B2B marketing masterclass

Ferrari has recently been announced as the most valuable brand in the world for the second time by Brand Finance. And it got me thinking about what B2B marketers could learn from this Italian luxury sports car

Our story is telling yours.

As a B2B marketing agency, that’s our remit, but just for this blog we’ll delve into the story behind the story and tell you a little about us. Specifically how we pivoted our position in the market and broadened out our service offering. Perhaps it might spark some ideas for your own brand.

As kids, I doubt many of us ever wanted to grow up as B2B marketers. For a start, it never had the cool street cred of consumer marketing and secondly, there just weren’t many marketing courses and college modules dedicated to B2B.

Squaredot was very proud to feature recently in the acclaimed Catalyst magazine. In the article we go deep on why your strategic positioning is critical for B2B brand growth. 

On the contrary to the general belief, we think that there has never been a better time to inject imagination and creativity into your B2B brand building storytelling and seek fame.

In this eBook, we’ll show you just how much positioning matters, why it’s so difficult to grow without it, how to plan your positioning strategy and why it’s never too late to start.

Do brand guardians have the same consideration, planning and presentation for their brands’ digital homes? If an unexpected visitor shows up on your website homepage, how will they be greeted?

It feels petty discussing economics at a time when Covid 19 is indiscriminately rampaging through society. But we’re just a marketing agency, not front line heroes or scientists, so we’ll stick to what we know.

One day, it was business as usual, the next day, an existential threat started banging at our doorstep. For many B2B tech companies, you may have no reason to pivot your offering. But you will need to be sensitive in your messaging.

What does a cold and wet morning, nearly 80 of Ireland’s top B2B marketers and a panel of esteemed business leaders make? In one word (or hashtag) the answer is #GreatB2BMarketing

We surveyed Irish B2B marketers on their priorities for 2020. Download the report to see how your strategies, budgets and tactics compare. Also discover also what our panel of industry experts say will be their ‘big bets’ for 2020.

What do you get if you combine a room full of dynamic SaaS professionals, pizza, drinks and some excellent presentations on growth? The launch of SaaStock Local of course!

I attended B2B Ignite in London yesterday (“the world biggest B2B marketing learning and networking event” - their words) and there is a definite shift towards creativity, storytelling and being brave in B2B marketing.

When you have a strong brand you have built trust in your market so layering lead generation campaigns on top of a strong brand has a great chance of success.

We’re proud and delighted (ok, ecstatic!) to have won Hubspot’s premier Impact Award for best Inbound Growth Story of 2018 for our continued collaboration with Travelport Digital.

We’re delighted to picked up our second 2018 Hubspot Impact Award Grand Prize, this time in the International Graphic Design category (the second time we’ve won this award) for our animation work with PSI Mobile.

Let’s talk about sales and marketing. While they should work together, harmony doesn’t always exist between them.

As a B2B marketer, you’ve been hearing a lot about account-based marketing (ABM). For one, it is often cited as one of 2019’s marketing trends. But what exactly is ABM?

It’s 2019. How should your B2B marketing strategies look? Brace yourselves for a year of fast-rising trends within the landscape. 

How have you been reaching out to your prospects and customers? You can do so with several distribution channels, but this doesn’t mean everything is for the taking. 

In 2018, videos became more accessible than ever. Newer tools and platforms drove down the costs of video creation and publishing. 

How do you capture your audience’s attention enough for them to freely hand over their precious contact info? As a B2B marketer, you must’ve explored a range of bold lead generation techniques.

The discipline of AI research has developed significantly in the past few decades. What was once a notion used exclusively by scientists and science fictions writers is now becoming a part of our everyday life.

Listen to Connor Keppel, VP of Marketing at Phorest Salon Software, talk about winning at SaaS marketing and why top of the funnel is key to building a brand longterm

Creating your business’s value proposition was up for discussion when Squaredot’s MD, Ian Blake, chatted with John Barron, Sales & Marketing Director, Vennetics, on The B2B Podcast recently.

