Category: Digital Marketing Blog

How Many External Links Should I Include in My Blog Article?

Posted on by Michael Marchese

A content marketing strategy is a great way to build your audience and grow your sales. Using smart strategies, such as integrating external links, can build your authority and improve SERPs.

While other search engines exist, Google is the one most companies use as their gauge for designing SEO strategies. Along with death and taxes, one thing is always certain: Google is going to update its algorithm several times a year as it deems fit. Major algorithm updates by the tech giant can throw any SEO strategy into chaos. That said, one consistency is the use of links in online content.

Links play a key role in search engine rankings

As Google and other search algorithms evolve, one of the key things they still look for is links. Inbound, outbound, and internal links all play a pivotal role in your search engine ranking. There are three basic types of links:

  • Internal links – From your site to another page on your site.
  • External links – From your site to another website.
  • Inbound links – From another site to your blog.

Using a good balance of links you control (internal and external) is important. Inbound links are out of your control, but the better your content, the more likely other websites will link to your content for the authority and value you provide audiences.

taking decision

The basics of inbound links

Inbound links are arguably the most important of the three. They are like a vote of confidence for your website from a third party. Websites that include a link to your site tell search engines that your page is a trustworthy source others go to for essential advice and information.

While they are critically important for SEO, inbound links are also some of the hardest to obtain. It’s important that good external links come from trusted sites, not artificial links created through fake or spam sites like:

  • Blogs.
  • Wikis.
  • Social media profiles.
  • Directories.
  • Guestbooks.

These low-quality inbound links could actually have the opposite effect and harm your SEO if a search engine punishes you and moves your results down the page. In previous years, the above emerged, along with link farms and other ways to manipulate rankings. Search engines became wise to these and other sketchy strategies used to generate traffic.

Google and others now penalize websites using these techniques. With algorithm updates throughout the years, such as Google’s Page Experience, search engines are getting better at spotting artificial links and evaluating page and link quality.

The best way to get high-quality inbound links from trustworthy sources is to create great content and promote it so others will see it, read it, and share it with their own audience. As you get more votes of confidence through these links, search engines will notice.

Examples of good external links for your content strategy

External links lead a reader from your website to a site elsewhere on the web. External linking happens when you link to an outside source that you reference in your blog article.

Any SEO practitioner worth their salt knows it helps to include links in a piece of content. External links greatly benefit your website in terms of building visibility and adding credibility to your content. Just as important is that they add value to the readers’ experience because the links connect them to other valuable information while reading your content. Audiences will see you care about them and want to provide them with the best information possible.

readability improving

How to identify a high-quality external link

Content marketers should not use just any link though. As with any source of information, there are good and bad examples of external links. Linking to news events, reputable statistics (e.g., illustrating a point you want to make), or additional reading to expand on a topic are all good resources to provide your readers. Search engines know and consider this as they rank pages.

How to identify a high-quality external link:

  • The website you are linking to is regarded as a high authority in the industry. A well-respected source will boost people’s confidence in your content.
  • The link is not from a direct competitor’s website (at least, not from the same location).
  • The link leads to a source known for content relevant to the subject matter.
  • The source links to mostly informational websites instead of your competitor companies.
  • The site you are linking to has attracted regular readers and a substantial number of visitors.
  • The source has valid information that gets fact-checked (e.g., the opposite of Wikipedia).

Once you’ve chosen the links to include, you must take other factors into consideration, such as the number of links.

How many external links should you have in a content article?

External links encourage readers to click away from your blog article, so you must limit these links and set them to open in a new tab. That way, readers won’t abandon your site entirely. Abandoning your site increases bounce rates, which hurts your website traffic. A perfect example of why SEO can be so tricky!

What, then, is the ideal number of external links that you should include in your article?

With Google constantly making algorithm changes, no number can ever be set in stone. Some say 2-5 external links is best, depending on the length of the content. Still, others would not put a limit on the number of external links. Many industry experts, however, advise against linking more than once to the same page.

Based on what we’ve found from our own research, we recommend 1-2 external links for every 500 words of content. Limit your total number of external links to 5 (which would be for a very long article, approximately 2,000 words long).

 

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What is the best way to include an external link in an article?

An external link should be placed within the body of the content. Readers appreciate knowing what they’ll get if they click a link. That is why an external link should be properly emphasized using a concise, relevant, and contextual anchor text. The hyperlinked text within the sentence you are linking from should convince the reader that clicking it leads to additional, valuable information.

What external links should be avoided within the content?

Not all external links are created equal. By all means, take great care including external links within any quality content. Avoid using links that are outdated or “spammy” in nature. Instead of linking to poor-quality websites, link to reputable experts and authoritative sources, such as:

  • Journalistic sources (The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Forbes, Content Marketing Institute, etc.).
  • Reliable sources on .gov and .edu domains.
  • Well-established sources such as Pew Internet, Nielsen, and Gartner.
  • Experts and thought leaders (but avoid competitors).

To ensure your links retain their quality, perform a periodic link audit to ensure links are still working and current.

Tempesta Media’s philosophy on external links

Tempesta Media writers and editors meticulously check all external links to ensure they do not lead to competitor websites. They make sure each link works. A broken link is not a good thing. No one wants to be greeted by a web page that is inaccessible because it has moved or the target website is offline. A working link leads to a good reader experience and increased traffic.

Finally, no content should be caught linking to outdated sources with information that may now be incorrect or irrelevant. At Tempesta Media, all external links within a content piece are verified to ensure they are accurate and up to date.

Related reading: Now that you’ve learned about external links, want to learn about internal links? Read our blog article: 8 tips on how to incorporate internal links to your content.

Want a strategic approach toward building your online presence?

Tempesta Media offers a number of services to help businesses bolster their online presence, grow their audiences, and ultimately expand their businesses. To get you started, we can provide you with a digital marketing assessment Prova that helps you assess your current strengths and weaknesses and provide many other services to help bring your company to the level of visibility you want to achieve at an affordable price point.

To learn more about our digital marketing managed service solution Performica, contact Tempesta Media today. We’re happy to answer any questions or address your concerns.

Why It’s Important to Add an Estimated Reading Time

Posted on by Michael Marchese

Blogging is an important content marketing tool for companies of all shapes and sizes. One important key to achieving business blogging success is to identify ways to appeal to internet readers. Adding an estimated reading time to the top of your blog posts is an easy way to help make this happen.

Zippia published some interesting statistics in April 2022. For instance, 77% of internet users read blogs and, on average, read about 10 blogs a day. About 43% of readers skim content, and the median time they spend reading is a mere 37 seconds.

