Buyer personas are an important part of your inbound marketing strategy because they tie your online sales and marketing efforts together. A buyer persona is a semi fictional representation of your real customer base that comes from industry research and your professional experiences. It is a profile of your ideal customer that provides insight into who you are selling to.

When a potential customer looks at your outdated website that lacks a blog, social sharing buttons and a modern design, it’s like showing up on your first day of a new job in your pajamas without brushing your teeth and hair. First impressions matter and can determine the outcome of future interactions with your business.

Ever hear the phrase, “put yourself in my shoes”? That is exactly what every great marketer is able to achieve with buyer personas. They put themselves in the shoes of their prospects’ in order to create content that speaks to each stage of the buyer’s journey.

As an inbound marketing HubSpot agency, we know the buyer’s journey consists of three stages: awareness, consideration and decision. Here are content offerings for each stage of the buyer’s journey for your buyer personas.

Regardless of how small the task, every marketing action needs a bigger plan. While it is easy to dive right into, say, social media or lead generation, without a big picture plan it is like going for a drive without a destination or a road map to get there.

Here are the essentials of creating a B2B digital marketing plan to help give you a clear target and directions.

When it comes to B2B branding, many marketers strive to find innovation and inspiration. Numerous questions arise about how to tell a brand’s story correctly and then get the world to perceive it that way. The most successful brands are those that elicit an emotional response upon seeing a visual representation of the brand—not because a logo is associated with the brand but because an experience is attached to it.

Here are 5 quick B2B branding tips to think about when creating a new brand, or to use to enhance an existing brand:

Lead generation is a hot topic that is getting hotter by the day. With the buzz lead generation has created comes misconceptions around best practices. Marketers and business owners need to know the correct information for the most successful lead generation campaigns. To help give those in charge peace of mind; here are five misconceptions and the reasons why:

Content marketing is like the latest smart phone; if you aren’t using it you are missing out big time. Not only are you left out of the conversation at the water cooler, but you are missing real benefits that could change your daily life, or in this case – your business. If you haven’t already jumped on the bandwagon, here are three ways to start planning your content marketing strategy:

Many business owners are asking, why marketing automation, is it really valuable? The answer is yes! Marketing automation allows business owners and marketers to strategize, create and implement successful campaigns. More importantly it enables them to measure their work, which creates benchmarks and true guidance instead of shooting in the dark.

Here are 4 myths and the facts so that business owners can make informed decisions before incorporating marketing automation into their marketing strategy:

It’s 2015 and technology is still evolving with an ever changing landscape for marketers. Due to these changes brands must adapt and stay abreast of trends in order to remain relevant. The digital age has created this phenomenon of relevancy for brands by adding new levels of engagement and interaction with customers. Without social, videos or online presence, a brand almost ceases to exist.

More and more companies are utilizing automated marketing campaign technologies and deploying them – with fantastic results. It’s no surprise that the implementation of this technology is growing, and the companies that are not adopting the technology are falling further behind.

With the ability to capture, nurture and close leads from a single platform, it's no wonder marketers are looking for ways to enter the marketing automation arena.