B2B Nation

One of the challenges that many B2B startups face is how to effectively market their product in a way that fosters growth without breaking the bank. It’s also not unusual for startups to launch their marketing efforts before building out a fully staffed marketing team.

Eyal Katz is a former anthropologist and search engine marketer for SAP who started an agency that specializes in taking early-stage startups to their growth phase. In this episode of B2B Nation, we talk to Eyal about startup marketing, what gets him excited about B2B marketing in 2022, and more.

Episode Guide

4:43: The importance of writing as a marketing skill.

6:10: The most effective marketing tactics for B2B startups.

10:14: How to decide where your marketing tactics should go after the initial campaign.

14:17: Common marketing mistakes and misconceptions startups have around marketing.

19:38: What gets Eyal excited about B2B marketing in 2022?

24:46: What is Eyal’s favorite tool?

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In this week’s episode of B2B Nation, we talk to Pedro Ramos, Executive Director of Performance at OMD EMEA, about leadership in the B2B marketing space, and how coaching and mentoring helped him grow his career.

We’ll also discuss some of the conversations young marketers will be jumping into as they start their careers, including humanizing B2B marketing, the challenges of leadership in an industry that changes so quickly, and more.

Episode Guide

1:35: What makes for effective leadership in an environment like a B2B agency?

3:48: Leading teams through times of change, in B2B marketing or the world in general.

7:10: How do you lead through something you’ve never experienced before?

8:39: What did Pedro learn from mentors and coaches in his career?

11:33: Pedro’s advice for people just starting their careers at an agency.

13:55: What gets Pedro excited about 2022 from a business perspective?

17:30: Will 2022 bring a focus back on the B2B buyers?

21:17: Are Pedro’s favorite tool and the tool he can’t work without one and the same?

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In this episode of B2B Nation, Emily Gaylord, a global marketing campaigns manager for OutSystems, talks about the challenge of targeting technology tools to business people, picking the right tone for the right target audience, how marketing for the IT channel differs from marketing to users, and more.

Episode Guide

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A universally recognized brand is a powerful tool for the brand’s marketers, but it can also serve as a target -- for unhappy users, for hackers, and for the competition.

When it comes to recognizable brands in B2B tech, Microsoft sits near the top of the heap. In this episode of B2B Nation, we talk to Sylvia Harn, global media director at Microsoft, about how her team plans to use the Microsoft brand and its muscle to help market new products in 2022. Microsoft recently announced news around a pair of cloud solutions at its Ignite conference, and brand power will be essential to its success.

Both Microsoft Mesh, a new entrant in the metasphere market, and its Zero Trust security, will be up against other well-known brands in their quest to build market share.

Episode Guide

3:10: How does Microsoft’s brand muscle help and present challenges to its marketers?

5:47: How will Microsoft take on high-profile competition in the metasphere space?

10:44: How will Microsoft compete in the crowded Zero Trust security field in the coming year?

13:41: Sylvia’s thoughts on social media marketing in the current atmosphere.

19:00: How Microsoft protects its brand on social media.

26:12: What gets Sylvia excited about 2022 and marketing for Microsoft?

29:05: What is Sylvia’s favorite tool?

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In this episode of B2B Nation, Mike talks with Bolaji Oyejide, the Senior Director of Demand Generation at Bevy. 

Bolaji and his colleagues at Bevy believe that the secret to establishing relationships with prospects is through community, not marketing. And they practice what they preach, using the Bevy platform to create communities of like-minded prospects, helping them connect with each other and see Bevy in action in the process.

Episode Guide

2:05: What is a “community-driven” event?

9:39: How does Bevy help build community-driven events?

16:56: What types of organizations are Bevy’s ideal customers?

22:54: What is Bevy’s most effective marketing message?

30:22: Bolaji commits to joining us at DemandFest

30:57: Is there something Bolaji needs to make his job easier?

34:45: A few minutes on Bolaji’s series of children’s books

39:02: What is the tool Bolaji can’t work without?

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In this episode of B2B Nation, we talk to Christopher Bray, a cybersecurity sales and marketing veteran with experience working for some of the best-known brands in the security market. Today, Christopher is Chief Revenue Officer at Aura, a consumer cybersecurity vendor that changed its message once the pandemic further blurred the lines between home and office.

