4 things to consider before starting Account Based Marketing In today’s increasingly competitive and disrupted market, more and more businesses are turning to one of the most successful B2B marketing strategies: Account-Based Marketing (ABM). ABM is a collaborative growth strategy that gets marketing and sales teams working together to deliver tailored buying experiences to […]
What We're Thinking
4 things to consider
B2B marketing: Let’s #keepitreal in 2021
If you just released a new company white paper, insights or data then that is undoubtedly super important and most welcome, but in the world we live in right now, it’s probably not “the moment we’ve all been waiting for” or “the only thing we need to read this month”. We’ve always thought that marketing […]
Lockdown lifesavers: four positives to pick you up this week
It’s pretty hard to see the positives in weeks like this. We’re bracing ourselves for what looks like the most stringent lockdown so far and even the most resilient of us are dog tired with all the “bouncing back” the new “work-from-home” normal demands. So it’s OK to feel fed-up. It’s OK to be despondent, and […]
Why social selling and account-based marketing (ABM) is our answer to thriving post-Covid
Why social selling and account-based marketing (ABM) is our answer to thriving post-Covid The pandemic has shaken the business world to the core – a whirlwind of restrictions, increasingly changing markets, and an accelerated shift to remote working have all driven marketing teams around the world to pivot and transform how they operate. In the […]
The 3 easy steps To getting started on LinkedIn Campaign Manager
The 3 easy steps to getting started on LinkedIn Campaign Manager Paid advertising on LinkedIn should be in every B2B business’ marketing arsenal because of the flexible audience builder that allows businesses to target very specific audiences that would otherwise be out of reach. Here’s how to get started on Campaign Manager. In LinkedIn Campaign […]
Don’t rush into paid ads! Boost your organic reach on LinkedIn first
Don’t rush into paid ads! Boost your organic reach on LinkedIn first Last time, we launched the first blog entry in the Social Savvy B2B series on how social-savvy B2B businesses should leverage social media networks to flourish. This time, we’ll examine organic reach opportunities on LinkedIn before looking at how to create paid ads […]
B2B businesses: accelerate your sales cycle with social selling
B2B businesses: accelerate your sales cycle with social selling If you’re trying to keep sales numbers up for your B2B business: listen up. With face-to-face networking opportunities declining, we need to sit down and rethink our sales strategies to answer that all-important question: What is the best way of securing quality leads online to rival […]
What can marketers do to support social selling?
What can marketers do to support social selling? Back in the Spring, at the start of lockdown, we rethought almost every marketing service we provide at Now|Comms. We’re an agile B2B marketing business so change is in our DNA. But when circumstances are as volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous as they are now, being agile […]
What B2B tech companies should do on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter and why
What B2B tech companies should do on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter and why In the B2B marketing world, LinkedIn is almost the must-have priority for top-of-the-funnel (education-driven) leads because that’s where businesses connect with other businesses. But, in 2021, is LinkedIn really still king? According to Statista’s 2020 report, a whopping 46% of B2B marketers […]
What’s Step Two of One Step Marketing?
For all the businesses that have taken their first step to pivoting into the world of digital selling: what comes next?
We’re the creative media business of the year
Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix and Renee Zellweger: you can keep your Oscars! This weekend, down at London’s Twickenham Stadium the bright folks from West London Business named us Creative Media Business of the Year. Why us? Well from what we heard at the after-party, bagging the Creative Media Business of the Year award came down to […]
Get the marketing programme you always wanted in just seven days or less!
Sometimes marketers can be their own worst enemies don’t you think? Too often, it feels like all we produce is just cheap smoke and mirrors baloney that over promises and under delivers. As marketers, we’re as guilty as anyone here. We know it’s tosh, our clients know it’s tosh, and when no one cares enough […]
Everything about the digital ID & cybersecurity business has changed…except marketing
It’s pretty stressy being a B2B marketing agency in the digital identity industry.
Quiet Please! How do sponsors ever make a racket in a tennis tournament that bans branding?
Whether it’s the FA Cup or Formula 1, watching archive footage of almost any major sporting event brings one thing to the fore for people like us: The impact of sponsorship and marketing has transformed the game… except that is, down at SW19. While logos and branding have popped up on the shirts, the turf, […]
What You Missed From the DPWF Trade Show.
