Marketing Craftmanship

JUNE 23, 2014

And yet, the events that really determine the success of business do not happen on the inside…So CFOs have a big job ahead: bringing together information channels, and learning an accounting system that’s going to be very different. The CFO as Productivity Manager: “There is a third CFO function, which is managing money for the business.

Allocation 100

Allocation Thought Leadership Work Management Consulting 100

Marketing Craftmanship

OCTOBER 14, 2014

The most noteworthy article on B2B selling was published in a 1966 Harvard Business Review article (#66213). Extrinsic selling is a “trust me” approach, employed by a great number of B2B product and service providers. In “How to Buy /Sell Professional Services,” author Warren J. No leap of faith required.

Case Study 100

Case Study Case Studies Studies B2B Thought Leadership 100

Marketing Craftmanship

MARCH 16, 2013

The past decade’s social media debacle is akin to introduction of desktop publishing in the early 1980s, when personal computers arrived in the business world. But your video products must be sophisticated, professionally produced, and no longer than 3 minutes. As if CMOs needed another cause for termination.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Merchandising B2B 100

Marketing Craftmanship

OCTOBER 9, 2016

Step 1: Determine why customers should buy your product / service. Many companies either don’t have a clue, or have an unfounded / unrealistic viewpoint on why people should do business with them. To justify its existence as a corporate function, marketing must help produce tangible business outcomes. You need to nail this step.

Planning 100

Planning Marketing Plans Work Management Marketing Management 100

Marketing Craftmanship

AUGUST 31, 2018

For most B2B companies, there’s no reliable way to predict when a prospective client will purchase their product or engage their services, regardless of what their “marketing automation” expert promises. The effort to generate top-of-mind awareness is a means to an end, not the goal. Or ideally, as the only firm under consideration.)

Work Management 100

Work Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services CRM 100

Marketing Craftmanship

AUGUST 29, 2017

All of the hours devoted to blogging, at some of the nation’s largest and smartest companies, does not appear to be time well spent…if the goal of a blog and other forms of content marketing is to generate new business. You don’t blog consistently. You don’t drive traffic to your blog.

Ideal Customer Profiles 100

Ideal Customer Profiles Opinions Linkedin ROI 100

Marketing Craftmanship

JANUARY 20, 2017

To our great surprise, we received no calls from reporters checking our facts, and the story was immediately picked up by two major wire services, and appeared as a news squib on the front page of the Wall Street Journal , followed by coverage in several business insurance trade publications.

Paid Search Agency 100

Paid Search Agency High Quality Lead Content Press 100

Marketing Craftmanship

NOVEMBER 17, 2011

For most companies, there is no way to predict when a prospect will purchase their product or engage their services. Sales cycle management is particularly challenging for B2B firms, and for professional services firms in particular, where top-of-mind awareness (getting people to remember you) is a critical part of business development.

Sales Cycle 100

Sales Cycle Marketing Management Lead Nurturing Sales Qualified Leads 100

Marketing Craftmanship

MARCH 16, 2012

Companies of all sizes believe that more publicity is always better, as a means to raise brand awareness and drive business results. Companies seeking to leverage publicity to drive business results in a cost-effective manner need to play a very different game, using the following rules: Generate credibility tools, not placements.

Merchandising 100

Merchandising PR Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 100

Marketing Craftmanship

AUGUST 14, 2015

Business owners across all industries and professions start companies because they have a specific expertise or interest – whether it involves trading currency futures or replacing car mufflers – and eventually discover that selling their product or service is neither in their wheelhouse, nor something they enjoy doing.

Paid Search Agency 100

Paid Search Agency Advertising Agencies Planning B2B Thought Leadership 100

Marketing Craftmanship

FEBRUARY 7, 2017

Bona fide thought leadership does not promote your firm, or attempt to sell its products or services. An extremely small number of companies are able to apply these tactics in a consistent manner, or view marketing as an ongoing business discipline, rather than a list of items to be checked off.

Paid Search Agency 100

Paid Search Agency Companies B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership 100

Marketing Craftmanship

JULY 1, 2014

For B2B marketers who are too busy to keep up-to-date on every marketing trend and buzzword, here are a few thoughts on all the current noise about the Attention Web : Attention as a marketing asset is not a new concept: Top-of-mind awareness has always served as a cornerstone of effective B2B marketing.

B2B Marketing 100

B2B Marketing B2B Thought Leadership B2B Marketing Management 100

Marketing Craftmanship

JUNE 7, 2011

More importantly, let’s assume this “Snob Effect” on online customer reviews has implications in other businesses, where socio-economics and personal status are factors in the selection of a product or service, and where online customer reviews for those businesses are readily available.

