And I've been in the business environment for quite a while. When alignment is discussed in marketing, the usual application is to sales and marketing alignment. This has been an ongoing conversation for nearly as long as I can remember. The issue that comes up for me is that there are some alignment issues before we can even get to sales and marketing alignment that could have major implications for brands, if they took stock. What I'm talking about are two sources of fragmentation - the second driven by the first. marketing misalignment. customer misalignment. Telemarketing. MORE >>

In addition, you must show them how it will affect their business/success, as well as what they can do to prepare to get ahead of it without disrupting the strategic goals of their business. Whether that's discussing your ideas with a colleague, or spurring them on to do more research about the ideas or try to apply them to the improvement of their current business processes, something must happen. Many B2B marketers cite a goal of their content marketing programs as establishing their company as thought leaders in their marketplace. Innovative Ideas - Innovative = New. MORE >>

This is because I'm too busy to go read other people's posts. I've read a lot of articles and blog posts about content curation. have to say that I've been outspoken about not being a fan. Mostly, my reaction is related to the ridiculous notion that a company can become a thought leader through curation alone. Eric Wittlake wrote recently about that with his post, Three Reasons Content Curation is Overated , so I'll let you read his views. tend to agree with him. Yep, it's true. Nearly every time I Tweet, I'm doing so to share someone else's content. MORE >>

Most business people I speak with don't either. I was reviewing a few email messages I'd developed for a B2B lead nurturing program with a project team when they said the equivalent of - Gosh, these are short. We should include links to events, products, etc. We're missing a big opportunity to give our prospects more choices. Then there was a pause and one of them asked, "What if they don't like the one link we're including?" The purpose of a lead nurturing email is NOT to: Be everything to everyone. Get any old click. Ask for a lot of time. Make a sale. MORE >>

Content is a part of everything a business does in regards to communicating with prospects, customers, and the industries their offerings serve. I'm talking about business value. Think beyond the end users of your solutions to other impacts the results of using it make to your customers' businesses. What's the additional business value they can gain? That's not a good business decision. Arguably, content strategy is most often thought of as a marketing application. That's a great start, but it doesn't do the practice justice. video. MORE >>