Brace yourself: You’re about to read an entire article about a dash. Yip: we mean the little horizontal line thingy that some people use to join words together, as in "e-learning" or to make a nose on a smiley. Don’t blame us - we didn’t start it. E learning SEO is a compounding problem which, regrettably, we’re unlikely to put entirely to bed today in this article. But the question of exactly how marketing motivated people like us should write the word "eLearning" (or e-learning, or even e learning) has divided dash believers and non-believers in the industry for too long. Here at Now Towers we think it’s time to do what we can to bring these fighting factions together. Google search an answer and ye may find No point bickering over meaningless aesthetics: the only measurable bit of difference that the syllable separator could possibly contribute to good content marketing is surely any potentially positive (or negative) impact on online search: If using the term "e-learning" rather than "eLearning" or "e Learning" can be proven to boost a website’s page ranking in Google, Yahoo and Bing even slightly, we should use it. If not - let’s ditch it. It’s a simple point to make, but a complex one to prove. The Google Trends tool helps us make an initial assessment. Worldwide search trend for e learning, e-learning and elearning In the graph below we’ve used Google Trends to compare the relative search volumes of the three varieties of the keyword "elearning". It shows that, in terms of worldwide search, "elearning" - written as one word - has been attracting more searches than "e-Learning" with a hyphen since about 2008. Armed with this bit of insight we might start to conclude that it’s time ditch the dash. Don’t jump to conclusions and do a "find and replace all" just yet however: turns out that the world’s hyphen lovers and haters are not dispersed all that evenly across the globe. If you’re selling predominantly into the US then you’re dealing with a nation of hyphen haters. In European hotspots like France and Spain, syl-la-bi-fi-ca-tion is still the acceptable norm, although usage is in decline. As usual, the Brits don’t seem to care much and will search for any variety of the keywords in approximately equal measure (see the graphs below). US search trend for e learning, e-learning and elearning UK search trend for e learning, e-learning and elearning   For the moment then, the global picture is one that looks to be following the trend in the US. More people are ditching the dash when they search and, overall, the trend is towards the US keyword of choice: "elearning". So when it comes to organic search, it might make good sense to settle on the word "elearning" because this form of the word is the favoured search option in the US and is growing steadily in popularity in most other regions. Well sort of, except that search engines tend to understand synonyms pretty well these days and all three versions of the word "elearning" are already strongly associated with each other (i.e.: type "elearning" into Google and you’ll be presented with the question "Did you mean ‘e learning’". This means that any measurable benefits of using the term "eLearning" today are subtle at best - they may improve with time as the term’s popularity continues its upwards trend. The eLearning Network provides a decent indicator because the organisation has historically favoured the term "eLearning" over a long period and the term itself has become more popular over time: Search for eLearning in Google today and the eLN site is listed in the top ten results. Search for "e learning" or "e-Learning" in Google and the eLN drops down to just outside the top ten. The strong association of all three terms suggests that much Search Engine Optimisation and backlinking would be required before any clear competitive edge could be realised. More importantly perhaps, while it’s true that "eLearning" looks like it will soon become the global search term of choice, the fact that Google treats hyphenated words as two separate words makes for a pretty uneven fight. Google doesn’t really differentiate between "e learning" and "e-learning" so even in the US, where trending towards the term "elearning" is highest, the no hyphen version needs to convincingly beat both before any significant benefits are likely to be realised. OK, so if the navel gazing over the dash in e-learning is to be parked for another day, what should we all be doing now to boost our business’ relevance for the procurers searching the web for elearning products today? Well first and foremost, it helps if you know what kind of people, in what kind of industries, are currently searching for the things you might be able to sell to them. Google Insights’ top searches and rising searches charts helps us work this out. Surprise surprise: Over the past couple of weeks in the US, "army e learning" has rocketed to the top of the rising searches chart, which means that savvy marketers in North America are now battling it out to be first to publish new content that promotes their business’ defence credentials. Meanwhile in the UK it’s growing interest in what eLearning can bring to the NHS and other health provision businesses that e-learning providers should be focused on if they want to keep content synced up with current search trends. In France, it’s worth considering some focused content marketing around the phrase "anglais e learning " right now if language courses are part of your portfolio. None of this is rocket science, but it is just a tiny bit geeky. Let’s face it: keyword analysis, split testing, placement tools and search traffic estimators are useful but they’re not really marketing cool. What most of us are really interested in is how creative ideas, great content, images, designs and debates can connect our business with customers and compel people towards action. The key is being able to balance the need to be different, distinctive and unique for the humans we want to sell to, with the need to be highly catagorisable and easily indexable for the search engines that carry our message out to customers? The fact that the fundamental debate over the dash in e-learning still rages on suggests there’s a long way to go.

Over the past few months our Learning Technologies vs World of Learning project has been asking B2B marketers in L&D to rate the two events that traditionally dominate the UK trade show calendar. The results? Well it’s bad bad news for World of Learning as the findings of our tradeshow showdown survey puts the Birmingham based L&D show firmly in the shade of London’s Learning Technologies event.  But is a good day for LearningLive, which our research solidly identifies  as the industry’s new "significant other" business event in L&D. Totally independent and fiercely unofficial, the purpose of this exercise is to help us help you. This survey is not sponsored or supported by either show or any affiliate in any way, although reading through its findings, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was. Mind blowing bombshell #1 LearningLive is the industry’s new "significant other" business event. If B2B marketers in L&D are turning their backs on the two trade show giants in L&D, then it’s the fast growing LearningLive show that’s reaping the benefits.  This is the show that over 80% of you specified (without prompting) when you chose "other" in our survey. Mind blowing bombshell #2 Both Learning Tech and World of Learning are thought to deliver less value for money these days. Learning Technologies remains the industry’s value leader, but it represents the best value option for just one in two L&D marketers today (six in ten rated this show best value three years ago).  World of Learning wins the best value vote from less than one in five B2B marketers in L&D these days (three years ago World of Learning was considered the best value L&D trade show by four in ten). Mindblowing bombshell #3 When we last did this survey three years ago, 85% of you said you regularly attended both shows.  Today this number is less than 25%.  This is interesting because general perceptions of both shows have remained fairly constant. Three years ago, you rated Learning Technologies above World of Learning in every category we asked about (networking opportunities, sponsorship packages, quality of visitor, general value for money). But while World of Learning was constantly rated lower than Learning Technologies, over 8 in 10 of you routinely went along anyway, took stand space and generally supported the Birmingham based show.  Now just 1 in 4 of you do this. Learning Technologies vs World of Learning: Key questions asked* Which UK based learning & training event do you think: LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES WORLD OF LEARNING BOTH ABOUT THE SAME OTHER Is the leading trade show for the industry today? 81% 5% 10% 4% Currently represents the best value for money for the businesses that take part? 50% 19% 15% 16% Delivers the best networking opportunities today? 55% 10% 31% 4% Offers the best value exhibitor and sponsorship packages today? 35% 27% 23% 15% Currently supports your business with the best marketing and PR opportunities before, during and after the show? 65% 15% 12% 8% *128 people participated in this survey So what did we learn for B2B marketers in L&D? First up, it’s important to stress that the majority of people who take part in our surveys work in learning and training businesses that have a reasonably strong connection to technology.  For this community, the World of Learning show has always been the poor relative to Learning Technologies. Three years ago, when budgets were less stretched, participating in what was rated the industry’s second best trade event (for training companies with a technology bias) may have been a nice to have, worthwhile addition to the marketing mix, but when marketing budgets are tight, nice to have additions have much less chance of making the draft. If recessions are opportunities to aggravate and innovate, then LearningLive seems to have spotted the empty space and scored. The questionnaire we used for this survey had no mention of LearningLive. Respondents were not prompted to choose from a list of alternative trade shows, yet 80% identified LearninngLive as the clear alternative in L&D events today, especially when asked about value and sponsorship deals. Looks like the L&D event has found its third way.

We’ve taken all the insights acquired from years of Learning Tech exit polling and cherry picked five big lessons to keep in mind as you set out your strategy for Britians’s biggest trade show for tech companies operationg in the L&D and HR markets. From the lead nurturing blogging content you use to build awareness before the big show to the attendance boosting tactics that get the right prospects in front of you on the day, make our 5 ground rules for B2B marketers planning for Learning Technologies 2015 your template for for marketing succces at LT15uk. 5 ground rules for B2B marketers planning for Learning Technologies 2015 1. Don’t mix your products with your seminars When our exit pollers asked Learning Tech delegates to study the seminar timetable and pick out a talk that sounded really interesting, not one of them picked a topic that mentioned a product or an exhibiting company. It’s not that your company or its products don’t interest learning tech attendees, they almost certainly do - so long as they know which problems your products are going to help them solve. Seminars with titles like "Product X™ from Company Y™: the mobile assessment tool for today" send a shiver up the average delegate’s spine these days. They brace themselves for the big sell and, perhaps most importantly, they really don’t think they’re going to learn anything that’s not already on your website if they attend. Seminar topics like Brightwave’s "A roadmap to 2020: How can learning tech support fast changing business practice", work better because they focus on an issue, hold cross-sector appeal and box in the topic: It’s a "roadmap", and it’s guiding us to "2020" rather than some vague place like "the future" or "beyond blended learning". 2. You don’t score on the day without training hard all year The vast majority of delegates at Learning Tech do at least a little pre-visit planning, so getting noticed before the event is critical. Pre-event direct mail has a role to play here but it’s not an easy option: Most delegates remember receiving emails inviting them to "come visit us at stand X, Y or Z", but this is a much over used tactic and few visitors can remember, or name, any specific companies emailing this kind of general invite out. One off eShots, isolated newsletters or social campaigns carry little weight at the best of times, so actioning one of these in the build-up to the country’s biggest trade show has about as much impact as sending a cheap card at Christmas. It’s much better to build the Learning Tech show into your marketing plans than build your marketing plan around Learning Tech (this sounds like an obvious point but lots of marketers we talk to seem to think this way). The problem here is that delivering a good, steady flow of relevant content all year round seems quite difficult compared to a one time pre-show email blast (it is and it isn’t, but we’ll come back to that later). 3. Create content that the Learning Technologies website can use The Learning Tech show website was another frequently mentioned research source for the diligent pre-planner but, for the most part, learningtechnologies.co.uk seems to influence decisions over which conferences or seminars a delegate attends much more than which companies to see in the main exhibition area. Improving the site’s search and relevance matching features would really help exhibitors without diminishing the integrity of the site, but for now any learning tech visitor with a specialised query (like, for example which exhibitors offer LMCS / have specialised experience in finance / global presence / etc) is left unsatisfied. Here’s where that mis-calibrated content raises its head again. Exhibitors recognised as issues champions and thought-leaders will always be able to make a strong case for appearing in LearningTechnologies.co.uk’s news and features sections, but the key phrase is "relevance marketing". Company profiles or product sheets just don’t make the grade and these days, even case studies that feature big name customers may fare only slightly better. 4. Remember the people who aren’t even there: they might be more important than the people who are The internet has changed the profile of the classic trade show attendee dramatically and many five-star prospects these days choose to watch over the proceeding from the comfort of their own desktop than roam the avenues and alleyways at Olympia 2. It helps to anticipate this and adopt tactics that help build brand fans online. Make sure that whatever content, product details or key messages you’re pushing to delegates at the show is available online, preferably in one easy to use micro-site dedicated to the event. Launch this site via a simple eShot campaign as part of your show build-up and already your pre-event announcements look 10 times more distinctive and memorable. Those likely to attend can start interacting with you online, perhaps pre-booking meetings. Those likely to watch from afar can start influencing the company ambassadors they’ll surely send to Learning Tech in their place. 5. iPads and Kindles are more memorable than the companies who give them away Delegates taking part in our exit polls certainly noted the volume of desirable objects on offer at Learning Technologies this year, but the companies promising to dish them out had all become a bit of a blur by the time visitors saw the daylight of Hammersmith Road. As a pure-play data capture exercise, these big(ish) ticket prize give-aways may have some value (typically a delegate is trading personal contact details for the opportunity to win) but the anecdotal evidence from our exit poll really left us wondering. Almost everyone we spoke to who thought they had participated in some kind of a lucky draw (not everyone was absolutely sure either way) did so as part of a larger dialogue with the exhibiting company. So: If this dialogue is compelling shouldn’t the attendee be happy to offer over a business card anyway. If it’s not, and attendees still offer their contact details purely on the basis that they may be one iPad to the good if they do, then isn’t the competition masking some serious flaws in the sales dialogue? Overall, the main conclusions we can draw here is that delegate rarely really remember if they have entered a competition, care about the outcome or can link prizes with the companies offering them. Individual, smaller give-aways were slightly more memorable. Or perhaps we’re just sore because we didn’t win one!