GDPR expert, Liam McKenna, gives his GDPR compliance tips in discussion with Ian Blake on The B2B Show, Squaredot’s very own business marketing podcast

Listen to direct marketing expert & Managing Director of DMCM, Peter Whelehan, talk about teh impact great direct mail can have on generating revenues

Liam McKenna, Partner and GDPR specialist at Mazars tells us the 3 most important things to have ready for GDPR

John Barron tells us how Vennetics pivoted early in its journey, the steps they took and the results this change in the business had.

So, how do Irish B2B marketers approach digital marketing? What are their priorities and challenges? Where does their budget go? The 2018 Irish B2B Digital Marketing Survey explains all.

Discussing how to nail inbound marketing with David MacHale, Digital Marketing Director of Travelport Digital, in our podcast episode of The B2B show

Ciaran Rogers is the co-creator of an iTunes top 10 B2B podcast. He shares some of his learnings with us here.

Discover how Travelport Digital nail inbound marketing including content topic choices and timings, the importance of sales and marketing alignment.

B2B marketing strategy is kind of like a unicorn - no one is really quite sure it exists, but everyone wants one. But how can social listening and AI inform your B2B social media strategy?

Not everyone is a great interviewer. It takes time to learn the skills that will help you make a killer B2B podcast. Squaredot's 7 tips to creating B2B podcasts that will get you noticed (and heard.)

Podcasts are not new technology but they are undergoing a renaissance. As a result, the medium has attracted the attention of the B2B community.

When Tristan Pelligrino got talking about storytelling and marketing strategy together, here at Squaredot we were all ears.

We highlight three key findings from our Irish Marketing Survey and question whether Irish marketers are struggling with strategy.

Soon we’ll be sharing findings from the 2018 Irish B2B Marketers survey. We’re excited to reveal Irish B2B marketing trends - and we think you will be, too.

Considering adding Twitter to your B2B marketing strategy? Read our guide on how to present your B2B brand through the medium of tweets.

Squaredot were judged on an innovative campaign for Ireland’s leading P2P lending company in the B2B awards which focus on search.

The GDPR will force marketers to be more detail orientated than ever. Maria Keenan focuses our attention on what the GDPR means for those who use events marketing as part of their marketing stack.

Instagram is a force to be reckoned with in the world of social media. Could it lead to a better perception of your B2B branding and highlight the fact you’re all really nice people?

Ultimately, to get the most out of Facebook you must be aware of the goals your brand would like to achieve and plan accordingly. Here's our take on making Facebook work for B2B.

The GDPR wants to level the playing field for marketing and consumers in an increasingly digital world. We’ve blogged about personal data vs. business data, getting prepared, and why it might not all be as bad as it seems.

Read about what some of the biggest data processor are doing to prepare for the GDPR and why responsibility ultimately belongs to the data controllers - their clients.

The new EU Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has created a number of challenges and concerns for businesses across the world. We explore the possibility that the GDPR could change B2B inbound marketing for the better.

We discuss some of the approaches companies in Ireland can take for proper data husbandry before the GDPR comes into force.

Companies dealing with B2B marketing data aren’t getting off the hook when the GDPR rolls into town. But where do you draw the line between business data and personal data?

Squaredot explore the B2B marketing events we’d like to attend in 2018 (and explore why events marketing is the only tool that can give digital a run for its money.)

Here are 11 article that caught - and sustained - attention of our CEO Ian Blake in 2017. He explains why he read them and the value they had in steering Squaredot into 2018.

As 2017 takes its last gasp, marketers are already thinking about the 2018 B2B digital marketing trends that will occupy their headspace in the upcoming year. We also look at the trends that everyone in the industry will be talking about.

Discover why long form copywriting in B2B Content Marketing is important for ranking high in Google search results, in addition to other less obvious reasons...

