B2B Marketing Traction

FEBRUARY 24, 2012

Please tell me who you are and how we know each other. Because I do not have ESP. Nor do I have a photographic memory of recent people whom I’ve met. Please, help me with a reminder of how we know each other and a compelling reason to accept your invitation. On LinkedIn I usually only connect to people I know. This includes people I’ve have met face-to-face, and those I’ve worked with virtually through national teams or committees or gotten to know on social media sites.

Linkedin 132

Linkedin Ideal Customer Profiles Opinions Profiling 132

B2B Marketing Traction

MAY 24, 2012

There’s a great new book out on how to be more creative called Imagine: How Creativity Works. Written by Jonah Lehrer, Contributing Editor at Wired, the book has some very interesting information for marketers. In the 1990s fMRI technology allowed scientists to learn a lot more about how our brains work. According to Lehrer, much of what we believed about marketing and business needs to be re-examined as a result.

Creativity 128

Creativity B2B Marketing B2B Rules 128

B2B Marketing Traction

JUNE 21, 2012

Should you outsource your marketing or hire marketing staff? In this blog post I’ll outline the pros and cons of outsourcing marketing. Outsourcing your marketing is not right for every business. There are advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing. Here are some pros and cons: Outsourcing Marketing – Pros. Senior-level marketing expertise – make sure your outsource marketing person has experience to bring to the table.

Planning 127

Planning Work Management Analysis Creativity 127

B2B Marketing Traction

MAY 31, 2012

The old way of marketing features and benefits no longer works for B2B marketing success. According to analyst Jeff Ernst at Forrester Research , in order to break through and dominate your industry, you need to position your company as a thought leader. Even the new content marketing is not enough to generate successful results, says Ernst. Rather, B2B marketers need to take a stand to stand out. “Marketers have to realize that in the age of the customer, business buyers don’t “buy” your

B2B Thought Leadership 122

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership B2B Marketing B2B 122

B2B Marketing Traction

APRIL 27, 2012

Effective blogging takes a lot of time and effort. Over 90% of blogs that get started are abandoned. One solution can be to hire a blog ghostwriter. Here are three important things to consider if you hire a blog ghostwriter. 1. Your blog should reflect “the voice” of your company. Any business-to-business blog must reflect your business’s marketing persona.

Buyer Personas 122

Buyer Personas Planning Blogger Opinions 122

B2B Marketing Traction

JUNE 12, 2012

Now more than ever, your website is critical to marketing success. Websites are the center of all marketing activity, whether you like it or not. In 2009, Enquiro, now Mediative, conducted a survey and produced The BuyerSphere Projec t report. In it, they found that, “B2B buyers who are planning purchases between $5,000 and $15,000, and those planning purchases of more than $50,000, consider a manufacturer’s website as the most important online influence.” In 2012 Thinkinsights

B2B Marketing 121

B2B Marketing Paid Search Agency Planning B2B 121

B2B Marketing Traction

DECEMBER 26, 2012

The groundbreaking research done by Robert Cialdini in his book, Influence: Science and Practice, will change the way you market forever. The video embedded below is an engaging way to learn Cialdini’s six (6) universal principles that guide people in their decision making and includes examples and tips on how to sell and market more successfully.

Video Marketing 118

Video Marketing B2B Marketing Planning B2B 118

B2B Marketing Traction

MARCH 9, 2012

Traditional outbound marketing (advertising, direct mail, email) still works. But, as Copyblogger indicates in the above graphic (thanks, Copyblogger!), it is more expensive. You can use traditional marketing to generate leads, but it is probably more cost-effectively used to build brand awareness or build loyalty after the initial lead generation.

