The Onlinification Pod: Recent Episodes
Zooma
For most people in Zooma's hometown of Gothenburg, Stadsmissionen is a familiar institution. For over 70 years, they've worked to help the city's most vulnerable with emergency help and long-term support - whether they're dealing with homelessness, mental illness, addiction, domestic violence poverty or social exclusion. Today, Göteborgs Stadsmissionen (or Gothenburg City Mission in English) is an organisation with over 500 employees, as well as more than 450 volunteers. Stadsmissionen runs food kitchens, a network of second-hand stores, housing facilities, therapy and support groups, work placement schemes and much more. In order to keep things going, they depend on donations from private individuals and companies - and that's where marketing and communications comes in. In this week's episode, I spoke to Tomas Carlström, Stadsmissionen's Marketing Communications Manager, to find out how they make it happen. Thanks for listening! Make sure to subscribe if you want to hear more, either right here or at zooma.agency/podcast You can find out more about Stadsmissionen at stadsmissionen.org, and about Tomas on LinkedIn, here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomascarlstrom/
Webinars are nothing new in the world of online communication, but they're still unfamiliar territory for a lot of B2B companies. In this episode of The Onlinification Pod, I spoke to Bryan van Anrooij, head of marketing at WebinarGeek, to talk about why more companies should add webinars to their content mix. Companies we work with often feel a bit unsure about starting with webinars. For a B2B business that is used to creating articles for the knowledge hub or publishing lead-generating ebooks, making the jump to broadcasting live in front of potentially hundreds of existing or future customers can be a scary prospect. Hosting a webinar means creating an attractive presentation that will convince participants to sign up, learning a new tool and getting comfortable in front of the camera, and designing a smart follow-up process that actually drives business. And since you're broadcasting live, it's not possible to edit out any mistakes. With all this in mind, it's not surprising that many companies don't prioritise webinars as a marketing tool. During our discussion, Bryan covered these concerns and made a great argument for why every B2B company should consider getting started with webinars. Whether you're a complete beginner or a seasoned webinar host, I think this episode will give you some useful tips and inspiration for taking things to the next level. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe! Either right here, or at zooma.agency/podcast
We're breaking our normal program this week with a one-off episode of The Internship Pod with Lisa Sundgren, Zooma intern and soon-to-be full-time Zoomer. Lisa's internship will soon be over, and even though she won't be leaving us, we asked her to join the pod to reflect a little over how the last 14 weeks have gone and what advice she would give to future Zooma interns. If you're currently studying and looking for an internship place, I hope this episode gets you interested in applying to Zooma. If it does, you can do so right here: zooma.agency/en/get-in-touch?page=apply-for-an-internship&scroll=1 Alternatively, you can subscribe to The Onlinification Pod for more non-internship-related episodes in future — either right here, or at zooma.agency/podcast.
If you work at a B2B company, your target audience probably spends a lot of time on LinkedIn. It's always been an essential platform for companies that want to reach potential buyers at other companies, and when you use its paid advertising features, it becomes even more powerful. In this episode, I spoke to Alfred Broman, former Zooma intern and seasoned LinkedIn Ads user, to find out more about how you can take advantage of this tool. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe - either right here or at zooma.agency/podcast
Today's episode is all about data-driven marketing. I'm thrilled to have Joonas Jukkara, from SEOSEON, as our guest. Joonas is an expert in creating data-driven marketing plans and will be sharing his insights on how to identify and track KPIs for success. As we know, data is an essential component of any successful marketing campaign. In this episode, we'll dive into the world of data and learn how to leverage it to achieve your marketing goals.
In this week's episode of The Onlinification Pod, I spoke to Sarah Britz, CEO and editor-in-chief of Faktum, Sweden's biggest street newspaper. During our discussion, we spoke about Faktum's business model, the role the paper plays in the lives of the people who sell it, and the challenges of selling a print product in an online world. Enjoy, and don't forget to subscribe to The Onlinification Pod! Either right here, or zooma.agency/podcast
Content creator, HubSpot wizard and part-time podcast host Alexander Evjenth joined me in this week's episode of The Onlinification Pod to talk about the referral program he's been building for Zooma entirely in HubSpot. Take a listen to find out the details of the setup, and how a similar program could give your lead generation a boost. Enjoy, and don't forget to subscribe! Either here, or at zooma.agency/podcast
In this episode, Doug was joined by Marie Ideström, CEO and Founder of Womengineer, a Swedish foundation that aims to boost gender equality in the engineering industry by inspiring young girls to find out more about their hidden passion for STEM at an early age. Take a listen if you want to find out how Womengineer approaches their difficult-to-reach target groups, how they mix physical and digital events in their inspiration journey, and how your company can get involved as a supporter. Speaking of getting involved, you can find out more about Womengineer and how your company can support them using the links below. https://womengineer.org/ https://womengineer.org/stotta-vart-arbete/ Enjoy, and don't forget to subscribe! Either here, or at zooma.agency/podcast
Digitalising a traditional B2B company is no easy task - but with the right mindset and tools, it can be done. To find out how, we invited two friends from Interwheel - sales and marketing director Karl Helmer and digital marketer Alireza Abbasi - to join this episode of Onlinification Pod and tell us how their journey is progressing. Don't forget to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode - either right here, or at zooma.agency/podcast
The idea of a product information management (PIM) system implementation is a scary one for many B2B companies. Projects like this have a reputation for being long, complex, and difficult to succeed with. However, this doesn't need to be the case - to find out more, I spoke to Zooma's Jakob Thornér and discovered how your company can succeed with and benefit from a shiny new PIM system. I hope you enjoy this episode, and if you do, don't forget to subscribe - either here or at zooma.agency/en/learn/podcast
If you're planning on starting a company podcast but you're not sure how to begin, take a listen to this episode - in it, I asked pod hosts Doug and Alex about their main learnings from running The Onlinification Pod, and what Zooma can do to get your podcast off the ground.