If these statistics are accurate, you need to use every tool in your toolbox to motivate your readers to engage with your content longer. Publishing content is not just about writing words, it also involves strategy. Adding an estimated reading time to each of your blog posts is one strategy that can have a profound and positive effect on your reader engagement levels.

Reasons to add estimated reading time

Most people are time-pressed and don’t want to start reading an article to find it’s going to take them 20 minutes that they don’t have. As a result, they’ll likely close out the link and completely forget about the content.

Letting readers know from the beginning what their estimated reading time is will go a long way toward helping them decide if they can read now or bookmark the page until later. Time is precious to most people, but if the content grabs their attention, they will make time to read it later.

How to estimate reading time

Reading time is relatively easy to calculate. A person reads, on average, 200-250 words per minute. If you calculate the total number of words in your article and divide it by either 200 or 250, you’ll find the number of minutes it takes to read it.

When calculating estimated reading time, it’s best to round up to the nearest minute. For example, if you have an article that takes 1.6 minutes to read, round it up to two minutes. To make calculations easier, use one of the many online tools available.

estimated reading time significantly impacts engagement metrics

What happens when an estimated reading time is added to a blog post?

Adding the estimated reading time at the beginning of an article significantly improves the reader’s engagement with your content. Further, adding an estimated reading time significantly impacts engagement metrics with engagement rates improving up to 40% when the estimated reading time was added; statistics back this claim up. Specifically:

  • The bounce rate dropped.
  • Time spent on site increased.
  • The number of page views increased.

These metrics are the type of results you want to achieve. Sometimes all you need are little tweaks to help boost your analytics. Adding an estimated reading time is easy to do, and it pays big dividends.

What are the additional advantages of adding an estimated reading time?

There are additional benefits to adding the estimated reading time to your blog. Beyond improving your engagement metrics, adding this key piece of information for readers improves your SEO as well.

Impact on search engine optimization (SEO)

Search engines use algorithms to determine where content should rank for a given focus keyword or phrase. Some of the factors incorporated into those algorithms are:

  • Bounce rate.
  • Estimated reading time.
  • Pageviews.

The goal of your content is to be ‘findable. If an individual arrives at your article from one of the search engines, visits your site, reads the article, and goes on to view other pages, the search engines will view your content as relevant and valuable to other searchers using the same search query. In short, it will become even more findable.

This positive feedback will tell the search algorithms to prioritize your content, moving it up on the SERPs (search engine results pages). The more searchers who have a positive experience with your content and website, the higher your article will appear in the SERPs.

If SEO is important to you, you’ll see reading time’s impact on your program. You’ll also more closely coordinate and integrate your SEO and content marketing programs for better overall effectiveness.

Impact on the sales funnel

The benefits of adding an estimated reading time to your blog post go beyond increased engagement and better ranking and have a positive impact on your sales funnel.

The more you’re able to draw your readers to the content on your website, the better educated they’ll become. Your audience will be more likely to read other pieces of content on your site, too. Whether the reader realizes it or not, their actions slowly move them from the awareness stage to the interest stage of your purchase funnel.

A higher ROI can provide you with the financial momentum you need to reinvest more aggressively in your content marketing program.

The bottom line is this: adding estimated reading time requires very little effort on your part. And displaying it can increase reader engagement, improve SEO, and sales metrics. In an indirect way, it can nudge your audience towards the ultimate goal – conversion.

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Ready to boost your marketing efforts?

A digital marketing assessment, coupled with a marketing-managed service provider, can help you take your company to new heights. Every company strives hard to achieve an edge with its content marketing program. If you are looking to amplify your online presence, grow your audience, and expand your business,

Tempesta’s Prova digital marketing assessment identifies gaps in your digital marketing program. Prova evaluates:

  • Brand positioning and targeting.
  • Competition.
  • Any direct response gaps.
  • Content marketing performance.
  • Social media presence.
  • SEO performance.
  • Prospect nurturing.

After analyzing about 90 different aspects of your current marketing program, Prova will then identify areas to help you close any gaps. This assessment can be completed within two weeks and will position you to take the next steps to bolster your marketing efforts and achieve your goals.

Finalizing your assessment is your first step. Tempesta Media’s managed solution Bullseye Effect™, can then help you take your business to the next level. Peformica is the perfect solution to grow service businesses as you can eliminate expenses associated with hiring content, influencer, and social media marketing specialists/agencies.

With Bullseye Effect, you can obtain a stronger ROI. Even better, our compensation aligns with your success, meaning, we share both the risk and the reward. To learn more, contact Tempesta Media today.

Want additional information?

If you have a content marketing program or are planning one, download our e-book, 100 Mistakes Businesses Make When Starting, Optimizing, and Scaling Content Marketing Programs.

Our e-book will walk you through the mistakes of hundreds of other companies and the challenges they faced in implementing their content marketing programs.

Finding a Path Forward Post-COVID. Part 4: Assessing Your In-House Capabilities

Posted on by Michael Marchese

As businesses shift their marketing mix to adapt to the stagflationary environment, it’s important to assess in-house resources. For many organizations, managed service providers (MSPs) are a more realistic option.

The past two years have seen a rapid succession of events that have put a majority of businesses in a challenging situation. As rapidly rising inflation follows COVID-19, adapting to this new environment is crucial for surviving.

When it comes to marketing, businesses need a strategic approach. It’s something we discussed in our four-part blog series.

  • In part one, we looked at how marketing was changing post-COVID and discussed the new challenges CMOs are facing.
  • We introduced the bullseye model in part two, a simple tool for visualizing your different marketing assets and adjusting spending to prioritize owned media to build valuable marketing assets.
  • Part three focused on the importance of collaborating at the C-level for a successful realignment of marketing spending that prioritizes owned media.

In the last instalment of our series, we’ll discuss the reality of executing the bullseye model and look at whether it’s realistic to implement it with in-house resources.

Build, buy, and labour challenges

Larger organizations have a median team size of 115 for their marketing department. It can be hard to compete for small and medium organizations with much smaller marketing teams.

Amping up your marketing efforts entails choosing between a build or buy approach:

  • You can build an internal team through hiring and training. This gives you more control over marketing, but the cost is high.
  • The buy approach consists of outsourcing marketing tasks to a partner. It’s cost-efficient, but it’s important to choose the right vendor.

Why building a marketing team is harder than you think

Too many businesses fail to assess the full extent of the resources needed for a successful content marketing program. Writing weekly blog posts and updating social media pages sounds manageable, but a strategy that yields results requires a lot more.