Inbound Marketing 118

Inbound Marketing Sales Qualified Leads Loyalty High Quality Lead 118

B2B Marketing Traction

NOVEMBER 14, 2012

LinkedIn recently made recommending your connections a lot more easy – maybe too easy, in my opinion! This blog post is about how endorsements work and how to use this new feature in a practical and professional manner. I’ll write about my opinion that it’s too easy in another post. Why Did LinkedIn Add Endorsements? It used to be that the only way to provide a recommendation on LinkedIn was to go to the Recommendations option under the Profile menu , write your recommendation

Linkedin 117

Linkedin B2B Marketing Ideal Customer Profiles Opinions 117

B2B Marketing Traction

JUNE 14, 2012

Marketing is not about graphic design. Marketing is about getting results , including generating quality leads, engaging prospects and converting leads to clients and sales revenue. This is one of the points that Mike Schultz & John E. Doerr make in their book, Professional Services Marketing: How The Best Firms Build Premier Brands, Thriving Lead Generation Engines, and Cultures of Business Development Success.

B2B Marketing 116

B2B Marketing Planning B2B Deliverability 116

B2B Marketing Traction

MARCH 19, 2012

How often should you write and publish blog posts to get results from your blog? The answer depends on how competitive your industry is, what kind of results you want, and how much time resource you have to devote to blogging. What results do you want from your blog? If you are writing your blog to establish yourself as an expert in your industry, you have some leeway as to how many blog posts you publish each month.

Consulting 116

Consulting Resources Traffic Contacts 116

B2B Marketing Traction

OCTOBER 16, 2012

To succeed in social media marketing, your goals must be SMART. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. Today most businesses have gotten beyond the question of whether or not to have a presence in social media. They have moved on to questions like, “How do we do this?” Just as with marketing as a whole, it helps to have a strategy and a plan for execution.

Planning 114

Planning Social Media Marketing Plans Social Marketing 114

B2B Marketing Traction

SEPTEMBER 24, 2012

Some of my colleagues recently asked me to describe why a company or organization might want to hire a part-time Chief Marketing Officer. Why would a business hire a part-time CMO? I prepared a list of “trigger points” – events or situations that would trigger a need for an outsource or interim CMO. The organization needs marketing but doesn’t have the budget for full-time staff.

CMO 114

CMO Budget Programs Trigger Marketing Work Management 114

B2B Marketing Traction

MARCH 21, 2012

For a long time marketing departments have focused on TOFU, or top of the funnel lead generation. Now it’s time to also focus on MOFU, middle of the funnel qualified lead nurturing and development. You paid for search engine optimization (SEO), email and direct mail campaigns, trade shows, perhaps even advertising campaigns to get leads for your sales department.

Paid Content 114

Paid Content Top of Funnel B2B Marketing Planning 114

B2B Marketing Traction

JULY 18, 2012

B2B marketers – don’t throw your valuable marketing dollars away on SEO or pay-per-click ads. Create and post valuable content on your website and on social networks so that you will get found by qualified prospects. Why is content relevant to your industry and the products and services you provide so important? 1. People want answers to their questions, and they are asking their questions on Internet search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo.

B2B Marketing 113

B2B Marketing B2B Content Internet Marketing 113

B2B Marketing Traction

MARCH 23, 2012

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a waste of marketing dollars. It’s expensive, and it’s so ten years ago. I think the only reason Pay-Per-Click advertising still exists is because there are so many certified PPC re-sellers who convince businesses it works. Go ahead – do a search – such as “Does PPC work?” Most of the answers you will find are from the service-providers who make money on PPC.

PPC 113

PPC B2B Marketing B2B Online Lead Generation 113

B2B Marketing Traction

JANUARY 5, 2012

B2B CMOs must break out of the marketing silo (ivory tower?) and lead , among other things. The way people buy has changed forever. That means new roles and challenges for CMOs. Why? Marketing is now with “the people” ( Read my previous post about “citizen marketing,” B2B Marketing Trends I’m Thankful For ). Individuals are online posting their reviews and their opinions about brands, companies and people.

CMO 113

CMO B2B Leads Lead 113

B2B Marketing Traction

APRIL 16, 2012

Before you go live with your new logo, you should run it through several tests. Logos take time and effort to develop. You don’t want to launch a new logo and sink money into print materials and other collateral, only to have to redo it. 1. Fax. Yes, there is a good chance your logo will be faxed. (Still.) Do all the logo elements come through on a fax?