Enjoy, and don't forget to subscribe! Either here, or at zooma.agency/en/learn/podcast
Are you considering Revenue Operations? Then, this is the episode you've been waiting for. We are so happy that Anna Oom from Qmatic took the time to visit The Onlinification Pod to discuss revenue operations. Anna is Head Of Revenue Marketing at Qmatic, a company that recently implemented revenue operations, and here you get the chance to listen to her experiences and learnings so far.
This episode is going to be about brand identity, and the guest is Sanna Hedberg, who works as a designer here at Zooma. I hope you enjoyed this episode.
A while ago, I read an email where Anders was discussing brand value propositions and positioning statements with a client. So I thought this could be a great topic for the Onlinification Pod. It was a fun episode, and I really hope you enjoy it.
Having an effective CRM system can give a huge boost to any sales and marketing team, and when the right processes are in place, it can actually drive business. However, for too many B2B companies, the CRM system simply takes up a lot of time and gives very little back. One company that has managed to get things right is Automata, and in this episode, I speak to their CRM and Data Manager, Jack Warren, to find out how they do it. Enjoy, and don't forget to subscribe! Either right here, or at zooma.agency/en/learn/podcast And while you're at it, visit Automata's site at automata.tech.
In this episode, Doug Bolton and Daniel Falk discuss international SEO - the process of optimising your site for good search performance in a different country or a different language. It's an important thing to get right if you're a B2B company with a presence in lots of different countries, but it's not easy - take a listen and get some tips on how to think about your content and technical setup to ensure great search performance at home and abroad. Enjoy, and don't forget to subscribe! Either right here, or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
Localisation is often a challenge for international companies. Alexander spoke to Charlotte to find out how to make it easier.
In this episode of The Onlinification Pod, we're continuing our series of getting to know the Zoomers who we don't usually have as guests. This week, it's Marko's turn.
Marko works as a full-stack developer here at Zooma, and he's a major part of the technical team along with Zieyaad, Yeu-Kang and Jakob. Marko comes from Serbia, but he's lived here in Sweden since 2016, and he's been a part of Zooma since 2020.
I hope you enjoy getting to know Marko in this episode!
Today, you're going to hear from Zieyaad, Kang and Marko, Zooma's HubSpot developer team, and we're going to talk about HubSpot from a developer's perspective.
In this episode, I was joined by Zieyaad, a HubSpot developer at Zooma who works remotely from South Africa. Find out who Zieyaad is and what it's like to work full-time remotely.
In this episode, I invited the first external guest to The Internship Pod, Caroline Sjöbeck. She's the content director and operations manager for 376 Films, a production company based in Malmö.
Caroline has a background in film studies and felt that she found her passion early on during her studies. Today she has a broad role in the company, but her primary responsibility is to create a framework and coordinate the company's marketing activities.
In our discussion we spoke about:
The difference between 376 Films and other content suppliers on the market The challenges of working with marketing in a start-up
At the end of the episode, Caroline is sharing some valuable tips for anyone facing the same challenges or who might face them in the future.
As always, links and a complete transcription can be found below!
Enjoy!
Generally, in The Onlinification Pod, we focus on topics that are relevant to you - our customers, friends, and potential future customers. This time, I thought we'd switch things around and try to answer a hugely important question for companies like Zooma - what do buyers look for when choosing an agency? Annika Eriksson guested this week's episode - she's currently a project manager at Zooma, but she also has a huge amount of experience in buying roles at major companies where she was responsible for selecting agencies like Zooma. With this kind of knowledge, I asked her what she used to look for in an agency, the mistakes that agencies typically make when approaching potential customers, and the most important things agencies can do to make sure their customer relationships stand the test of time. Enjoy, and don't forget to subscribe! Either here, or at zooma.agency/en/learn/podcast
This week on the pod, I was joined by Josefine Kinnvall, Zooma's current intern. She's got plenty of podcast experience after creating The Internship Pod, but this time, she's on the other end of the microphone.
Hopefully, this episode will come in handy if you're planning on doing an internship at Zooma in future, or if you know someone who might want to do one.
Enjoy, and subscribe! Either right here, or at zooma.agency/en/learn/podcast
When you come from a theoretical background of studies and academia, an internship actually puts your knowledge to the test. I discussed this and much more with Jesper Björkman in this week's episode of The Internship Pod. Jesper has worked as a project manager at Zooma since 2017, and inofficially has the best music taste in the office. He started off as an intern, and after a successful internship he ended up as a full-time Zoomer. In this episode, we spoke about his journey, the difference between B2B and B2C, and the fear of asking for help. Jesper also gives valuable tips for students who may feel a bit lost in the media and communication jungle! If you don't want to miss the upcoming episodes of The Internship Pod, make sure to subscribe!
