B2B Marketing Traction

AUGUST 4, 2011

Tweet. One Page Marketing Plan. If there is one thing I’ve learned as a marketing consultant, strategic marketing plans must be SMART to be successful. I work with business owners of small to mid-size companies. Especially in tough economic times, they have limited resources to spend on marketing. So, what they do spend on marketing must produce results.

Planning 124

Planning Marketing Plans Paid Search Agency Marketing & Strategy 124

B2B Marketing Traction

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

You only have a moment to get someone’s attention when you send them an email. Why do so many emails get deleted by the recipient? There is no business or person’s name in the email From field. There is no subject line. Your subject line is irrelevant to me. Your first sentence in the email is boring and/or irrelevant to me. You do not include a call-to-action, so I delete the email.

Personalization 122

Personalization Business Email Marketing B2B Marketing 122

B2B Marketing Traction

AUGUST 15, 2011

Tweet. More businesses recognize a need to have a presence on Facebook, but a common question is, “What should we post on our Facebook wall?” My colleague Kim Defenderfer of California United Bank , asked me to speak about Social Media to a CEO Forum sponsored by California United Bank and CPA firm Rosenthal Pearson Fong & Frew. Kim cares about his customers and prospects and works hard to bring growth opportunities to them.

Facebook 122

Facebook Trade Show Press Cost per Acquisition 122

B2B Marketing Traction

DECEMBER 1, 2011

When will you see results from social media and SEO? When is your tweet, blog post, and video content enough? It takes time. Up to a month for Google to crawl your new site or new blog. Up to three months for social media messaging traction. Up to six months for SEO results – in other words, you start to come up on search results for your keywords.

Social Media 119

Social Media SEO Media Marketing Analytics Tools 119

B2B Marketing Traction

OCTOBER 28, 2011

I hate fear-based selling. You know, the kind where the seller lets you know one way or another that if you don’t buy their product or service you’re going to lose out. Fear-based selling gives me a horrible, irrational feeling that puts up my guard and reduces my trust level with the seller. I started my career in sales in the ERP software industry and went through some sales training – Xerox’ Personal Selling System and Solution Selling.

Cost 118

Cost Consulting Training Pricing 118

B2B Marketing Traction

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

Since it’s Veteran’s Day I thought this blog entry might be timely. Did you know that one of the definitions of strategy is about planning operations and movements in a war or battle? strat·e·gy strate -j?. the science and art of military command. exercised to meet the enemy in combat. under advantageous conditions. Merriam-Webster.com.

Guerilla Marketing 116

Guerilla Marketing Planning B2B Marketing Marketing & Strategy 116

B2B Marketing Traction

OCTOBER 27, 2011

Tweet. In today’s economy, every dollar you spend on marketing must produce results. Are you sure that the marketing you spend money on is working? As a new year approaches, this is a perfect time for a marketing audit. A marketing audit is a cost-effective review process where an expert looks at your marketing strategy, tactics, and results to make sure you are getting the best results possible without wasting money.

B2B Marketing 116

B2B Marketing Planning B2B Marketing & Strategy 116

B2B Marketing Traction

AUGUST 29, 2011

Tweet. Now is the time for B2B Marketers to invest small amounts in marketing programs - by doing research to find new or validate existing market opportunities, confirming or updating marketing messaging, or identifying new marketing technologies and media that might offer better or more cost-effective results. I read a great HBR blog post by Stephen Wunker, Five Rules for Innovating in a Shaky Economy.

Buy 115

Buy B2B Marketing B2B Television marketing 115

B2B Marketing Traction

AUGUST 22, 2011

Tweet. As a Marketing Consultant I am frequently asked if businesses should blog on their website or create a separate site with a different domain name and URL. I’ve heard many different answers over the past few years, so I decided to research some expert opinions online. My conclusion is that as long as you are blogging about your company, industry, products and services, you should set up the blog within your business website to add valuable relevant content and drive more traffic to

Marketing Websites 114

Marketing Websites Domain Opinions Consulting 114

B2B Marketing Traction

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

I have a “strong suggestion” for you entrepreneurs, start-ups, spin-offs, R&D folks, developers, CTOs, CEOs, COOs, CMOs, PR and crisis communications peeps – well, everyone involved in getting the word out about some “new thing.” Connect strategically now. Online, strategically, on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and more.