There is a certain level of expertise and experience needed for content marketing and SEO:

  • SEO optimization can get technical. You need the expertise to understand how the latest search engine algorithm changes will affect your content.
  • Crafting content that converts and sells takes skill. From grabbing readers’ attention to generating leads with strong calls to action, an experienced copywriter can make a difference.
  • A growing number of businesses are investing in data. On a global scale, the big data analytics market is growing at a CAGR of over 13% and will exceed $655 billion by 2029. Measuring content performance or using analytics to find content creation opportunities are complex tasks that require training and expertise.
  • Marketers need access to digital tools to develop and publish content or measure performance. Apps and software are additional costs to consider.

Too often, businesses fail to assess the level of work and knowledge required. Plus, CMOs often delegate these duties to entry-level employees or even interns. While these individuals can be valuable addition to a well-rounded marketing team, they don’t have the skills and experience needed to get results.

For a majority (91%) of brands, content marketing is only successful to some degree. Too often, the program fails to generate enough leads or doesn’t increase the business website’s ranking in search results.

The CEO and CFO will then make the difficult decision to kill the program. This might signify the end of content marketing efforts, or the CMO might come up with a new program that a lack of proper resources will quickly doom to failure.

In-house programs lack the resources to succeed and don’t run long enough for the business to achieve a consistent investment in owned media. It’s a frustrating experience and a widespread issue, with 55% of businesses reporting unsuccessful content marketing programs.

What does it take to succeed with content marketing?

Success requires a strategy and the proper resources to implement it, both in terms of budget and labour capability.

On average, businesses spend 9.5% of their revenue on marketing. While an internal team can have some advantages, this type of budget isn’t sufficient to get results in-house.

Agencies are practical for outsourcing and usually deliver excellent results, but it’s a cost-prohibitive solution for most businesses.

For many organizations, managed service providers (MSPs) are by far the best option. These vendors are an extension of your marketing team and give you access to the expertise and manpower needed to invest in owned media.

Just like you would outsource complex IT tasks, you can outsource content creation to expert writers and get help from experienced SEO professionals.

Results on a budget

From the CMO’s point of view, an MSP can deliver results on a budget.

Service-level agreements clearly outline what the MSP will do. These agreements are often flexible, and some tasks can remain in-house so that the internal team can focus on what they do best or create unique value through programs like employee-generated content.

Plus, MSPs work with measurable KPIs. As a CMO, you can track the performance of the service provider and know exactly what you’re getting for your marketing budget.

Convenience and cost tracking

Working with an MSP isn’t different from partnering with another type of vendor. It’s easy for a CFO to track costs and budget for future services. Most MSPs use a subscription model with a recurring monthly fee.

Relying on an MSP also keeps spending compartmentalized. CFOs can easily track spending for content creation and SEO and get a clear ROI for these activities.

Plus, outsourcing has a minimal impact on financial metrics since the company isn’t adding new employees.

Competitiveness and flexibility

With the help of an MSP, a marketing department will typically start seeing results immediately. MSPs have the infrastructure and workforce needed to deploy marketing programs and reach goals within the targeted timeframe.

With 75% of B2B companies outsourcing marketing, working with an MSP is crucial for staying competitive. It’s also a flexible solution wherein CEOs can adjust spending as needed.

When revenue is available, CEOs can focus on building assets by investing in owned media. If revenues drop, it’s possible to shrink or slow spending, focus on paid media, and leverage existing owned media.

Plus, MSPs can rely on digital marketing assessment programs to measure results and continuously optimize the strategies used to achieve sustainable long-term growth.

Start getting results today with managed service providers (MSPs)

An MSP can help build a strong foundation by delivering owned media to improve an organization’s online presence and make it more resilient when times get tough.

Tempesta Media’s Bullseye Effect™ solution is a turnkey product that gives you access to a team of experts, reporting tools, content creation capabilities, SEO services, and more.

The first step is our Prova 90-point assessment. This digital marketing assessment thoroughly examines your current content marketing program. It uncovers areas where your marketing team can meet the goals you’ve set and sheds light on processes that could benefit from an overhaul. We’ll look at your brand positioning, direct response strategies, content marketing performance, social media presence, and more.

Starting with a digital marketing assessment helps us take a highly customized approach adapted to your unique needs and challenges. We’re living in difficult times, but there is a path forward to achieve change and growth. You can take action and start getting results today by scheduling a digital marketing assessment with Tempesta Media.

Finding a Path Forward Post-COVID. Part 3: Why Collaboration at the C-Level Is Crucial for Marketing Today

Posted on by Michael Marchese

Businesses can survive in a stagflationary environment by realigning their marketing strategy. This shift requires collaboration at the C-level and a conscious decision to prioritize owned media.

Marketing today can feel challenging. CMOs feel the pressure of high costs and shrinking profile margins, prompting a new approach.

In part one of our series on finding a path forward post-COVID, we discussed how the pandemic created new challenges for marketers.

In part two, we introduced a bullseye model to realign marketing goals in the context of a stagflationary environment.

Rethinking how you approach your marketing mix is only the first step. The next step is allocating resources to support a content marketing program that establishes a strong online presence by prioritizing owned media.

Here’s why collaboration at the C-level is crucial to achieving this goal.

Why branding vs. direct response is a problematic approach

Traditionally, marketing departments have tended to take a siloed approach and manage branding and direct response separately.

Branding encompasses all the activities that shape a company’s image. It can include messaging, logos, social and environmental programs, and more.

Branding creates value for a business, even though brand value can be difficult to measure. Some would argue it’s at the core of what a business does. When marketers are consistent with branding, it can foster trust and help build relationships with customers.

Most businesses keep branding separate from their direct response programs. Direct response marketing activities acquire new customers through offline and online campaigns.

Unlike branding, it’s easy to track the time and resources invested and ROI by looking at customer acquisition numbers or sales volumes.

This approach is problematic. Marketing today is increasingly digital, a trend that accelerated during COVID-19.

With digital channels playing a more important role, owned media has become a key asset. Owned media refers to the content a business develops to establish its online presence and share information with prospects. It can include blog posts, email series, branded videos, and SEO efforts.

Marketers can leverage owned media to generate awareness for the business, connect with leads, and nurture prospects by delivering information throughout the buying journey.

The branding vs. direct response model makes sense when a business primarily focuses on paid media. Paid ads play a very important role in online marketing spending and allow marketers to generate an immediate response.