OK, so last January we published the latest edition of the learning technology industry’s most popular Hot 100 highest rankers chart. No big deal really: Corral your best SEO and content experts into one locked room and sustain them with all you can eat pizza long enough and these kind of marketing milestones just sort of happen really. But no, we didn’t do all of this just for the pizza. Frankly, we didn’t even do it for the industry-wide recognition we’ve received via the project (although that’s always nice). What we really like about the the Hot 100 rankers project is the forensic-class investigation that goes on behind the scenes: that’s why we do it. You learn a lot when you undertake a project like this one, so we’re pretty stoked with data at the moment. Here’s the bottom line on the top stuff that’s blowing our minds right now. Mind blowing bombshell #1: the very best content usually sits on the least optimised websites It’s true! Some of the best content we found in eLearning, training and HR sits on some of the weakest websites (in terms of their SEO and SMO clout), and some of the weakest content sits on steroid induced, supercharged search and socially optimised powerhouses. Why does this matter? Well: Awesome content marketing (that’s the kind that nurtures leads and converts web visitors into customers) depends on both. First, you need really compelling content. You know the kind of thing: It’s like, you just can’t look away! Second, you need a really intelligent web platform where customers and prospects can find your content easily, interact with it, endorse it and ultimately, share it. The big bombshell that hits you when we research the world’s leading learning tech companies’ websites is that most of them are dramatically better at one of these dependencies than the other. It’s only when you get close to the upper echelons of the top 20 or so, that both content quality and platform efficiency start to receive equal billing. How do we know? Well, the biggest indicator comes when you compare a website’s social traction (how often its visitors share, like or bookmark content) with what we might call its technical readiness for effective search and social marketing. Routinely we found company websites scoring high because meticulous attention to search and social optimisation gave them impressive technical clout, but these supercharged websites seldom followed through with evidence that this clout was really being leveraged. Content which was technically well optimised for search, was only rarely being endorsed (liked, tweeted, dugg, shared, etc) by real people. Conversely, most of the sites that made our chart on the strength of good, issues-based, topical content, tended to suffer somewhat because the news and insight they offered up was not housed on a well optimised, social friendly web platform. SEO scores on these websites were usually lower and an overall lack of social/sharing opportunities made these sites harder for those impressed with what they read, to spread the word. bombshell #2 Outside of the top 10, the upper half of our Hot 100 table is dominated with company websites that usually score best in terms of "technical readiness" (i.e.,Google likes them). Companies in the bottom half of the chart are usually there because they score higher in terms of social pick-up (i.e., people like them). What could that mean? Well, we’re speculating a tiny bit, but a lot of this might be about bigger companies having budget to spend on SEO/SMO while smaller companies need to depend on good ideas and encouraging support from known communities. Good ideas housed on a supercharged search and social optimised platform will get you in the very top tier of the chart, but being pretty efficient at just one of these things is enough to win a spot somewhere at the table. The big issue for many of the larger companies at the top half of the chart is that solving an SEO/SMO problem is usually much easier than solving a content problem. Optimising a website and ensuring that it’s equipped for search and social marketing requires only budget and the resources to commission a respected SEO expert: The majority of the companies listed higher than spot 50 in our chart would seem to have done this part already. Delivering well-designed, compelling content that connects with customers, nurtures leads and builds authority is much harder: Only the upper 15-20% of our hotlist can claim to be doing this really effectively. Bombshell #3 The most often missed SEO hygiene factors could be corrected in less than a week. When we say "hygiene factors" we mean the boring techie bits that the geeks at the Googleplex love but creative marketing types like us hate. Brace yourself young marketing master: you’re about to read a paragraph about meta data. OK, so none of us did these arts degrees and MBAs so we could end up scrolling through reams of search friendly tags, but we should at least have the discipline to check that the poor coder or web designer we passed this eye-wateringly boring task over to has actually done it. Putting the never ending, raging debate over meta tags aside for a second, two pieces of meta data really do matter: The title tag (that’s the 70 or less characters that asually appear in the blue bit at the very top of the browser) and the descriptions tag (that’s the 160 or less characters that should be there to summarise what a page is all about). These two tags are usually the first things that search engines use to match your business with potential customers searching online so if they’re not right, you’re left at the starting blocks while competitors get a head start. And fixing them is so incredibly easy. Bombshells #4 -  ’nuff already, I get the picture! We’d love to go on, but the truth is, we’re a relevance marketing company and we’re pretty sure that we’re about to lose half of you if we proceed much further. What say we break things down and get a little personal? Want to brainstorm some savvy SEO-tastic content marketingcaper of your own? Step one might be to work out what’s holding back your web marketing effectiveness via your own special B2B marketing hackday.

