Which content types engage and influence technical buyers?

SterlingKor surveyed over 2,000 key business and IT Decision-makers, to find out how B2B vendors can engage and sell 'their wares'. So how do vendors engage with these IT and tech purchasers and what type of content will they engage with?

The top influencers of purchase decisions are social, mobile and video content

Key takeaways showed that:

45% were influenced by a vendor's social presence and 55% are searching for product reviews.41% purchased the product within six months of being exposed to a mobile ad.B2B companies are looking for information in 'bite sized chunks'.

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89% of consumer media time in mobile apps, 11% in mobile web according to latest statistics by Nielsen

Interested in finding out how content consumption has change across media? Whether it's video, apps, text, across linear, digital or mobile? Or how many hours are spent on apps and across which device? Nielsen's research provides insights into US consumers changing media use which can help prompt changes in media investment. See our statistics page for sources for consumer media consumption insight elsewhere, including Ofcom and ONS in the UK and comScore. Nielsen have combined the survey this quarter to look at the integration of mobile and video usage from their mobile insights survey along with metered data through Electronic Mobile Measurement. According to Dounia Turrill, SVP Insights, 'as we create the tapestry of media consumption with its impact and opportunnity for Advertisers, it strikes me that we are in an era of tremendous growth and…

Maximise Google to improve your mobile search

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New platforms and techniques for rapidly engaging online audiences

The increasing pace of life means that what little time we have is becoming more and more squeezed. This compression of time is leading to a compression of communication which has some notable implications for brands. One of the big trends for 2014 is the rise of image centric sites such as Pinterest which according to the Global Web Index grew 150% in 2013 and shows no signs of slowing. This format of image based content represents the ultimate distillation of information and ideas.

Density of communication

We’ve gone from reading websites and blogs, to scanning tweets to glancing at rapid sequences of images. It’s the editorial equivalent of skipping a fry up for a breakfast bar on the train.

Video continues to grow as shown in …

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How does your web timeline compare?

You have almost certainly heard that today marks the 25th anniversary of the invention of the web by Sir Tim Berners Lee and of course, CERN are celebrating this - see their timeline of how its evolved. This screen grab of the Next desktop computer used by Tim Berners Lee also shows how far the experience for users has evolved - no need for mobile responsive sites back then! [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Screenshot of the original NeXT web browser in 1993 (Image: Berners-Lee/CERN)[/caption] On Smart Insights we mainly discuss how marketers can take advantage of the commercial advantages of the Internet. Many of these have been facilitated by the interactions between users now possible via social media as Tim Berners-Lee stressed in his interview with the Guardian this week. "The web's billions of users are what have made it…

Successfully combining paid advertising and organic content on Facebook in 2014

Marketing professionals all around the world, whether online or offline will know that the marketing environment can change significantly at any given time. Social media is a notoriously flexible and changeable medium, as users and owners try to figure out how to best optimise the sites. Just recently we have seen Facebook introduce a new brand page layout. The latest change in the world of social media is one that was perhaps inevitable from the conception of social networking but has now set the bar for the future of social media marketing. In December 2013, Facebook released a document called 'Generating business results on Facebook.' In this document the company advise that they 'expect organic distribution of an individual page’s posts to gradually decline over time as we continually work to make sure people have a meaningful experience on…

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From forecast to action: the adoption of real time bidding in Europe

Not so long ago, the adoption of Real-time bidding (RTB) by advertisers in Europe seemed to lag behind that in the United States. While advertisers across the Atlantic were enthusiastically starting to use the real-time media purchase model, Europeans seemed less enthusiastic. However, in just over a year, the European market saw the real-time bidding skyrocketing. The year 2014 is not the time to ponder about turning to RTB, it's the time to seize and take advantage of the advanced technology at hand. What should we expect  to come in 2014, then?

Accurate advertisement targeting – data more important than ever

Western European advertisers and publishers now recognize the importance of big data resources, but so do the key e-commerce players in Central and East Europe. In general, in-depth personalization of online activities is the most basic benefit derived from automated…

Techniques to increase Facebook 'Likes'

Boosting engagement across different social media networks is a concern for many marketers today, even though the commercial objectives may vary for different types of brand. In Facebook the aim will be to increase 'Likes' or new Fans though ultimately leading to improved brand awareness or increasing sales from new or existing customers.

The success of a Facebook update to achieve these goals can depend on many factors, including time of postings, content. This infographic from KISSmetrics reminds us of this. Remember that, as for all marketing channels, 'testing' is key as the sector and audiences vary across businesses.

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