad to start PieceKeeper, a platform that helps marketers keep their promotional materials on brand and in compliance, without requiring a designer to make every single tweak along the way. In this episode of the B2B Nation podcast, Chad shares his story as a marketer turned martech entrepreneur. If you’ve ever thought about solving a seemingly unsolvable problem at work by building the solution and turning it into a calling, this one's for you. Episode Guide 2:26: Chad shares the story of PieceKeeper 6:31: What is it like to go from marketer to co-founder? 9:27: What has Chad learned from his start-up experience? 12:03: The role of customer feedback in a product-led start up. 17:23: Chad shares his thoughts on what’s ahead in 2023. 22:33: What are Chad’s favorite tools?

Every business needs to think about cybersecurity. As a result, there’s a huge market for the growing number of vendors selling the tools and platforms that help keep businesses, their users, and their data safe. And that means noise. For B2B marketers in the cybersecurity space, cutting through the noise and reaching information security professionals is a daily struggle. You can’t scare people into buying your product. You can’t chase after every company that’s suffered from a breach or ransomware attack. But you also can’t make the mistake of treating all of your prospects alike. Every business and industry operates in its own cybersecurity environment. They all face unique challenges and circumstances that marketers and sellers can’t ignore. On this episode of the B2B Nation podcast, our guest is Sawsan Hamawandy, head of global demand generation at Heimdal Security. Sawsan has held both marketing and sales roles in B2B organizations. Our conversation covers the Dos and Don’ts of cybersecurity marketing, how marketing can help accelerate the sales cycle, bridging the sales-marketing gap, a look ahead to 2023, and more. Episode Guide 3:08: What is working in cybersecurity marketing today? 8:52: How can marketers bridge the gap between sales and marketing? 14:08: How can marketers influence the sales cycle? 20:35: What are Sawsan’s thoughts on the year 2023 for B2B marketers? 30:45: What’s the difference between marketing for large and small organizations? 35:46: What is Sawsan’s favorite tool?

An increasing number of technology vendors are making artificial intelligence (AI) central to their products and their messaging. For B2B marketers that like to talk about ROI and value, AI presents a conundrum: How do you balance the use of AI with business outcomes? AI is a foundational technology that is incredibly complex to explain, especially to business buyers without a deep technical background. That means marketers need to know their audience – their role, their industry, and the challenges they’re looking to solve. On this episode of the B2B Nation podcast, we’re talking to Stephen Gold, the CMO of SparkCognition. His company makes tools built on AI to help businesses better predict outcomes and improve processes, for everything from manufacturing and transportation to cybersecurity. Our discussion covers the challenges and opportunities that face marketers when everyone seems to be talking about AI today, whether AI even matters to business users looking for better outcomes, and what gets Stephen excited about what’s ahead in 2023. Episode Guide 2:28: How does SparkCognition make its message stand out when AI is such a hot topic? 5:28: How do you find the balance of talking AI tech vs talking business outcomes? 7:00: How does SparkCognition handle the challenge of targeting diverse industries? 9:18: “You’ve got to present technology in a way that resonates with the way that industry thinks, acts and operates.” 12:04: How does SparkCognition develop the subject matter expertise across the industries it targets? 13:44: What gets Stephen excited and nervous about 2023? 18:11: What is Stephen’s favorite tool?

B2B marketers that want to put their brand where the conversations are taking place need to understand how to use social media. That might sound obvious given the dominance of social media today across B2B and B2C audiences, but all social media platforms are not created alike. LinkedIn is the first platform that comes to mind when most people think about B2B social media, but video content on TikTok has broad appeal. There might also be less noise for your B2B offer on Facebook. You can’t forget about Twitter either. On this episode of the B2B Nation podcast, we’re joined by Cat Anderson, head of marketing EMEA at Sprout Social, to talk about why social media remains such a challenge for so many B2B organizations. Among the topics we’re going to cover are how to choose the right platforms for your social media efforts, the right KPIs to help track performance, and Cat’s thoughts on marketing in a down economy. Episode Guide 2:45: Why do B2B organizations struggle with their social media strategy? 6:25: What’s the relationship between company size and social media strategy? 9:39: Which social media platform is right for your brand? 13:35: What are the most important KPIs to consider in your B2B social media? 16:00: How does social media fit into marketing’s plans when the economy slows? 18:43: What is Cat's favorite tool?

The great promise of digital advertising was the ability to measure performance and optimize programs. And unlike traditional forms of media, marketers using digital ads would have detailed visibility into attribution. Digital advertising has helped brands big and small reach their target audience using a number of platforms and networks. Self-service tools and reporting allow even part-time marketers to launch campaigns and track their progress. But digital advertising hasn’t always lived up to its potential. There are a number of platforms where businesses can buy ads, including giant media companies like Google and Meta. Each has its own reporting tools, which makes cross-channel measurement a challenge for many marketers. The ever-changing privacy landscape has also made it more difficult for marketers to get accurate attribution data and will likely get more restrictive moving forward. In this episode of the B2B Nation podcast, we talk to Clay Cohen of Measured. His company helps marketers make more-informed marketing decisions around their media spend with a special focus on incremental media contributions. Join us as we discuss the importance of unified measurement of media, how privacy regulations and vendor moves to protect data impact digital media, and how marketers should approach an economic slowdown. Episode Guide 2:30: Are marketers properly understanding and using the vast amount of data generated by their media? 5:33: Why are marketers reliant on last-touch attribution despite all of the tools and data at their disposal? 9:16: What is the impact of privacy regulations and data privacy policies on media tracking? 15:17: How will a down economy impact how Clay and his colleagues market their tools? 19:22: What is Clay’s favorite tool?

Account-based marketing is such an integral part of the strategy for so many B2B marketing teams that it is hard to understand how marketing worked before ABM burst onto the scene. The early promises of ABM included increased efficiency and better alignment between marketing and sales. When marketing knows exactly which accounts it needs to target, there’s less wasted effort. And when sales and marketing collaborate to identify those accounts, they are (in theory) on the same page. Today, B2B marketing is in a new phase of ABM. Beyond identifying accounts to target, marketers are combining account names with other forms of data, such as intent, to fine-tune their list even more. RELATED EPISODE: How to Succeed in the Age of the Anonymous Buyer On this episode of the B2B Nation podcast, we talk to Randi Barshack, CMO of ABM platform vendor Rollworks, about the evolution of ABM, how her team works to stand out in the very crowded market for marketing technology, and how marketers should approach their work in a weak economy. Episode Guide 1:52: Have we reached the point where ABM is now the standard for B2B marketing? 5:13: Does Randi think ABM has helped align marketing and sales? 8:33: How does Randi help her brand break through the noise in the crowded martech space? 12:13: Randi’s advice for maintaining and growing demand in a down economy. 15:58: What is Randi’s favorite tool?