Ethics 100

Ethics Opinions Blogger Marketing Proposals 100

Marketing Craftmanship

JANUARY 27, 2015

To our great surprise, we received no calls from reporters checking the facts, and the story was immediately picked up by two major wire services, and appeared as a news squib on the front page of the Wall Street Journal , followed by coverage in several business insurance trade publications. Believe nothing at face value.

Research 100

Research Content Marketing Work Management Paid Search Agency 100

Marketing Craftmanship

FEBRUARY 13, 2015

Ideally, those plans will also avoid many of the non-productive tactics that marketers are known to promote. No plan = lots of wheel-spinning + no tangible business outcomes. But this is a high-risk tactic because reporters have agendas, can make mistakes, and are not in business to make your firm look good.

Transparency 100

Transparency Thought Leadership Planning Enterprise Management 100

Marketing Craftmanship

SEPTEMBER 12, 2016

The intellectual capital embodied within Thought Leadership is what provides you with credibility, and gives potential buyers the confidence to do business with you. Because no leap of faith is required, it’s a more powerful sales methodology. It also serves as a sophisticated sales hook designed to grab their attention.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership Enterprise Management Work Management Opinions 100

Marketing Craftmanship

MARCH 24, 2011

The most noteworthy article on the subject of B2B selling was published in a 1966 Harvard Business Review article (#66213). Extrinsic selling is a “trust me” approach, employed by a great number of B2B product and service providers. …and How Marketing Can Support Its Effectiveness.

Work Management 100

Work Management Validation B2B Sales Marketing Management 100

Marketing Craftmanship

AUGUST 19, 2011

Brochureware is the term used, often with derogatory marketing implications, to describe websites consisting entirely of static pages that promote a company’s products and services, people and value proposition. Based on these impressions, website visitors will likely conclude one or all of the following: This company is out of business.

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership Paper Press Case Study 100

Marketing Craftmanship

NOVEMBER 29, 2013

As a result, effective public relations involves pushing a company’s or client’s agenda (or products and services) without being a pest, and ideally, by being helpful to reporters who are in a position to reciprocate with media coverage. It will remain a business function, nothing more. It’s a dance that both sides understand.

Public Relations 100

Public Relations PR Blast Campaigns Press 100

Marketing Craftmanship

APRIL 8, 2016

There’s an increasing volume of negative news regarding the “exodus from hedge funds,” in favor of less expensive alternatives such as liquid alts and “engineered equity” products. Your fund’s goal is to do business with the people who believe the same things that you believe. So you need to explain what you believe in.

Allocation 100

Allocation Cross-Selling Marketing Management Validation 100

Marketing Craftmanship

JANUARY 5, 2012

The demise of this scruffy first generation of workplace gripe sites gave way to an even more powerful and credible second generation of professionally managed, sophisticated sites like Glassdoor.com, backed by private equity investment, and fueled by business models that ensure their long-term existence.

PR 100

PR Social Media Tools Media 100

Marketing Craftmanship

AUGUST 7, 2011

Call In The Cavalry – The odds are, if you’re running a successful business, that you have plenty of satisfied employees and customers. This does not simply mean pumping out a press release every time your company introduces a product, wins an industry award, or appoints a new vice president.

Brand Identity 100

Brand Identity Branding Viral Marketing Opinions 100

Marketing Craftmanship

FEBRUARY 8, 2017

From minor misquote to major hatchet-job, these real and perceived offenses occupy the attention of senior managers and their advisors, whose polite clarifications and outraged denials fill the “Letters to the Editor” section of every business and trade publication. Que Sera, Sera.

Media 100

Media Press Paid Search Agency Mobile Advertising 100

Marketing Craftmanship

APRIL 4, 2017

But Ian McTavish, the 7th generation Scottish bagpipe maker, taught me an important marketing lesson I’ve never forgotten: If you create a product or service of high quality, then you’re entitled to set the bar as high as you like, with respect to those seeking to buy it.

Generation 100

Generation Marketing & Strategy Paper High Quality Lead 100

Marketing Craftmanship

NOVEMBER 9, 2017

Anything short of that commitment can signal to employees, customers, business partners and other key stakeholders that their interests and concerns will take a back seat to the personal agendas of the corporate owners. The overall impression will be that the company is in trouble or going out of business.

Brand Identity 100

Brand Identity Branding Urgency Marketing Enterprise Management 100

Marketing Craftmanship

FEBRUARY 16, 2013

Originally a seafaring term relating to the brass plate attached to a ship’s mainmast that memorialized its owners and builders, a publication’s masthead lists the members of its current editorial and production staff. The Wall Street Journal , for example, has high masthead value; the Wall Street Transcript… not so much.

Merchandising 100

Merchandising Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Public Relations 100