Creating content that reliably reaches your existing and prospective customers, regardless of their role or stage in the decision-making process, sometimes means covering the same topic more than once. This often creates a bit of anxiety in many companies - if we just write about the same thing all the time, won't people get sick of us? In this episode, me and Alexander tried to put this concern to rest. Enjoy, and don't forget to subscribe! Either right here, or at zooma.agency/en/learn/podcast
Good news! We're now launching a new segment of The Onlinification Pod. It's called The Internship Pod, and we'll be releasing an episode every second week with interviews hosted by Josefine - current intern at Zooma.
Gina and Sofia's internships have now come to an end, so in this episode, we spoke about how they ended up as interns at Zooma, the highs and lows of doing an internship remotely, and the main takeaways from their time here.
We hope you enjoy this episode - it's the first of many hosted and created by a Zooma intern. If you don't want to miss the upcoming episodes of The Internship Pod, make sure to subscribe! Either right here, or at https://zooma.agency/en/learn/podcast
Lots of B2B marketers know the feeling - you've just finished the copy and design of a brand-new landing page for your latest campaign or product. You're ready to go! But hold on a second - you need to wait for the translations first. Cue a lot of email threads with your international colleagues, chasing them about their progress, or endless back-and-forths with a translation agency who doesn't know your industry. Quality translation is absolutely essential if your company does business internationally - but too many companies treat it as an afterthought. It doesn't have to be this way - and to prove it, I invited Linda Gårdlöv to guest this week's episode of The Onlinification Pod. She's the CEO of Comactiva Language Partner, a Gothenburg-based agency specialising in translation and localisation of commercial content. Linda has a wealth of experience from the translation industry and the world of international B2B business - so she was the perfect person to ask about how companies should be handling translations, and how they can work to increase the quality and accuracy of the finished result. In our discussion, we spoke about: - The common mistakes that companies make when handling their multilingual online presence - How a good language partner can not only translate your copy, but also adapt it effectively to be understood in a foreign culture - How you should collaborate when working with a translation agency to make sure your industry's unique jargon doesn't get lost in translation Enjoy, and don't forget to subscribe! Either right here, or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast Thanks very much to Linda for guesting this episode - to find out more about Comactiva, visit them online at comactiva.se
We've spoken about customer experience quite a bit in the past, but we've almost always focused on online experiences. Usually, we've thought about what it's like to use a particular site or service, how easy it is to do what you want to do, and how you feel about the brand after using it. However, despite the pandemic essentially almost all in-person events over the last two years, physical experiences in the real world are just as important. Whether it's a short meeting in an office or a major industry conference, the experiences and impressions that customers take when encountering a company face-to-face can last for a very long time. Now that the IRL world is making a comeback, I thought it was time to talk a little bit more about offline customer experiences on the pod - for that reason, I invited Annika Eriksson to join me this week. She's recently started as a project manager at Zooma and has a long background in creating these kinds of experiences. We spoke about the effects that a positive physical experience can have on an existing or potential customer, how companies can improve the physical experiences they create without much budget, and, of course, how companies can learn from their successful physical customer experiences and apply them to online. Enjoy, and subscribe! Either right here, or at https://zooma.agency/en/learn/podcast
I invited our SEO expert Daniel Falk to discuss search-friendly content and the 80/20 rule in this episode. Many businesses that regularly publish online find that around 80% of the traffic to their knowledge hubs comes from only 20% of the content. I've noticed this phenomenon on sites I've worked with, and it sometimes surprises content creators. Even with careful keyword identification and search engine optimisation, it often seems that the content that performs exceptionally well on search isn't always what you would expect. Daniel has worked with SEO in one way or another throughout his career, so I thought he'd be a great guest to have on the pod this week. In our discussion, he answered my questions about why this phenomenon happens, how you can make the most of it, and how you can make sure the content that occupies those top spots in search is actually the content that you want to be there. Enjoy, and subscribe! Either here, or at https://zooma.agency/en/learn/podcast
It shouldn't be difficult to be a customer of a company. But for many businesses, especially in the B2B world, this is the case. Things like poor customer service, disjointed buyer journeys, and complex signup processes create friction - factors that get in the way of a potential or existing customer and their planned purchase. By solving these problems and making the purchase process as frictionless and smooth as possible, you can both bring in more new customers and keep your existing ones happier. But it's easier said than done. Fortunately, our HubSpot solutions architect Tobias Pasma knows how to get started. I hope you enjoy this episode - if you did, don't forget to subscribe, either right here or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
In this episode, Anders returns as a guest for the first time in ages. We discussed some of his thoughts about what companies need to prioritise in 2022, and focused particularly on what B2B companies have (or haven't) learned from the pandemic. Here's Anders' article that we speak about in the episode: https://zooma.agency/en/learn/marketing-thoughts-for-2022 Enjoy, and subscribe! Either here, or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
In this week's pod, I invited Martin Ray to talk more about revenue operations, or RevOps, as well as the subject of one of his recent articles. You've probably seen this term thrown about on lots of marketing sites, but what does it mean for your company? Hopefully, this episode will give you some answers. You can read Martin's RevOps article right here: https://zooma.agency/en/learn/what-is-revenue-operations Enjoy, and subscribe to the pod if you want to hear more - either here, or at zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
This week, we have two very special guests on The Onlinification Pod - Gina Viitala and Sofia Hermansson, who are currently doing an internship here at Zooma. If you're a student or recent graduate looking for an internship, hopefully this episode will give you an idea of what to expect if you start at Zooma. Gina and Sofia talked about their experiences so far, shared some details of what they're working on, and gave some tips on the best way to prepare before starting here. If you want some more details on Gina and Sofia's internship, take a look at The Internship Hub - there, they share weekly updates from the internship that should come in handy if you're thinking of applying to be our next intern - https://zooma.agency/en/internships Enjoy!