Congratulations - you’ve bought HubSpot and you’re ready to be plunged into the world of automated B2B inbound marketing. Read our tips to make HubSpot work to your advantage

The staff at Squaredot, B2B Inbound marketing focused agency in Dublin, pick their favourite B2B marketing campaigns of recent times

Read about the law of diminishing returns of content production in B2B inbound marketing and why you need to be clever in your content promotion and outreach.

Discover the two main reasons why Inbound Marketing fails to work for some B2B companies

If you’re new to Hubspot, or inbound marketing in general, or maybe wondering why your campaigns to date are not performing, then we have just the workbook for you. Learn how to set up and start generating leads on Hubspot.

We’ve dug deep into our years of experience and expertise, collected our thoughts and put together a marketing content masterclass to help you create content that delivers qualified leads.

Discover the code to organising google Drive by using Google Drive Scripts helping you create files and folders when creating large folder structures.

We've unpicked 5 cliches that will help you plan better B2B content marketing.

If you’re not seeing the returns on content that you have painstakingly written, complete with strategically inserted keywords, you need to question whether it is your strategy or your content that’s the problem.

Think you’re a content marketing maestro? These common mistakes could be burying your leads.

The digital era has opened doors to shortcuts helping you automate time consuming chores so you can concentrate on closing the deals. Discover 9 digital hacks to accelerate your B2B Sales.

There’s something about setting goals that motivates people to take action. Let’s explain this better with an analogy.

I came across various reports recently that suggest there are well over 30 million dead people on Facebook. 

For everything, we’re told, there’s an app for that.

Now thanks to mobile applets, that slogan is taking a literal twist and your world is about to get very ‘Black Mirror.’

Are you ready and willing to take the Squaredot mid-term marketing test? It also doubles as a B2B content marketing checklist that you can use to gauge your knowledge of the content marketing world.

Liz Weir is one of Ireland’s leading contemporary storytellers and writers. Her job is to teach the techniques of the Irish tradition to curious learners and listeners.

‘Will written media and content eventually become obsolete?’ asked a concerned Quora user on the Q&A website back in 2012.

‘The writing isn’t even really that good,’ you sigh when confronted with the triple-figure tally of social shares on a competitor’s B2B marketing blog.

Nobody really knows why a small, tribal country situated on the edge of Europe boasts such an illustrious mix of scribes, poets and novelists; but it’s true, Ireland has a reputation for producing great writers.

Google is currently training its ad bots to become more easily offended. Is this political correctness gone mad? Or is there something more sinister at hand?...

Technology is getting smarter all the time – and it’s not just menial tasks and straightforward admin jobs that are coming under threat from smart machines. These days, an algorithm can work out what you’d like to watch, buy or wear almost as well as you can.

Interview with Squaredot about its successful experience with Hubspot inbound marketing methodology.

Discover the benefits of B2B content marketing outsourcing.

Read about our innovative inbound marketing campaign for Roomex

How to write engaging and strategic content marketing.

The 4 Content Marketing Resolutions You Should Make for 2017

The runaway success of content marketing over traditional approaches to digital marketing has many people worrying that we’re heading for a content bubble.

Discover where and when it’s the right time and place to publish your content marketing output in good old fashioned print form.

Read all about our international award winning campaign for Roomex, the hotel booking platform for businesses.

Why Content Marketing fails...and how to avoid making the same mistakes over and over.

There’s no one-size-fits-all social media platform for businesses. There’s not even a one-size-fits-all social media platform for your business.

Quality, In-Depth, Well-Researched Editorial Content is More Important than Ever. Have you heard of Google’s “Knowledge Vault”?

What makes a great B2B podcast? Read how with our 10 tips for success.

5 tips to help you write an effective content marketing plan.

Learn about what types of content can get your customers to do the selling for you.

On a tight budget when it comes to your content marketing? Read on to find out what to do.