The first Data Protection World Forum (DPWF) trade show was a two-day affair (20th & 21st November). The event offered attendees seminars talks, business exposure and a valuable insight into GDPR.
Small business marketing: Why do so many SMEs think word-of-mouth isn’t marketing?
We’re a B2B marketing agency based in Chiswick. We’re in one of these trendy workspace buildings where lots of SME’s and start-ups live. We’re all highly proactive social types, so we get talking with the neighbours quite a bit. Since we’re a B2B marketing company, many of these chats get onto the topic of marketing […]
look behind you Scooby! The GDPR marketing monster’s on our tail
We’ve been working with the country’s leading GDPR specialists to establish GDPR friendly marketing tactics that won’t scare the willies out of your customers and prospects. Here’s where we are with that? It seems pretty clear that many people in business (not just in marketing) have their head stuck in the sand when it comes to […]
Why “Fit” is so critical when choosing a B2B marketing agency
Having worked agency and client-side during my marketing career, I’ve seen a wide variety of briefs for agencies ranging from Financial PR and Annual Report provision through to consumer facing web design and exhibition stand builds. Yet despite the diversity of the projects – in terms of budgets, deliverables and the profiles of client organisations, […]
Is your marketing department redundant?
Isn’t it exciting when all the rules change every day and no one’s really sure about what they should be doing anymore? We’ve noticed this in the B2B marketing we do recently. Maybe it’s not happening everywhere, but we’re pretty glad it’s happening on our patch. The defining lines between product development, B2B marketing and […]
B2B marketing analytics is easy when no one’s asking difficult questions
Our B2B marketing analytics models tell us that over the past 18 months, the average number of candidates nurtured through our content marketing programmes has shot up by over 25%. Traffic on the websites we manage and monitor is up and landing page conversions are delivering better qualified leads than ever. This is all great news: […]
5 and a half things to try after you’ve exhausted all your list blogging options
We’ve been addicted to lists ever since Moses published the “Top 10 things thou shalt or shalt not do” post, and for busy copywriters on multiple deadlines, they’ve been a Godsend ever since. Lists posts, or “listicles”, are the bloggers’ get out of jail card. They work because they promise something really specific in the headline: […]
Power of pre-suasion, or “telling it like it is in marketing”
If we told you that over 95% of our clients would recommend us to a friend or colleague, would you believe us? If we said “we’re a small creative B2B marketing agency that strives to innovate. Some people like our innovative ideas more than others and we know we’re not for everyone” is that easier […]
What can the Oscars teach us about winning business awards?
Meryl Streep, Ryan Gosling and Casey Affleck might make the business of award winning look easy, but as the marketers amongst us know too well, the media machines behind the big studios they work for have been beavering away for months to make sure it’s their talent treading the red carpet at this weekend’s Oscars. The rules […]
Say hello to #NoFluff marketing
It’s time for a good cause – the fast and free way Change has taken the world by storm and shaken the business world to the core. Now is the time for altruism to take centre stage and for profit to be put on the back burner. There’s no more time for contingency plans; it’s […]
Learning Technologies Exit Poll 2017
Look, up in the Hammersmith sky. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nope… it’s a Growth Engineering Superhero! Assembling at #LT17UK to save the L&D industry from dull online learning, Growth Engineering’s mighty avengers win top five places in four of our most wanted #LTexitpoll categories this year. Welcome to the Learning Texhnologies […]
London’s illuminated river project sheds new light on our services
Isn’t it annoying when creative B2B marketing companies come up with fancy product & services names you don’t understand. Overall we try to avoid this, but a while ago we set up a web hosting service called “Enterprise Cluster”. It’s not a service most B2B marketing companies bother to offer. Frankly, we got fed up […]
100 best websites in Security & ID (the special Trustech edition)
Scouting the halls of #Trustech last year we couldn’t help but notice the sparse, barren area where you might expect a big shiny Gemalto stand to be. Whether it was a logistics screw up or a strategic decision to go basic we don’t know, but the scene got us wondering. In a world where senior decision […]
ICE 2017: 5 takeaways for trade show success
It’s just four months away and it’s the biggest gaming and gambling expo on the planet, so if your marketing game plan for ICE Totally Gaming 2017 is not underway yet, it’s time to get started. Specially created for B2B sports marketers keen to maximise ROI on the trade shows they attend, our 5 takeaways for […]
Why is Uber promoting services that don’t work?
