Base One. For businesses that want to go beyond business as usual.

There are lots of positives to take out of B2B Marketing’s recent Content Marketing Report. For a start almost three-quarters (71 per cent) of B2B marketers say it’s a very important component of their marketing activity. But it’s worrying that 31% of the marketers who completed the survey have no formal strategy in place. 

The Content Marketing Report 2015 published by B2B Marketing is an excellent resource. But while it is informative, beautifully produced and useful, it is also confusing. Let me explain why, and clear up the confusion...

One statistic that leapt out to me from the Content Marketing Report 2015 was that only 16% of B2B marketers were “personalising” their content. This is not a failing. I think most of that remaining 84% are absolutely right not to do so…

“Customer insight” must be one of the most overused terms in the lexicon of marketing jargon.

Every year we ask the question. And there is now evidence to believe that B2B social media has reached a tipping point. But now more than ever, we need to exercise caution...

Creative Art Director and all round Pinterest fanatic, Lissy Smith, talks about how as a B2B Marketing agency we use Pinterest as a tool for boosting creativity and pushing our ideas to the next level.

I question the way data capture forms are being used by businesses. There is such a fine, and sometimes blurred, line between making sure that people are viewing your content and putting them off with overwhelming data capture forms.

Content marketing has become so popular that 'content saturation' was an inevitable consequence. But equally inevitable was that there would be people who worked out a solution. Mark Schaefer is one of those people, and his answer is The Content Code.    ​

How one man’s battle with the “hipster” label serves as a lesson for brands.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research has recently carried out a piece of research on flexible working, discussing the benefits the UK could stand to gain from a “work from anywhere” culture.

LinkedIn announced yesterday that it’s launching a new display advertising network. This isn’t just another ad network – it’s something that could, and most likely will, eventually have a massive impact on B2B online advertising.

Content marketing isn’t rock ‘n’ roll, despite some of the personalities that populate the industry. But an American indie band called Parquet Courts has recently released a song called Content Nausea, which should be on the playlist of every content marketer.

Zandra Rhodes recently wrote an article questioning the effect of the digital revolution on creativity.  Does the plethora of digital technology make it too easy for us to be creative and ‘wow’?

In space, they say, no one can hear you scream. It can feel a bit like that for content marketers too – projecting content into the vastness of the web can be like shouting into the void...

On the counter at Munson's coffee shop, in amongst the pastries, the pannetone boxes and the pots of apple and ginger porridge there is a sign that reminds you how customer service should be.

There is a lot of talk out there – a lot of content in fact – that offers advice on how to do content marketing. Yet it almost always focuses on the formats – not the ACTUAL CONTENT. 

The Buyersphere Report has become established as one of the most eagerly awaited and enlightening annual research projects in the B2B space. The reason is simple. It doesn’t tell you what marketers think: it tells you what buyers do. And the latest Report is out now!

A logo is a symbol used to represent your company, so that your products or communications are quickly recognisable as being yours.

We were going to put together a blog with our predictions for 2015. But then others did the same and we certainly didn’t want to look like we were duplicating the rest. 

An article in Monday’s ComputerWeekly.com talked about how three-quarters of UK citizens believe that allowing police officers access to more digital technology will improve frontline policing. 

Your brand is every single thing you do and say that influences how people perceive you, so it absolutely needs to be at the centre of your business. 

When I was young, my mother would employ various tricks to make her children eat healthily. And funnily enough, I think we content marketers could learn from her experience…

YouTube has announced that it has revised its 'hit counter' so it can continue to provide statistics that are already in the billions. But this is the clearest example yet that much online measurement is still based in the last decade.

Some people don't refer to it as B2B, but B2B2B2B2B2C. At the end of the chain, there is a user. However, there is a long line of people in the approval process who fall into the ‘B’ category.

It’s all about great content at the moment – but is that the emotion you’re eliciting from your consumers?

I took part in a pub quiz last week, where my team finished a very respectable joint second. Given that there was a prize for placing so high (a £25 bar tab), but not for third, a tie-breaker was required. 

I wonder if the more digital communications dominate the way we do things, the less care is taken? 

Recent online discussions over the video produced for Scottish travel agents Thorne Travel got me thinking. Not about which travel agent to use, but what really constitutes a spoof video? It was fascinating to see people react in three different ways...

Poor Sainsbury’s. Poor store manager. Although to be fair, putting such an obvious internal comms poster, meant for the staff room, in the front window of your shop is a fairly stupid thing to have done. But that really is where the blame lies. And stops. 

Wow. That's a big statement. So many to choose from. But I'm pretty sure you will admit this example is as brilliant now as it was 10 years ago.

There has been a lot of talk recently about emotion in marketing – largely instigated (in the UK at least) by the nice people at B2B Marketing magazine – but I have to say that many of the emotions that the coverage raises in me aren’t very positive ones. 

Google has been warning webmasters about guest blogging for a while, but they are now seriously clamping down. However, guest blogging can still be used to create great content as part of your wider marketing strategy, if you follow a few simple guidelines.

As a new entrant to the B2B sector, I've learnt a lot fast. Most importantly (so far) that content marketing is more than just a couple of buzz words.

Ever wondered what content treasures might be lurking deep underground within your organisation? Content marketers are realising that they need to dig deeper in order to unearth the best content – but they also know that it's not that easy bringing it to the surface.

Recently featured by the Content Marketing Institute, our infographic below outlines the 12 rules of content fracking. 

This week in Milan, Base One carried off one of the prestigious Gold ‘Best Of International’ awards.

Britain is gripped by election fever today, as millions turn out in the second biggest democratic exercise ever, also known as the European Elections. But before you vote, consider this...

Whether you're repositioning your brand or developing new propositions it's important to be different. But can you be too different?

I recently ran a webinar to explore the challenges of differentiation and the potential risks associated with the techniques brands use to stand-out. If you're looking at your brand and wondering about how you go about standing out from the crowd, there may be a few good pointers in there.

Global user testing from the comfort of our offices with our new remote testing set up

To start with, I was with them. I was one of the angry ones. How could people do it? Why would they do it? 

Then I learned to live with imperfect infographics.

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