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He’s making a list

He’s checking it twice

He’s gonna find out who’s naughty or nice

‘Tis the season! This is the last you’ll hear from me in 2023 – and I wish you all the best for the holidays, and a rockin’ 2024! As always, I want to hear from you – feel free to reach out – and let’s all finish the year strong and start January off with a bang!

Give this holiday standard by Brian Setzer a listen and enjoy the naughty and nice lists below… HO HO HO!

You-Know-Who is Comin’ to Town

This week’s song is a very cool version of the classic “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” – by the Brian Setzer Orchestra. There have been so many good versions of this over the years, that I thought I’d share a list of them for you – no matter what your musical style, one of these should make you happy!

• Bruce Springsteen
• Michael Bublé
• Jackson 5
• Burl Ives
• Pentatonix
• Alan Jackson

And while we’re at it, let’s take a look at some naughty and nice lists for 2023!

Naughty Lists

Want to know what NOT to buy that special someone on your list?? Here’s a list of the worst tech of 2023 – the ‘anti-gift’ guide!

Seen any good movies lately? When you’re cuddling up at home over the holidays, you may want to avoid these…

Nice Lists

Check out the top tech trends of 2023 – would you agree?

It was a great year for live music – check out the top-grossing tours!

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello – Happy New Year!

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

The post Your B2B Naughty and Nice Lists appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

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What is it about water?

Whether it’s a lake, river, or ocean – it’s always held a special place in the human psyche. It’s a source of nourishment, a medium for exploration, and a force to be reckoned with. Some of my most productive thinking happens at the lake!

Just as water can take on many forms, from tranquil lakes to tumultuous oceans, its symbolism is equally diverse – reflecting our desires, fears, and aspirations. What’s it reflecting for you this month? As year-end approaches, are you wrapped up in fear or a confident force to be reckoned with?

Give this song by Jane’s Addiction a listen as we wade into the Ocean Size waters of B2B and see what the experts are saying this week.

Saltwater B2B Lessons

I was recently sitting by the ocean watching a group of dolphins swim effortlessly past – and it made me pause. When we think of B2B marketing, we often picture boardrooms, data analytics, and corporate strategies… not the playful acrobatics of dolphins. But I love finding unlikely parallels to B2B – so I thought we could take a journey beneath the surface and discover the unexpected ways in which these ocean-dwellers and B2B marketing intersect.

1. Communication and Collaboration: Dolphins are known for their exceptional communication skills and collaborative nature within their pods. Similarly, effective B2B marketing thrives on robust communication and collaboration among teams, partners, and clients. Just as dolphins work together to achieve common goals, B2B marketers must foster clear and open communication to succeed in reaching shared objectives.
2. Adaptability and Innovation: Dolphins showcase adaptability in their behaviour and problem-solving abilities. In the ever-evolving landscape of B2B marketing, adaptability and innovation are crucial. Just as dolphins adapt to changes in their environment, successful B2B marketers need to embrace new technologies, strategies, and market shifts to stay ahead.
3. Relationship Building: Dolphins form strong social bonds and maintain relationships within their pods. In B2B marketing, cultivating and nurturing relationships with clients, stakeholders, and industry peers is fundamental. Building trust and rapport, as dolphins do within their social groups, is key to establishing successful, long-term B2B partnerships.
4. Eco-consciousness and Sustainability: Dolphins are often seen as indicators of the health of oceanic ecosystems. Likewise, in the realm of B2B marketing, there’s an increasing emphasis on sustainability and corporate social responsibility. Just as dolphins signal environmental well-being, businesses are now expected to contribute positively to the environment and society.
5. Embracing Creativity and Playfulness: Dolphins exhibit playful behavior, showing that even in the most serious of endeavours, there’s room for fun. In B2B marketing, incorporating creativity and a touch of playfulness into campaigns can set a brand apart, making it more engaging and memorable.

The connection between dolphins and B2B marketing might seem abstract, but the lessons derived from their behaviour can still serve as valuable insights for marketers. By observing the strengths of these no-talking-all-action creatures, we can mirror their resilience and intelligence in our vast ocean of commerce.

Spotify and Smaller Bands?

As you may have gathered from last week’s post, my colleague Marlene is a fan of hard rock. I spoke a few weeks back about some of the changes to Spotify’s royalty model, which will have an adverse impact on rock and metal artists – many of whom are smaller acts.

Check out this article and video for more details.