Pretty soon, the latest incarnation of The Onlinification Pod will celebrate its first birthday. After a short winter break, I thought this would be a good opportunity to look back at some of the highlights from last year. For each episode, I've selected a clip that summarises them - if you didn't have time to listen to each of these episodes, now's your chance to catch up. Enjoy, and subscribe! You can subscribe right here, or on https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast - your choice. /Doug
The year is drawing to a close, and many companies have already started their planning for the year ahead. If you've got a spare 20 minutes this Christmas period, then take a listen to this week's pod, taken from a recent webinar we held with Martin Ray, our chief analyst. He's got plenty of insights about tomorrow's digital reality that can help you and your company set the right priorities for 2022. Enjoy, and don't forget to subscribe! Either here, or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
Time for another new guest! Tobias only joined us at the start of December, but I wanted to get him on the podcast as soon as possible to talk about HubSpot. Tobias has been working with HubSpot since 2013, so he was the perfect person to ask about the biggest mistakes companies typically make when adopting HubSpot - and how they can avoid them. Don't forget to subscribe! Either here, or on zooma.agency/en/podcast
Digtalisation has undoubtedly brought the world closer together. But we're still pretty far apart. Despite tools like Zoom making it easy to work across borders, cultural differences are harder to overcome. To find out more about how to deal with them, and the kinds of possibilities they create, I spoke to Zooma project manager Martin Palmqvist, who has a lot of experience in this area.
We discussed the challenges of working in a totally foreign culture and how you can overcome them, even when you're in the minority. Enjoy, and subscribe! Either here, or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
If you want your company to get found online, SEO is essential. By gaining a good position on search engines for the terms that are most relevant to your business, you can reach a wider audience of potential customers. Search engine algorithms get more complex every day, so a consistent and structured approach to SEO is vital - but is it possible to be too focused on SEO with your content? For this episode, I spoke to Daniel Falk, Zooma's in-house SEO expert, and got his thoughts on the matter. In this episode, we discuss the drawbacks of focusing too much on SEO content, how you can achieve a better mix of content types on your platforms, and the advice he'd give to a company wanting to improve their search performance without sacrificing the things that make them unique. Here's Anders' article about digitalisation and public transport I was talking about at 01:55: https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/blog/bid/164238/more-space-commuting Enjoy, and don't forget to subscribe! Either here, or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
The best way to generate new ideas and develop new offerings as a company is to experiment. The most successful companies always have one thing in common - they're keen to experiment with new initiatives and ways of working, even if they result in failure. Lots of companies would like to adopt this mindset - but when the daily pressures of business pile up, it's hard to do. In this episode, I spoke to Anders and Stellan about their views. They're both big fans of experiments, and we conduct plenty on ourselves here at Zooma. Our discussion covered plenty of topics, but we spent most of our time talking about how Zooma uses experimentation to establish best practice, some of the success stories we've experienced, and how your company can start creating a culture of experimentation. Enjoy, and don't forget to subscribe! Either here, or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
In this week's podcast episode, I wanted to get some real-world examples of customer journeys from Anders and Stellan. We talk about the decision-making process a lot at Zooma, but the discussions are often quite abstract - so I hoped that by looking back at some of our recent customer journeys, we'd get an insight into how they work. Fortunately, Stellan had a great example at hand. He's recently installed solar cells on his roof, so he was able to talk us through the research and decision-making process that led up to it. I hope you enjoy this episode - if you want more, don't forget to subscribe. Either here, or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
In this week's episode of The Onlinification Pod, we spoke about content boards - what is a content board, why do you need one, and what difference could it make to your content? Listen to find out. At Zooma, we've been having monthly content board meetings for a while now. The content board is made up of a group of people from different areas of Zooma who guide, advise and direct the content team in their production work. The whole idea is to inject a stream of new ideas and opinions into the content process to make sure all of our content is relevant for ourselves and our customers. In my opinion, every B2B company that produces content should have a content board. To get you off the ground, Doug and I recorded this episode where we discussed who should be invited to be a member of your company's content board and how the board can impact and improve the company's content. We also talked about a couple of real-life examples where our content board meetings have led to valuable, successful pieces of content. Enjoy, and don't forget to subscribe! Either here, or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
At Zooma, we spend a lot of time trying to make knowledge available to a wider audience, whether it's our own knowledge or that of our customers. However, since we've been working remotely, we've discovered that we're not so great at sharing knowledge internally. In this episode, I spoke to Anders and Stellan to find out how we're trying to improve. Hopefully you'll learn something from our experiences. Enjoy! If you like The Onlinification Pod, don't forget to subscribe! Either here, or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
Last week, some of the Zoomers attended Inbound 2021 - the latest installment of HubSpot's yearly conference about online marketing, digitalisation and more. In this episode, I spoke to Doug and Martin about their main takeaways from Inbound 2021 and the newly-launched tools they're looking forward to trying out. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe! Either here, or on https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast, where you can also find even more content about onlinification and digitalisation.