Social Media 113

Social Media Peer-to-peer Media Cross-Selling 113

B2B Marketing Traction

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

Tweet. Marketers who want to get found online have a dilemma: they need to write for the search engines and for the readers, their prospects. Unfortunately today I see both good writing that clearly won’t work for the search engines, and really bad writing that has keywords and phrases in all the right places but doesn’t speak to the reader.

SEO 113

SEO Press Business Best Practices 113

B2B Marketing Traction

AUGUST 11, 2011

Tweet. Blog entry excerpted from Jennifer Beever's Marketing chapter in The Book on Business from A to Z. What’s the best way to price your product or service for business to business (B2B) marketing? This is one of the most common questions B2B marketers have, and pricing your product or service wrong can be a disaster. Pricing must take into consideration customer demand, price sensitivity and elasticity, the competition, and market conditions.

Pricing 113

Pricing Price Elasticity Work Management 113

B2B Marketing Traction

NOVEMBER 28, 2011

At New Incite, our tagline is “ Don’t Leave Your Marketing to Chance.” We’ve seen too many B2B companies fail to look at their business, industry, and competition strategically, miss major opportunities and waste precious marketing dollars. Planning your B2B marketing strategically means that you are driving the bus that is your business, not riding in it (or standing at the bus stop waiting for it).

B2B Marketing 110

B2B Marketing Planning SWOT B2B 110

B2B Marketing Traction

JUNE 13, 2011

Tweet. Marketers need to understand their rights – and how to take action – when their online content gets copied. During a discussion about copyrighted material on websites, one of my clients – an attorney – told me about a program called www.copyscape.com. I ran some of my website pages through the program and found that two consultants had copied two of my most popular articles – The Truth About Trade Shows and Why Can’t Sales and Marketing Just Get Along?

DMCA 110

DMCA Copyright B2B Marketing Trade Show 110

B2B Marketing Traction

DECEMBER 15, 2011

Now more than ever, online content is the key to attracting and engaging qualified prospects online. According to a study done in August of 1092 B2B marketers , 60% plan to increase content spend in 2012 (compared to 51% in 2011) and 62% plan to outsource content creation (it was 55% in 2011). But, the biggest challenge B2B Marketers have with content is figuring out what kind engages prospects.

B2B Marketing 108

B2B Marketing Planning Psychographics B2B 108

B2B Marketing Traction

DECEMBER 13, 2011

This blog post answers questions you may be having about social media – Why do it at all? How do I do it efficiently? There are good reasons to invest in social media, and there is a way to create a credible presence on social media without a lot of time and money. At a recent presentation I gave on social media, one of the attendees commented that he had just cancelled his Twitter account, because he didn’t understand the value of that social media platform account or how to use it.

Social Media 108

Social Media Media Linkedin Twitter 108

B2B Marketing Traction

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

Are you a small to mid-size business that needs marketing help, but you don’t have the budget to hire a full-time, senior-level marketing executive? One option is to hire a part-time or outsource CMO to drive your marketing success. Here are six important qualities to look for in your CMO for Hire. Experience in your industry plus others. While it’s great to have someone who knows your industry and can hit the ground running (or at least have a reduced learning curve), cross-industry

CMO 108

CMO Paid Search Agency Effectiveness Cross-Selling 108

B2B Marketing Traction

NOVEMBER 2, 2011

B2B Marketers need to confront and act on today’s brutal reality, but they must never lose faith in the end result. “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” –Admiral Jim Stockton, about his eight-year imprisonment during the Vietnam War.

B2B Marketing 108

B2B Marketing Planning B2B Paid Search Agency 108

B2B Marketing Traction

OCTOBER 19, 2011

In business there are hedgehogs and there are foxes. I believe the concept applies to marketers, too. In the book Good to Great , Jim Collions wrote that great companies acted more like hedgehogs – simple, dowdy creatures that know one thing and stick to it. The comparison companies in the Good to Great study were more like foxes, wrote Collins, craft, cunning, fast and everchanging.