Last month Uber generated world-scale, earth shattering publicity by putting driverless cars on the road in downtown Pittsburgh. They don’t work. They can’t even do a right turn at a junction. Uber passengers using these cars find themselves Uber Pooling. There’s a human driver at the front who takes the wheel every time the car’s […]
Can you replace bad sales people with great marketing?
This week, as we were deep in the midst of one of these sparkly presentations that B2B marketers tend to do for large clients, one particularly hard nosed business person in our audience piped up with an idea: “Couldn’t all of this marketing automation, analytics driven, demand generation stuff actually help us single out bad […]
The relationship between sales & marketing needs to change
Marketing Automation’s role is to navigate prospects through the sales pipeline and pass well qualified, high definition leads over to the sales team, but you can’t just bolt sophisticated web based demand generation tactics onto the existing sales process and expect things to work. The relationship between sales and marketing needs to change. Change 1 […]
Will’s Website Wisdom: Shakey’s top 5 tips list for B2B marketers
“What a piece of work is a website” – William Shakespeare Act 1 Scene 1: We’re slap bang in the middle of a client meeting earlier this month when the business development expert in the room starts quoting Shakespeare. He’s not trying to show off and go all Patrick Stewart on us, it’s just that […]
Scrumdiddlyumptious – Post Easter Scrum Retrospective
That’s what you get when you combine ScrumMaster certification with Easter. I am now a Certified ScrumMaster. This achievement involved attending the two day course, absorbing a massive amount of well delivered theory, actively demonstrating Scrum method within teams, and passing a multiple choice exam when I got home (although I did have 60 days […]
Before Scrum: A Project Padawan’s story
This isn’t my first rodeo. I’ve run things. I’ve produced media projects and websites, and I’ve led creative teams. I’ve managed actors and writers, cinematographers and editors, executive assistants and publicists. I’ve delivered big projects. And all of it flying by the seat of my pants. So now it’s time to get better at this. […]
Winning Without Spinning: Why it’s always B2B Award Season with #NoFluff marketing
It is finally Leo’s moment. One of the internet’s best loved memes reached peak velocity this week. With five nominations and no wins, Leo DiCaprio was the world’s most celebrated Oscar underdog. With an epic and varied catalogue of work behind him, some said it was only a matter of time – this sixth nomination for his role in a Best […]
Learning Technologies Exit Poll 2016
To our squad of relentless pollsters who just kept on questioning; To the event organisers who simmered down the gents on security when they wanted to frog march us off the premises; And to the hundreds of enlightened LT16 visitors who stopped to tell us all about their visit, We thank you. The LT exit […]
Is your B2B marketing more successful than the X Factor?
We’re told by X Factor’s publicity machine that a whopping nine million people watch the show every week, but what obsessive B2B marketers want to know is: How many of these viewers actually call up? What’s the conversion rate? Is it better than we can achieve in the B2B marketing world and, if it is, […]
How to become a confident B2B marketer in five days or less: Day 5
Day 5: the finale Today I pack up my desk, take my tea mug back to the kitchen and return my visitor pass to reception. So here are my Big Three recommendations if you’re looking to fill my space in a marketing internship: 1. Go somewhere with a Kanban board Monday morning, just as I was […]
How to become a confident B2B marketer in five days or less: Day 4
Day 4: B2B goes big screen As the trendy marketing company NowComms is – and following the idea of a client’s Video Selfie project – we decided it was time to jump on and get the Camcorder out. For the purpose of this project, substitute Camcorder for my iPhone placed on a carefully constructed pile […]
How to become a confident B2B marketer in five days or less: Day 3
Day 3: the long and short of successful B2B marketing Yesterday our Instagram (Now_Comms) went live, Twitter was inundated with links to the first blog, and another widely anticipated post went up. But did it make a difference? Today is the day to evaluate the success of this blog and increased social media in the B2B marketing world […]
How to become a confident B2B marketer in five days or less: Day 2
Day 2: stats and social media Who knew just how many functions Google has. Of course, I knew there was more to it than the standard search – I spent the majority of my French GCSE plugging my homework into Translate, and everyone’s had fun on I’m Feeling Lucky – but discovering Google Analytics has […]
How to become a confident B2B marketer in five days or less: Day 1
Day 1: trending and amending Marketing internships are more searched in the UK than media, journalism and BBC internships according to Google trends. Therefore I realise I’m lucky in starting my first of a five-day placement – a marketing internship – with B2B marketing company, Now Communications. This is the first piece of work I’ve been […]
Is Net Promoter Score any good?