It ain’t easy living for smaller artists/bands to begin with, and Spotify is poised to make it even tougher. The new payment structure will cater to established artists and labels, with the biggest change being that any track will need to hit an annual streaming minimum before being eligible for royalties.

What about in B2B? Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation – perhaps with one of your preferred SaaS platforms changing on you? Do you adjust your processes or strategy to accommodate those changes… or look for alternatives?

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello!

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

The post Say Hello to Your Newest B2B Marketers appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

What Do B2B Marketers Do Now? is an ongoing email. Join the mailing list to be the first to receive these weekly insights!

How much rent do you pay?

No, I don’t just mean an apartment or housing. In our business lives we ‘rent’ many things. Equipment? Office space? How about software? The whole SaaS model is equivalent to paying monthly rent on your systems.

Think about all the technology you touch on a daily basis for your work – how many monthly/recurring payments do you have? It’s overwhelming, isn’t it – and a slight increase by multiple vendors can significantly impact your bottom line.

Give this song by Spoon a listen as we see what the experts are saying about the rent we pay this week…

For the CRM Aficionados…

SaaS pricing is an art unto itself. How many tiers, what features are available on each tier, etc. – there are many variables. For those of you who use Salesforce, you’ll probably be impacted by their latest price increases.

For the first time in more than seven years, Salesforce has increased its prices on the majority of its popular plans. The Starter plan stayed at the competitive $25/user/month, but the Professional, Enterprise, and Unlimited plans all saw an average increase of around 9%.

What’s the reason for the increase? According to the official Salesforce press release, it’s because the company has substantially increased its generative AI offerings, including AI Cloud, Einstein GPT, and others. As a result, they’ve increased prices to make up for the increased functionality of the platform as a whole.

I’d love to hear from you if you’re a Salesforce user – how are these increases impacting you? Maybe you’ve been losing sleep over the changes – or maybe you’re still seeing the value? I’m curious how other major CRM vendors will respond.

For the Music Lovers…

Spotify users have been waiting almost two years for the platform to up its game when it comes to audio quality. Apple, Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon, and others are already available in higher-res audio while Spotify seems stuck in 2017.

A “Supremium” tier was announced in 2021, and promises have been made and broken since then. Now, though, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel: data miners have identified changes in Spotify’s code that seem to include the ability to carry lossless audio.

The Verge also reports on the possibility of 24-bit lossless audio, AI playlists, advanced mixing tools, audiobooks, and more. And – the code seems to reference a cost of $19.99/month.

What do you think? Does a tier for higher-res audio resonate with you? And what about B2B? I’m sure most of us have found ourselves working with systems overdue for an update. Do you stick it out and make do because you like the rent you pay… or does the stuck-in-the-past software have you looking at alternatives?

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello!

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

The post The Art of SaaS: What Do You Pay? appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

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During these scorching summer days, let’s take a moment to check our collective B2B temperature. Just as monitoring your body temperature can help detect disease or sickness, so can monitoring various factors in your B2B sales and marketing strategies.

With the seesawing conditions we’ve encountered over the past few years, it’s crucial to maintain a deep understanding of your B2B health and wellness. Doing so helps you make informed decisions and positions your team for success – are you consistently inconsistent or on track?

Give this song by Hot Hot Heat a listen as we stay cool and see what the experts are saying this week.

Heat Alert! B2B Marketing Trends in 2023

Despite the looming threat of recession, 92% of marketers expect their budgets to increase or stay the same this year (at least for now). 86% say that data privacy regulations have impacted their marketing strategy over the past year. And most agree there’s one tactic that’s the biggest trend, has the highest ROI, and tops the to-do list for this year.

Those are just a few of the takeaways from HubSpot’s recently released The State of Marketing: Marketing Trends in 2023 from AI to Z report. This 46-page report is packed with stats and insights on all aspects of marketing from HubSpot and partners including Wistia and Litmus.

While the entire study is worth a read, here are some key takeaways and points of interest from the report:

1. SEO: Surprisingly Enticing Opportunity
   Given that organic search is one of the top two sources of traffic for business websites (at least on the B2B side), and has high conversion rates, it’s surprising that this research reports, “29% of marketers use a search-optimized website and blog to attract and convert leads.”
   Only 29%?! That doesn’t sound right. It’s also inconsistent with findings elsewhere in this study…
2. Video Marketing: Hotter Than Ever
   Video marketing is huge and somehow keeps getting huger. It’s been “the year of video” every year since 2017. Per the new HubSpot report, “Video is the most popular and effective media format for the fourth year in a row.”
3. Influencer Marketing: It’s Social (But Pick Your Platforms Carefully)
   Influencer marketing continues to grow in importance across industries, though priorities, platforms, and practices are much different between B2B and B2C influencer marketing.
4. The Last Word (Acronym, Actually) on Marketing Trends for 2023
   Likely because of the timing of the study, the research doesn’t say a lot about the impact artificial intelligence (AI) will have on marketing this year and beyond. It does note that AI is where everybody’s hanging out… marketing tools are now everywhere; they’ll help marketers with the perennial demand to “do more with less”; and “Content creators and marketers now have a new skill to learn – getting good at using AI.”