However, investing in content creation efforts makes more sense in a stagflationary environment due to the higher ROI of owned media in the long term. Because this content shares elements of branding and direct response with lead generation, the branding vs. direct response approach becomes obsolete.

Managing owned media at the C-level

Owned media is an asset. It’s a strong foundation for your online presence and allows for scalable growth. It can even insulate your marketing department from budget cuts since you can keep using these assets to generate leads with little additional investment of time or resources needed.

Even though 2022 saw an increase in marketing budgets, with businesses spending 9.5% of their revenue on marketing on average, most organizations are spending less than they were before COVID-19.

Investing in building-owned media should be a priority. Everyone at the C-level has a role to play.

CEOs

CEOs can make a conscious decision to prioritize owned media. They can allocate resources to build and optimize this asset and support the work of the CMO. They can also have a significant influence on shaping a company culture that values communication and collaboration by working closely with executives from different departments.

CFOs

CFO buy-in is crucial for developing owned media. Under the traditional branding vs. direct response model, content marketing and SEO often get overlooked.

Many brands lump content marketing and SEO into the branding budget, which means CFOs don’t allocate enough resources to properly develop owned media.

Using the paid media budget to develop content and SEO doesn’t work either. The purpose of this budget is to generate an immediate return. Owned media supports long-term growth goals and needs its budget.

CMOs

As many as 60% of CMOs say they currently lack the resources needed to meet their marketing and customer experience goals.

Marketing today is evolving at a rapid pace. CMOs need to play a more important role at the C-level by educating other decision-makers about the latest trends and advocating for a strategy that prioritizes owned media.

Adopting a new model

Historically, companies that reallocate spending experience growth. Collaboration at the C-level is crucial for realigning marketing spending and unlocking growth in our challenging environment.

CEOs, CFOs, and CMOs need to work together to create a new chart of accounts that reflects the need to emphasize digital marketing. This chart should include a budget for branding, direct response, and owned media.

Creating a separate budget for owned media has several advantages. It facilitates tracking spending and performance for owned media, which means CFOs can calculate ROI accurately.

Plus, CMOs can do a better job with clear goals and a dedicated budget. They can launch programs that make sense for the organization’s goals and resources and plan for the future if they have a predictable owned media budget.

And, with a clear budget allocated to owned media, it will become easier for CMOs to implement consistent strategies and keep developing content in the long term. It’s a crucial aspect of launching a successful owned media program since ROI increases as you keep developing this asset over time.

From budgeting to implementation

Adopting a digital-first approach can make businesses more resilient in a stagflationary environment, but it requires some changes at the C-level. Communicating, making collaborative decisions, and rethinking marketing spending will support long-term growth through owned media.

However, establishing a dedicated owned media budget is only the first step. To get the most out of this budget, businesses need to choose the right strategies for developing content that will yield results.

Managed services market trends reveal that a growing number of businesses choose to outsource this process. Working with a partner gives businesses access to expertise, additional resources, and measurable results.

With Bullseye Effect™, Tempesta Media offers a turnkey managed service solution for content creation, SEO, social media, email marketing, and more than 30 modules. After completing an in-depth review of your current marketing program with our Bullseye Effect assessment, we will develop a plan that is uniquely adapted to your needs. Our approach includes content development, continuous optimization of your owned media program, social sharing, influencer marketing, email marketing, SEO, and more.

Get in touch with us to learn more about this solution or take a look at part four in our series on finding a path forward post-COVID to get a better idea of what it truly takes to implement an owned media strategy and whether in-house teams can realistically manage it.

Finding a Path Forward Post-COVID. Part 2: Adapting Your Marketing to a Stagflationary Environment

Posted on by Michael Marchese

Shrinking ROIs and inflation are coming together to create a challenging environment for businesses. Finding a path forward entails realigning marketing spending, starting with taking a hard look at the different assets and channels in your marketing mix.

As many businesses still struggle to recover from the pandemic, high levels of inflation and stagnating markets are creating an even more challenging environment.

In part one of our series on finding a path forward post-COVID, we discussed the changes in marketing post-COVID and how businesses are switching to a digital-first approach. We also addressed marketing challenges like higher costs or the need to adapt to a changing marketing environment.

In part two of our series, we’ll take a closer look at stagflation, shrinking ROIs, and simple tools businesses can use to realign marketing spending strategically.

Stagflation and the bullseye approach

The current economic situation isn’t favourable. Prices keep going up, but economic growth is lacking. For businesses, this translates into a decrease in ROI and ROA rates. 65% of small businesses are considering closing if things don’t improve soon.

CMOS need to be reactive and realign their marketing approach, starting with where marketing dollars go.

The bullseye approach is a simple tool marketers can adopt to understand their marketing environment better and identify the channels and assets with the highest potential ROI.

The bullseye model uses a series of circles that represent different channels. The inner circle represents the core of your marketing assets, with your website, content, and SEO. As we get farther away from the centre, each new ring represents a channel that widens your outreach.

This visualization tool echoes the buyer’s journey. The outer rings will typically initiate the first contact via a campaign designed to increase awareness, and prospects will gradually move closer to the centre of the bullseye as they connect with your brand and consume more content.

sky rock building

Core assets: Build a strong foundation with content marketing and SEO

At the centre of the bullseye, you’ll find marketing assets that include your website, official app, blog posts, onsite and offsite SEO, and more.

These are assets that you own. You have developed this content and own the platform where you publish it. It’s important to establish the distinction between owned, earned, and paid content:

  • Owned content is the result of your content-creation efforts. Focusing on owned content allows you to build a repository of resources.
  • Earned content comes from users. It’s organic, but you don’t have control over creating it. Earned content is great for social proof.
  • Paid content refers to your paid outreach efforts, including PPC, partnerships with influencers, promotions, and more.

In a marketing environment where stagflation prevails, owned assets become more important than ever. A library of owned assets provides you with resources you can use to keep generating leads with little additional investments required. It supports a scalable model, and the more you invest in content and SEO, the more you’ll get back over time.

A marketing mix that prioritizes spending on owned assets can insulate your business. It will result in a strong online presence that protects you from new competitors. Plus, you’ll have existing assets to fall back on if you need to cut your marketing budget in the future.

Many businesses are adopting this strategy, with 42% of organizations increasing their content marketing budget. It’s a significant trend, with businesses increasing their spending on marketing by more than 10% on average. SEO is also a priority for 34% of businesses.

First ring: Reach out and nurture with email marketing

Email is a publication channel for your owned assets. It’s also a channel you can use to funnel traffic to your website and nurture leads as well as existing customers.

