Trends that work in business to consumer (B2C) marketing don't always translate well to business to business (B2B) marketing.

However, if you're a B2B marketer there are some trends of which you should be aware.

Here are the main trend topics:

• Digital for B2B
• Advocate Marketing (B2B's secret weapon, in my opinion)
• Email Marketing (email continues to hold steady)
• Online Advertising?

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Man vs. Machine
More Software as a Service (SaaS) instead of  local people to provide those services (i.e. local bookkeeper). 

However, for the local bookkeeper there is a play if you can showcase your value at a reasonable price over a software solution. Or perhaps there is value in your experience and credibility to be the human running the software which could be some sort of hybrid software with a service.

On-demand Gig Economy 
In the creative space small businesses will utilize on-demand freelance services as needed to help reduce the headcount of an in-house marketer, copy writer or designer, and this mentality will creep into other positions as small businesses try to stay under 50 employees – the Affordable Care Act threshold.
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This is good for those among the creative class who embrace the gig economy.

On the Go
Website and content consumption on mobile devices will continue to out-pace that of desktop computers. That's likely no surprise. This will continue to shape and influence website, software and app-related user experiences.

It's Still King, but it Requires More Investment 
Content and inbound marketing will still be useful, but there is more content for small businesses to rise above, which means more investment in time and energy to get content marketing to work well.  However, content is still more effective and less expensive from a customer acquisition cost standpoint than other marketing.

​Posted by Nick Venturella

check out NickVenturella.com

Why should you blog for your business? 

Well, blogging is certainly not a quick fix marketing strategy for better search engine results and generating new leads. 

However, like financial interest, well-written, audience-appropriate blog posts compound on one another over time. 

The result is more of your blog posts (or web pages) being found by search engines.  Being found by search engines more often means more website traffic, which means more opportunities to convert website visitors to email list subscribers and/or clients.

Those blog posts are online marketing assets that continue to serve up traffic for you long after they’re written and published to the web.

The great thing is, you keep adding new posts to your content marketing machine and the old ones never go away, so you are constantly building a massive online presence that can help make it easy for Google and other search engines to find your site for topics, keywords and audience you cover.

This aspect of content marketing that I’m describing is the numbers game portion of SEO – the sheer volume of content you can put out.

There is more to optimizing your site and content to be found by your target audience; the audience who is looking for your type of product or service.

These days Google is not only concerned with whether or not you have specific keywords and authority on your chosen blog topics but also that your site loads quickly, is secure and mobile responsive.

Loads Quickly
When a visitor lands on your website, its content should load on screen quickly – in 3 seconds or less.  Google cares about this for search rankings.

Security
Having the “s” in your websites URL (i.e. https:// vs http://) shows Google that your website is secure from outside hackers who may try to sabotage your website and thus you breach your customers’ and site visitors’ trust and possibly their personal information.

Mobile Responsive
Having a mobile responsive website simply means that you’ve created one website that automatically reformats to fit whatever screen the site is viewed on.  For example, when you open your site on your laptop computer it displays appropriately – as you would expect on your laptop.  When you open the same site on your smartphone the site automatically adjusts the way it’s displayed to provide users a positive viewing experience on their mobile device without have to go to a separate URL.

​Post by Nick Venturella

Talent management, in Porter’s mind, should think about their employees in a similar way.  Instead of trying to do things to retain that talent, put them in a position to grow and go on to bigger and better things – help build them an exit plan. 

In doing so, your organization gets a reputation for being a great developer of talent and will, thus, attract more of that caliber of talent.

That idea resonates with me for GrowLoop.  My goal with the hand-crafted, on-demand marketing services GrowLoop provides is to be there to develop great marketing pieces for clients when they need them while helping to grow their marketing chops.

This helps clients to develop their brand and sales reach, but ultimately GrowLoop is trying to get them to a place where they’ve either moved on to a bigger shop that handles more complex needs because the client has grown so much, or we’ve empowered them so much that they don’t need us for more than periodic marketing coaching.  

GrowLoop is here when you need us, and empowering you when you don’t.

What’s your exit plan?

​Posted by: Nick Venturella

Adding visuals to your blog posts and social posts can be helpful toward increasing engagement and readership of your posts.