Well we’ve only just gone and done it again! Last summer we created a bit of a stir when we first published our definitive 100 best elearning websites chart, so this time round we thought: why not turn things up a notch?.  Why settle on just the Top 100 when we could be spotlighting the 250 best elearning websites? Why offer just one consolidated ranking position per company website when we could lift the lid on the six top indicators that influence our chart most.  And finally, why not just make the whole thing interactive too, so that search and social savvy webucation marketers who don’t think we’ve come up with the learning tech industry’s best overall ranking formula, can come up with their own. Risky move?  Well it might be. Better take the time now to check out the new chart before we bottle it and change our minds. My company isn’t in the best elearning websites chart and I think it should be We’re good, but we’re not perfect. Over 1000 companies are analysed to produce the 100 best elearning websites and we’re adding more all the time. You can be 100% sure that your company is included in future analysis by signing up to Nowfriday newsletter (the #Learning tech edition) here. Tell me about the marketing tools and tactics that these companies do get into the best elearning websites chart The all new Marketing Spending Review for marketers in L&D is out now. Get the highlights in our infographic then download the full report to see what the best B2B marketers in L&D will be spending budget on over the next 18 months. What’s it all mean? Check out the "how to read the 100 best eLearning websites chart" section at the bottom of the page. Company website Place in the space 1 www.adobe.com/captivateAdobe Screen capture software, E-learning authoring software, Learning management system9976542000651938288 2 www.oracle.com/taleoOracle Talent management software89674970531741239 3 www.blackboard.comBlackboard Technology and Solutions Built for Education8996584017499530 4 www.desire2learn.comdesire2learn Learning Management System (LMS)7996112019832702 5 www.articulate.comArticulate E-Learning Software and Authoring Tools799633700278142961 6 www.lynda.comLynda Software training online-tutorials for Adobe, Microsoft, Apple & more7996221001639258841 7 www.tribalgroup.comTribal Group Learning support services69471050N/A364 8 www.ispringsolutions.comiSpring Solutions Rapid E-Learning Software | PowerPoint to Flash Converter | Convert PowerPoint to Flash7866457082834993 9 www.kineo.comKineo Custom E-Learning Training & LMS Solutions699657101927367 10 www.skillsoft.comSkillsoft E-Learning for Business Skills & IT Certification699619700890241272 11www.remote-learner.netRemote Learner Integrated Open Source Learning Services6986362158514569 12www.sumtotalsystems.comSumtotal Complete Talent Management Software : Learning, Performance, Compensation, Succession, Development, 360 Feedback, Hiring, Collaboration, HR Management, HRMS, Workforce Planning, Analytics694645001193881675 13www.cblearning.comCBLearning Microsoft Training Courses, Microsoft Excel Training & Windows Courses694616200121309691 14www.webanywhere.co.ukWeb anywhere e-Learning & Web Design for Schools, Business, FE/HE, Public Sector, Charities5947692N/A540 15www.successfactors.comSuccess Factors Business Execution Software693614000152461609 16www.saba.comSaba LMS, Performance Management, Talent Management, HCM, Human Capital Management, Video Conferencing68561850185670845 17www.newhorizons.comNew Horizons IT Training, Microsoft Training, Cisco Training, Computer Training, Certifications6836617000713051516 18www.enocta.comencota Turkish based one stop eLearning company67861480N/A47 19www.50lessons.com50Lessons Business learning content providor owned by Skillsoft670611801002865189 20www.ilxgroup.comILX Group Accredited Training and Consulting Organisation59962140505942236 21www.playgen.comPlaygen Games and Gamification5996196637205180 22www.trivantis.comTrivantis e-Learning Software, Authoring Tools, LMS and Online eLearning Development69856030064364688 23www.mindleaders.comMindleaders Talent Management And Elearning On One Platform59861370157564687 24www.brandon-hall.comBrandon Hall Learning & development, talent management, sales & marketing, executive management 597661702883031404 25www.epic.co.ukEpicE-learning, online learning and blended solution69756971090659296 26www.upsidelearning.comUpside Learning LMS, Custom eLearning Development, Mobile Learning Solutions from Upside Learning, India59665030281533427 27www.softchalk.comSoftChalk E-Learning Authoring Solutions | Interactive Online Lesson Creation Tool69556271255018272 28www.expertus.comExpertus Learning Management Experts - Cloud Learning - SaaS Learning Portals - Social LMS - Training Administration5956457151302983 29www.ydp.euYoung Digital Planet Digital Education Publishing Providor6955819N/A94 30www.lumesse.comLumesse Talent Management694518502751578 31www.premierit.comPremierIT IT Training, Cloud Computing, IT Support, Website Design and Development, CPD ePortfolio, e-Learning692511001563980147 32www.brainshark.comBrainshark Online Presentations, Mobile Video Presentations,eLearning 5896180000276372874 33www.enlightks.comEnlightKS learning technologies business delivering Computer Driving Licence testing platform5766413N/A56 34www.theworkingmanager.comWorking Manager D2 organisational development solutions | e-learning547616221449 35www.knowledgeadvisors.comKnowledge Advisors learning measurement software5995640453874155 36www.learningpool.comLearning Pool Saving money for the public sector with collaboration and learning5995549001176392151 37www.raptivity.comRaptivity Create e-Learning interactions quickly and easily59854060191934301 38www.xyleme.comXyleme Learning Content Management System (LCMS)59859041671863249 39www.thales-trainingconsultancy.comThales Training Business Training Courses & Bespoke Services49861050N/A96 40www.cornerstoneondemand.comCornerstone on demand Talent, Learning & Performance Management Software5975960301026727 41www.rapidintake.comRapid Intake e-Learning Software for Computer Based Training5965836687463228 42www.certpointsystems.comCertpoint The Global e-Learning m-learning LMS LCMS CMS Talent Management Software Solutions Provider596514201030966197 43www.myknowledgemap.comMy Knowledgemap Knowledge and learning assisted by technology4966243N/A72 44www.goodpractice.comFor Leaders and Managers5955303493129102 45www.elearningbrothers.comDevelop rapid eLearning courses and games495688260396876 46http://www.logica.co.uk/we-do/hr-and-payroll-services/HR Services59551100N/A212 47www.excelindia.come-Learning Solutions, Custom eLearning, Content Development59457491418697 48www.outstart.comLCMS, Learning Systems, and Social Business Software5935786539487448 49www.onlinetraveltraining.co.ukOnline Travel Training, Travel Agent E-Learning, Travel Courses49361270635008409 50www.pfeiffer.comEssential resources for training and HR professionals5925108002026287 51www.crossknowledge.comDistance learning solutions59252650801513215 52www.im-c.comeLearning provider59259034163314124 53www.tatainteractive.comLearning solutions and custom e-learning5905415499102166 54www.skytap.comEnterprise Hybrid Cloud | Development Test, Sales Demo and Virtual Training5905623535904276 55www.videoarts.comVideo based learning support49063010810397243 56www.electricsheepcompany.comEmmy award-winning creator of virtual worlds and social games for major brands and media companies4906652417027803 57www.toolwire.comExperiential learning58955018530178 58www.gpworldwide.comPerformance improvement company58951800472945316 59www.exact-learning.comLearning Content Management System (LCMS) and Digital Repository586523518852390 60www.netdimensions.comEnterprise Learning Technologies, Certification & Compliance Management Solutions,e-Learning Solutions585577910939202 61www.kaplanlt.comRapid elearning: Software Simulations, Assessments, Documentation & EPSS. 5855395138668580 62www.saffroninteractive.comBespoke training solutions and business communications5855403211921463 63www.edvantagegroup.comCorporate e-learning and managed learning services5845242167873196 64mediaspark.comeducational games, simulations, and social networks5815687265789101 65www.swissvbs.comweb-centered learning campaigns5815149N/A37 66www.learninglight.comelearning and learning technologies58053370791575888 67www.emantras.comE-Learning Training Solutions Digital Education5745275841622211 68www.yukonlearning.comSimulations and learning content473642547516616 69www.brookwood.comCustom eLearning web and training solutions5695568838408857 70www.cdsm.co.ukInteractive solutions568573N/A68 71interactyx.comTOPYX Learning Management System59847440253401321 72www.brightwave.co.ukBrightwave e-learning, online training and blended learning experts49851830132556089 73www.daden.co.ukvirtual worlds and AI solution provider498510101411317220 74www.line.co.ukBespoke E-learning and Blended Learning4985652283243875 75www.happy.co.ukSerious learning49755262081109172 76www.onlignment.comelearning consultancy and strategy support4965449466109 77www.allencomm.comCustom Training, Corporate Training, & Training and Development49652281115287323 76www.iris.co.ukBusiness management solutions supplier4945663240266868 79www.alleninteractions.com4945446946673152 80www.thetestfactory.comEmployee Skills Assessment49451691061128123 81www.quicklessons.comCollaborative e-Learning Platform to Create Courses4945346145402669 82www.caspianlearning.co.ukMulti-Award Winning Serious Games Designer49352082842255208 83http://www.faculte.com/solutions/corporate-learning/Enterprise social video4925224179263481 84www.goventure.netGames, simulations & social networks4915577216677272 85www.questionmark.co.ukAssessment products and support services691331131367630 86www.bluevolt.comExtended Learning Management System4895335209175290 87www.redtray.co.uke-Learning, Blended learning and Training Outsourcing provider4895276237015571 88www.nelsoncroom.co.ukOnline learning for professionals4895651597945136 89www.eukleia-training.comspecialist training company providing elearning courses on regulation &compliance4885190N/A30 90http://www.webex.co.uk/products/elearning-and-online-training.htmleLearning, Online Training, Webinars, Desktop Sharing: WebEx Training Center58741230312772215 91www.irisconnect.co.ukTeacher development & Lesson Observations487578499506260 92www.dominknow.comCollaborative eLearning and mLearning Creation4875192222279062 93www.cm-luminosity.comeLearning products and services487553268921634 94www.mohive.comEnterprise e-learning publishing system4865333400852179 95www.p4you.comelearning software, tools & other eLearning solution485578439259336 96www.blueeskimo.comlearning and development, e-learning and training recruitment48553310N/A35 97www.appraisal360.co.ukReview Appraisal Staff Development Coaching38464028796 98www.trainingfoundation.comTraining support services36861080N/A89 99www.itrainhome.com About the chart Our best elearning websites chart focuses on commercial operators whose primary market is b2b learning.  Larger companies with specific divisions or product sets targeting the learning industry are included but only specific portions of their website have been used in the ranking (for instance, Adobe.com/captivate or webex.co.uk/products/elearning-and-online-training.html). Institutes, schools & colleges are not included, but if they were, the Open University, Coventry University and others would be in the chart.Trade publications like eLearning Age or TrainingZone.co.uk , or industry bodies like eLearning Network or Towards Maturity are also ommitted from the chart, as are vendors or resellers like Coursemerchant.com. How to read the chart Overall Ranking The overall ranking for each company is calculated by crunching together individual rankings from Google PageRank, Moz Rank, Alexa, Hubspot‘s Web grader and Compete. Rankings from link-based measurement tools like Moz or Google PageRank are given more weight than tools like Compete or Alexa, which use smaller samples. We’ve also considered the number of pages that a website has indexed in Google, social reach and the number of domains linking-in to each website. All ranking tools have strengths and weaknesses, but together they paint an interesting and valuable picture we think. Google page rank Ah yes, the big quality score from the people who run the Internet. Google Page Rank scores a website 0 (low) to 10 (high). See this Wiki page if you’d like to know more. Hubspot The Hubspot Website Grader’s job is to sniff out all of the search, social and structural stuff that makes a website well equipped for effective inbound marketing (conversion pages, subscription options for twitter or RSS feeds, mobile readiness, etc) .  Sites are scored from 0 (low) to 100 (high) depending on what it finds. MozRank An algorithmically scaled 10-point measure of global link power or popularity, Mozrank is one of the SEO analysts’ favourites (possibly because it’s quite hard to understand).  Put as simply (crudely) as we like to put things,  lots of people say Moz is quite a lot like Google PageRank, except that it scores a site dynamically where Google PageRank ranks a site periodically.  In our experience, when we compare scores from Google PageRank and MozRank over time we think there’s some evidence to say that a site with a higher Moz score than a Google PR score may be gaining popularity. If Moz scores are lower than Google PR scores, the site may be on a downward curve. Google indexed pages Not one for the rocket scientists. This the number of pages on a website that Google knows about.  When this number is smaller than the number of pages that actually exist on a website, it can be a good idea to submit a site map to google. Alexa traffic rank Probably the best known of the three most popular traffic measurement services, Alexa ranks the world’s most popular website (Google) at number one and works back from there, so the smaller the number the better.  Like most traffic measurement services, Alexa gathers data generated from a  pool of web surfers who have a special toolbar installed on their browser.  Some SEO experts criticise traffic measurement services like Alexa, Compete or Quantcast, claiming that smaller samples can produce misleading results. Inbound links Easy one.  It’s the number of sites that link in.  Google believes that the best sites are the ones with the most authoritative links linking in. Company website The url analysed to allocate the ranking. place in the space If the site’s title tag contained a meaningful description we’ve used it here, if not we’ve done our best to estimate.    

A couple of years ago our exit polling at Birmingham’s World of Learning identified LearningLive as the "significant other" event that most L&D professionals were likely to go to. Since then, every time we’ve asked L&D professionals to tell us about the trade shows and conferences they’re really getting excited about, the LPI’s LearningLive seems to be high on the hotlist. So if LearningLive is emerging as the new "must attend" show in the L&D professional’s calendar, then as Britain’s most inquisitive B2B marketing company focused on the L&D space, we thought it was our job to dig a little deeper. Over the course of five days just after LearningLive 2013, our LearningLive survey for exhibitors asked all the companies who sponsored the show or invested in stand space, to tell us what they thought about the commercial, networking and lead generation opportunities offered by the event. Here’s a quick overview of what they told us. LearningLive Exhibitors survey: five big findings to take-away  The majority of LearningLive 2013 exhibitors: Are happy, or more than happy, with the show’s attendance Rate at least 4 in every 10 visitors as a high-level prospects they could do business with Would recommend the show to a friend or colleague Leave the show with a minimum of 10 good leads to follow-up on Are already thinking about coming back next year Get the full report - instant download

The folks at Learning Technologies always like to make a splash, so let’s just call the wet weather this week an added bonus shall we? Like a troop of flag waving well-wishers at a jubilee flotilla, Britain’s hardiest L&D professionals refused to let the downpours dampen their spirits as they mass-marched through Olympia’s doors this Wednesday and Thursday. As usual, our inquisitive team of pollsters were there to capture knee-jerk reactions as visitors exited the industry’s biggest hall of fame and set sail for the tube station. If you’re new to our Exit Poll here’s the skinny:  Armed with no more than a clipboard, a cup of coffee and a ‘can do’ attitude, our top team of talented pollsters is let loose on the streets of Hammersmith Road just outside the event’s main exit doors. Several hours and hundreds of questions later, we start crunching the numbers into the wee small hours of Thursday evening. Less than 24 hours after the doors close on Learning Technologies 2014, "hay presto": for your delight and entertainment, we present this year’s headline highlights from our #LT14UK exit poll. (Want more detail? Ask us about a Learning Technologies retrospective #Hackday) We asked: "When you planned your Learning Technologies 2014 visit, which company was on top of your must see list before visiting the show today?" LT14uk visitors said: 1 2 3 4 5 We asked: "In terms of visual impact, which company really looked fresh and stood out for you at the show today?" LT14uk visitors said: 1 2 3 4 5 We asked: "Without looking down at any of the literature you’ve come away with today, can you name one of the event’s official sponsors?" Top five responses from most frequent (left) to least frequent (right) were: 1 2 3 4 5 We asked: "In terms of engagement, which company do you think you had the most profitable conversation with?" The top five most popular answers from our respondents were: 1 2 3 4 5 We asked: "Did you download the official Learning Technologies app?"  Yes 26% No 74%       Freebies, teasers and giveaways: We asked: "What free stuff, if any, stood out for you as you walked around the show?" 1 2 3 =4 5 We asked: "Without looking, name one company’s case study, brochure material or other information that you remember putting in your show bag?" The top five most popular answers from our respondents were: 1 2 3 4 5 We asked; "Of all the literature you’ve come away with today, what do you think you’ll be reading on the Tube home?" The top five most popular answers from our respondents were: 1 Official show guide 2 Reed ‘Little Book of…’ 3 eLearning Age 4 HR Director Magazine 5 Epic Brochure/Literature One to watch! We asked; "During your show visit, did you see  any new business or businesses previously unknown to you that looked interesting?" The top five most popular answers from our respondents were: 1 2 3 4 5 We asked: "When you studied the free seminar series, which presentations held most appeal for you?" The top five most popular answers from our respondents were: 1. Gamification produces better results than eLearning… 2. Everything eLearning with Adobe. 3. Learning analytics. 4. Using mobile for performance support. 5. Learning and the inexorable rise of mobile multi-screen. We asked: "Did you find what you were looking for today?"  Yes 86 %  No 9%  Unsure 5% More: LT14UK analysis: 5 Marketing lessons to bookmark for learning technologies 2015  

The all new L&D Marketing Spending Review is out now. Get the highlights in our infographic below then download the full report to see what B2B marketers in L&D will be spending budget on over the next 18 months. Download this infographic on a pdf Want to see how we did it? Download the full report