We've been working with topic clusters for over a year, and during that time we've learned some valuable lessons on how to create them in the best way. In this episode, me and Doug discussed what we've found out, and how we recommend you should create your topic clusters. Enjoy, and don't forget to subscribe! Either right here, or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
Webinars are a fantastic way to reach a wide audience and explaining your company's unique offering. They're not a new invention, but the pandemic has led to an explosion in webinars, often from companies who don't have any experience of organising them. In this episode, I spoke to Doug about his advice for companies looking to put together a webinar for the first time. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe! Either right here, or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
I took over hosting duties for this week's episode, which is something I'll have to get used to because Alexander will soon be on parental leave. That means Zooma is looking for a replacement - to find out more about this role, I spoke to Alex about what his work week looks like, the best part of his job, and the qualities a Zooma content creator should have. Enjoy!
Don't forget to subscribe to the pod - either right here, or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
In this week's episode of The Onlinification Pod, we welcomed a fairly new Zoomer, Daniel Falk, as our guest. Daniel has a huge amount of experience in online and digital, and he's especially sharp at search engine optimisation, or SEO. We had a good discussion in this episode, and Daniel gave plenty of tips to companies who want to make sure that they can actually get found on Google. Enjoy, and don't forget to subscribe! Either here, or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
Increasing the share of website traffic from organic search is essential if you want to reach new prospective customers and grow your business.
However, using Google's algorithms to your advantage is tricky, and you're competing for those top-ranked positions with hundreds of other companies around the world. But with the topic cluster content strategy, you'll have a better chance of winning the top spot.
In this episode, Anders and Stellan give a great explanation of what the topic cluster strategy is, why it works to boost your organic performance, and what kind of results we've seen after working with it for a while.
Enjoy! And don't forget to subscribe - either here, or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
In this episode of The Onlinification Pod, we talk digital demos - that is to say, interactive digital experiences that we develop to help customers show the benefits of their highly complex and technical products. What makes a good digital demo, and why are they more important now, in the age of pandemics?
Zooma's Ingrid Wallgren and Qarin Lövgren have the answers. Enjoy, and subscribe - either here, or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
Zooma's chief analyst Martin Ray joined Alexander in this week's episode, to talk about digital platforms.
Here's the article Alexander mentions at 2:10: https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/digital-platform-how-to-choos-whats-best-for-your-company
If you're a B2B company with an endless amount of digital tools at your fingertips, what should you prioritise? Martin had plenty of tips to share.
Generally, when it comes to choosing those digital platforms that make up your company's digital infrastructure - like CRM systems, CMS systems, and service platforms - you want the very best. Many companies go this route, but in Martin's experience, it's not necessarily the best approach. Instead, a more holistic approach that focuses on giving your customers the best experience, rather than your staff the most advanced tools, works out better for everyone.
Martin has guided and advised a huge number of companies on digital platforms in the past, so this episode is full of wisdom that can help you make better decisions when investing in new tools.
Hopefully you'll enjoy this episode - and if you do, subscribe! Either right here, or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
In this episode, I chatted with Doug Bolton about the many challenges of content creation and how content producers at large in traditional B2B companies can increase the quality and quantity of their content. Enjoy!
For many content creators at traditional B2B companies, producing enough content is often a challenge. High-quality knowledge content needs to be created with expert input and aimed directly at solving prospects' and customers' most critical challenges. This is difficult enough - but considering that the people in these positions often have many other responsibilities, they often run into problems.
It was great to speak to Doug about this topic since he has both a background in a sizeable B2B company and plenty of experience from the world of Zooma. I also work with many other content creators in my role, so together, we were able to discuss the best way to produce large amounts of content, how to get internal experts on board, and what content formats you should be using to make the most of your time.
Enjoy, and don't forget to subscribe! Either here, or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
More and more traditional B2B companies are shifting from the traditional distribution structure and moving towards a B2C model, at least in some areas of their business. In this episode, me, Anders and Stellan talked about this trend, and how B2B companies need to be prepared for the very different customer expectations it creates.
The B2C approach has worked well for a lot of B2B companies, especially during the disruption and digitalisation that the pandemic has brought. One classic example of a B2B-to-B2C shift would be an industrial manufacturing company that starts selling spare parts directly to end users online. This appeals to customers, since they can go straight to the source when they need help. In return, the company gets much more control over their spare parts operation.
But like we spoke about in the episode, it also creates increased expectations. Your customers are used to Amazon-levels of service in their private lives, so they're going to expect similar things from you. That's why any B2C shift needs to be based in a genuine desire to improve your customers' experiences. It can't just be a PR move designed to show how modern and innovative your company is.
If you're considering experimenting with a B2C model, or if you're just interested to know about where this trend is heading, take a listen to our discussion. If you enjoyed it, subscribe! Either here, or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
The pace of digitalisation in business has increased since the pandemic started. But as usual, it's generally B2C companies that are leading the drive and developing the most interesting new ways of doing things. In this episode, I spoke with Stellan and Anders about why and how historically slow B2B companies can speed up a bit.
Even now, as it appears like the worst of the pandemic is drawing to a close, B2B companies really have a golden opportunity to change their way of doing things. Their prospects' and customers' expectations changed a long time ago. Still, now both employees and leaders have realised the new opportunities that digital can bring - whether that's about moving into e-commerce or something a bit more complex. At this point, a decision has to be made - should change be pursued, or should we just wait for things to go back to how they were before?