Anyone who knows us knows that we’re pretty analytical here at Now Comms. We think that B2B marketing needs to be evidential if it’s ever going to support really effective lead nurturing campaigns. This reputation for data based decision making means we’re often asked about the Net Promoter Score System. Usually the discussion goes along […]
How to support L&D output with marketing that doesn’t stink
The L&D industry’s best eLearning courses and resources are supported by some of the lamest marketing strategies we’ve ever seen. OK, so we’re a B2B marketing agency and our work is focused on marketing deliverables that bring new sales opportunities into the pipeline. We don’t usually get involved in the marketing activities that help L&D […]
What marketers can learn from the Football League
Well, that’s another Football League season all but over with. There’s been some notable teams exceeding expectations (Bournemouth, Burton), a fair few underachievers (Fulham, Wigan, Tranmere) and an awful lot of teams being, well, just average. As a bunch of Brentford and Bristol City fans, here at Now Towers we’re all congratulating ourselves on a […]
Digital bastards like Kayvon Beykpour make our blood boil
Digital bastards like Kayvon Beykpour make your blood boil don’t they? He sells his first start-up to learning business Blackboard for $4 mil before he’s even 21 and now, at the tender age of 27, he’s just banked $120 mil from Twitter for his latest brainwave Periscope, which he describes as being “like a mobile teleportation […]
Easy squeezy: how to get more from your B2B marketing budget
There’s no shortage of statistical evidence to help out the B2B marketer who decides that now is the right time to pitch the board for a budget increase, and certainly many of the arguments we’ve read are incredibly well made (In their book “Sexy Little Numbers”, Dimitri Maex & Paul B. Brown make the strongest case […]
Our blazingly simple backlinking strategy
Backlinking is probably the most important tool in the SEO toolbox these days. Sure, optimising everything you publish on your own site helps you get found, but having other quality sites link to yours: well that’s what Google really loves. These days Google’s algorithm is clever enough to sniff out sites using cheap SEO tactics […]
Is it OK to blow the whistle on your competitors?
Last year, 70,000 users of international phone cards were left out in the cold when one major SIM card supplier allegedly went bust without warning. The new Wembley stadium houses some of the most advanced ticketing and security systems in the world – but according to some of the major players in the sports business, […]
Free newswires: The good, the bad and the ugly
The constantly growing crop of free newswires springing up across the web is raising more questions than answers for many of the B2B marketing folks we talk to these days: “Do these sites work?”, “What’s the catch?”, “Should I bother using them and, if so, then which ones are worth the effort?” are amongst the […]
L&D industry loves mobile learning but hates mobile marketing
How come the vast majority of the 100 highest ranking websites in eLearning still have websites that don’t work well on mobile? Despite usage patterns trending out the roof for mobile web access, less than 4 in 10 of the biggest players in the L&D industry have mobile marketing strategies that use responsive websites (websites that render […]
Not everyone likes our top 100 best L&D companies chart
Since going live with the Top 100 best L&D companies chart, we’ve had flame mail from hard working marketing folks across the L&D industry. They’re keen to criticize because their company has not made the hotlist. Other calls come in from businesses ranked at the lower end of the chart who think they should be higher […]
Getting started with Google Adwords
This week we look at the advertising phenomena that’s captured over 80 percent of the Pay Per Click market and pinpoint the AdWords’ pitfalls that are driving B2B marketers to seek professional guidance. “Google AdWords can be dangerous in its simplicity” Callum Bridgeford is director at online health and wellness business Energise For Life. Typical […]