Streaming – Communism vs Capitalism?

I think sometimes we expect simple or quick answers to problems when the real solution is a horribly complex mess of contradictions that’ll chew you up and spit you out anyway. With that in mind, there was a weird peace of mind to be found in reading Will Page’s very interesting thoughts on the state of streaming.

Page likens the friction around streaming remuneration as being like communism meeting capitalism. The ‘communism’ view is that every song is worth the same. The ‘capitalism’ view is the opposite.

Seems that artists need to find other ways to generate revenue now, and need to be getting more adventurous, more inquisitive, and more playful in how they are connecting fans with music.

I don’t believe music’s cultural heft has diminished. But at some point, it’s like we all accepted that it’s just worth less now, and that was that. But like share prices, these things can move up as well as down, and perhaps we’re approaching a point where the value of music needs to be focused on a bit more.

What about B2B? As marketers and B2B professionals, unpredictability’s our responsibility. The value of certain things – including the goods and services that we provide – can go up and down unexpectedly. Things like a State of Marketing report can help mitigate some of that unpredictability, though.

So get more adventurous, more inquisitive, and more playful! How do you leverage data from reports like HubSpot’s to connect (or reconnect) with your fans?

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello!

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

The post Have You Done a B2B Temperature Check? appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

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Ahh… the hot and lazy days of summer… when we all take a couple months off until September and the B2B rush starts again – Not so fast! It’s been BUSY! And I’m happy to see that many of my clients didn’t need my usual ‘don’t let your lead generation take a summer vacation’ reminder – there has been lots of activity!

My teams are seeing solid connect rates and good lead conversion numbers this July. Plus – there has been a lot of market and industry activity recently, as you know…

GO give this song by The Black Keys a listen as we see what the experts are saying this week!

Thoughts on Threads?

The biggest news in the tech space this month has got to be the release of Threads… and it seems to be off to a solid start. By now over 110 million accounts have been created. Not bad considering that the latest figures on Twitter (2022) is that it has 450 million monthly users (240 million monetizable ones). This growth is even faster than what we saw with ChatGPT earlier this year.

All these numbers are sketchy, of course, because we don’t know how many are bots or multiple accounts held by one person. But while Twitter’s streets aren’t bare, they could be in danger. I’ve been asking my peers (remember to leverage that peer support!) and here is a short list of some feedback I’ve heard on the new platform:

• A post can be as long as 500 characters – more than enough for a microblogging service.
• Clean interface. It’s easy to use.
• Many of the people/organizations I follow on Twitter are also on Threads.
• No ads. There won’t be, says Meta, until there’s around a billion users.
• You can’t delete your Threads account without deleting your Instagram one. Meta no doubt considers that a feature.
• Still no way to track trending topics with hashtags or topic searches.
• DMs. No desktop version. Not great.
• No API integration with websites (yet).

Yes, this is further fragmentation of social media, which dilutes the whole experience and power. You have to wonder how many people have signed up for Threads just because the fire is gone in Twitter and they hate what it’s become.

Some say that Threads is the new Napster… in essence, a natural and inevitable evolution of the space it’s in. What do you think?

Random Music News

We’re smack-dab in the middle of Summer Festival season – here are some quick snippets of news that might interest you:

Don’t throw stuff on the stage!

Bomb threats at a Noel Gallagher concert (not from his brother, Liam)

Elton John’s farewell tour unicorn!

The shadowy world of ticket brokers

It’s hot outside – there’s a lot going on! Pick one that interests you and give it a read. I’d love to hear how these relate to your B2B activities!

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello!

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

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Summer’s here!

Wow – can you believe we’re halfway through the year already? Feels like just yesterday we were working through our 2023 sales and marketing plans! Are you sailing into the summer with confidence, or are you constantly under pressure?

Give this song by Queen (and David Bowie) a listen as we hear what the experts are saying this week.