Trade Show 111

Trade Show Social Media Ideal Customer Profiles Planning 111

B2B Marketing Traction

APRIL 4, 2012

Blog entry excerpted from the Marketing chapter written by Jennifer Beever in The Book on Business from A to Z. When you budget your marketing dollars, it’s important to understand where you are in your product, service, or company life cycle. In an earlier post, I blogged on how to calculate your marketing budget by understanding your sales history.

Spending 111

Spending Marketing Budget Planning B2B Marketing 111

B2B Marketing Traction

FEBRUARY 3, 2012

When it comes to your marketing, sometimes it’s important to stop doing what you’ve been doing. And start some new things. In the book Good to Great , Jim Collins says that great leaders are disciplined – they not only have a to-do list, but they also have a stop-doing list. Here are some marketing things to stop doing and some you should start.

Trade Show 111

Trade Show Planning Paid Search Agency Marketing Prospects 111

B2B Marketing Traction

MAY 11, 2012

I’ve never been much of a believer in focus groups for market research. They are expensive and, like some, I believe that focus group dynamics lead to group think, which may not amount to true customer response. Now with research being done in neuroscience and the emerging practice of neuromarketing, there is more thought that focus groups are not effective.

Focus Group 110

Focus Group B2B Marketing B2B Analysis 110

B2B Marketing Traction

APRIL 26, 2012

If you’re going to invest time and effort in writing a blog, you want to get as many customers and prospects as possible to read it. How can you promote your blog? Here are eight ideas: 1. Increase the frequency of your blog post writing. 2. Engage with other bloggers by commenting on their blogs and other social media. 3. Advertise the blog in your email signature line, newsletters, and other marketing collateral. 4.

Promotion 110

Promotion Blogger Curation Newsletter 110

B2B Marketing Traction

MARCH 30, 2012

They’re not searching for “Shareholder,” “Partner,” “Founder,” “Manager,” or “Principal,” either. Yet I can’t tell you how many LinkedIn profiles I see that have been unintentionally set up for failure. Why? Because if it’s true that over 90% of corporations and most businesses use LinkedIn to find employees, contract workers or service providers, unless you have the right keywords and phrases in your profile , you wil

Linkedin 110

Linkedin Keywords Profiling Internet Marketing 110

B2B Marketing Traction

JANUARY 27, 2012

It’s critical that qualified prospects find your business on the Internet. If you’re not getting found, you’re losing leads and potential revenues. Your website uses outdated programming code. Your website doesn’t have relevant content. You use flash in your website. You have too many big images in the wrong places. Your images are not properly tagged.

Sales Qualified Leads 110

Sales Qualified Leads Tagging High Quality Lead Keywords 110

B2B Marketing Traction

JANUARY 11, 2012

Lead, follow or get out of the way. When it comes to your competition, if you’re spending too much time and energy watching the competition, you’re just following them. Or, at best, you’re looking laterally at business opportunities in an attempt to keep up. In Good to Great , Jim Collins writes that great company leaders never talked about competitive strategy.

B2B Marketing 110

B2B Marketing Marketing & Strategy B2B Paid Search Agency 110

B2B Marketing Traction

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

I’m still getting a lot of questions about whether or not B2B marketing should include a presence on Facebook. Business owners want to see a return on their investment, and many don’t understand what’s involved in planning, implementing and maintaining a Facebook company presence. How much time does it take to get results from Facebook?

Facebook 109

Facebook Spending B2B Marketing Planning 109

B2B Marketing Traction

DECEMBER 6, 2012

Does your marketing consultant have the connections and network to make your projects happen cost-effectively, the right way, with “the right people on the bus”? Some businesses think that to get marketing jobs done, they need to hire a firm with staff.That comes with overhead from staff that has to be kept busy and payroll that has to be met, and often that means the firm does more selling than necessary.

Consulting 108

Consulting Paid Search Agency Work Management Marketing Management 108

B2B Marketing Traction

OCTOBER 26, 2012

Let me be really clear – this is not a photo of my kitchen sink! I’m using it to make a point - the home page of most websites is crammed with everything the owner or management team can think to put on it - and then some, including the kitchen sink! But, when it comes to the home page of your website, less is more. Why do business owners put too many features, options, text, graphics, buttons and more on their home page?