Aura’s leadership found an opportunity in the remote and hybrid work environment to take its B2C cybersecurity solution into the B2B market. And rather than re-engineer its solution for enterprise users, Aura made the decision to approach corporate human resources teams about making Aura available as an employee benefit. Through this approach, organizations could help protect their employees in their online consumer lives, while simultaneously protecting the business that now runs through their home networks and devices.

Episode Guide

2:47: How Aura developed a customer-first approach to marketing cybersecurity.

6:44: Remote work and the home office changes cybersecurity marketing.

9:00: How Aura took a B2C security product to the B2B market.

10:02: What does the B2B sales process look like at Aura?

12:00: What do you think we’ll be talking about one year from now?

15:50: What is Christopher’s favorite tool?

In this episode of B2B Nation, we’re talking to Jon Carlson, Sr. Marketing Director at Allego, which makes a sales enablement platform that helps sales reps learn and access resources at the right place, at the right time. Our discussion covers the evolution of the sales enablement function and its tools, what to look for in a sales enablement leader, how Allego markets its solution, and more.

Episode Guide

3:01: When should an organization think about dedicated resources for sales enablement?

6:00: What is driving the broadening of the sales enablement function and its tools?

8:59: How does the blending of the marketing and sales functions change sales enablement?

14:43: What should B2B vendors look for in a sales enablement leader?

19:05: What messages are resonating with Allego’s customers and prospects?

24:24: What is Jon’s favorite tool?

In this episode of B2B Nation, our guest Paul Fifield estimates that half of the world’s companies are in the B2B space, and that the Go To Market teams in many of those organizations are essentially learning on the job. B2B sales and marketing, Paul explains, simply move too fast for traditional higher education to keep pace.

As co-founder and CEO of Sales Impact Academy, an online learning platform dedicated to training and developing Go To Market teams, Paul is on a mission to develop the skills necessary for Go To Market roles and rethink corporate training more broadly.

With more tools available to help capture the voice of the customer, and more data on customer behaviors available than ever before, it’s never been easier to understand the challenges and goals of B2B customers. So what is preventing some B2B firms from thinking more like their buyers?

In this episode of B2B Nation, we talk to Erik Newton, vice president of Milestone Inc., about why the customer-centric mentality is proving such a challenge for B2B firms. We also discuss why competitor obsession tends to overrule customer obsession in B2B, and whether the line between marketing and sales is blurring as a result of the modern customer journey.

Episode Guide

1:36: Why is thinking like a buyer such a challenge for many marketing organizations?

2:45: Are marketers that focus on inbound marketing more customer-centric?

3:57: Listening is central to thinking like a buyer.

5:14: Customer obsessions vs. competitor obsession.

8:19: Ideal customers vs. solving ideal problems for your customers.

11:21: Does the reliance on attributes like job titles leave opportunities on the table?

12:47: Is the line between marketing and sales starting to blur?

17:40: Thoughts on the state of B2B content.

25:50: What is Erik’s favorite tool?

Ike Singh Kehal and his team at Social27 spent much of 2019 re-thinking online events and virtual experiences. A few months later, with the global pandemic shutting down in-person events of all sizes, Social27 found itself flooded by inbound inquiries from marketers and event professionals looking to make a pivot to virtual experiences. Even Ike, Social27’s CEO, found himself giving demos for more than 12 hours straight on some days.

In this episode of B2B Nation we talk to Ike about marketing in a world where suddenly your product is in very high demand, about how marketers and event planners need to consider personalization instead of massive events, and whether or not online event fatigue is just an excuse for low-quality content.

Episode Guide

2:10: How did the increase in demand for event platforms change the way Social27 markets its platform?

6:56: The shift from quick fixes to long-term, strategic thinking in the events space.

10:19: How hybrid and virtual events can improve the B2B event experience

15:17: Is personalization the key to improving the B2B event experience?

20:14: Convincing attendees that new event models will work for them.

24:25: Helping event teams champion a new model for events internally.

27:10: The challenges of disrupting the traditional event model.

29:54: What is Ike’s favorite tool?