It’s been more than six months since our inaugural BBC Event. Although we are not (quite!) ready to host another full-blown event, we did hear the community when they mentioned that they wanted a place to share and connect.
This is why we started hosting monthly Marketing Group Chats, where we would pick a topic and invite some experts in the field to get the conversation going. In October 2021, we hosted our first call on What’s Working and What’s not in the Marketing B2B World, and if we may say so ourselves, we were happy to see the turnout! With over 25 people in the community who attended to participate in our chat. We had Julia Flaherty, Mary Miller, and Christi Whipple as our experts with a lot of conversation on which marketing strategies are currently working for them.
As a short recap:
Content remains on top of everyone’s minds: from how to get it, who should be the content creators, and finally to how to repurpose it was one of our hottest topics of the day. Video content remains one of the best ways to attract viewership as well as a great source for content repurposing. One of my favorite “ah-ha moments” was when it was mentioned that videos can be all sorts of lengths from 15 seconds to an hour and a half, depending on the content.
Virtual events stay a major part of a marketing plan: this discussion mostly focused on content and length as these two variables have the biggest impact on whether or not people are going to sign up for the event. The consensus from the panel is to avoid saying “webinar” as no one likes to be sold to, and if you must, keep it short and concise if you want people to stay until the end. Where our panel was seeing good traction was when they would host more subject matter expert and best practice seminars. These sessions could be as long as 90 minutes, but you must be sure that you have some good subjects and content lined up.
Metrics matter: this is important to have buy-in at many levels and for you to track what is working and what isn’t. I think what came out of this discussion was less on the metrics and more on the timeframe that goes along with these metrics. We should be mindful that SEO traction takes time, and if we don’t hear back from the prospect within a week, it doesn’t mean the campaign was a failure. When working with salespeople looking for fast results, it is important to remind them that some things take time and might not be a priority for everyone right now (which brought us into a nurture marketing discussion, but we will keep that hot topic for another time).
Our November 2021 call, “What do you need to know for your marketing planning in 2022?” was equally impressive, and the audience got great tips from Jessica Person, Suzanne Scanlan, and Marleen de Winter.
I always leave these types of sessions jazzed and refreshed, ready to come up with new ideas or take solace that I’m not alone in these struggles. [Insert shameless plug] This is why you should sign up for our next Marketing Group Chat on January 25th, “All You Want To Know About Creating a Podcast.” We hope to see you there!
In addition to these group chats, we have also started a job board. This is where firms in the channel can list marketing-specific job opportunities in order to connect with other bright minds in our industry. Want to learn more about this opportunity, check out our current job board.
Don’t forget to join our list to stay updated on the latest event and what’s cooking in the community.
By Tania Konczynski, Member of the BBC Event Planning Committee and Director of Sales and Marketing at JOVACO Solutions
As a self-proclaimed marketing geek, I love all things marketing strategy and automation in a world that is constantly evolving. My passion is to stay up to date with the latest trends and how to implement them on a SMB budget. As a member of the Microsoft ERP channel for over 10 years I have been able to marry my first love which was Excel spreadsheet that balances at the end of the month with my interest on how people buy software.