Email is the first ring in the bullseye model since you can reach out to recipients at any time once you establish initial contact.

For 47% of marketers, email remains the most effective channel for conversions. Focusing on emails is also an opportunity to deliver the kind of personalized experience that 71% of consumers expect with strategies like segmentation.

Second ring: Connect on social media

As you get farther away from the centre of the bullseye, you’ll find a ring for social media. Social media can include a mix of owned, earned, and paid content.

It’s a publication platform to share your content with fans or followers, but it’s also an opportunity to reach out to new users via shares, hashtags, and other features.

While B2C brands focus on trends like influencer marketing or exploring rising platforms like TikTok, LinkedIn remains a staple for B2B marketers. This platform plays a part in 47% of buying decisions and provides you with opportunities to conduct targeted outreach thanks to the data users share on their profiles.

Third ring: Increase awareness with paid ads

Paid ads represent the last ring in the bullseye model. PPC and other forms of paid advertising have the largest potential outreach, with close to 90 billion monthly visits on Google or 2.9 billion active monthly users on Facebook.

However, ROI is generally lower compared to other channels. CMOs can expect to get $2 back for every dollar spent on PPC campaigns, while channels like email marketing typically have an ROI of x42.

Plus, paid ad strategies need to adapt to recent changes regarding the end of third-party cookies. Transitioning to a model that focuses on contextual and interest-based ads leaves many marketers in the dark without any actionable data.

email marketing campaign

Aligning your marketing spending strategy with the bullseye approach

There are two ways to invest your marketing dollars:

  • You can build assets by investing in owned content. This approach unlocks long-term growth and resilience through a repository of resources you can leverage to generate leads in a scalable manner.
  • You can opt for buy over build and prioritize paid ads. This strategy can make sense for newcomers in a competitive market who need to increase awareness quickly, but ROI is lower, and you’re taking more risks.

Due to the current climate of stagflation, shifting toward a build strategy and consolidating the core of the bullseye with content marketing and SEO makes sense.

How managed marketing services can help

A managed marketing service can strengthen the core of your marketing mix by identifying opportunities for content creation, developing quality content, implementing SEO strategies, and more. Tempesta Media’s Performics solution is an option to consider if you’d like to realign your marketing mix to improve resilience and boost ROI in the face of stagflation.

Learn more about this service, or stay tuned for part three of our series, in which we will discuss the role of collaboration at the C-level in the context of realigning your marketing mix.

Finding a Path Forward Post-COVID. Part 1: Understanding the New Marketing Environment

Posted on by Michael Marchese

COVID-19 resulted in a sustained period of disruption. Many businesses adapted by accelerating their digital transformation efforts, an approach that ushered significant changes in marketing post-COVID.

What does the buying journey look like in a post-COVID world? Between social distancing, closures, and a growing number of customers expecting a convenient omnichannel experience, more marketers are moving offline processes and campaigns to a digital environment.

This digital-first approach isn’t a new trend. Businesses have been focusing on digital transformation for years, but digital marketing post-pandemic comes with its unique share of challenges, including heightened competition and higher costs.

This four-part series will discuss the changes and new challenges CMOs are facing and explore some solutions.

COVID-19 as a force for change

Before we delve into digital marketing post-COVID, it’s important to understand how COVID-19 created change for organizations.

Some businesses had to change out of necessity. Established processes that involved in-person interactions became impractical, and many teams had to adapt to fluctuating demand.

Two years later, some significant challenges still force businesses to change. Close to 80% of small business owners feel that the economy has been getting worse recently. Inflation, supply chain issues, and labour challenges are emerging as the long-term economic effects of COVID-19 and creating a particularly challenging environment for businesses.

Some businesses also embraced change because they saw new opportunities during the pandemic. Moving some processes online helped organizations find a new way of doing things. Some adopted more flexible processes, while others discovered new niches.

The current trend is to transition toward a data-driven model. For organizations ready to embrace this model, there is a strong need for products and services adapted to remote or hybrid processes as well as a buying experience that supports data-driven decisions.

digital journey

An increasingly digital buying journey

Digital transformation has been shaping growth for decades, but it’s been accelerating at a fast pace, with more businesses adopting remote work, automation, and data-driven processes. Plus, technologies like AI or low-code platforms are providing businesses with a sound foundation to accelerate their digital transformation.

It’s no surprise that the buying journey is increasingly happening online. In 2020, eCommerce grew by 27%. Growth has continued, and eCommerce now represents 22% of all retail sales. Experts believe eCommerce sales will exceed $7.3 billion by 2025.

This phenomenon goes beyond consumer products. The B2B buying journey is also moving to a digital-first environment.

Some organizations that already relied on digital channels strengthened their online presence with new post-COVID marketing strategies, while others shifted entire processes online. A striking example is a video-conferencing market, which is currently growing at a CAGR of 9.5%.

As the buying journey continues to move to a digital-first model, we’re also seeing buyers prefer a self-directed experience. They expect an omnichannel environment, and more organizations are investing in websites or apps to support buyers through the different stages of their journey.

Online experiences are quickly becoming the new normal, with 65% of B2B companies offering eCommerce. Digital channels are also outperforming in-person sales.

And, with buyers becoming more comfortable with digital channels, they’re increasing their budget for online purchases. In 2022, 75% of buyers are willing to spend over $50,000 through online sales channels, and a record-breaking 35% are ready to spend more than $500,000.

digital marketing

What does marketing post-COVID look like?

Between rising costs and new challenges linked to operating in a digital environment, many CMOs are seeing their profit margins shrink. Successful marketing campaigns are more important than ever due to the prevalence of online buying journeys and require a strategic approach.

Higher costs

Higher costs are one of the defining trends of digital marketing post-pandemic. Inflation has been wreaking havoc on businesses’ balance sheets lately, but there are deeper issues at play.

Many organizations switched to digital channels during the pandemic with little warning. The social media market alone is currently expanding at an impressive CAGR of over 39%.

The marketing industry wasn’t prepared to absorb marketing dollars from offline budgets. Costs went up to curb this sudden increase in demands.

Having more businesses develop their digital presence also results in heightened competition. It’s an issue for newcomers to the digital space who need to make significant investments to grow their presence and establish awareness of what they offer. Achieving marketing goals now requires a more significant investment of time and resources due to the increased competition.

Pay-per-click ads are an example of this trend. Marketers now need to spend more to target popular keywords on platforms like Google Ads or Facebook Ads. They can still expect an ROI of $2 for every dollar spent on average, but keywords can cost an average of $58 to target for industries like business services.