Content from the nowcomms.com: the B2B marketing company for tech busineses in education, sports, security & ID. See the full story here Easy squeezy: how to get more from your B2B marketing budget There’s no shortage of statistical evidence to help out the B2B marketer who decides that now is the right time to pitch the board for a budget increase, and certainly many of the arguments we’ve read are incredibly well made (In their book "Sexy Little Numbers", Dimitri Maex & Paul B. Brown make the strongest case for increasing marketing spend we’ve seen in ages). But in the real world of the boardroom and the balance sheet, experience tells us that the best starting bid for any B2B marketer pitching for a budget boost is to accentuate the savings that new processes and efficiencies will deliver before weighing in with the return on investment message that supports a call for a budget increase. As B2B marketers across the country get prepped for the biggest budget meeting of the year, here are six efficiency measures we reckon most B2B marketing programmes could easily deploy. 1. Re-use, re-purpose and off-set costs Truth is, with just a little forward thinking and good planning most marketing operations could be getting more out of their expenditure. The trick is to identify opportunities to re-use, re-purpose and so off-set costs. While the proud "creatives" amongst our ranks don’t like to admit it, the classic 80-20 split that applies throughout the consultancy business, applies to marketing too: If you dentify the 80% of "product" that is common across all of your content marketing programmes then pinpointing new ways to get more out of the resources you have becomes easy. So just what are the deliverables you’ve outlined in the B2B marketing plan for the months ahead? Chances are you’re looking at a mix that includes advertising, direct comms, media relations, web and perhaps some trade shows and events (either your own or via a presence at shows organised for your industry). Newsletters, brochure-ware and other sales support material, media relations, direct mailers (either paper or web based) and advertising are likely to be some of the most common products you’re planning to deploy as the marketing plan unfolds. Take the time to think critically about the common elements at the heart of each of these and cost savings will start to crystallise. 2. Start by thinking different So you don’t think your budget can be stretched to cover ongoing outbound marketing programmes eh? Every company communicates with its customers and prospects directly. It’s just a case of finding the opportunities that can be leveraged. Simply sending out a bill or monthly statement is a direct marketing opportunity, so use it. Could invoices be redesigned to include relevant marketing material on the back (or in hyper links if you send e-invoicing), could monthly newsletters or well chosen product sheets be included? Similarly, when staff communicate via e-mail, couldn’t simple call-to-action opportunities be administered to drive customers to your site or encourage input and feedback? For most companies, the monthly invoice and ongoing email transactions remain the most regular communications that exist between the business and its customers, yet opportunities to cross or up-sell are rarely maximised. 3. Re-purpose and recycle If you’re developing customer case study material that can’t easily be re-purposed to fuel media relations activities then think hard: If the material is not strong enough to appeal to the titles that communicate with your customers and prospects then why subject your audience to the same material via your web site or direct mail? So often direct mailers, newsletters and web-zines house second-rate content that ultimately deliver second-rate experiences to the customers they should be designed to serve. If your press and media activities are producing good quality news stories capable of generating genuine media traction, then treat these stories as exclusives in the newsletters or direct mailings you create. In time readers will come to recognise the information you issue as an "exclusive first look" at content strong enough to generate industry wide interest via more widely circulated titles. 4. Don’t just advertise, incentivise! Across all media vehicles, the classic ad insertion has been put to rest forever and any creative concept that does not incorporate effective reader response tactics has been roaming with the dinosaurs since the dawn of the Internet. Make accounting for your committed ad spend easy by developing a carefully planned series of calls-to-actions designed to prompt readers towards downloads, offers or "unavailable elsewhere" information. The responses your efforts generate will serve as essential data to help streamline ad budgets by highlighting media vehicles that deliver prospects and exposing those that don’t. 5. Avoid the pitfalls of water cooler B2B marketing strategy "Good" marketing advice and assistance can come from the most unlikely of places. Whether its Frank from the photocopy room or the most senior company board member, for B2B marketing people like us it seems everyone in the office is an expert sometimes. But while ad hoc help and advice delivered at the water cooler can be thought-provoking and invaluable, it’s unlikely to be supported by the hard, indisputable facts that you could be gathering from your customers. When every penny of your B2B marketing budget has to count, even a simple programme of customer and prospect research will provide the hard evidence and statistics you need to stay the course and keep marketing expenditure targeted during the coming months: Endless internal debates about the effectiveness of your newsletter are quickly stamped out with a customer survey statistic that validates the tactic and dozens of potentially unnecessary and costly product announcements may be shelved with some snapshot research indicating that product news is not the type of information your audience wants to hear from you. With a really relevant B2B marketing approach, justifying budget priorities becomes easy. By making sure it’s your customers that are driving your B2B marketing efforts at all times you’ll be able to better justify the expenditure you do make and remain confident that any projects or activities you shelve are canned with an endorsement from the target community your efforts are designed to serve. If developing the customer or perception data you need to validate or tweak strategy sounds like a big ticket item, work with the sales people in your operation to drill down and focus on the top 10 percent of prospects you want to sell to this year. Perhaps even encourage people in the sales team to use research opportunities to nurture contacts and develop better relationships. Many sales people will relish the opportunity to contribute to the questionnaire and the data gathering process. Some may even see value in contacting a prospect for research rather than the predictably routine sales call. 6. When the going gets tough, the tough innovate "When the going gets tough, the tough innovate", says Prof. Andrew Razeghi of Kellog School of Management. "Moments of economic turbulence are the unique opportunities to start new businesses, launch disruptive new products, and strengthen customer loyalty". As B2B marketing people like us scope out activities, margins for error are paper thin and the need to boost the value and effectiveness delivered via the programmes we manage is greater than ever.  We don’t need more budget to achieve this, we need to innovate more with the budget we’ve got. See the full story Easy squeezy: how to get more from your B2B marketing budget

Well stop all the clocks! The company website is officially the number one marketing channel of choice for L&D professionals today according to the findings in our all new Marketing Spending Review for L&D in 1014 report. Yea, we get it. You kinda knew that already right? Well hold it right there fella. We don’t do these big complex research programmes just so we can point out the bleedin’ obvious (obviously).  What’s really interesting about the all-new top 10 most popular marketing tools in L&D chart isn’t what’s making the top 10. It’s what’s movin’ and shakin’ in the top 10. Here’s the skinny. What’s in and what’s out? Marketing Automation (like Marketo or Hubspot) 37%  Sponsorship (of industry events, awards, initiatives, etc) 32% Trade and business magazine advertising 16% iPhone or Android apps 10%  You have to look outside the top 10 to see what’s really changing.  Traditional high ranking marketing tactics like sponsorship or trade and business magazine advertising have been on a downward trajectory for some time, but now, with only 32% of L&D marketers listing sponsorship and just 16% listing trade & business advertising  as priority parts of their current mix, these classics look to have run their course. The new entries set to enter the top 10 in the months to come look promising. We’ve spotted half a dozen or so fast movers racing up the chart this time around but the ones we’re really excited about are the rise of marketing automation and the adoption of the app in B2B marketing. The L&D sector has traditionally been slow to adopt tech tools to support B2B marketing programmes but with 37% now saying that they use some form of marketing automation things look set to change.  Admittedly, when we drill down on this figure, it looks like the term "marketing automation" still remains unclear for some (email marketing platforms like ConstantContact or MailChimp were occasionally thought to be "marketing automation" platforms rather than systems like Act-on or Marketo) but even allowing for some degree of error, the rise of the marketing automation machine in L&D looks like a pretty safe bet from where we’re standing. What’s movin’ and shakin’? Inside the top 10 it’s really a matter of spotting the fast movers (Relax, we’ve made this super-easy by putting either one, two or three arrows next to each item in the chart). SEO and content marketing collaterals (guides, downloads infographics, etc) are the two fastest growing priorities for B2B marketers in L&D right now according to our new report and tactics like Ad words (or other forms of PPC) have established themselves as major players in the marketing mix. In the top three, the company website, social networks and eMail marketing all look safe in the space for the foreseeable future, although social marketing (via networks like G+, LinkedIn, Facebook or twitter) has become a greater priority than eMail for most marketers in L&D this time round (this may be because email marketing programmes are now established and working fairly effectively for many). Further down the table in spots seven and eight, it’s worthwhile noting the pretty dramatic change that’s occurring in events marketing right now. The traditional big ticket events are giving way to smaller (often self run) micro events. These home run workshops, seminars, user groups or on-line communities have bulleted up our chart for two reasons we think: Firstly, the past few years of austerity have prompted marketers to focus on marketing activities they can run cheaply but effectively using resources they already have. Secondly, B2B marketers in L&D are starting to reap the benefits of investments made in the company website, which is now the marketing hub that powers lead nurturing programmes from most businesses. 1 Company website 98% 2 Social networks (like linkedIn or Facebook) and business networks (like TrainingZone or HRZone) 83% 3 eMail marketing (like eNewsletters) 79%  4 Marketing collaterals - like brochures or product sheets 63% 5 Search Engine Optimisation 58% 6 Debating collaterals - like White papers, eBooks, research papers or studies 57% 7 Major events 53% 8 Smaller events (like networking seminars, focus groups or workshops) 52% 9 News collaterals - like case studies and press releases 51% 10 Online Advertising (like PPC or Adwords) 47% The all new Marketing Spending Review for marketers in L&D is out now. Get more highlights in our infographic then download the full report to see what B2B marketers in L&D will be spending budget on over the next 18 months. Want to see how we did it? Download the full report

Ever wondered what happened to that specialist B2B marketing agency for digital security & ID sector? The one you’d always see around the big industry trade shows like Biometrics, Cartes, SIMalliance or SDW? You remember them right? They were the ones bright enough to get national attention for your digital security & ID news stories when no one else could. The ones who made biometrics look Tom Cruise grade sexy on the international news channels. The ones with enough vision and creativity to position your new start-up alongside Microsoft and Google in the global media markets. Ever wondered what happened to these guys? Five years ago, just a week after completing a major promotional programme for one of our digital security & ID clients, we were asked a question we’d never been asked before. It wasn’t a question from the marketing director, it was a question from the sales director: "If all this exposure in the news and on TV is so great, then why isn’t my phone ringing? The sales director had a point. 20 million people had seen what his product was capable of on major networks like Sky and CNN. The managing director was on cloud nine thanks to a full page profile and picture in the New York Times and the marketing director’s exposure per $ invested ROI chart looked like the Kangshung Face of Everest. But in spite of all this high end exposure, folks in the sales department hadn’t noticed anything different. Above all else, two things have driven change in B2B marketing over the past five years: new technology has opened up powerful new communications channels for B2B marketers, and the worst global recession in living history has meant that no company that cared about survival could afford to ignore them. As we emerge from these past years of austerity, B2B marketing has changed for good. The demand for national news coverage and the high profile TV spots that marketing managers wanted because they would "boost company awareness" look like fuzzy, ill-defined objectives these days. Today marketing directors in the digital security and ID sector want awesome content marketing and online conversion tactics that demonstrably boost sales. Press releases and news announcements that were carefully crafted to connect company decision makers to the most influential journalists have been replaced by blogs and social engagement tactics that target prospects directly online and via LinkedIn,G+, twitter and Facebook. So what happened to that really cool marketing company that used to get unprecedented international attention for your digital security and ID news stories? Well we changed. The world changed, and B2B marketing changed. If major news attention in the press and on the big TV networks is all you want then that’s fine. But if you’re looking for something more, then you’ll be glad to know we’re back. More: Five things your should know about Now if you’re in the digital security & ID business Want to keep watching as we re-connect with our friends in the digital security and ID business? Sign up to our nowfriday newsletter: the security and ID edition or join us us on G+.

