Scanning the recent issue of Fast Company, I came across a blog post that would be of interest to many B2B marketers. The blogger acknowledges that while “content is king” for most marketers, the quality of the content is even more important. The blogger goes on to say that the current state of business writing — whether it be a website, press release, white paper or whatever — is, in essence, deplorable.

As a marketer in the B2B space, I must admit that I’m not surprised by this assessment. In talking with many of our clients and colleagues in the industry, we’ve heard them echo this same sentiment. These days, companies need marketing and PR materials that talk benefits and address customer needs, rather than focus on the latest product features and functionality. Don’t get me wrong, “speeds and feeds” are important, but only later in the buying cycle.

As a B2B PR and marketing agency, we represent clients from a number of industries who share one common thread — they are all in the technology space. As a result, we look for writers who can write in a number of different styles and on a variety of topics. When in the market for writing talent, here are a few tips we suggest you keep in mind:

• It takes a slightly different skill set to write for marketing than it does for PR. Marketing is persuasive. PR is factual.
• Ask the job interviewee how he or she would refresh your website. If the person starts out wanting to talk about your company first, as opposed to your customers’ needs, you probably want to keep interviewing.
• Ask to see short writing samples. The shortest writing assignments are the toughest because they must be concise. Look for copy that introduces the problem first, followed by a value statement, then additional details (if needed) and finally a call-to-action in the closing. If the writer is good, all of the above can be accomplished in 200 words (or less!).
• Consider giving a potential new hire a writing test on site.

One last tip to take into account if you are looking to improve the quality of your marketing content: writing is a skill part learned and part talent. Meaning, high school English teachers can only do so much; writing is a talent not everyone shares. Therefore, once you find someone who can write relevant, personalized, high-quality content for each of your audiences (customers, employees, shareholders, etc.), hold onto that person. In today’s market, people with this skill are hard to come by.

The latest CMO Counsel survey (Jan. 2012) is good news for firms, like Arketi, which believe the right marketing strategies link to and build business value – you know Where Marketing Generates Revenue.

The research finds multi-national client marketers are seeking strategic contributions (57 percent) and business value created (56 percent) from their marketing agencies. Other key considerations include:

• Agency efficiency and effectiveness (50 percent)
• Market impact and success of campaigns (42 percent), and
• Creative excellence (42 percent).

Another finding of note included that the top technique for improving client-agency collaboration, output and performance is the religious work to keep all teams fully aligned and in-sync with objectives and deliverables.

In addition, marketers said fresh ideas, analytics and perspectives were what they value the most from outside agencies.  For more on this study check out the great blog post from Marketing Charts or download the entire report from the CMO Counsel.

In 2011, Arketi has was able to help families, individuals and companies from Greater Atlanta to Uganda and Afghanistan.

As a firm, Arketians collected with boxed and canned goods for the Atlanta Community Food Bank during its annual Arketi Turkey Day Food Drive. Employees filled up bags and the donation barrel to the rim during October and November. The food bank then distributed the groceries to low-income families in Metro Atlanta and throughout North Georgia.

Arketi also gathered snacks, toiletries, baby wipes and other items to send to troops at FOB Shank located in the Loghar Province of Afghanistan.

Another way employees helped out is by contributing to Hands of Love – an organization that improves the lives of children and their families affected by the humanitarian crisis in Uganda. Arketi “adopted” three children there and provided each of them with school supplies, clothes and a Christmas gift.

In 2011, Arketi gave “in-kind” offerings to several non-profit organizations, such as High Tech Ministries and HealthMPowers. Arketi provided public relations, event coordination support, design services and more.

Arketians supported clients with their community service programs, as well. For instance, Arketi staffers joined Knowlagent at the MUST Toy Shop, operated by MUST Ministries – a local non-profit organization that provides shelter and services to persons in crisis.

MUST’s store gave parents an opportunity to “shop” for items for their children with a volunteer personal shopper. Thanks to the MUST Toy Shop and volunteers, approximately 4,500 children delighted in opening presents on Christmas morning.

Arketi has been able to give back to the community in these several ways to help make the past year brighter for so many deserving people. Visit Arketi’s Community page to read more about its outreach programs.

The growth of various forms of one and two-way communication, including text messaging and social media, is causing some to question the viability of email as an effective vehicle for marketing campaigns.

But reports of the death of email may have been greatly exaggerated – at least in the BtoB marketing arena. A recent article in BtoB Magazine states that email marketing is alive and well with open rates trending upwards. The article, which includes survey results from a study conducted by a marketing company and the Direct Marketing Association, states that email open rates increased by nearly 8 percent in Q3 2011 – a fairly significant jump in a mature market space.

The article also includes information from a second survey in which 60 percent of respondents stated they plan to increase email marketing budgets. In the same survey only 55 percent of respondents stated that they planned to boost social media marketing budgets.

Even with the increased popularity of email marketing campaigns, communications professionals need to know and exercise best practices to ensure campaigns are effective and successfully engaging with customers and prospects. To start, know your audience (preferably with specific industry data) and, moreover, the audience’s collective tolerance level for email. The mass move to mobile means many recipients are viewing emails on tablets and other devices and marketers need to keep this in mind when developing content and determining offers.

To see the complete BtoB article, headlined Email Trends: Spotlight on Strengths, Challenges, click here.

Recently, the folks at the Content Marketing Institute published a survey entitled “B2B Content Marketing: 2012 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends”—a survey which further validates Arketi’s own findings at our fourth Annual High Tech CMO Roundtable event .

According to the survey, content marketing, which is viewed as one of the hottest trends in publishing in 2011, is poised to continue its market dominance in the upcoming year. In fact, 60 percent of surveyed business-to-business marketing personnel plan to increase content market spending in 2012. On average, the surveyed marketing personnel allocate 26 percent of their total budget to content marketing initiatives.

According to CMI’s findings, BtoB marketers use an average of 8 content marketing tactics to achieve their goals. Article posting ranks the highest with 79 percent usage; social media (other than blogs) is used by 74 percent of survey respondents. Blogs, enewsletters and case studies rounded out the top 5 with 65 percent, 63 percent and 58 percent of the vote.  See below for full ranking.

In the social media sector, Twitter reigns supreme. Twitter use increased by 35 percent to 74 percent in 2011, with Facebook use up 30 percent from 2010 numbers to 70 percent. Joe Pulizzi, founder of the CMI, noted that, “Twitter, from a listing standpoint and niche content standpoint, is easier to use in a niche business rather than a large consumer. You’re focused on hashtags and different searches that are focused on content sets. Twitter is our most effective broadcasting tool: less social media, more broadcasting.”

“Twitter is closer to what they [marketers] are doing now, as opposed to Facebook, where you really have to interact,” he stated.

YouTube and LinkedIn shared double digit jumps with increased usage of 47% and 39% respectively, while blog and video use leaped 27 percent in 2011 from 2010.

In 2011, we posted a B2B Marketing Minute that summarized our own content marketing tend findings from our Annual CMO Roundtable. We learned that 90% of BtoB organizations are now engaged in content marketing. In addition, more than a quarter of BtoB organizations’ marketing budgets would be used on content marketing alone in 2011.

Stay tuned to find out the latest findings and predictions for 2012, as we’ll reveal our 5th Annual Roundtable findings for both the Atlanta office and our new North Carolina branch.