Plus, the growing complexity of the digital environment and the heightened expectations of customers mean marketers need to branch out. For instance, PPC costs are going up due to competition, but many CMOs are increasing their budget to account for video searches, and voice searches, or even targeting additional search engines like Facebook, which is currently getting 20 billion search engine visitors each month.

Anticipating future trends

While PPC ads are a good example of this trend, there are other channels driving costs for marketing campaigns.

Now that all the major browsers are moving away from third-party cookies, many businesses need a new approach. Retargeting strategies are no longer viable, and there is a need to invest in first-party data and content creation.

Plus, the shift to a 5G network will likely have an impact on consumer behaviours. Businesses will have to adapt by focusing on mobile experiences that facilitate the buying journey.

And, as more marketers continue to embrace a digital-first approach, competition will make it difficult to stand out unless a brand uses personalization. A winning personalization strategy requires investments in data and other solutions.

ecommerce

Finding a path forward

Spending more on ads and other digital channels results in a lower ROI. It also increases the average cost of acquiring a new customer, which is why customer care is now a top priority to increase retention.

Finding a path forward is challenging for many organizations due to the current economic downturn. Many businesses have at best a reduced budget and are at worst struggling. Inflation is a problem for 34% of small businesses, and, with a third of businesses ceasing operations during the pandemic, many organizations didn’t have a chance to recover fully.

Businesses are at a turning point, and the current rates of inflation and economic downturn suggest this situation will last. Organizations that don’t find a path forward to achieve growth are likely to fail.

From a marketing point of view, the way forward is a strategic approach with a pivot toward digital marketing while prioritizing cost-effective solutions and yielding results.

Grow with a managed service solution

What are managed services? Instead of handling marketing in-house, you can partner with a managed service provider and work with a team of experts. Besides developing and publishing content, these experts can help with on and off-page SEO, email marketing, social media, and more.

With Performics, Tempesta Media offers a proven approach to managed content marketing. It’s a turnkey solution that includes thoroughly assessing your marketing program, content development services, publication on different channels (including social media), influencer marketing, SEO, email marketing, and more. Plus, ongoing optimization ensures that your ROI increases over time to get the most out of this service.

Stay tuned for part two in our series on finding a path forward post-COVID, where we’ll discuss challenges linked to inflation and a stagnating market. In the meantime, get in touch with us to learn more about our managed service solution.

Digital Marketing Strategy: What Will We Face in 2023, and How Will We Manage It?

Posted on by Kristan Manley

To get customers to your company, you need to do marketing.

Many people talk about digital marketing, but they don’t provide the content or the context behind what it means. Generally, it is the concept of raising awareness about your company’s brand, getting people to be educated about what you provide, and ultimately inducing them to take action (purchase or get a lead form).

Digital marketing changes all the time

When Covid 19 hit, it forced a major change in how people communicate with their prospects and their customers. Traditionally, most companies did some or most of their marketing offline. With the emergence of Covid 19, every company rushed into digital marketing, whether they had the skills, experience, and budget or not. Resultingly, there was a great deal of inflation in the cost of advertising online.

Now, we’ve gotten to a point where certain forms of digital marketing have become too expensive, such as digital advertising.

marketing team

Сompanies are moving away from some forms of digital marketing

Companies are shifting to such forms of marketing as:

However, they’re also starting to go back to offline marketing because things have started to open up around the world as well. So, it’s been very turbulent for marketers over the last couple of years. It’s not just where but also how they advertise.

Three causes of digital marketing strategy changes

The underlying factors for the changing digital marketing strategy are the following:

  • There has been a move to omnichannel marketing, which means that marketers can sell both online and offline.
  • Marketing has transitioned from centralization to decentralization. About ten years ago, marketing buying was centralized among a few television stations, a few radio stations, and a few newspapers. However, with the growth of the internet, everything is becoming very decentralized and diffuse. That requires marketers to change how they make purchases.
  • There has been a general shift from offline consumption by users to online media consumption.

readability improving

“Must-haves” in marketing strategy creation

The creation of each and every marketing strategy starts with defining the target audience. Many marketers rely on past data or experience to accurately determine who their target audiences are. But prospective buyers are changing, and, if you’re not constantly reviewing who’s buying your solution or product, you’re likely to put forth a strategy that targets the wrong audience, and it will fail as a result.

There are a couple of common tools every CMO should use when they’re trying to put together a digital marketing strategy, such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console.

Google Analytics does an excellent job of analyzing who’s coming to your site and who’s converting. It also has demographic and location-based information, as well as other intent data, that’s very important for you to help identify those pockets of new customer opportunity to fit for your company today. Google Search Console, meanwhile, gives you a good viewpoint into types of content or searches.

Google Analytics and Google Search Console illustrate how well you are performing in terms of your site. For example, customers can use content and social media analysis tools to understand very clearly what their competitors are doing to align their services to fit with their target market much better and, at the same time, present the better.

Creating a great strategy in 2023

2023 will be a rough year for customers. We see already that the US and the global economy have officially slipped into recession.

This means it’s a dangerous environment for marketers. They have to rationalize and determine which programs to keep for 2023 and which to cut. CMOs and business owners should expect layoffs in the marketing industry within the next 12 months.

If you are a CMO, you should avoid adding staff that you can’t keep and explore outsourcing. This will give you the maximum flexibility to survive and keep your jobs.

Regarding all these future hard times, you probably still wonder what that important magic tool is to create a new digital marketing strategy. With Tempesta Media, your digital marketing strategy is safe. Contact us today if you would like to accelerate your success with managed content marketing.

6 Key B2B Content Marketing Trends to Follow in 2022

Posted on by Anastasiia Lavrinenko

If you want to succeed in B2B content marketing, you’ll need to adapt to today’s competitive realities by considering six key trends for outsized performance for B2B marketers.

Field sales are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Since Covid-19 came on very quickly, companies have been trying to adapt due to being unable to meet their prospects and customers in person. So, they quickly started using Zoom and other remote-based communications.

This blog will describe how the B2B world has changed and how content marketing strategies have adapted, providing six different trends to follow and succeed in your business.

Key factors that changed the B2B world

There are three crucial factors that have contributed to a significant change in the B2B world. You have to quickly find ways to adapt to these changes and keep succeeding in your businesses.

Web presence is key to your marketing success

This phenomenon is not limited to small B2B purchases. The website was always the focal point of communications before Covid.

Before the pandemic, the website may have been a supporting entity part of an overall communication mix. Now, it is the focal point, and other forms of communication support it.