Fiercely independent, always investigative and entirely unofficial, our special World of Learning exhibitors report is out now. What’s the skinny? If you’ve not seen our special event reports for B2B marketers in L&D before, then here’s how they work. First we use our vast database of L&D contacts to track down exhibitors at this year’s show, then we ask them all the stuff you really want to know (but the orginisers don’t want to tell you) about this industry’s biggst shows and events. Finally we crush all the learninig up into one simple download short enough to read in the hallway just a couple of minutes before you go into your next marketing planning meeting. Be informed, be very informed Download the full report here or just impress co-workers and appear more cleaver than you are by reading the five big findings take-away below. WOLCE14 exhibitors survey: five big findings to take-away ⅓ of WOLCE14’s exhibitors said that over half of the people they met there were "high-level prospects they could do business with" The show was less busy than most exhibitors expected Exhibitors most probably left the show with as many as 25 good sales leads to follow up on Exhibitors uncertain about recommending WOLCE to a friend or colleague Learning Technologies, CIPD and LearningLive are the three shows that WOLCE14 exhibitors consider attending next Get the full report - instant download

The constantly growing crop of free newswires springing up across the web is raising more questions than answers for many of the B2B marketing folks we talk to these days: "Do these sites work?", "What’s the catch?", "Should I bother using them and, if so, then which ones are worth the effort?" are amongst the most frequently raised questions on our forums and at our seminars right now. So what’s the score? Free newswires may claim to offer free "distribution" services what the vast majority of them really offer is free publishing: they’re not really distributing your story in the same way that a paid for service like prnewswire.com or businesswire.com would. So long as this is understood, choosing which free newswires to publish to becomes relatively easy. Golden rule number one: look for signs that your chosen free newswire ticks the right boxes with major news aggregators like Google news or NewsNow. Most free services boast "distribution partnerships" with the big aggregators and will prominently display the logos of the best known on their site. The more aggregators monitoring the site you publish to, the greater your chances of appearing in online search (Google news, Yahoo News, etc). Golden rule number two: try to publish to a site that allows you to hyperlink back to your own site. Many free services allow you to do this at the end of your news in the details section but what you’re really looking for is a site that allows you to link back to your site in the body text of your news story: back linking, is one of the best SEO strategies you can do to boost your search engine rankings. Golden rule number three: learn to spot the pitfalls. Is the news site you are publishing to using your content to drive traffic to your competitors? If the site does not allow back linking it may be using your own keywords to drive contextual advertising and / or Google AdSence content. Before you publish to a news site for the fist time, see how the site treats other news already posted. Danger areas to look out for are keywords used to drive third party ad programmes or AdWords on the page. If these features seem to dominate, publishing to this site may be doing more harm than good. Bottom line: there’s no such thing as a free lunch. But knowing this doesn’t stop us marketing types squaring the occasional deal over a table at The Ivy, and neither should it stop us taking advantage of some of the free publishing offers out there. So long as we accept the obvious limitations of what’s on offer for free, posting to one or two of the better wire services is, at worst, unlikely to do any harm. At best, you might just be taking the first steps towards developing a mature SEO strategy for your business. Free newswires: The good, the bad and the ugly Here’s our review of the best, and the worst, free news publishing sites for your content. Click their logos to jump over to any of them. A popular and credible looking news publisher only open to content providers after their first submission has been accepted. This site ticks the quality and structure options that most of the main aggregators look for and a link back to your site is available in the details section at the end of a news story. An element of editorial discretion from the folks behind this service adds weight to i-newswire’s claim to be "committed to publishing quality content".  So long as it’s well structured and follows the standard rules of news writing, your story is likely to make the grade.  Approvals take about two hours. Service claims 24 news distribution "partners" including moreover, MSN and Feedzilla. The ability to include clickable links inside the body text of your news story means submissions to this site could have some positive impact on your SEO. In addition, PRLog’s scheduling tool means you can time bomb your news output up to two weeks ahead. Some editorial checks keep this newswire "PR Spam" free and ensure that content ticks all the right boxes for the web spiders at popular news sites like Moreover, Google and NewsNow Good editorial control managed within the familiar WordPress interface means this wire is easy for existing WordPress bloggers to use and popular with the WordPress community. Cross linking with its partner business PR Zoom in the UK, NewsWire Today’s free service could offer a good home for news with genuine transatlantic relevance, but adding logos or hyperlinks comes at a price here and, unless you upgrade, surfers reading your news will also be presented with Google AdSense targeted adds from companies that may not be too dissimilar to your own. Free means less than 3000 characters at this site, which is more than enough for any news story, but  hyperlinks and images can’t be included without upgrading from free to paid for. One real turn off may be this site’s contextual ad policy, turning your own keywords into ad links for others. Operating since 1999, this is one of the longest established news distribution sites out there, but it’s been slumbering in recent months while others have incorporated social apps like twitter or RSS readers. Still listing the long defunct Virgin Radio as a "recent customer", this service may have had its day.  In such a cluttered market, dedicating a wire to one specific type of news seems like a good idea. Except that little or no editorial checks mean that e-commerce news posted to this site sits alongside online jewellery operations pushing Dolly Parton rhinestones and shady insurance companies targeting those of us who’ve been injured at work. Shame News is well categorised here but the free service offers no opportunity to link  back to your site. The most likely outcome of posting news here may be offers to buy a listing in the business directory that supports pr.com’s free news service. More: Have you used any of the free publishing or distribution services mentioned here? Leave a comment if you think we’ve dropped a clanger and mis-rated a service, or if there are alternative services you think should be listed too.

Content from the nowcomms.com: the B2B marketing company for tech busineses in education, sports, security & ID. See the full story here B2B marketing analytics is easy when no one’s asking difficult questions Our B2B marketing analytics models tell us that over the past 18 months, the average number of candidates nurtured through our content marketing programmes has shot up by over 25%.  Traffic on the websites we manage and monitor is up and landing page conversions are delivering better qualified leads than ever. This is all great news: clients are happier and their sales teams are selling more stuff. Trouble is -  we’re not sure we’re actually doing anything different. Sure, we’re in the B2B content marketing game so we’re analysing content and web stats all the time to refine user journeys and make performance enhancements. But the truth is, everything just seems to be working better right now. Companies using our B2B content marketing and analytics services say their marketing has really started to deliver since they brought us in, and salespeople who have never rated marketing’s ability to deliver seriously good prospects are following up on the leads we pass over to them and becoming our best evangelists. So how come sales and marketing people got so effective all of a sudden? It’s the economy stupid? We’d love to take all the responsibility for the improved sales across our client base, but the truth is, for most of us in business in the UK, it’s the economic upturn that’s been driving more sales. Brits started to get really positive about the economy over the summer. The tipping point was around mid August when news that Britain’s economic growth had at last surpassed its (2008) pre-crash peak really did start to entrench confidence. Don’t get us wrong: marketing in an economy that’s on the up is a lot more fun than marketing in a downturn, but it does highlight the problem of measurement. How do we really know our sales and marketing is improving when the economy is getting better anyway? Here’s the science bit Combining facts with judgment to create "proof" is what B2B marketers do. When we’re under pressure to demonstrate ROI for the creative stuff we cook up, no one should be surprised when we turn to slick models like MPM (Marketing Performance Measurement and management) or use analysis approaches like PEST to dazzle the board. Watching marketers run through marketing analytics models like these can be a little like watching Jennifer Anniston talk science during a Loreal shampoo commercial: The presentation is fantastic but the audience rarely cares enough about the topic to ask really difficult questions. Don’t let B2B marketers get away with it Let’s face it: marketing directors aren’t any different to anyone else in the workplace. From the CEO to the boys in the mailroom everyone’s under pressure to prove that the stuff they do for the company is the stuff that’s delivering all the difference. "Success" said John Kennedy, "has a thousand fathers. Failure is an orphan" (Kennedy wasn’t in the B2B marketing game so he didn’t actually say this. But what he did say was close enough - especially when you’re presenting to an audience that doesn’t care enough about your topic to ask really difficult questions). But what if the audience does care enough? What if they did ask more difficult questions? The vast majority of measurement models available to B2B marketers are as robust as any used across the business ecosystem - so long as they are used rigorously. What’s the point of PEST The whole point of PEST analysis is to factor micro-economic influencers (like an economic upturn) into the measurement process. (A PEST analysis studies the external Political, Economic, Social and Technology factors most likely to impact any measurement process). At best, many B2B marketers might mention PEST analysis to kick off a snazzy presentation, but the fact that external factors may have a positive influence is usually reluctantly communicated with clinical speed. In the same way that financial ads tell us our investment might go up or down, the audience is often forewarned but rarely reminded. Asking difficult questions makes this form of statistical hoodwinking difficult. This blog starts off with a claim that the content marketing programmes we create for our clients are delivering 25% more leads than they did 18 months ago, but it’s incredibly naive to think that our programmes are actually 25% better than they were 18 months ago. Conversions are up: because more people buy in an economy that’s growing; because more audience is turning to the social media platforms that spread our content every day; because more buyers are turning to the internet to research and compare propositions; because marketing automation is improving; and because Google’s search algorithm makes finding the right content easier every time it’s revised. If we’re honest with ourselves, we’d say our programs are better because we understand these external factors and quickly learn to leverage them to make the marketing we do deliver more. If we’re honest with our customers, we’d say they should ask more difficult questions more often. See the full story B2B marketing analytics is easy when no one’s asking difficult questions

Content from the nowcomms.com: the B2B marketing company for tech busineses in education, sports, security & ID. See the full story here ICE Totally Gaming Show panic button Starting to panic about all the marketing stuff you’ve still got to do for the ICE Totally Gaming Show this February? Relax, we’ve got it covered. For the days remaining before the big show gets under way, we’re lifting the hood on the Now marcomms machine and offering exclusive access to the tried and tested social marketing, lead nurturing, content creation and content distribution tools we use to deliver the creative campaigns that get real results for our clients. Having managed stands ourselves at ICE, as well as having nearly 10 years of working with some of Europe’s leading B2B sports and gaming companies, we’ve got a pretty good handle on all the marcomms stuff that causes palpitations at this time of year. If you’re struggling to deliver all that’s expected of you for ICE Totally Gaming, check out what’s on offer and get back to us if there’s anything we can do to help. ICE Totally Gaming Show Panic Button Click here to see what our B2B marketing pack for ICE Totally Gaming Show exhibitors can do for you this February. See the full story ICE Totally Gaming Show panic button