Planning 108

Planning Paid Search Agency B2B Marketing Comparison 108

B2B Marketing Traction

OCTOBER 17, 2011

Blog entry excerpted from the Marketing chapter written by Jennifer Beever in The Book on Business from A to Z. Business owners and marketing managers often ask how to figure out what their marketing budget should be. Here’s a classic marketing consultant answer: “ It depends. “ Your marketing budget does depend on a variety of factors, including your lead generation return rates and lead-to-buyer conversion rates.

Marketing Budget Creation 108

Marketing Budget Creation Marketing Budget Spending Planning 108

B2B Marketing Traction

OCTOBER 14, 2011

OK! I get that the blog abandonment rate is 95%! It’s haaarrrd to think of messages to Tweet! …And that you need content to improve search engine performance and attract visitors to your website. But what happens when those visitors actually read the content on your site? Definition of Mill. mill /mil/- (noun) one that produces or processes people. or things mechanically or in large numbers.

B2B Marketing 108

B2B Marketing Content B2B Ideal Customer Profiles 108

B2B Marketing Traction

SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

There are three critical success factors business owners should think about when considering investing in social media marketing. I presented these at the Los Angeles Vistage All City Conference this week, in two panel sessions called Social Media – What Business Owners Need to Know. 1. Be Strategic. Before you start Tweeting (!) or sending other messages out to your followers, friends, connections, fans and customers, write your company’s marketing persona.

Social Media 108

Social Media Media Buyer Personas Business 108

B2B Marketing Traction

AUGUST 31, 2011

Tweet. Today it’s not enough to have a search-engine-optimized website with static content. Search engines like Google rate sites based on the conversations that occur about you on social media.Your social media profiles become the spokes that feed your online marketing hub – your website. A blog on your site that you update frequently ensures that the content is fresh, dynamic and current.

Social Media 108

Social Media Online Marketing Social Marketing Media 108

B2B Marketing Traction

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

Tweet. Have you spent money on your web site, search engine optimization (SEO), maybe even online pay per click (PPC) advertising to drive more traffic to your site? Are you getting more traffic, but no return on your investment in the form of sales revenue? How do you get web site visitors to convert to customers and generate sales? Today we need to track more than the number of visitors to a web site and where they come from.

PPC 108

PPC B2B Traffic Newsletter 108

B2B Marketing Traction

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

Tweet. …Or your inbox fill with inquiries? It does for me. So, if I’m getting results, why do many business people still say, “I’m on LinkedIn – now what?” (As a matter of fact, so many asked this question, Jason Alba wrote the book with the same name.). So you’re on LinkedIn – now what? I was the 102,794 th person to create a LinkedIn profile on January 7, 2004.

Linkedin 108

Linkedin Web 2.0 Ideal Customer Profiles Blast Campaigns 108

B2B Marketing Traction

FEBRUARY 14, 2011

Tweet. Ouch! Your search engine optimization (SEO) company, maybe despite claiming that their tactics are above board ( white hat tactics), tricked the system with black hat tactics that go against search engine guidelines. Maybe you didn’t know that you should ask the question, “What kind of tactics are you using to optimize my web site for search engines?

PageRank 108

PageRank Guidelines SEM Vendors 108

B2B Marketing Traction

DECEMBER 16, 2011

Basing marketing plans and campaigns on intuition isn’t enough anymore. Now with websites and measurable marketing activity through online content downloads and sharing, B2B marketers can to move away from an intuitive, creative approach to marketing and base their campaigns and plans on facts. I liken counterintuitive marketing to one of my favorite sports: skiing.

B2B Marketing 106

B2B Marketing Planning B2B Analysis 106

B2B Marketing Traction

DECEMBER 6, 2011

Are you leveraging your B2B marketing assets to achieve better results faster? Spending your marketing time, resources and budget on tactics and strategies that accelerate marketing results is better than spending your time, resources and budget on tactics that take a long time to produce results. So, before you launch that expensive, new marketing campaign for a new market, ask yourself – is there anything I can leverage more quickly and less expensively?

