October 2020

The World of B2B

You wouldn’t use a flip flop to hammer in a nail. So why are so many marketers using underpowered tools to help them get the job done?

With a surge in transformational technologies beginning to go mainstream, we’re seeing a number of platforms and providers harness these and apply them to their tools. The result is a host of cutting-edge resources more in tune with today’s hyper-connected, data-driven business world. Platforms that not only help you get the information you’re after, but do so more efficiently and produce more actionable, relevant insights.

Here’s my list of the best tools out there right now:

Brandwatch

After a merger with Crimson Hexagon last year we’ve seen the social listening platform go in a slightly different direction. The platform uses an AI tool called Iris to quickly locate peaks in social conversation and tell you exactly which people, articles or even hashtags are driving this activity. Who wouldn’t want that information at the end of their fingertips?

Answer The Public

In a world full of chatter around automation and bots we need to remember that people are still the ones using search engines. Give this free website (with optional paid pro version) a keyword or two and it’ll help you find out the most popular questions people are asking Google around that topic. In this way it can tell you what people really want to know, and then the data can be harnessed to help shape content creation.

Fanpage Karma

Another social listening tool, Fanpage Karma is a revelation for anyone looking to analyse LinkedIn content. The platform pulls posts from company pages and lets you export them, analyse them and compare them against competitor feeds. A lifesaver for anyone who’s looking to audit LinkedIn channels, and gauge how good engagement rates really are.

Forrester

87% of B2B marketers believe an industry statistic before validating the source. I just made that up, but you were ready to believe me weren’t you? Forrester hosts a wealth of legit research reports, whitepapers and webinars based on different industry verticals and trending topics – ideal for finding authoritative statistics to support a narrative. And in case you need any further help in your quest for knowledge, subscribers can get a free 30 minute call with the author of the research paper for deeper insight.

Onalytica

Influencers seem to be getting a bit of a dodgy rep at the moment, but in B2B they can be incredibly useful. The trick is to find the right one, someone with credibility and authority to represent the brand and the subject area. Enter Onalytica. This tool not only helps you identify influencers, but also create an entire relationship platform, highlighting the topics they’re most associated with and showing whether or not their current output suits a given brand’s image.

GTmetrix

With Google using page speed in its ranking algorithm, this is an area you don’t want to forget about when it comes to optimising your landing page. GTmetrix is a free (pro version available) tool that provides insights on the loading times of websites. It tells you how fast your page loads and where the issues lie, and also gives you recommendations on how to optimise your page to improve loading speeds and provide a better user experience.

Google Keyword Planner

This one has more uses than meets the eye. Yes, it’s obviously great for getting keyword volumes and suggestions for Google Ads, but those keywords can be put to other uses. How about using them to improve the SEO of your blog post? Or using them to improve a social listening query?

iSpionage

This nifty little tool helps identify what businesses are up to with their paid ads and how their engagement stats are looking. The free version provides enough information to make some educated guesses on strategies and how competitors should shape theirs to differentiate or compete directly, but a standard account won’t break the bank and gives much more functionality.

Power BI

Sometimes a load of charts and graphs in Excel don’t cut it and you need something with a bit more gusto to bring together and visualise your data. Power Bi can create real-time, dynamic visuals from live-stream data – a quick way to deliver key information should there be a live issue with your product or brand online. The platform has also been named Forrester and Gartner’s leader in Business Intelligence Platforms.