Content from the nowcomms.com: the B2B marketing company for tech busineses in education, sports, security & ID. See the full story here Game changing: Why we think sports and technology are a winning match-up We’re all pretty sports focused here at Now Towers: This year, members of the team have signed up to do the Tower 42 run, the Etape du Tour and the Nice Half Marathon (Ken even has a Blue Peter badge for rock climbing!) and we also love our technology. What really excites us though is how the combination of the two presents some really exciting opportunities for business. Sport is social We all know watching a big match on your own just isn’t the same as it is with mates, but with social platforms, fans can share their views and emotions with the world whether they be at the Maracana or at home on the sofa: Last year’s World Cup final generated 618,000 tweets per minute at its peak, demonstrating the power of the platform to engage a global audience.  This gets really exciting when startups and existing established companies start harnessing these online conversations to enable brands, rightsholders and clubs to get closer to the fans. Pulselive and Grabyo are just two young companies creating new ways to reach out to fans and "own" the the online conversation, providing a crossover between a live event or broadcast and other platforms.  It’s a nascent sector and one that we think has real potential over the next few years. Backing a winner We’ll try and avoid the betting puns as much as possible, but the combination of sports betting and technology innovation is a bet we’d put our house on.  Money’s a great motivator in any market and in one where revenues from sport have rocketed in recent years, and where punters seem to have an almost inexhaustible appetite for new bet types, it’s no surprise to us that the betting industry has invested so much in new technology and has become a powerful partner to sports clubs, federations and broadcasters The interesting bit for us though is the effect it has on innovation: Developers are building better platforms that work across more and more devices to cater for an ever more mobile customer base (According to Push Technology, mobile devices have already overtaken PC and laptop as bettors’ device of choice), while data and video providers are encouraged to develop ever more detailed and engaging formats for their clients to improve their clients’ betting offering. That means we can now bet on our local side (the high-flying Brentford FC) and follow the game through near real-time graphic visualisations thanks to live data products from the likes of Perform Group. In fact, even in restricted markets betting seems to breed creativity: Companies like Fanduel and Draft Kings are inking multi-million dollar deals with official leagues and teams to run Fantasy sports games in jurisdictions where traditional sports betting is banned. Wish we’d thought of that… So good old TV sport is dead, right? Not by a long shot. In fact, it’s never offered such an engaging experience (with the exception of Alan Shearer’s half-time "insights").  Whether watching Jeff Stelling and the boys on a saturday afternoon or the serve analysis during live tennis from Wimbledon, innovations in data analysis and graphics packages have provided an ever more colourful, accessible and informative experience for seasoned fans and newcomers alike. Its all thanks to innovative companies like Hawk-Eye, Opta, Vizrt and Deltatre and we’re pretty convinced that as the demands of the TV viewer change, we’ll see more and more innovation in this space. All that’s great, but where do we fit in? Well, we won’t kid you: We’re not the tech experts - we leave that to the entrepreneurs and coders creating and exploiting all these great opportunities. Where we do know our stuff though, is in distilling what really makes products and services great, building interest in them through compelling content and ultimately securing business through a programme of carefully planned, targeted and tracked communications. We reckon this, along with our background in and passion for sports make us the ideal partner for companies in the sports technology space looking to grow their client list in 2015. Sound interesting?  drop us a line and let us buy you a coffee - It could be the start of a winning partnership. See the full story Game changing: Why we think sports and technology are a winning match-up

Content from the nowcomms.com: the B2B marketing company for tech busineses in education, sports, security & ID. See the full story here Learning Technologies 2015 Exit Poll And it’s done! Our annual two days of polling followed by the through-the-night count has come up with the big winners, movers and shakers exhibiting at this week’s Learning Technologies show, less than 24 hours after the doors closed at Olympia. If you’re new to our Exit Poll, here’s the skinny:  Armed with no more than a clipboard, a cup of coffee and a ‘can do’ attitude, our top team of talented pollsters was let loose on the streets of West Kensington with orders to seek LT15 attendees. Several hours and hundreds of questions later, we crunch the numbers through the night to deliver the lowdown on delegates’ views of the show. Now, less than 24 hours after the doors closed on Learning Technologies 2015, "Hey presto": for your delight and entertainment, we present this year’s headline highlights from our Learning Technologies 2015 exit poll. Want more detail? Get the LT exit poll:Uncovered for your company. We asked: "When you planned your Learning Technologies 2015 visit, which company was on top of your must see list before visiting the show today?" LT15uk visitors said: 1 2 3 4 5 We asked: "In terms of visual impact, which company really looked fresh and stood out for you at the show today?" LT15uk visitors said: 1 2 3 4 5 We asked: "Without looking at any of the literature you’ve come away with today, can you name one of the event’s official sponsors?" The top five responses from most frequent (left) to least frequent (right) were: 1 2 3 4 5 We asked: "In terms of engagement, which company do you think you had the most profitable conversation with?" The top five most popular answers from our respondents were: 1 2 3 4 5 We asked: "Did you download the official Learning Technologies app?"  Yes 71% No 29%   Freebies, teasers and giveaways: We asked: "What free stuff, if any, stood out for you as you walked around the show?" The top responses were: 1 2 3 =4 5 We asked: "Without looking, name one company’s case study, brochure material or other information that you remember putting in your show bag?" The top five most popular answers from our respondents were: 1 2 3 4 5 We asked; "Of all the literature you’ve come away with today, what do you think you’ll be reading on the Tube home?" The top five most popular answers from our respondents were: 1 2 3 4 5   One to watch! We asked; "During your show visit, did you see  any new business or businesses previously unknown to you that looked interesting?" The top five most popular answers from our respondents were: 1 2 3 4 5 We asked: "When you studied the free seminar series, which presentations held most appeal for you?" The top five most popular answers from our respondents were: Day 1. 1. Lessons in presenting from standup comics - Fitch 2. More than a hangout: Insiders guide to using Google apps to create the ultimate blended learning environment - TATA 3. Why people aren’t using your online learning resources  - and what to do about it. Scott Bradbury 4. How we learn - iManage 5. When learning meets mobile - Redware Day 2. 1. Creating an interactive video course with articulate Storyline demo - Omniplex =2. Game on: How McDonald’s designed a successful addictive service game - Kineo =2. The impact of the the modern learner on content strategy - Xyleme 4. Why people aren’t using your online learning resources  - and what to do about it - Scott Bradbury 5. Using a virtual approach to deliver L&D qualifications at Rolls Royce - Watson Martin 6. Charles Jennings: Harnessing the power of 70:20:10 -Corporate eLearning Consortium See the full story Learning Technologies 2015 Exit Poll

Content from the nowcomms.com: the B2B marketing company for tech busineses in education, sports, security & ID. See the full story here ICE Totally Gaming exit poll 2015 All bets are off. After three days of polling followed by one through-the-night count, our ICE Totally Gaming Exit Poll has come up with the big winners, movers and shakers exhibiting at last week’s big show. Was your company the one that most visitors remembered as they left the cosy comfort of London’s Excel? Did your sales team dazzle visitors with their sparkling conversation? Were your brochures slick enough to get you on the shortlist or were your giveaways useful enough to avoid the recycling bins outside the venue? Armed with no more than a clipboard, a cup of coffee and a ‘can do’ attitude, our posse of pollsters were positioned outside London’s Excel last week asking ICE Totally Gaming 2015 visitors all the big questions you really want answers to. Think your company made a big impression at the show? Check out the ICE Totally Gaming exit poll results below for this year’s big winners or get the sports Gaming Exit poll personalised for your company. Question 1: We asked: "When you planned your ICE Totally Gaming 2015 visit, which company was on top of your must see list before visiting the show today?"  visitors said: 1 2 3 4 5 Question 2: We asked: "Which company really stood out for you at the show today?" ICE visitors said: 1 2 3 4 5 And what made them stand out? Well, no surprise here: Size and pretty girls are the order of the day if you want to retain the attention of your average ICE visitor (who’d have guessed attendees were almost exclusively male!?) And of the sports betting companies present, the following stood out for our respondents: 1 2 3 4 5 Question 3 We asked: "Which one company do you think you had the most useful conversation with?" The results were close here, but the  6 companies that came out on top were: 1 2 3 4 5 It’s always good to see the smaller younger companies mentioned in our surveys so well done Odobo and Optimove! Question 4: We asked: What giveaways, if any, stood out for you as you walked around the show?  Can you recall the brand? Stress balls, sweets and free alcohol were the main favourites in the freebie stakes, while German sports betting service won the battle for brand recollection with their popular bags (which included a number of show essentials (energy drink, cigarette lighter, pens and bottle opener!) Question 5: We asked: "Without looking, please name one company whose brochure material or other information you remember putting in your show bag." Perhaps not surprisingly, the responses were pretty broad, but coming out on top were: 1 2 3 4 5 Although, rather scathingly, when asked which brochures they would make a point of reading, almost 50% said they couldn’t think of anything and no one company standing out from the crowd. So is all that effort your marketing teams have put in on glossy brochures a waste of time and money? Question 7: Ones to watch! We asked attendees "Can you name one new business previously unknown to you that looked interesting?" And in a show which seems to attract new companies and products year on year, it’s no surprise we had a broad range of answers. The top five "newcomers" according to ICE attendees are as follows: 1 2 3 4 5 Now we’re not entirely sure all of the above are strictly newcomers, but for whatever reason they seem to have caught the eye, perhaps as first-time exhibitors, or through stronger stand design? whatever the reason, they can rest easy knowing show visitors took notice! Question 7: Seminar and conference attendance: Of course, ICE is not just about the exhibitors: there’s a whole programme of conference and seminar activities on offer too. although Not that many of our respondents seemed to care! We asked: Which of the conference and free seminar events did you attend at ICE Totally Gaming 2015: Now, to be fair to the event organisers, we can’t claim to have questioned everyone exiting the show for our ICE Totally Gaming exit poll- not by a long way, (there were 20-odd thousand of them, so percentage-wise, the odds were always stacked against us!) but we’d love to know your thoughts on the relevance of the conferences to the rest of the show. Feel free to add your comments below. See the full story ICE Totally Gaming exit poll 2015

Content from the nowcomms.com: the B2B marketing company for tech busineses in education, sports, security & ID. See the full story here ICE 2015 - 5 takeaways for trade show success The ICE 2015 Totally Gaming show was an eye opener for a number of reasons, but aside from the promo girls, the green Lamborghinis and the flashing neon lights, there were more pertinent insights to be gained by B2B marketers at the show. Specially created for B2B sports marketers keen to maximise ROI on the trade shows they attend, our 5 takeaways for trade show success bundles all the big learning we gathered while conducting the ICE Totally Gaming exit poll into one simple checklist. 1: Differentiate yourself from the crowd It’s easy to get caught up in an arms race with other exhibitors to build the biggest and brashest stand, and there’s no doubt that size and garish colours can make a big difference: The most recalled stands among visitors at ICE 2015 were Novomatic’s colossal (4,500 sqft) stand and Playtech’s multi-level, multi-room, mini conference centre. but few of us have the budget to compete with players like this, so what else can be done? Go colour crazy: If your brand allows it, go bold! It’s a great way of achieving real standout on a smaller stand: even shell schemes can be dramatically improved with a good use of colour. The guys and girls over at Papaya demonstrated how judicious use of lime (or papaya?) green can make even the simplest of stands jump out of the crowd. Employ promo staff - sparingly! Promo staff are relatively low cost and can help bring a drab stand to life (two staff members in London will probably set you back in the region of £300/day). But it can be a double edged sword. Just remember that you want to be remembered for your products rather than as "that stand with the angel girls on it" (our exit pollsters heard that a lot - and not one person could tell them the stand name - sorry EGT!). Go interactive: show goers are inquisitive, but they are overwhelmed with paper: If you can demo your products on an ipad or other interactive display such as Intralot’s Kinect‘s penalty game you’ll engage them much more easily. If you can’t do that, splash out on a big screen and a storytelling video that gives a short taster of what your company does. It’ll help filter out stand visitors who aren’t after your products and reel in those who are. 2: Do the hard work pre-show! Take the pressure, and the element of chance, away from the show itself: Make sure your current and target customers know you’re exhibiting well in advance are informed in advance by pushing out comms ahead of the event and locking down meetings before the show. Advertise your show presence on your website, in your newsletters, and add it to email footers across the company - not only will that ensure all your company’s contacts are informed, it’ll help generate a bit of buzz and understanding among departments not usually involved in the shows. 3: Make sure your stand’s fit for purpose One noticeable trend at ICE, which differentiates the gaming sector from others we work in is the number of on-stand meeting rooms - some, such as the Sportsman Cube almost gave the impression that if you didn’t have a meeting, you weren’t welcome! That’s because exhibitors aren’t relying on their stands to fish for custom from passing foot traffic, they’re using them as a base to conduct proper meetings and presentations. For an industry with such a multi-national vibe, this makes a lot of sense, because you can meet clients from multiple countries in a single day. But that only works if your stand can properly accommodate them - open plan benches and bar stools are great for quick chats, but don’t offer the privacy, presentation tools or comfort for proper meetings, so make sure you’re stand builder knows exactly what your intended use is. 4: Give and you shall receive! Everyone loves a giveaway, right? but how many marketers have really considered what impact that order of 500 squeezy footballs will have on the year-end balance sheet? We’re guessing none… So how do you create a compelling giveaway that gets further than the hotel wastepaper basket? Make it useful, make it relevant, and make it unique (pick at least two!) The two most talked about giveaways we heard about at ICE (discounting the x-rated calendars) were at different ends of the spectrum, but by the end of the show, both were being actively sought out by attendees: 1: The TipBet goody bag which contained show (and post-party) essentials: cigarette lighter, energy drink, pens…) all good practical stuff in a bag which was robust enough to carry all the other junk you picked up that day 2: The InPay venu’s flytraps - a true conversation starter, quirky but relevant - all part of InPay’s message to clients to "leave no trace" of their current payment providers! Ours isn’t growing yet, but when it does, we’ll still be remembering who gave it to us. Other great gifts we’ve seen at shows in the past include the Racing UK riding crop - a regular at Sportel which always raises a smile while managing to retain close links to the company’s product. 5: Leave the stand! Much of the best networking at ICE, as with many other shows, is done away from the stands. Whether it’s grabbing a coffee in the foyer, a lunchtime pint in The Fox, or over several pints at one of the many satellite parties during ICE week. Make an effort to check social media to see where everyone else is heading, or just chat to the guy behind you in the coffee queue - the lack of expectation that accompanies most stand conversations may open up all sorts of new opportunities. And finally: follow up fast It’s pretty tempting to take a timeout after an event like ICE Totally Gaming, but all the evidence shows thst the faster you follow up on the new prospects you met on the stand, the more successful you’ll be with new business leads. Need help Turn a bucket full of new prospects into a hotlist of scored leads within 30 days using our awesome content and marketing automation combo. See the full story ICE 2015 - 5 takeaways for trade show success

