The Place to B2B

This LinkedIn Collective post was written by Jim Habig , VP of Marketing for LinkedIn Marketing Solutions

As a B2B marketer myself, I know what it feels like to HAVE to leverage solutions that aren’t built with my needs in mind – that end up, ultimately, fitting like a ten-dollar suit. I also know what it feels like to not have a great way to quantify success – how do we tell if we’re winning or not? And I know that my fellow B2B marketers feel it, too.

That’s why we have developed – with you, the B2B marketer, in mind – a suite of new resources, research and products to help you succeed in reaching new heights.

When it’s true, it’s true

As B2B marketers who are marketing to other B2B marketers, at LinkedIn we often find ourselves gazing across the table to get a sense of where our industry is headed next. Rather than using a finger-in-the-air to gauge where the prevailing winds will take us, we decided to just ask B2B marketing leaders for their views – a lot of them, in fact. The B2B Marketing Benchmark , conducted in partnership with research firm Ipsos and launching today, provides a one-of-a-kind map of the sentiment among our community. We hope this new annual report will help us chart a course over the next year and beyond.?

In my mind, one of the most striking findings is the optimism buoying the B2B industry worldwide. Despite the turbulence in the economy, a majority of B2B leaders are bullish about the marketing team’s ability to drive revenue for their companies.

Read more about top insights from the report on the LinkedIn Collective.

Build up your confidence

Personally, one of my biggest challenges as a B2B marketer is getting a sense of the relative strength of our brand. We use all the techniques traditionally available – brand equity studies, branded search volume, social listening… but they still aren’t enough – I know these are not giving me the full picture.

This drove the development of our B2B Index and Leaderboard, which is also launching today . By looking at on-platform signals – including creative quality, investment in brand efforts and community engagement – we can benchmark a brand’s relative strength.

In the long run, our aim is to highlight leading brands in the B2B space and showcase their exceptional work, which will, hopefully, inspire others to even greater heights in our field.?

Waiting on a line

According to a recent study from Brand Finance , though B2B brands have tremendous enterprise value, we’re still leaving $1 trillion of unrealized value on the table . By investing in our brand-building efforts, we can start to convert that potential into reality. That’s why of the product launches we are announcing today, I’m most excited about our new in-stream video capabilities. One of our key findings in the B2B Marketing Benchmark shows that after in-person events, video is the top channel where B2B marketers are planning to increase their investment.

To support a full-funnel experience, this new video solution enables you to tap into In-Stream Video ads to scale your campaign reach and connect with professional audiences across our network of publishers. These ads, which will appear on mobile or desktop apps and sites, will play at the beginning (pre-roll) and middle (mid-roll) of long-form video content on trusted publisher sites across the LinkedIn Audience Network.

Let me be the one to show you

In terms of brand building via video, we’re leading by example. Today we’re debuting our own video spots as a part of our brand campaign “The Place to B2B.” The videos, created in partnership with marketing agency Maximum Effort , underline that though the marketing world was built for B2C, B2B marketers desperately need a platform that understands their idiosyncratic needs. Check them out here

The B2B Opportunity

It’s an exciting time to be in B2B

B2B companies across the globe are poised to change our economic future. And B2B marketers: Your moment is now. You can help your brands stand out from the rest. I hope that these new LinkedIn solutions – made for and by B2B marketers – can help propel you to success over the long arc of your marketing journey.