Stats/Trends – Knowing what this world is about

Q2 is almost wrapped. How are your sales and marketing activities trending?

As you know, I started this weekly email/blog during the pandemic to share stats, successes, and trends during turbulent times. I feel like it’s been too long since I’ve shared some actionable and tactical sales and marketing stats from my sources.

So here are some quick data points that you may find useful:

• The most effective channel for RDR (Revenue Development Rep) to engage a B2B buyer? Phone – 53%. Email – 36%. InMail, Social Media, and Website Chat all under 5%. Text (SMS) still under 1%.
• B2B buyer’s journey continues to stretch out. More than half of B2B purchases take longer than four months, and buyers engage in an average of 17 interaction types. Compared to just a year ago, 67% of B2B marketers say buyers are taking longer to commit to a purchase!
• Only 53% of sales professionals said that their organization’s sales tech stack aids productivity and positively impacts results. WOW! That’s a depressing statistic – with all the marketing and sales tech out there, how is this possible?

(Thanks to #forrb2bsummit and my awesome colleagues here at Virtual Causeway for sharing their data.)

Do these surprise you? What are you finding in your organization? Longer buying cycles, more buyer interactions, under-appreciated tech stacks… That’s a lot of pressure on people – how are you coping?

More Catalog Sales – Never rains but it pours

I’ve been closely following artists as they’ve sold their song catalogues over the past few years – seems like a way for many (aging?) artists to capitalize on the revenue potential of their songs as their touring and recording years dwindle.

Looks like Queen is in talks to sell their catalogue for the largest sum yet! As of now, Bruce Springsteen is the leader, having sold his song catalogue for around $500 million last year. If the rumours are true, Queen could sell their catalogue for over $1 billion!

Are these valuations getting ridiculous, or is there really that much value in their catalogues? In B2B, we see company valuations (especially in tech) that sometimes make us shake our heads, but if someone is willing to pay…

Many artists and bands might be feeling pressure pushin’ down to sell their catalogues. But with this price tag? Seems like a pretty easy choice!

Want to see the whole list of artists who have sold all or some of their catalogue? Here’s the running list compiled by fellow Canadian Alan Cross.

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello!

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

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Welcome to 2023! Apparently, this is the year of the Rabbit (if you pay attention to these things). I’ve never been one to put much stock in these classifications – I think we all need to build our own luck. Maybe it’s the immigrant parent’s work ethic – but I firmly believe hard work, diligence, and common sense can help you succeed.

What are you doing to help your organization succeed in 2023?

Give this song by Jefferson Airplane a listen with me as we see what’s up this week and kick off the new year!

Feed your head! Resources to help you…

Interested in a look back at 2022? Or are you looking ahead to 2023? Maybe you’re just after something to get you pumped up and motivated for the New Year. Whatever it is, I’ve got you covered with these quick resources.

• FUNNEL REBOOT I had the pleasure of being part of a “Funnel Reboot” podcast last year – check out this awesome 2022 recap – some amazing episodes and brilliant contributors.
• 2023 TECH TRENDS FOR MARKETERS Great overview from Marketingprofs. Big surprise – AI continues to be top of marketers’ list of emerging tech!
• NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION If hitting the gym is a resolution of yours – what’s the best music to work out to?

Hopefully, these can help you kick-start your year… and instead of chasing rabbits, you can make your own luck!

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello!

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

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Were you at Forrester B2B Summit last week in Austin? Over 2000 marketers convened last week at the conference – and the excitement was palpable. Was it the research? New technologies unveiled? I think the BIG news of the conference was just how… normal… things seemed overall!

Play this song by Austin’s own Black Pumas as we listen to what other people say this week.

#forrb2bsummit learnings

It was great to connect in person with colleagues and see first-hand new research and tech. But the excitement wasn’t all because of 2000 marketers eager to use their corporate expense accounts again – there were some interesting marketing and technology insights from the conference too:

Increased Prioritization of Customer Obsession. Mapping your organization to the 5 levels of customer obsession – customer naïve, customer aware, customer engaged, customer committed, and customer-obsessed.

The Power of Automation & AI. Three key opportunities for technology and humans to work together: support technology, CX, and improved performance.

The Power of Purpose. Just like B2C, B2B customers bring personal awareness and preference to the buying process.

Smarter Demand, Scaleable ABM. The number of B2B leaders who desire demand and ABM to be fully aligned – sharing people, processes, and tools – has increased from 54% in 2020 to 82% in 2022.