Content from the nowcomms.com: the B2B marketing company for tech busineses in education, sports, security & ID. See the full story here 5 and a half things to try after you’ve exhausted all your list blogging options We’ve been addicted to lists ever since Moses published the "Top 10 things thou shalt or shalt not do" post, and for busy copywriters on multiple deadlines, they’ve been a God send ever since. Lists posts, or "listicles", are the bloggers’ get out of jail card. They work because they promise something really specific in the headline: "10 critical factors for success in topic X" or "5 must have tips to help you achieve Y". But all too often these blogs over promise and under deliver. Think how many times that "10 indispensable things…" headline has hooked you in, then led you to some turgid compilation of facts no one either knows or cares about? List blogging is popular because it makes creating clickable headlines easy, but if it becomes the default tactic in the blogger’s toolkit, something’s gone wrong. Think your list blogs have lost their lustre? Here’s five and half things to try next time you want to perk up your post. The How-To blog Does what it says on the tin. "How to" blogs work because they educate before they sell.  These blogs offer step-by-step guidance to help readers achieve really difficult things like, How to squeeze more out of the B2B marketing budget, Getting started with Google Adwords or How to win B2B business awards. For the old timers in B2B marketing, this "teach them how to fish" approach takes a bit of getting used to. Why, they wonder, would we want to teach our prospects how to do the very thing we’re trying to sell them?  Anyone who’s ever tried to remove a radiator after watching this youtube video knows the answer to this: the professionals make things look easy because they’re professional. The What blog "What" blogs introduce or explain a basic concept, as in What B2B marketers really need to know about free newswires. They’re great for promoting authority but frequently, they’re just lists blogs in disguise.  Truth is, if the example blog above uses the headline "Top 10 free newswires for B2B marketers" it works better. As an aside, if we use the headline "Top 10 free newswires for B2B marketers: Reviewed", it works better still. 3. The Why blog Knowing what is happening is important, but knowing why something is happening is critical.  "Why" blogs get to the source of an argument.  They detail the drivers behind the "what". When you’re launching new products or services, "Why" posts can be invaluable. Knowing why the time is right or the market is ready for the new offers you’re introducing is always more compelling than knowing that you’re launching them.  Our Why B2B sports marketing just got more competitive blog, or our Why we think sports and technology are a winning match post position the B2B marketing products and services we sell in context and make them more relevant for the prospects we need to target. 4. The Curated blog Curated posts are probably the most helpful posts you can offer. The best of these work because they compile really valuable information or resources that your readers just can’t get anywhere else. The top 20 most influential tweeters in Learning Technology is an example. Well curated blogs can take days or even weeks to create, but their long-term value can be priceless. 5. The Infographic blog Here’s the thing: As the blogging business matures, words are stepping aside and making way for higher impact, more graphic content. Strong infographics communicate key points faster than words and play well on social networks like Facebook and Pinterest. The best of them require strong design skills, but the new wave of DIY services like piktochart, infographicreator or venngage mean infographic blogging is a viable option for any blogger. Oh and finally: 5.5 The awesome just because it’s awesome blog Let’s get one thing straight: Awesomeness doesn’t need a format, it needs a great idea. Any of the formats above work so long as the expectation set in the headline is matched by the content offered up post the click.  Blogs are awesome when they deliver on the detail and deal with the big questions your customers have only just started to care about. The good news is that every business already has what it takes to deliver awesome content to their customers and prospects. The great ideas, opinions and innovations that make your business special are powering your business now. Need some help finding your awesomeness? Talk to us now about building better blogs for your business See the full story 5 and a half things to try after you’ve exhausted all your list blogging options

Content from the nowcomms.com: the B2B marketing company for tech busineses in education, sports, security & ID. See the full story here Digital bastards like Kayvon Beykpour make our blood boil Digital bastards like Kayvon Beykpour make your blood boil don’t they? He sells his first start-up to learning business Blackboard for $4 mil before he’s even 21 and now, at the tender age of 27, he’s just banked $120 mil from Twitter for his latest brainwave Periscope, which he describes as being "like a mobile teleportation service". What the **** is a mobile teleportation service? Does Twitter actually think it’s bought an app that beams people from one side of the planet to another? Even Scotty from Star Trek needs a whole desktop to do that! The trouble with people like Kenyon Beykpour is that they make getting acquired look easy. Google has spent more than $28 billion acquiring a whopping 163 companies over the past 14 years. Facebook now has more than 40. So when fresh young start-ups with big ideas and no customers tell us they don’t need B2B marketing because Google, Twitter, Facebook, or whoever, is watching them,  we can empathise (Hey, we’re still waiting for the angel or VC cash ourselves!) Taking your eye off the real business of actually building a business, to gaze doe-eyed at your potential suitors is tempting, but what happens when they do their due diligence and uncover the feeble sales pipeline? Well unless you’ve just invented something better than Kayvon Beykpour’s mobile teleportation service that big paycheque gets a bit smaller. That’s if they don’t walk away completely.  Investors are rarely dumb - that’s why they have money to invest - and they do pay attention to things beyond that glossy PowerPoint deck you’ve been burning the midnight oil on: They read the same trade mags, twitter streams and go to the same trade shows and conferences as the rest of the sector, and they’ll be sure to ask why your competitors have a bigger and better presence than you. Newsflash: not every startup wants to sell out to the big boys Browse the tech blogs and you’d be forgiven for thinking every 20-something entrepreneur with a computer science degree is getting bought out by Google or Facebook. What doesn’t make sexy headlines is that most don’t. The world’s full of successful businesses who’ve bootstrapped their way to success - take a look at this list curated by those bright sparks - and bootstrappers themselves - at 37 Signals. Inspiring isn’t it? Marketing makes your business sustainable So how do you build a longer-term business that still makes you good money? Well, if you’ve been rigorous in your marketing, ensuring your brand is well-known, reaching out to potential customers, and reinforcing relations with existing ones then your dependency on that VC cash diminishes. Build Trust: Present your audience with irrefutable evidence that you’re as good as you say you are: Be "real" and accountable - add your team pics to your website, be active in responding to comments on your own blog / social media accounts, and where you’re mentioned elsewhere. Don’t be tempted to create"fake" reviews or testimonials. Customers aren’t stupid and it will come back to bite you (just ask this author). Document current success stories: Leverage the good work you’ve already done and the goodwill already built up amongst your client base. If you’re really doing things well for them, they’ll be happy to share their experiences. And there’s nothing quite as powerful as third-party endorsement to really get your message across. Be a font of knowledge in your sector: Of course you know your stuff, but how many people outside your company know how much you know?  All that knowledge bubbling around in the heads of your staff is worth its weight in gold from a marketing perspective, so get it out in the public domain:  Convert it into downloadable white papers, shareable Infographics and SlideShare presentations, and start drip feeding it into your blog (what do you mean you don’t have a blog? Start one!) Why? Because knowledge = value, and if potential clients can gain value from you for free, they’ll start to see you as an ally who can help solve whatever problems they have. Be Consistent When we talk about consistency, we mean it on multiple fronts: Of course, you should be 100% consistent in your messaging and use of brand & identity - fight the temptation to try and be everything to everyone, focus on what really matters and what’s true for you. Equally importantly from a marketing point of view, is maintaining a consistent presence in your sector:  There’s no point just ramping up your marketing and PR efforts around key events only for them to fall off a cliff again after the event. Online marketing in particular rewards regularity:  regular updates keep your website high in Google search results while regular paid for ads, for example, have a better "quality score" (rank higher on a page for less money) than occasional ads. But it’s equally true offline: Whether it’s regularly putting in appearances at networking events or finding good reasons to regularly distribute press releases: being consistently front-of-mind is key to building a sustainable brand image and competitive advantage in your market. Need help doing all of that?  that’s fine - we know you’ve already got more than enough plates spinning to add another to the pile. That’s where we like to think we add value. You see, we run brand building and lead-generation campaigns for companies who just don’t have the resource to do it themselves.  And we measure everything, so you’ll know exactly what’s working (and what’s not). Have we convinced you yet?  No?  OK then let us buy you a coffee and we’ll try harder. The only thing you’ve got to lose are your preconceptions. We have convinced you?  Great!  Give us a call or drop us a line and we’ll get in touch (yeah, Ok, we’ll buy you a coffee too - we might even throw in a croissant) and let’s work on building that long-term success for your business.   See the full story Digital bastards like Kayvon Beykpour make our blood boil

