For The Drum’s B2B Focus, we talk to HubSpot’s Nicolas Holland about changes to search, shifting social media habits and an “overwhelming” amount of data.
Nicolas Holland, the vice-president of product and general manager of marketing products at HubSpot, says there are three “big lightning strikes” hitting B2B marketers right now, making it “harder than ever to connect with customers.”
It’s a dramatic metaphor, but one Holland believes captures the tricky situation B2B marketers find themselves in. The first “strike” Holland identifies is changes to search. “Search is under siege,” Holland says. The likes of Google and Bing are increasingly working to keep users in the search environment through updates and changes taking traffic away from company websites.
This is a subject HubSpot’s chief executive officer Yamini Rangan recently warned marketers about. “Search has fundamentally changed. It used to be that your customers would answer questions and search engines would serve up blue links and they would …