At last year’s summit, we learned that the number of interactions required to make buying decisions significantly increased from 17 (2019) to 27 (2021), indicating a new level of attention and due diligence for purchases during the pandemic. Additionally, more stakeholders and influencers are taking control of the decision-making process, resulting in 60% of purchases today having 4 or more people involved (compared with just 47% in 2017).

This year’s summit didn’t provide updated stats, but I think it’s safe to assume they’re consistent, and we still wanna know our customers better to effectively market in today’s buying environment!

Piano Lessons Delay Dementia

Remember those painful piano lessons you had as a kid? Well, maybe it’s time to get it together and pick them back up in your golden years…

There’s already proof that learning a musical instrument is associated with the brain’s ability to change and adapt, and that music can help protect our brains against cognitive decline with age. A new study has investigated how 6 months of piano training can affect the brain compared to simply listening to and learning about music, in healthy older adults who have had no formal musical training.

This is a topic near and dear to me, so seeing these positive results gives hope. And if it is to you as well, maybe it’s something to consider to help some loved ones and watch them shine.

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello.

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

The post Map Your Organization to Your Customers appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

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A client reached out this week and asked if I could help them out. They had a proposal in front of them from December of 2020, and wanted to know if we could get started asap! Can you relate? Well… sometimes we let things lapse, and then we’re suddenly in a panic to get those lead numbers THIS QUARTER!

Give this song by Silversun Pickups a listen before YOU hit that panic switch!

Top Enterprise Sales Tools for 2022

You may have heard about the latest round of financing 6sense closed last month. The sales and marketing tech space is hot… and this latest round increases 6sense’s valuation to $5.2 Billion! Their AI-driven ‘account engagement’ platform promises to unify data, people, and processes to unlock predictable revenue potential. This got me thinking about other sales and marketing tech in a crowded room.

How do you prioritize those solutions to add the most benefit to your initiatives? Our friends at Vidyard put together their list of top enterprise sales tools to adopt in 2022. How many of these have you integrated into your tech stack?

More NFT Nonsense – It’s Never Worth My Time

Like many musicians, Ozzy Osbourne has jumped on the NFT bandwagon, even though most of us still don’t really understand what they are, or the technical babble – and often white noise – that is used to describe them.

Ozzy’s CryptoBatz collection – comprised of 9,666 non-fungible tokens – is a new creation in the digital art world, and pays tribute to his infamous live bat-biting incident in 1982, which you can now own a small slice of in the form of a totally cool virtual bat.

In a highly-amusing video, wife and manager Sharon explains Ozzy’s NFT journey, while he freaks out behind the scenes in his home library over the creative process of making said NFT.

Wow.

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello. And no bats, please!!!

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

The post Don’t Panic! MarTech Heating Up appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

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Sometimes I feel a bit stir-crazy at this time of year. So in celebration of those feeling the same way and needing something a little bit different, listen to Hüsker Dü’s take on “Sunshine Superman” as we look at what the experts are saying…

15 Tech Marketing Trends in 2021

So we’re just past the half-year mark, and Forbes’ article is worth reviewing as we think about the rest of the year. Here are some technology marketing trends that can have a significant impact this year:

1. User-Generated Content Tools
2. Data-Driven Content
3. Audio-Based Apps and Voice-Controlled Virtual Assistants
4. Integrated and Multi-System Martech Architectures
5. Continued Focus on Remote and Virtual Strategies
6. Non-Fungible Tokens
7. Digital Human-to-Human Engagement
8. Chatbots and Conversational Marketing
9. Branded Calling Solutions
10. More Robust Data Asset Management Plans
11. Forms of Communication Beyond Webinars
12. B2C Strategies Being Used for B2B Marketing
13. Real-Time Shoppable Video Content
14. The Expansion of Account-Based Marketing
15. True Creativity in Content Creation

Have you used any of these to boost your marketing and sales? We continue to press into content marketing, human engagement strategies, branded calling, and account-based marketing, among other things. I’ll tell you right now, any trick in the book can be worth a try!

Assessing Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

This past year seems to have been the ‘Year of ABM!’ We’re helping clients kick off new ABM programs every week! If that’s something you’re considering, then I recommend you check out our recent webinar with Forrester. I had a great conversation with Alisa Groocock – we talked ABM readiness, structure, risks, and of course – sales and marketing alignment! Check out the recording!

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello.

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

The post Martech Trends at the Halfway Point appeared first on Virtual Causeway.