Anders and Stellan have a lot of experience working with large, traditional B2B companies, so it was great to hear some of their thoughts about how these kinds of businesses can speed up and what challenges they typically have to overcome.
Don't forget to subscribe to The Onlinification Pod! Either right here, or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
If you follow Anders Björklund on LinkedIn, you'll know that he regularly posts some short thoughts on the state of online and digital. In this episode, we chatted about these thoughts - we discussed what the idea is behind them, what the reaction has been, and expanded a bit more on some of them. Enjoy!
As you might expect, we discussed the effects of the pandemic in this episode. Many B2B companies have had to make a huge shift in the way they do things, and more than anyone, CEOs have had to adjust and adapt their way of working. Some CEOs have met this challenges well - while others haven't. We talked about the differences between these two groups, and gave some more general tips to companies who are looking to increase their digitalisation and things start returning to normal.
I hope you enjoy this episode, don't forget to subscribe! You can do so here, or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
We've been working with HubSpot for almost 10 years - so we thought it was about time for a podcast episode about our favourite platform. I spoke to Anders and Stellan about what HubSpot is, what its strengths are for companies looking to get onlinified, and how it's evolved during the time we've been using it.
As we get into in the episode, HubSpot's big strength is its ease of use. You don't really have to go on any lengthy courses to understand how to use it - after a couple of weeks, you'll probably be up to speed with the core tools. This is a big benefit, because it means you can get several highly-experienced HubSpot users in your organisation in a pretty short time - compare this other, more complex systems, where there's typically one or two super-users who spend most of their time showing others how to do things.
At the same time, ease of use means a certain lack of customisation - there's a very wide range of add-ons and ready-made integrations now available for HubSpot, but as Stellan says, there's only so much you can hack it. However, if you want to avoid never-ending integration and migration projects (which is what we would recommend), this could be seen as a strength!
We have a lot of experience from working with companies who are taking their first steps with HubSpot, so hopefully this episode answers a few high-level questions that you might have about the platform.
If you liked this episode, don't forget to subscribe - either here, or on https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
In this podcast, we've talked about B2B decision-makers a lot - what they prioritise, what trends they're affected by, and how marketers can reach them. But who are these people, and what are the factors that influence their decisions?
That was the topic of conversation for this episode. Enjoy, and don't forget to subscribe! Either here, or on zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
It's been around six months since we re-launched The Onlinification Pod. During that time we've produced a new episode every week, started creating video episodes, and discovered new ways to re-purpose our podcast content. But there's plenty of other new lessons we've learned - so if you're considering starting a podcast at your company, take a listen to this one.
Enjoy! And don't forget to subscribe - either here, or on zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
Technically, this episode is about why your company should have a page on its website where people can buy your products and services. We do discuss that, but we also got sidetracked into a fairly long segment about the origins of some Swedish sayings - so if you're on your summer holidays and aren't feeling up for too much business talk, this is the episode for you.
Enjoy! And don't forget to subscribe, either here or on zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
2021 is now half over – but on a lighter note, The Onlinification Pod just turned six months old! In this episode, we look back at what's happened over the last half-year – after the pandemic year of 2020, what has changed in the world of online and digital, and what do we think the rest of the year has in store?
At Zooma, we're always experimenting with new ways of doing things – in fact, this podcast is the result of an experiment that turned out well. But so far, 2021 has been filled with a bunch of other experiments, some of which have led to something new, and others which we haven't taken any further.
Over the last 18 months, every company has been forced to embrace this spirit of experimentation to some degree. The old way of working simply hasn't been possible, and we've all had to test new things and build unfamiliar solutions. It seems as though the pandemic is now going towards a close (fingers crossed) – so how will this strange period affect us in the future? Will businesses continue building on the things they've learned, or will the temptation to go back to the old normal be too strong?
That's what I chatted about with Anders and Stellan in this episode. If you enjoyed it, don't forget to subscribe - either here, or on zooma.se/en/learn/podcast. That way, you'll get an email when we publish a new episode.
Finally, it's here! We've finally spoken about our favourite topic on the pod!
If Zooma had a motto, it would be this: "Get all your contact data on one contact card".
Why? Because it makes everything better - your business, your daily work, and your customer service.
In this episode, we discuss how to go about gathering all your contacts' information in one place. Is it just about getting the system in place, or is there more? Find out!
If you liked this episode, don't forget to subscribe! Either here, or at https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
In this week's episode of The Onlinification Pod, I sat down with Carl Wåhlander, art director here at Zooma, to talk design - we discussed how to think about brand design, why feedback is so important in the design process, and how everyone is secretly a creative. Enjoy!
If you liked this episode, make sure to subscribe. You can subscribe here, or on zooma.se - that way, you'll get an email alert whenever we publish a new episode: https://info.zooma.se/subscribe-to-podcast
We're back with the second half of our LinkedIn episode - in this part, Alex and Anders focus a bit more on LinkedIn company pages, and what your company needs to do in order to actually use LinkedIn to its full potential. As usual, relevance and value are key factors.
Don't forget to subscribe to The Onlinification Pod - you can either do so here, or on zooma.se - https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
That way, you'll get an email whenever we publish a new episode. Enjoy!
A high conversion rate is the goal that every onlinified and digitalised company aims for. But it's often a problematic metric to change, and even if you do manage to move the needle, it can be tricky to find out which of your activities was responsible. In this episode, me, Anders, and Stellan share our thoughts on the topic - I hope you enjoy it.
