Aimtales Newsletter - November 2022 Issue

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Hi fellow marketer,

News and social media feeds are full of concerning headlines about the economy, climate change, and geopolitical issues. The truth is, nobody knows all the answers to everything right now.

But I’m a glass-half-full person so this issue of Aimtales won’t contribute to your doom scrolling. Instead, I hope that it provides you with some ideas on how to navigate the year ahead.

During these continued “uncertain times,” I find comfort in history. Recently, I’ve been researching and studying the aftermath of the last recessions in the United States to understand how today’s successful businesses invested and navigated the highs and lows. Which company invested in its product positioning & marketing in 2008? Amazon. The others? Mailchimp and Netflix.

Instead of pulling the plug on their marketing plans & budgets in the face of uncertainty, they invested and surpassed their competitors who halted all marketing. Now nearly 15 years later, they are the leading companies that many aspire to be.

In addition to remembering and applying lessons from the past, tracking and adapting to trends of buyer behaviors are the ingredients to success.

And one common trend in buyer behavior hasn’t and won’t change. B2B tech buyers in particular are more educated than ever and expect to find the information they’re looking for the moment they type their search query into Google.

In DemandScience’s 2022 Benchmark Report, The B2B Tech Buyer’s Journey: New Insights, New Influences, they confirmed that B2B buyers take a proactive approach to making decisions through research and consumption of content. At the awareness and education stage of the funnel, buyers said they rely on brand social media, webinars, events, digital ads, and video content.

In another study by Trust Radius, they discovered that customers even want to self-serve during the consideration phase of their buying journey before making a decision.

After viewing pricing information, product features, and a free trial, buyers read customer stories and use cases to aid their decision-making process.

And despite record inflation, consumers and buyers are still investing and purchasing. Just last week, U.S. Black Friday online sales hit a record of $9 billion! Those money belts aren’t as tight as they seem.

What do these trends and history tell us? Don’t pull your investment out of marketing.

Your prospective customers actively seek content on various channels for your company’s product and solutions. And the companies that are there for customers through the best and worst of times will be the ones that prevail.

Of course, you or your company may need to make tough decisions. Or maybe they are being made for you. Regardless, I hope that the insights I’ve shared in this issue of Aimtales give you ideas as to where to strategically invest your marketing spend in 2023.

Stay positive ☀️

Janet Mesh

CEO & Co-founder of Aimtal

News you can use

Is your content topical, relevant, and contextual? 🧐 Google continues to improve & update the algorithm and search queries, and these are the ranking factors to plan in your SEO marketing strategy.
TikTok tops the charts for audiences aged under 35 📈 The social media platform has ousted Netflix as the second most popular app in the United States for this demographic.
Ready, set, action! 🎬 YouTube continues to improve its features — brands can now claim a custom channel handle and expands its live-stream guest feature.
In you need some colorful inspiration for your own visual identity, indulge in some joy-scrolling and admire the Olympic’s brand refresh 🏅

Take action: Get a head start on 2023 planning

Each month, we’ll challenge you to take one action to improve your marketing skills

As you prepare your 2023 marketing strategy and plans, you can kickstart the process by creating your 'Marketing Wish List.'

Start dreaming, visualizing, and planning which channels and content to invest in. The purpose of this exercise is to get it all down on paper then prioritize and turn the ideas into action.

To get started, here are a few ideas:

Host a quarterly webinar — Many assumed that people would be fatigued by webinars, but these virtual events continued to be the top-performing lead generation engines for our clients. Webinars are one of the best ways to position your company as an expert in its industry. It’s also an excellent way to connect and showcase partners & customers. Plan your webinar strategy with our free resource:

Invest in YouTube — Video has been on the marketing trends list for a while now, but YouTube is truly reigning supreme. In the same DemandScience study, they found that 70% of B2B buyers consume video assets all throughout the purchase path. A simple way to get started on YouTube is to edit your webinar recordings into educational videos for your audience. Learn more about creating a YouTube channel and content in our:

Build a demand & lead generation engine — If you build it, they will come… but you need to nurture and engage your prospective customers at every funnel stage. As much as you may want to focus on creative marketing campaigns and content creation, it’s equally as important to build the system for tracking, managing, and assessing marketing qualified leads. Your efforts to build an audience and connect with prospective customers will go to waste if you don’t have a process and software at the foundation of your system. Follow these tactics to generate and convert qualified leads in our:

News you can use

Take action: Get a head start on 2023 planning

www.aimtal.com