Author: Carter Matthews

Hopefully your 2017 is off to a fast start! 2016 had plenty of big news with the return of the Olympics, the outbreak of the Zika Virus, and who could have predicted the unexpected phenomenon that was Pokemon Go!  Of course, none of those stories rivaled the political news of Brexit in the U.K and the Trump Presidential election in the U.S.  A little closer to home in our industries, the water crisis in Flint, MI and the Dakota Access oil and gas pipeline made headlines.

2016 was also a big year at Empowering Brands.  We launched our third equipment based web platform, Empowering Compressors to join our growing family since the 2011 launch of Empowering Pumps.  Hopefully if you’re reading this your company has become a partner or you’re on the way after reading Charli’s recent blog, “Getting the Most from Our Partnership”.

In the marketing world, 2016 continued to usher in fast evolution and growth of social media, video, and native and content marketing.  We expect continued growth in these trends for 2017 and here’s a brief look at our Top 5:

1. Social Media as a Means for Discovery. Google may still rule in search but social is catching up fast! More and more people are finding info first on social and on search engines second.
2. Paid social. Your organic posts are getting less and less traction so you have-to pay to reach an audience with any scale.  Targeting continues to improve and the ability to add 1st party data means working with a partner can be a big win for increasing reach.
3. Decline in Traditional PR and “Earned Media”. Instead companies are shifting to thought leadership through smarter content marketing and strategic narratives across a variety of platforms.
4. Continued decline in banner advertising as a percentage of digital budgets. Ad blockers and the consumer’s ability to filter them out are leading to more and more native content, paid social and video placements.
5. Video Explosion. Video content and marketing will continue to grow especially on platforms like Facebook and Twitter.  Consider these stats:
   1. Facebook is generating 8 BILLION video views per day
   2. In 2015, YouTube declared 400 hours of video being uploaded per minute!
   3. More than 50% of video views are coming from mobile.

What does this mean for you and your company?  You can’t do what you’ve always done! What you were doing 5 years ago is no longer as effective.

If you’re thinking “this doesn’t apply to us”, you run the risk of falling further behind. Your customers will notice and your competition will pass you by. The lines between B2B and B2C marketing are blurring.  If you’re feeling lost, over-your-head or “I don’t know where to start”, then not to worry.  That’s what the staff at Empowering Brands is for… to help you and your company face the changes in B2B marketing and specifically apply these trends to your industrial company and industry.  We have the capability, expertise, tools and most importantly audience to help your company stay ahead of the competition.

Want to learn more?  Contact Us for a Free Consultation.  If you are one of our partners, thank you for your support and stay on the look-out for more helpful marketing tips from the staff at Empowering Brands.

About Carter:

Carter Matthews, Vice President for Empowering Brands, is an alumnus of the University of Alabama with a Bachelors in Communications. Carter has over 15 years experience in advertising and marketing services for B2B with expertise in digital, content, and social media marketing.