In fact, according to Social Media Examiner posts with photos/images get retweeted on Twitter 35% more than those without.

Plus, if you have an audience that is on Pinterest, creating images for your posts that can easily be pinned and repined is helpful since Pinterest has the ability to drive a ton of traffic to your posts and site.

So how can you easily created pin-able and tweet-worthy images to accompany your posts?
Canva is a free online design tool that allows anyone to create beautiful images that can help illustrate your blogs and social posts.

You don’t have to be a designer to use Canva. It takes the guess work out of the equation to help you concentrate on creating great images that support your goals, quickly.

One of the great things about Canva, besides being free to use, is that it has image dimensions pre-sized for you.  So, in other words, if you want to create a Pinterest pin image, just select the Canva Pinterest template, which is already sized for you.  You want a Twitter post image, pick that template and don’t worry about what size to make it…it’s done for you!

Canva allows you to use their free illustrations to aid your images or purchase inexpensive stock photography to build your masterpiece.  Either way, you can download your images for use on your blog or your social networks.

There are even some design tutorials that can help you get a grasp of some design concepts to build better images.

As a service business, if you need some basic imagery for your website or collateral materials, Canva can be the place to start until you can afford to invest in more custom professional work to build your brand. 

​Posted by Nick Venturella

I’m a designer and marketer.  I’ve worked as an in-house creative person at various companies and for myself.  

The nature of the work is often location agnostic.  In other words, the internet and phone are used to connect and communicate with prospects and clients across the country and around the world.

A common issue that comes up is the clunkiness of capturing a real signature to initiate work with a new client, whether for a simple quote or an executable contract.

It’s clunky because I don’t own a fax machine (I don’t know many who do anymore), so when I get or send out quotes and contracts, I have to print a hardcopy of the document to sign, sign it, scan in the signed copy and email it back to the other party.  

That takes a lot more time and effort than I want to put in these days.  Especially, when I know there is better technology available to alleviate this problem.

Mosspaper can help.  With Mosspaper the quote or contract is sent to the customer with a secure URL link where they can easily comment, reject, or electronically sign it.  

Mosspaper works across devices, and while it allows anyone to create, sign, track, and accept quotes & contracts anywhere, there is a lot more usefulness packed into this tool.  Be sure to check it out.

Posted by Nick Venturella

So you own a business.  You sell some sort of something, we’ll call it a widget.  You’re actually pretty great at your business and the handful of customers who have your widgets love them.  The problem is you aren’t selling enough widgets to keep your business moving forward and growing the way you want.

Yes, you have a website for our business, as you know the internet is a great source of marketing and customer traffic.  However, it’s been brought to your attention that you could be missing out on connecting with a lot more potential widget buyers -- buyers who are actively in the market to buy the kind of widget you sell -- if they were only able to find your website as they conducted their online widget research.

Optimizing your website to show up more often within search engine results when your potential customers search for products and services like the ones your business offers can allow more traffic to your website.  That increase in traffic to your website gives your site more opportunity to convert more potential customers into paying customers.

Adverlite is an organization that can help businesses like yours increase their search engine optimization.  Check out Adverlite to learn more.

Posted by Nick Venturella

If you are an entrepreneur or even an aspiring entrepreneur you’ll want to check out Long Live the Internet (LLTI). 

LLTI is an online resource for those interested in starting and growing their online business empire.  Robert and Jonathan (the founders of LLTI) have taken their lumps as entrepreneurs in real estate and other realms. Based on their own experience and what they continue to learn they distill out the information you need to know to cut corners (bypassing the mistakes they made) on your road to success.

From online business, ecommerce, online marketing and even SaaS products, LLTI provides a ton of useful information to teach you what you need to know, inspire your entrepreneurial journey and help you reach your online business potential.

LLTI provides a lot of practical advice that makes venturing out on your own a bit less lonely and more like you have a virtual team of experts guiding your decision making toward real results.

So go check out Long Live the Internet.  You can even sign up on their email list and get their free gift of 50 secret resources we have used to make over $1,000,000 online. (INCLUDING OVER 23 THAT ARE FREE).

Posted by Nick Venturella

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