Big-ticket for B2B purchases are happening remotely and through digital self-service

These purchases are generally defined as 50,000 dollars or more.

While the vast majority of big-ticket items are still happening in person, a growing percentage of those, especially between 50,000 and a half million, is happening remotely.

As a B2B marketer, you’ve got to tell your story, provide your value proposition and critical differentiators on your site, and do so concisely. You have to stand over the crowd, which will get the point across to your website’s target audience.

The content of your website is crucial for your brand presence and domain authority

If you have a poorly constructed website and are not focused on taking that customer through the buying journey, you will rapidly see its deceleration and an increase in your competition’s sales and higher domain authority.

6 key trends for content marketing success

1. Crafting longer content: Blog posts are getting longer   

Only very long-form content is driving results for marketers. So, if you are writing blog posts that are <600 words, don’t waste your time. You have to show up in the search engines and have a chance at achieving a top-10 listing.

In one SEMrush study, articles with at least 3,000 words generated 3x more traffic, 4x more shares, and 3.5x more backlinks than short-form articles. You’ve got to have content and write 1,500 words at a minimum (or, better yet, between 2,500 and 3,000 words).

Another important factor for crafting longer content is updating older blog posts, making them longer and more valuable to their target audience by refreshing them with new thinking and adding more images.

2. Increasing content publication frequency

Long blog posts need to be published weekly to generate results. In a competitive industry, you need to post more frequently. Expect to post 2–3 times weekly to gain market share. Depending on where you’re in the industry and how competitive it is, you may post anywhere from 2 to 5 times a week.

3. Adding more images

Something very important to consider is that people read and comprehend content differently. For example, some people are visual, others are auditory, and others simply want to read.

Many companies thought it would be sufficient to include an image at the top of the blog post or article, and they felt that their work was done. However, the reality is that adding one image for every 250–300 words of content is optimal for generating better results in the SERPs.

When you create your content, it is crucial not to build it in a model style but to instead incorporate different elements that appeal to further learning or concept absorption for the readers. For example, integrating more images into your content gives you a better ranking performance, better user engagement, and more sales for your company.

4. Incorporating structured data

Incorporating structured data is crucial since it improves your content and gives it better visibility. Incorporating structured data can be known as Google taking elements of your content and adding code around it.

Featured snippets create a new distribution channel for your content. They always appear on the first page of specific search results and are often above the fold so that the search engines know that this is a structured snippet that can appear in other parts of the SERPs.

5. Increasing content promotion

To increase content promotion, you should attempt to look inward first; you should look to start controlling and owning your media versus trying to focus on paid media by considering the following recommendations:

  • Try guest posting: Public relations, speaking events, and guest posting have become the three most important ways to increase promotion. The most successful content marketers use these tactics more frequently than most other companies.
  • Expand your LinkedIn presence: LinkedIn outperforms all other social media for B2B. As your budget becomes increasingly constrained due to competition and inflation, you will need to focus your social media programs on LinkedIn at the expense of other venues.

6. Owning distribution

Our “employee advocacy program” is a capability within our managed service. This program allows you to build your corporation and community.

Starting an Employee Advocacy Program (EAP) provides two significant opportunities.

  • Your employees can become your distribution channel, leveraging their brand to promote your company, driving thought leadership, introducing your company to new prospects, and reducing overall marketing costs.
  • You can build a corporate-owned community. Companies that establish online communities for their customers and prospects set themselves apart from the competition.

Another thing you need to do is take advantage of the social network and group capability. For example, you can create groups focusing on the business and discuss the issues their prospective audience faces.

In summary

In 2022, focus on the basic blocking and tackling tasks that you need to follow, increasing the word length of your content, incorporating images, and publishing more frequently.

Also, make sure you have content that targets your audience in a segmented fashion, resonating with that audience in search engines.

Do those things consistently, and you will have results this year. Be ready for a very strong 2023. Tempesta Media can help you out with the process. To know all about our content marketing solution managed service, don’t hesitate to contact us today.

3 Reasons Your Business Should Invest in Digital Marketing

Posted on by Anastasiia Lavrinenko

Using digital marketing to grow your business.

Investment in marketing is important

There are two ways to look at marketing: paid and owned media. Paid media is when you pay a third party, such as an advertising property like Google or Facebook, to drive traffic back to your site.

Owned media is created by you and doesn’t involve a third party. It could be a blog, social media page, or website.

Two important factors to consider when measuring the effectiveness of any marketing campaign are durability and sustainability. However, if you’re looking for more short-term results, you must be prepared to continue investing in that campaign month after month.

The key is finding a balance between the two extremes. It can be tough to justify investing in marketing and advertising because their return on investment (ROI) is very low. Costs have gone up while profits have decreased, making it hard for businesses to see a positive outcome from any marketing campaign.

However, there are two exceptions to this rule:

  • Ownable media. With ownable media, you’re investing dollars but getting very few leads in return.
  • Honorable media. With honorable media, you’re making an initial investment and then receiving a consistent flow of leads over time as long as you continue the campaign.
business growth

Where businesses should invest

Investments are an important part of any company, and just like in any other investment, there is a certain expectation of what you should get back. For example, if your company has an internal ROI threshold of 15%, that means for every dollar you invest, you should get $1.50 back within six months. But, of course, this also starts generating a return on your investment.

As a result, you need to find a project that will give you the best ROI in the shortest amount of time. There are many different opportunities right now in marketing, but one area where CMOs are seriously investing in research is social media.

CMOs quickly realize they can’t do everything in-house, and it’s not cost-effective to try. In addition, they struggle to find staff who are trained and capable in all aspects of marketing, from content writing to social media management. As a result, you should consider the following solutions:

  • Outsourcing. You can examine each component of the marketing team separately to determine what can be outsourced effectively.

  • Automation. A lot of companies are looking into automation because digital marketing has become increasingly reliant on technology over the last five years. The amount of money you need to spend to keep up with the competition has increased exponentially. So it’s important to be mindful of this when deciding on your marketing strategy.

Trying to build an in-house tech stack can be expensive and time-consuming; instead, it’s often easier to look for external solutions, cobble them together using tools like Zapier, and use that as your tech stack. That way, you can focus on your core business instead of trying to do everything internally. Again, this is an example of making an investment.

digital marketing discussion

Three reasons to invest in digital marketing

With everything digital, from social media to blogging and email marketing, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed. But it’s important to remember that finding the right balance is key.

