BtoB: In which interactive areas are your clients investing the most this year?
Yvonne Tocquigny: Our clients are investing to enhance their brands and generate demand. The need for clear brand messages continues to drive website investments, but the big growth is in social media strategies and platforms, and mobile-optimized sites and apps. For demand generation, there's a shift to align budgets with how b2b customers like to buy—on their own terms. That means creating a presence for our clients where their customers are so the customer can find a match and engage with our client's brand. Thus, more emphasis is placed on SEO, SEM, paid digital media and compelling content, especially videos and infographics.
BtoB: Are you doing much with mobile marketing yet, and what is working?
Tocquigny: We've had a lot of activity this year optimizing websites and content for mobile browsing. We are big fans of responsive design to provide a great mobile user experience while enabling clients to leverage a single content management approach. As for apps, we're still spending a lot of time helping clients determine when they really make sense. They can drive engagement and convert regular customers, but they have to offer real value to the end user. Apps specifically for salespeople are also hot. Lastly, mobile-specific ads haven't caught on yet, but we expect growth there this year.
BtoB: How is your agency responding to changes in the digital landscape?
Tocquigny: We're helping clients fully utilize their new marketing automation systems (Marketo, Eloqua, etc.). Even with those tools, clients still need strong messaging, beautiful and consistent creative, and well-crafted campaigns to really drive lead flow. We're also guiding them through new opportunities in content, which is essential to digital marketing success. M