Content from the nowcomms.com: the B2B marketing company for tech busineses in education, sports, security & ID. See the full story here Our blazingly simple backlinking strategy Backlinking is probably the most important tool in the SEO toolbox these days. Sure, optimising everything you publish on your own site helps you get found, but having other quality sites link to yours: well that’s what Google really loves. These days Google’s algorithm is clever enough to sniff out sites using cheap SEO tactics that worked a couple of years ago. Using these tactics (Frankly we don’t even like to say them out loud anymore) will not go unnoticed. Google will penalise you. Your blog or web site will go down in the rankings or disappear from Google search altogether.  Tactics to avoid include posting content (news releases, articles, offers, anything) on many free newswire sites or blog directories. Almost all of these have low authority. Tactics to encourage are blazingly simple. Just create lots and lots of awesome content then get influencers talking about it. This, together with some essential hygiene factors, like making sure your site is frequently indexed, is the backlinking strategy that Google wants you to adopt. Alternative approaches are available, but if they don’t cost you dearly today, they will come back to bite you tomorrow. Here are the highlights to our blazingly simple backlinking strategy. 1. Do the hygiene stuff first We said earlier that Google isn’t keen on free newswire distribution sites and blog directories, but there are some aggregators in every industry worth having a presence on.  Register your business and blog on respected feeds that you know are trusted. Doing this won’t set your site alight with new traffic, but it will make the most of the free valuable opportunities that won’t potentially harm your ranking potential in the future (don’t know which feeds or directories to trust? click here). 2. Do everything you can internally to help SEO Principally this is about encouraging work colleagues (salespeople, marketers,senior staff) to link from their social network profiles to somewhere on your site. There’s a trick to this: some social networks tag hyperlinks as NO FOLLOW link (that means that Google will disregards the link to your site). Others like Google+ or Linkedin don’t. If you’re not sure which social networks will help kick-start your backlinking programme, download our blazingly simple guide. 3. Develop relationships The key to success is developing relationships with high-authority sites. There are no shortcuts here. A personal approach is required and trust must be developed.  Success here will set your site alight with new traffic, but it takes time. You’ll need to pinpoint the authority sites in your industry then develop unique content partnership strategies with these media properties. Not sure which high authority websites you should be targeting? No sweat, our blazingly simple guide has collated the best of them for you. 4. Make personal bloggers feel special Give the leading bloggers in your industry some personal TLC. Personal blogs from your industry’s leading lights are always difficult to influence. They won’t be sold to but they can be won over by flattery. Start mentioning/quoting these people in the blogs you write yourself. Hyperlink to them in references and take the time to comment on the debates they create. When they see that you are engaged in what they do, their next move is to make sure they know what you do. Need a hotlist of the personal bloggers worth engaging with in your space, here’s one we made already. See the full story Our blazingly simple backlinking strategy

Content from the nowcomms.com: the B2B marketing company for tech busineses in education, sports, security & ID. See the full story here Why "Fit" is so critical when choosing a B2B marketing agency Having worked agency and client-side during my marketing career, I’ve seen a wide variety of briefs for agencies ranging from Financial PR and Annual Report provision through to consumer facing web design and exhibition stand builds. Yet despite the diversity of the projects - in terms of budgets, deliverables and the profiles of client organisations, success or otherwise often came down to a fairly common set of criteria. And in my experience, it’s rarely the glitziest, most expensive looking agency that gets the gig (and when it is, the projects often fail). Here’s my take on ensuring you pick the right agency for the job: 1: Don’t be blinded by "bling" There is alway something seductive about seeing your brand re-imagined in story boards and funky creatives, and it’s easy to get swept up in the excitement of a glossy pitch document. But it’s always worth looking behind the gloss: If there seems to have been more time and effort spent on making things look pretty than how things are actually going to be delivered,  this could well be an indication of where the agencies weaknesses lie. Dig below the surface, ask the awkward questions and make sure they’ve actually answered the brief in full. The last thing you want to do is appoint an agency purely based on pretty pictures. 2:  Do they "get it"? You’ve probably spent hours writing a thorough brief to be sent out to your chosen agencies, so you’d expect them to have spent a similar amount of time reading and understanding it, right?  You’d be amazed (or maybe you wouldn’t) by the number of pitches I’ve sat through where the presenter just hasn’t grasped the issue needing to be tackled. I’ve had people try to sell me in to creating sales presentations in Keynote, despite being categorically told everything needed to be windows based. I’ve also had agencies try and apply B2C metrics and marketing techniques to complex B2B problems.  And this to me is a deal breaker - If you’re in a complex market - or just an unusual one - an external consultant or agent who really understands your sector, your company & products, and even how to help you manage any internal politics can be worth their weight in gold.  That’s why here at Now, we start most of our client programmes with a #hackday - it gives everyone a chance to work collaboratively, and in real-time to achieve a set of well defined goals and outputs. 3:  Do they fit culturally with your organisation? Creative types can be a funny bunch, and some agencies seem to have developed a kind of group-think that means their employees are perpetually in an agency "bubble" "we’re creative, we’re supposed to be different" seems to be the mantra among many. Now there’s a lot to be said for bringing in different perspectives - especially if you’re looking to breathe new life into a tired product or brand, but there is a flipside: There needs to be a connection between agency and client if projects are really to deliver great results. If your sales team or your CEO can’t connect with your chosen agency, they’re unlikely to buy into the work they produce. And likewise, if agency staff can’t appreciate the dynamics of your organisation (sign-off procedures, pace that things happen, internal politics, etc)  then they’re likely to get frustrated and lose enthusiasm.  Taking the time to introduce the agency team to a other internal stakeholders that they might interact with will help you gauge this. 4:Have they got diverse experience? Often, the first thing on a potential client’s wishlist for an agency is direct sector experience. And that makes an awful lot of sense - an agency with a track record in your industry will need to spend less time getting to grips with the market and will hopefully tick off some of the items above as a result.  However, you really can have too much of a good thing: Exposure to a range of sectors generally means a wider base of knowledge and creativity as lessons learnt in one sector can inform decision making in another. Too much exposure to a single market can actually be detrimental - it stifles creativity and can lead to a temptation to roll-out standardised" solutions to clients. That’s why we make a conscious effort to  involve all our staff across the sectors we work in and encourage cross-pollination of ideas across our clients in Sports, Learning Tech and Security. 5: Don’t expect the finished article at the pitch (and don’t ask for it!) From an agency perspective,  a client asking to see creatives at the pitch stage can strike fear into your heart. Clients don’t do themselves or their selected agencies any favours by insisting on this. The problem is, no matter what caveat is given about  "not  being judged on it" it puts a marker in the sand which can become a real hangup for everyone in the room. What starts off as a quick few first thoughts to keep a client happy can soon take on a life of its own and take away from what else is being discussed and presented. Don’t run the risk:  treat pitches a bit like a first date - you should be looking for some chemistry rather than thinking about what your kids might look like.   See the full story Why "Fit" is so critical when choosing a B2B marketing agency

Content from the nowcomms.com: the B2B marketing company for tech busineses in education, sports, security & ID. See the full story here What marketers can learn from the Football League Well, that’s another Football League season all but over with. There’s been some notable teams exceeding expectations (Bournemouth, Burton), a fair few underachievers (Fulham, Wigan, Tranmere) and an awful lot of teams being, well, just average. As a bunch of Brentford and Bristol City fans, here at Now Towers we’re all congratulating ourselves on a rare good year. We’re sure we’ll be back to mid-table drudgery by this time next season though, so let’s make the most of the opportunity to see what we can learn from the beautiful game. Prepare yourself for a whole host of bad, footy related puns! First off, we’re by no means the first to draw parallels between the worlds of sport and business. There have been Harvard Business School Case Studies of Fergie’s management style (that’s the ex-manager, not the one from Black-Eyed Peas) and there seems to be an increasing appetite among execs to learn from the likes Gareth Southgate or Steve Backley, so we must be on to something. There is of course, a lot to be said about successful football managers’ passion, their desire to win, and their tactical nous - we don’t doubt that if Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink managed Burton Menswear instead of Burton Albion, he’d still be a success (though arguably not as well dressed) but there are more transferable lessons than these to be learnt from our ball-juggling counterparts. Here’s our league-inspired lessons to ensure you stay at the top of your marketing game for what remains of 2015: 1: Consistency is key Whether on the football pitch or pitching for business, being inconsistent rarely brings long-term results. Yes, you get the odd day when you feel like you’ve hit the jackpot: that big deal comes in out of nowhere or the consumer press picks up on a press release and drives a heap of new traffic to your website, but if you’re still dining out on that a month later, something’s wrong. It’s the marketing equivalent of knocking 5 past your local rivals then losing at home to Crewe in the next game. Being consistently above average - delivering a steady drip of content with which targets engage, rather than just concentrating on the big-ticket campaigns - is like picking up those scruffy 1-0 away wins on a wet Tuesday night - no-one notices at the time, but they will at the end of the season: no-one ever won anything with inconsistency. If you don’t have that base of solidity, it just makes the overall job tougher. Just ask a Derby County fan Derby’s inconsistent season Our Awesome Sticky Content programme is the "1-0 to the Arsenal" approach to marketing: it creates a year-round, rock solid foundation to your marketing that brings in consistent sales leads and web traffic - no peaks, no troughs, just solid regular interaction. Think of it as signing Kevin Davies: you’re not going to be the envy of your local rivals in the glamour stakes, but he’ll do a solid job. 2: The sum’s bigger than the parts Just ask Eddie Howe what a difference it makes when everyone has a shared view of success and work together to achieve it. There are no single big names carrying Bournemouth to the top flight - it’s all down to team cohesion and hard work. And that’s how good marketing should work too: Relying too heavily on any one conduit will almost inevitably end in failure: All elements of the marketing mix - Social, DM, web, events, and everything else - MUST present a cohesive, joined up front. We work with our clients from the off to get this right, with Marketing Hackdays involving your marketing, sales, products teams - in fact whoever you want in the room - to ensure that your programme gets goals from all over the pitch.   3: The stats don’t lie It’s easy to let emotion get in the way of clear decision making - just ask Leeds United’s chairman - he’s made more rash decisions than most this year, and look where that’s got the club. Marketing can be the same: Too many times we’ve seen projects protected from change because the CEO likes X or doesn’t like Y, or good projects being dumped because a new marketing director wants to make his or her mark. "Observation is the final part of my management structure…The ability to see things is key—or, more specifically, the ability to see things you don’t expect to see." Sir Alex Ferguson, HBR, October 2013 Without proper observation (or analysis, in our book) of what’s working and what’s not, it’s impossible to see what decisions should be taken and what change shouldn’t be changed. Fergie could see that and that’s why we use Really Intelligent Web Analytics. Think of it as the "Moneyball of marketing" - we analyse what’s performing, what’s not, and work with you to make the right changes, in the right areas to ensure your marketing delivers results. 4: Seek wise counsel Like a football manager, everyone thinks they can do a marketer’s job. In in-house roles, I’ve had everyone from accountants to customer service temps offer their two pennies on how I should be doing my job. (the suggestions are usually along the lines of "you should do more facebook"). It’s the equivalent of sitting for 90 minutes listening to that bloke behind you offering pearls of footballing "wisdom" to anyone who’ll listen. Having the courage of your convictions and having trusted , independent support and counsel outside of the business can make the world of difference in getting intelligent insight and gaining buy-in from other stakeholders. We help clients do this in lots of ways: Perhaps as a "caretaker manager" until the right internal resource is found, but more often than not as "assistant manager" - working alongside you to share the pressure and get the job done well. Think of us as the Terry Connor to your Mick McCarthy. 5: You’re only as good as your last match …Or your last comms piece if we’re being marketing-y. That long campaign of activity is plugging away, gaining your company the respect and results expected of you, but clients and colleagues can also have short memories - just like football fans - and if your last campaign was the marketing equivalent of a 4-nil drubbing, that’s the one that’ll be remembered. Marketing Automation is our way of mitigating against that: think of it as your on coaching and scouting team - keeping an eye on what what elements are getting cut through with your clients, which need relegating to the subs bench, and which need a bit more attention to get the most out of them. Our MA programmes enable you to understand exactly what happens when your campaigns leave the tunnel - it identifies who’s clicked on what, which web pages they’re interested in and, over time, develops a full picture of which of your services they’re receptive to. By the time you’ve nurtured them to a qualified lead, your sales guys are left with a simple tap-in to seal the deal. Have we missed something? Let us know if there’s any marketing lessons you’ve picked up this season (except, perhaps that you should never apply to be Nigel Pearson’s press liaison) in the comments box below See the full story What marketers can learn from the Football League