As always, if you enjoyed the podcast, make sure to subscribe - if you like, you can also subscribe via our blog. That way, you'll get an email alert when we publish a new episode: https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
In this episode, we did a bit of roleplay - I asked Anders and Stellan to put themselves in the shoes of decision-makers at large B2B companies, and got their opinions on some of the most common concepts and buzzwords in the world of online and digital.
Paid social, AI, voice search, personalisation, chatbots... the list of hot topics and buzzwords in online and digital only gets longer as time goes by, and everyone has to have an opinion. Unfortunately, not everyone has the same take!
To try to clear things up, Anders and Stellan imagined themselves as decision-makers at large, traditional B2B companies and gave their thoughts. When should you start preparing for voice search? What role will AI have to play in the future? And what's going to happen after the pandemic is over? Find out in this episode.
If you like the pod, make sure to subscribe! You can subscribe here or on our blog - that way, you'll get an email alert when we publish a new episode: https://info.zooma.se/subscribe-to-podcast
Happy listening!
In this episode, me, Stellan and Anders discuss gated and ungated content. Gating your content - meaning to only make it available to users who have handed over some information, maybe by filling out a form with their email address - allows you to grow your contact list and nurture relevant, engaged leads. But if you gate too much, you risk losing trust and making life harder for your reader. So how do you find a balance?
Listen to our discussion to find out - and if you're looking for some further reading, we have an article on The Onlinification Hub about this very topic: https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/inbound/gated-content-the-gated-vs-ungated-debate
Don't forget to subscribe if you liked this episode, either right here or on our blog - that way, you'll get an email alert when we publish a new episode: https://info.zooma.se/subscribe-to-podcast
This episode is our first two-parter! It could have easily become a Joe Rogan-esque 4-hour episode, but we decided to be reasonable and split it up into two 20-minute episodes instead.
But why? Because we're talking about LinkedIn! At Zooma, we're big believers in LinkedIn. Although many users have mixed feelings about it, it's hard to deny that it's a fantastic platform for reaching an engaged, relevant audience. However, plenty of users get held back simply because they're unsure how to use it effectively.
For these people, Anders has some tips.
Trends come and go on a weekly basis on LinkedIn, just like on all social platforms. Small groups of very active users figure out what content the algorithm promotes and go all-in to reach a wider audience. The result is that your feed will be full of videos one week and links in the week after that. People ask for comments to get access to content, and sometimes they want private messages. Sometimes you'll see a link to content in the comments of a post from a company, and other times, it'll be in the post itself. Suppose you're an ordinary user trying to give an accurate image of yourself and hopefully convince others that you're trustworthy and knowledgeable. In that case, it's hard to know what tactic you should take.
To find out, I had a discussion with Anders, a prolific LinkedIn user, and asked what he recommends. What should you do or not do if you want to use the platform in a better way and develop yourself and your image? The answers are fairly simple (and they generally don't involve jumping on the same trends as everyone else).
For a bit of further reading, here's an Onlinification Hub article which we mentioned briefly about the LinkedIn algorithm - how it works, and how to outsmart it: https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/social-media-for-business/the-linkedin-algorithm-and-how-to-outsmart-it
If you liked this episode, don't forget to subscribe! https://info.zooma.se/subscribe-to-podcast
Customer performance indicators, or CPIs, are essential metrics you should be tracking if you really care about customer satisfaction. Many companies claim to care, but too often, they're still hindered by inside-out thinking. In this episode, we discussed how to fix this with well-defined CPIs.
Here's a link to the article Alex mentions at 00:40 - https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/customer-satisfaction-what-is-cpis
We've been writing about CPIs for a while, but since this is an important topic, I thought it was worth discussing it on the podcast.
Customer-centricity is spoken about a lot - I don't think any companies openly claim they don't care about their customers' needs or challenges. However, everyone (both in B2B and B2C) has had a poor experience as an existing or prospective customer of a company at one time or another. So what's going on? Clearly, these companies aren't approaching customer satisfaction in the right way.
CPIs are the remedy to this, and as usual, starting off with the basics gives you the best solutions. You can create wide-ranging NPS surveys and super-smart chatbots all you want, but if you don't track (or even know) the average time it takes for a customer to get a satisfactory answer to a question, you're starting at the wrong end.
It's just me and Anders in this episode, and our discussion covered the benefits of tracking CPIs compared to standard key performance indicators (KPIs), how you can link these two metrics, and what CPIs you should start with if you're a company that's serious about actually knowing how it is to be your customers and prospects.
I hope you enjoy this episode! Don't forget to subscribe - you can do so via the podcast service of your choice, or on the blog. That way, you'll get an email alert when we publish new episodes: https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
In this episode, Alex, Anders and Stellan discuss that trickiest of topics — what makes a truly great brand, and how can you create one? Or how much is it even possible to control how your brand develops?
Successful branding can turn your product and solution into a household name. But coming up with an actual definition of a brand isn't always easy. People would usually point to advertisements or product design when trying to describe what a company's brand is, but this isn't the full story. Really, the brand is the gut feeling that is felt by the people who perceive the brand - whether they're on the inside or the outside.
These kinds of feelings are complex and difficult to change, so a company tasked with designing a great brand, or changing an existing one, often run into challenges. In this discussion, we talk about these issues and try to get a picture of what brands are and what you need to do if you're trying to produce a truly great one.
