A customer relationship management (CRM) system enables you to store, manage, and use your customer and prospect data for sales and marketing. Here are five best practices for using the capabilities of your CRM system in a smart B2B marketing strategy from my experience as a B2B marketing consultant....
View MorePublishing premium content is a powerful tool for B2B lead generation. Here's how to promote premium content in a smart marketing strategy in part 3 of our 3-part guide to creating and using premium content for marketing....
View More
Does your organization need a new brand identity? Branding is one of the most important strategic decisions you will make. Getting it right can help your business vault to the top of your industry. Getting it wrong can result in costly misconceptions about your business. Here are the seven major steps of creating a new brand identity from our experience developing branding strategies and brand identities for many organizations....
View More
If you sell products or services to millennials – the 70 million Americans born between 1982 and 1999 – understanding the core values and experiences they share as a generation is crucial to success. Chuck Underwood, who helped develop and popularize the field of generational study, recently offered fascinating insights on generational marketing in a presentation to the American Advertising Federation in Cleveland. Here’s why viewing your marketing and advertising through a generational values lens -- especially if your target market is millennials – is so important to a smart marketing strategy. America’s...
View MoreEven if sales are up, critical marketing issues could be lurking behind the scenes that are limiting your company's success – or threatening your future. A marketing audit can help you find out. Here’s why auditing your marketing – when times are bad or good – can be so important to a smart marketing strategy....
View More
Loyal customers are essential to a successful business. But in addition to helping you reach your sales goals, your best customers can also play a powerful role in a smart marketing strategy. Here are seven ways to capitalize on the value of your best customers in marketing....
View MoreEven if you have the budget to execute marketing projects and a marketing agency standing by to help, there’s another factor that can impact your success: Your internal marketing bandwidth. Someone on your team has to make all that marketing happen -- and it's easy to get in over your head. Here’s how to prevent this problem in your smart marketing strategy....
View MoreCustomer and prospect data drives direct mail marketing. Data that’s outdated, inaccurate, or poorly processed can turn a good direct mail campaign into a wasted opportunity. Here are two examples of excellent mailings that failed because smart marketers that are usually highly skilled users of the channel relied on the wrong data....
View More“Can you hear me now?” Without thinking, you can probably picture the person speaking and know the reason why. It’s the spokesman from Verizon’s old advertising campaign demonstrating via countless ads in many different locations the power of Verizon’s vast nationwide network. It’s a tribute to Verizon’s marketing team and agency that this phrase became iconic for Verizon’s network reliability. Which makes it even more impactful from a marketing standpoint that Mr. Can-You-Hear Me-Now himself, Paul Marcarelli, has switched to Verizon competitor Sprint. In the new Sprint campaign, Marcarelli quickly dismisses Verizon’s position as...
View More
Referrals are like gold in marketing and sales. Someone who knows you endorses your capabilities to someone who trusts them AND needs what you provide. It’s an ideal setup for new business, especially if you’re a B2B marketer selling professional services. But many referrals don’t turn into sales. Marketers make costly mistakes that derail the sales process before, during, and after a referral takes place. Here are seven reasons why a referral may not result in a new customer and tips to avoid these mistakes in your sales and marketing strategy....
View More