Proof that not all Hubspot websites look the same. Squaredot Inbound Marketing Agency's innovation website was built entirely on Hubspot COS.

A solid content marketing strategy is crucial. But no amount of preparation can guarantee success.

Discover the 15 B2B Content Creation Commandments that generate leads, with each one backed up by startling industry stats and facts.

We’ve dug deep into our years of experience and expertise, collected our thoughts and put together a marketing content masterclass to help you create content that delivers qualified leads.

LinkedIn is your company's gateway to engaging conversations with targeted personas. Learn more about how to grow and impress your audience on this social media platform.

Learn how to generate leads using inbound methodologies. In this eBook we explore what Inbound is all about, in no nonsense, plain English.

What you need to know about the art of the social sell.

Discover where to publish B2B content in 2016

3 B2B Marketing Strategies for festive content to send to clients at Christmas.

How to differentiate between the right and wrong type of Content Marketing Agency for your business.

3 Ways B2B Content Marketing Strategy will change in the New Year.

10 Top Marketing Facts learned from the Content Marketing Survey 2016.

How to convert Content Marketing Assets into real sales figures.

Discover the 5 essential steps necessary to plan and execute the perfect Content Marketing Strategy.

Uncover 6 content marketing facts and how they help plan and implement a great inbound marketing programme.

Learn how SEO and Content Marketing seamlessly work in tandem to raise your profile and organic search results.

Discover how great B2B content marketing gets produced and shared when you ask clients to contribute. Ask and you shall receive.

Discover how to get your B2B content in front of your persona using these 5 distribution tools.

Discover how to create and produce a great B2B podcast.

Wondering how to start content marketing? The answer is this: find your voice.

That might sound a bit “Happy Feet”, but it’s absolutely true.

When it comes to the kind of content B2B audiences find most engaging, educational content comes out top.

What is content marketing? And how does it work in practice?

Slideshares are having their moment – and no wonder. They’re a top way to create engaging content that’s shareable and optimised for business, providing immediate value and an easy, accessible, professional way for your audience to interact with what you have to say.

Imagine that you’re driving down the road one day and there's a puzzled-looking guy standing next to a car, bonnet open, staring at it without a clue what to do next. You pull up next to him and ask him if he needs any help.

When you’ve spent ages working on a really great piece of B2B branded content, you want to get the most value out of it you possibly can. But how?

Okay, let’s be honest: social shares and views are nice and everything, but the real value of content marketing is whether it brings in cold, hard cash. Right?

Want to know why your campaign isn’t working? Most likely, you’re letting your content marketing objectives get in the way of engaging content.

Why learn from your own mistakes when you could learn from someone else’s instead?

Everyone’s talking about it: 2015 is the year of content marketing. Yet less than 40% of companies that have already dipped their toes in worry that their methods aren’t effective.

When you get it right, the value of content marketing is enormous.

B2B content marketing is soaring in popularity, and rightfully so. Done well, this is one of the most effective ways to engage an audience, start a conversation, create value… and start selling to clients.

If you’re reading this, you probably already know that content marketing does wonders for your ROI. But what makes for truly engaging content? How do you use it to connect with an audience? And where and when should you be posting links?

Keen to get into content marketing but don’t know where to begin? You’ve come to the right place. 

Why are you reading this? Because you want to make your B2B marketing strategy better? Of course. Because you want to learn valuable content marketing tactics? Sure. But why?

Content marketing is about getting into your clients’ heads and understanding your B2B personas: knowing what they want or need to drive forward their business or career. 

Content marketing isn’t just a buzzword, it’s a proven way to boost lead generation and marketing ROI without breaking the bank. 

So it turns out I’m an expert on dietary fads, slimming tablets, erectile disfunction pills and just about a thousand other niche shady industries. Well at least according to my Twitter profile, I am. 

Organised by Vendemore, the conference takes in everything from account based marketing to the latest trends and best practices in the world of Inbound.