B2B Marketing 106

B2B Marketing Planning B2B Marketing & Strategy 106

B2B Marketing Traction

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

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 marketing life cycle. The marketing life cycle can relate to a product, service, or an entire company. In a previous post, What Do I Spend on My Marketing Budget?

Marketing Budget 106

Marketing Budget Marketing Budget Creation Spending Planning 106

B2B Marketing Traction

OCTOBER 21, 2011

If I see another online article masquerading as a whitepaper, I think I will scream! It is not OK to slap a few paragraphs together, upload the finished document, and invite visitors to your website to “Download Our Whitepaper.” It happened a few years ago. Whitepapers were seen as successful online marketing tactics for technology and research companies.

Buzz 106

Buzz Statistics Research Tactics 106

B2B Marketing Traction

OCTOBER 12, 2011

Does your online content make your phone ring? It did mine recently – I received a call about a post I did in 2009 from an executive at a financial services company on the East Coast. He was trying to make a decision about how to launch a technology product and saw that I had written about his issue. Quality, online content (even if it was written years ago) is the key to getting found online today.

Online Marketing 106

Online Marketing Planning Paid Search Agency Content 106

B2B Marketing Traction

OCTOBER 7, 2011

…and Marketing? What if marketing were regulated the way taxes are? Would the world be a different place? As another tax deadline looms I’m reminded of this question that often comes to my mind. What if marketing were regulated and legislated like taxes? Or regulated the way businesses are regarding treatment of their employees? Here’s what I think would happen: If business were required to plan and execute marketing every year, 1.

Planning 106

Planning Consulting ROI Demand 106

B2B Marketing Traction

OCTOBER 6, 2011

Are you thinking of implementing the newest marketing tactics, such as social media, in your next marketing campaign? It’s important to look before you leap, and have a clear understanding of your customers and your industry when you plan your marketing. “Good to Great companies set their goals and strategies based on understanding; comparison companies set their goals and strategies on bravado.” – Chapter 6, “The Hedgehog Concept,” Good to Great , by Jim Col

Planning 106

Planning Marketing Plans Ideal Customer Profiles Linkedin 106

B2B Marketing Traction

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

Tweet. Now more than ever, optimized online content is the key to attracting prospects to your website. But how do you make time to create blog entries, videos, eBooks, whitepapers, podcasts, presentations and articles? The answer is re-purposing. When you notice that a particular blog entry on your site generated a lot of traffic and/or comments, create a video on the same subject.

B2B Marketing 106

B2B Marketing Content Guidelines B2B 106

B2B Marketing Traction

AUGUST 25, 2011

Tweet. When you create a company page on Facebook, you create an instant emotional connection with customers, prospects, employees and website visitors. Why? Because those who spend time on Facebook either like or love the brand. And today over 750 million people spend time on Facebook. The largest group on Facebook are from 18 to 34 in age. For all ages, but especially if you have any customers and employees who are 18-34 in age, Facebook can be a cost-effective way to create awareness of your

Facebook 106

Facebook Paid Search Agency Companies Trade Show 106

B2B Marketing Traction

AUGUST 19, 2011

Tweet. As a B2B Marketing Consultant, I am often asked how many messages a business should post on their social media accounts. Yesterday I was reviewing Hubspot information and saw that they recommend no more than two or three updates on Facebook each week. It got me thinking about the importance of strategic planning and tactical goal setting in marketing – even for what seem to be the easiest tactics.

Social Media 106

Social Media Media Gartner Planning 106

B2B Marketing Traction

JULY 18, 2011

Tweet. The detailed changes your LinkedIn connections make to their profiles that show on your LinkedIn Home page can be annoying. You can customize what updates you see on your LinkedIn Home page from the Settings page. Watch this video (just over 2 minutes) to learn how.

Linkedin 106

Linkedin Display Ideal Customer Profiles Profiling 106