Are you looking to build your B2B brand? In this era of inbound marketing, the focus is all digital. The internet is where your B2B brand will flourish (or perish), so it makes sense to concentrate your marketing efforts on strengthening your digital footprint. In this blogpost, we’ll look at the three main components of your organization’s digital presence – your website, blog and activities on social media – and explore how you can maximize your impact in each area for 2018.

There’s a big difference between content publishing and content marketing. Content publishing is more or less just putting content up on your website or social media channels, and hoping it will be of interest to somebody. The goal of content marketing, on the other hand, is to get your prospects to do something, to alter their behavior as it relates to your company and product.

Video is emerging as a key digital marketing trend for B2B marketers, opening up powerful new ways to connect with prospects and customers. The B2B marketers who use it report that video is more successful at converting customers than any other technique.

For B2B marketers, choosing the right marketing metrics to define return on investment (ROI) for your marketing spend is often one of the toughest parts of the job. Determing what to measure, how to measure it, and how much weight to give a particular measure can seem equal parts art and alchemy. Combine that with the pressure to demonstrate marketing value to your senior management team, and you may end up spending more time measuring your marketing programs than actually executing.

What are the SEO trends to watch in 2018? As we count down to the close of the year, let’s take a look at some of the developments in SEO that are going to have a big impact.

According to research company Forrester, the buying behavior of B2B customers has changed. For 74% of prospects, fully half of the research process is now conducted online, before a purchase is made. That means there’s a lot more riding on your website and content. Interaction with your sales reps comes a lot later in the process, meaning your content has to do much of the heavy lifting when it comes to presenting your products and company. To push the pressure even higher, B2B buyers expect the same kind of ‘experiences’ in interacting with you online that they get with consumer offerings.

If your business identity is the “personality” of your organization, your visual identity is the graphic dimension that communicates that personality to your audiences. And if there’s a mismatch between your visual identity and your brand or business, your customers and prospects may feel a subtle sense of discord – and possibly even confusion.

Why is a strong brand one of the most valuable assets that your organization can possess? Because purchasers are willing to pay a premium for a known quantity. Visual branding is everything for consumer products, or B2C – just consider Coke vs. Pepsi. There isn’t much of a difference between these products, but consumers tend to align fiercely with one or the other.

We’re closing in on the end of the year, and that means it’s time to take a look forward at some of the digital marketing topics and trends that are going to have a big impact in 2018. We picked 7 top trends to explore in this post.