Learn how you can use KPIs and market data to explain (and convince) your CEO how inbound marketing works.

All Irish people know a thing or two about the art of conversation. It’s in our genes, not so much a family tradition as a national heritage. Others can kiss the Blarney Stone all they like, but they’ll never inherit the gift of the gab.

Why Inbound is more cost effective than other digital channels of communication for B2B marketing, including PPC, Display and Social Media

Thanks to the digital revolution, buyers behaviour has evolved and people simply don’t react to traditional marketing initiatives the way they have before. Even though digital marketing is still a relatively modern discipline, the outlook has changed in recent years. 

Inbound gravitates your target market towards you, rather than the other way around. Learn how inbound marketing helps generate qualified B2B leads

Timing is everything. Especially when it comes to content. We all want up to date, hot off the press content to hijack public sentiment. But without proper planning and strategic thinking, it can come across as irrelevant or inappropriate.

Discover how and when to generate and educational and engaging content marketing schedule to draw in quality new leads.

Not every goose is golden, not every dart hits the bullseye. If you expect every single marketing campaign, inbound or otherwise, to be a roaring success then you’re not living in the imperfect real world that the rest of us share.

There are lots of reason not to do lots of things. Not doing something is easy. What are the things you’re doing right now, or more to the point, the things you’re NOT doing, that’s hurting your business...

Good versus evil, Luke Skywalker versus Darth Vader, inbound versus outbound…

 I’m not obsessive. At least not to the point of delusions of grandeur or restringing orders. 

Sales! It’s a dirty word. However there is a light an the end of the funnel for our weary sales and marketing people. It involves the law of seduction and we outline the principles here 

The internet is drowning in a tsunami of content. Wave after wave of blogs, articles, opinions, comments and every other form of standard or rich media content rains down on us through multiple channels and devices.

If you’re still stuck in the traditional marketing mindset and wondering why your marketing budget is dwindling with disappointing results, then glance through our slideshare now. It’s everything you ever wanted to know about Sales and Marketing in the 21st century

There is no greater turn off than an obvious sales pitch. Go to a party and get cornered by a life insurance salesperson who is short of their quarterly targets and you’ll know what I mean. We all have an instinct for it. It’s in our genes.

If you’re using a “mixed bag” approach to marketing, and supplementing inbound marketing efforts with the marketing tactics of old, we’ve got one word for you: stop.

Learn how LinkedIn has evolved into one of the most effective distribution channels for businesses looking to expand their social media reach.

How effectively are you using LinkedIn? Learn about the platform's innovative features that can boost your marketing efforts and grow your professional network.

Learn how to get inbound marketing buy-in from your management team, and convince them to help produce content on a regular basis.

What separates the best from the rest? Learn 6 key habits the most successful B2B marketers practice every day.

Convincing your CFO of certain marketing strategies, such as inbound marketing, always comes back to one thing: ROI.

What kind of ROI are you generating for your marketing efforts? Learn how inbound marketing tools can help you make smarter marketing decisions.

Learn what sets digital and inbound marketing apart, as well as what strategy is right for you based on your marketing needs.

How do you know if an inbound marketing agency really puts their money where their mouth is? The first step is to look into how the agency handles inbound.

Check out these 7 online services that are essential in any inbound marketing toolbox.

Starting off with inbound marketing? One of the first things you should do is redesign your entire site for inbound. Read our blog to learn how.

Looking for ways to inspire your marketing team? Find yourself in a rut when it comes to your digital marketing? Step away from the office. Hit the field instead.

Learn what makes inbound one of the most powerful marketing strategies today, and how you can take advantage of it for long-term results.

Learn all about Ireland's first inbound marketing agency who specialise in B2B tech

Inbound marketing has changed the very fabric of B2B marketing. Get the hard facts with these inbound statistics all B2B marketers should know.

Inbound marketing? SEO? Landing pages? Learn the inbound lingo advertisers and agencies use to describe this exciting new marketing world.