Eye-Tracking 108

Eye-Tracking Sample Studies Marketing Websites 108

B2B Marketing Traction

SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

More startup businesses are adopting a model of outsourcing certain business functions such as marketing, finance and development. By outsourcing marketing, startup businesses can get hands-on senior-level expertise without having to pay salary, overhead and benefits for a senior-level full-time employee. What can an Outsource Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) do for your startup?

Startups 108

Startups CMO Paid Search Agency Marketing Management 108

B2B Marketing Traction

APRIL 23, 2012

But, spending more decreases ROI, doesn’t it? You’ve heard the adage, “To make more money, you’ve got to spend more money.” I believe this is true when it comes to tradeshows. You see, what most businesses do is just show up. Then they go home. They don’t plan strategically. They don’t have a special offer or promotion.

Trade Show 108

Trade Show Spending ROI Webinar Metrics 108

B2B Marketing Traction

APRIL 13, 2012

What if something were to happen to your online marketing presence? Now more than ever, marketing has a lot of moving parts. Your website, your email programs, your social media platforms all need to function so that your business has continuous communications to customers and prospects. Do you know how to access these platforms? Do you have your content backed up, just in case?

B2B Marketing 108

B2B Marketing Social Media Domain B2B 108

B2B Marketing Traction

APRIL 12, 2012

Blog entry excerpted from the Marketing chapter written by Jennifer Beever in The Book on Business from A to Z. B2B marketers need to track lead quality as well as lead quantity. Marketing is a numbers game, right? Fill up that pipeline and increase sales! Not exactly. It is important to track the quality of your leads. One way to measure this is by tracking the conversion rate of leads by source.

Cost per Lead 108

Cost per Lead Trade Show Marketing Leads Leads 108

B2B Marketing Traction

FEBRUARY 22, 2012

It’s no Secret that the Law of Attraction gets us what we want in our personal lives. But does it apply to business-to-business marketing? You bet it does. And social media has a lot to do with it. To be successful on social media platforms and on the Internet in general today means that you have to provide content about the value of your business and services.

B2B Marketing 108

B2B Marketing Internet Marketing B2B Social Media 108

B2B Marketing Traction

FEBRUARY 6, 2012

When it comes to your business-to-business website, it’s important to establish credibility and trust with site visitors. You’ve invested in search engine optimization and lots of great, relevant content so that your prospects can find you online. But what is really happening once a prospect lands on your B2B website? Do they see you as credible?

Marketing Websites 108

Marketing Websites Copyright B2B CAN-SPAM 108

B2B Marketing Traction

NOVEMBER 8, 2012

I’m excited about the new feature Pinterest launched today – secret boards with the ability to collaborate on them with others. While it’s a great feature for planning holiday shopping or that surprise birthday or anniversary party, it also has some great benefits for B2B marketers. As a marketing consultant, I’ve already been using Pinterest to pin ad campaigns that I like.

B2B Marketing 106

B2B Marketing Planning B2B Paid Search Agency 106

B2B Marketing Traction

NOVEMBER 2, 2012

If I want to go down a rabbit hole on the Internet, believe me, I can probably find my own. I explore things online all the time – download reports and articles, sign up for newsletters and follow blogs. But when I log in to your form and provide my name and email address, you better deliver what you offered in the first place. Don’t take me down the rabbit hole of your choosing or do a bait and switch and try to get me to buy something else.

SEO 106

SEO Social Media Transparency Internet Marketing 106

B2B Marketing Traction

NOVEMBER 1, 2012

Did you know that Facebook will allow anyone to create a Facebook Company Page? With someone else’s – maybe your – brand? Facebook believes in open networking. There are few constraints on Facebook as a default, and when you create a personal profile or company page if you want to protect your privacy you can adjust your settings to suit.

Facebook 106

Facebook Brand Identity Branding Privacy 106