So don’t let yourself get bogged down — focus on integrating one or two new digital marketing efforts at a time and see how they go. If you’re still not sure whether digital marketing is the right step for your business, here are three key reasons to invest in digital marketing.

Brand recognition

It’s common knowledge that to increase brand awareness, you need to do some amount of brand advertising. The more visible your company is, the easier it becomes for your sales team to sell and close new business. This also means you’ll get more inbound leads because, based on the strength of your brand, people will be interested in what you offer.

Word of mouth

Word-of-mouth marketing is a powerful tool. Referred customers are often more loyal and profitable than other customers, so it’s important to have a system that encourages referrals.

Unfortunately, many companies don’t take advantage of this strategy because they don’t know how to track referrals. But with the right tools, you can easily measure the success of your referral program.

Competitor analysis

Many companies aspire to be the top player in their field but focus only on their direct competitors. While this is a good start, it’s important to remember that you’re also competing with indirect compe

titors. These businesses may not offer the same product or service as you, but they still threaten your success.

It’s crucial to understand who these companies are and what makes them different from yours. This should include evaluating your performance against theirs and identifying their strengths and weaknesses so you can capitalize on any opportunities.

In summary

To succeed in digital marketing, start considering investments in automation and outsourcing. Such measures can help you achieve your objectives quickly. At the same time, building your brand is an example of an investment that will pay off in the long run.

If your company prioritizes programs that generate fast internal returns on investment, you’ll be setting yourself up for long-term success. You can track and measure your success in the short term and make necessary adjustments along the way. 

With Tempesta Media, your investments in digital marketing are safe. Contact us today if you would like to accelerate your success with managed content marketing

 

What Megatrends Could Transform The Digital Marketing World in 2023?

Posted on by Kristan Manley

In the digital marketing world, nothing stays still for long.

What changed in 2022

The balance between offline and online digital marketing has shifted in recent years. As a result, many advertisers have switched from offline marketing to digital, which has caused the prices of digital advertising to skyrocket. This is particularly evident in the areas of websites, emails, digital ads, and SEO.

The market’s challenge now is that many people have invested in digital programs because they have become too expensive. Consequently, the return on investment for these programs has decreased significantly. To solve this problem, companies are looking for alternatives.

Incremental dollars can make a big difference for businesses and individuals, so it’s important to be strategic about where you invest them. By the end of 2022, we’ll see even more changes.

Overview of the digital marketing industry in 2022

The digital marketing industry is an oligopoly in which a few major players dominate the market. One example is Google. Companies are becoming increasingly frustrated with advertising on major platforms like Google because they do not see the desired ROI.

People in the 18-34 age range, who used to be the main target for advertising, are no longer attentive. A lot of their time is now being spent on Facebook and Google. This shift means there is a dispersion of usage, with different platforms gaining favor at different times.

To capitalize on the trend, other companies need to start looking into strategies to set them apart from the pack. The pendulum is swinging back toward decentralization. This is good news for media buying companies, as they will see a resurgence in their power and influence.

The current economic situation is challenging for businesses. Stagflation, high inflation, and deceleration are leading many companies to scale back hiring and ad spending. So, during this time, you should work harder to optimize the following areas:

  • Content marketing. You need to keep creating killer content that is relevant and engaging. Keep writing longer content, and make sure you publish it frequently.
  • SEO. You need a good SEO strategy that attracts your audience, creating leads to buy products or services.
  • Email marketing. You can continue communicating with your subscribers or customers through relationship-building or sales.
  • Ad retargeting. You need to work on retargeting to drive higher visibility and brand recognition. Use this tool and be ready to see more conversions from repeat visitors.

Social media optimization

Main key performance indicators (KPIs) in 2023

To make decisions about whether to invest in outside sales and marketing, you need to take a long-term view of your customers. These are four important KPIs that you should monitor closely:

  • Customer lifetime value. It is the total value of a customer’s business with you throughout their relationship with your company. Considering this metric, think about how much it costs to acquire a new customer. If customer lifetime value has decreased, it’s likely because the cost of customer acquisition has risen.
  • Unique visits. By using data from unique visits, which are an industry-standard metric, you can find out how many people view your content within a given time frame. That way, you can quickly see trends, as this KPI offers a baseline that allows you to compare one type of content to another.
  • Consumption. You need to understand how your visitors are consuming content. Views, downloads, opens, click rates, time spent, and bounce rates are crucial measurements that help you hold on to your customers. Make sure that when they click on your link, they find what they expect. If you have a low bounce rate, you’re doing things right.
  • Engagement. Measure likes, shares, mentions, comments, pins, etc. These tell you whether your audience engages with your content. The more they like it, comment, or share, the more engaged they are.

Where companies are spending money

Companies are removing their less effective marketing programs, such as radio, TV, and paid media. Instead, they’re focusing on content marketing, SEO, email marketing, and ad retargeting.

This shift shows businesses know that great content is essential for a successful online presence. As a result, they will spend money in the next 12-18 months in areas where they are most likely to see success.

How marketing managed services can cut down on costs

Differences between the B2B and B2C markets in 2023

The B2B and B2C markets started down different marketing paths in 2019. B2C started gravitating toward influencer-based marketing, while B2B focused on webinars, events, SEO, and content marketing. 

The B2C side is showing a significant pullback that’s happening specifically in influencer-based marketing and social media marketing because these businesses are struggling to achieve an ROI that corresponds to the expenses they’re incurring. So B2C businesses are becoming very aggressive and renegotiating ad rates, influencer deals, and other paid media contracts. 

The B2B side is better protected and less exposed. Advertisers are B2B companies and are staying true to what works. They’ve done a much better job of quantifying the results that go with that. They will have a drawdown and paid media as well as paid social, but it will be less traumatic than what you see on the B2C side.

What B2B and B2C companies should consider

Many companies have had difficulties attributing their performance to specific marketing channels. So, to begin with, your B2B or B2C company needs to look at a potential partner that can go in and efficiently drive results. Then, with an analytics layer, you can cover all your bases, from content marketing to mobile, social media, and influencer marketing. 

The second step is to rationalize your costs and shift your marketing spending to match market demands.

In summary

Since you are responsible for both the B2B and B2C sides, you need to explore outsourcing some or all of those responsibilities. These could include mobile marketing, which is becoming increasingly important. In addition, whether yours is a B2B or B2C company, it’s important to invest in analytics. 
As a managed content marketing service, Tempesta Media offers a platform with an analytics layer that covers all your bases: content marketing, mobile, social media, and influencer marketing. If you would like your business to keep growing in hard times, contact us today.

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