Digital Marketing for B2B With Google

On a fresh and crisp February morning myself and a whole host of eager advertising, marketing, digital, creative, nerdy type people queued outside Earls Court awaiting the opening of this years industry show - Technology For Marketing And Advertising.

Now, the reason for this rather enthusiastic early start to my day did not simply stem from the usual excitement of attending another exhibition, but the 10am keynote was being given by Richard Robinson, Industry Leader at Google.

The topic of his talk was specifically B2B digital marketing, this was of great interest to me as not only does B2B make up 70% of our client base, but I'm noticing an increasing trend towards digital marketing for these clients. The appeal of lower cost when compared to print, advanced methods to calculate ROI and the 'instant update-ability' of digital are all helping increase B2B client's interest in digital. These clients are also quickly becoming far more switched onto modern communication channels than before and especially so in the last 6 months.

Initial scepticism surrounding iPads, smart phones and mobile websites seems to be subsiding and we're now welcoming in an era of even the most conservative clients accessing digital information on a regular basis. And this access is going to change the B2B communication habits dramatically over the coming years.

Richard spoken specifically about some very inspiring projects showing dramatic success from utilising the ability to connect with audiences using digital platforms - in a B2B relationship. Everything from how we all access the internet to how much information is out there is growing, and this is really starting to effect the business buying process. Since 2008 there's been a 300% increase in B2B searches on mobile devices, and 62% of buyers spend more time researching online since the recession - we're all much smarter, more informed and more mobile decision makers.

This all makes the procurement process trickier for us, everyone in the office is able to Google something and find some local suppliers, information and reviews on them - hell, they can even see in their office windows with Google Street View! And I think as clients like ours are doing this themselves, they're becoming aware that their customers are probably doing it too.

I'm excited about this year, and we've got some great concepts on the table at the moment to use digital to great effect in some innovative ways in the B2B world. It'll be interesting to see what we can achieve by the end of the year.

Karl.

Thanks to @tfma_event for the tweets, the event images and the great coverage.