Here's a link to the branding guide that Alex mentions at 3:45 - https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/branding
Hope you enjoy this episode! Don't forget to subscribe. You can also subscribe to our podcast blog - that way, you'll get an email alert when we publish a new episode: https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
Aligning marketing and sales is the holy grail for many B2B companies - think what you could achieve if you had both of these teams working together to share information, provide updates on leads and customers and create a seamless customer experience!
Unfortunately, these two elements of the business are often cut off from each other, and the people who suffer most are your customers and potential customers.
At Zooma, we have one team, not two departments - but achieving this in a large, traditional B2B company is extremely challenging. If you're trying to make the connection in your company, listen to this episode, where Anders and Stellan discuss what they would do if they were in your position.
If you want to hear more, subscribe! You can do so on Spotify, Soundcloud, or at zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
Knowledge content - it's the most valuable content you can produce, but so few companies actually do it. In this episode, Alex, Ander and Stellan discuss our definition of knowledge content, why it's vital for a company's image, and how much time you need to devote to it if you want to win online.
Happy listening, and don't forget to subscribe - either on Soundcloud, Spotify, or on zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
Like many other companies, we at Zooma have been working remotely for over a year as a result of the ongoing pandemic.
Remote work brings a lot of possibilities, and despite the distance, we've still been able to collaborate, complete projects and develop new ideas. We've even found that certain things are easier when working remotely, such as onboarding.
However, it's hard to replicate the kind of everyday social interactions you get at an office through digital tools like Zoom or Teams. We speak with people we're actively working with every day, but when it's no longer possible to have a discussion by the coffee machine, it's more difficult to catch up with colleagues who are working on other projects.
So how do you maintain the social connections within a company when everyone can't physically be together? To find out, I spoke with Elisabet Isacchi, Zooma's coordinator and assistant art director. Elisabet has the honourable task of organising Zooma's weekly fika - an event we have every Friday where we can take some time to connect and catch up. We spoke about what she's learned and experienced over the last year of remote work - have a listen, and hopefully you'll get some tips that you can try out in your own company.
/Alex
Account-based marketing is a term that you see everywhere, but what is it really? And is it even a good approach for your business? To find out this and more, we recorded this episode with Zooma's chief analyst and digital strategist, Martin Ray.
Hope you enjoy it - and if you want to hear more, subscribe on Spotify, Soundcloud or on zooma.se.
Zooma has just launched a brand-new corporate site. Like with other corporate sites, it's filled with information on our finances, governance and sustainability efforts, among other things.
But why have we decided to create it? Does Zooma really need a corporate site? What did we learn during the process, and what tips would we give to companies looking to create a corporate site of their own? I got answers to all these questions from Anders and Stellan in this episode of The Onlinification Pod.
Don't forget to subscribe, either here or on zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
What is it that makes a digital project successful? Good project management, of course. For this episode, we've brought in Elin Salekärr and Charlotte Björsjö, both project managers at Zooma, to talk about how they work and what tools they use to make their projects run so smoothly.
Enjoy, and don't forget to subscribe!
https://www.zooma.se/en/learn/podcast
In this episode, I pose a simple question to Anders and Stellan - if you were a decision-maker in a B2B company, what would you prioritise and why?
Both Anders and Stellan have a lot of experience of working with B2B companies from their time at Zooma, so it was interesting to see what conclusions they came to. You can listen to the episode to hear the full discussion, but one thing was clear - if you start by agreeing on the 'why' of your digital transformation, you'll be in a much better position than most of your competitors.
Enjoy, and don't forget to subscribe!
What is digital readiness, anyway? What companies are digitally ready? And what stands in the way of a company that wants to achieve digital readiness? In this episode, Anders, Stellan and Alex discuss these very questions. Enjoy!
Amazon launched in Sweden at the end of 2020 - over 20 years after they launched in other European markets like Germany and the UK.
To mark the occasion, we dedicated an entire episode to Amazon (which we seem to mention in every episode anyway). What is Amazon, why are they successful, and should you as a business see them as a competitor or a partner? Find out by listening to my discussion with Anders and Stellan.
Recently, we made it possible for companies to apply to become a Zooma customer via our website.
Ususally, the process of recruiting a new agency works the other way round. So why have we decided to reverse it? To find out, Alex spoke to Anders and Stellan about how we came up with this idea and what we hope the benefits of this approach will be. Their discussion became this episode of The Onlinification Pod.
Enjoy - and if you want to become a customer, apply here: https://www.zooma.se/en/news
In this episode, Alexander, Ander and Stellan discuss email marketing - how it can be best used, good examples they've come across, and tips for companies who want to achieve better results from their email marketing efforts. Enjoy!
In this episode, Stellan, who works as a strategist, Anders the CEO, and Niyat and Doug, who both work as content creators, elaborating about their experience from working remotely the challenges and possibilities they discovered after almost a year of working from home, how managers can support remote employees and how it is to onboard new employees remotely.
The Onlinification Pod has returned! The first real episode of our new series is coming out soon, and after that you'll be able to tune in weekly to listen to discussions about online and digital from the zoomers.
Experiences and thoughts regarding product launches from a marketing and communication perspective.
Product Marketing then and now: Feel free to listen to the podcast and find out what the main challenges of the "new" way of working are and how to measure success.
End of last year, on November 22-23, the HubSpot team in Dublin visited us at Zooma, to share their latest news and insights with regards to the future of online and digital.