How to Rethink Your Marketing Plan in a Crisis
If an event like the Covid-19 pandemic happens again – or another development upends your marketing plan with little notice – what should you do? Here’s how to quickly rethink your marketing plan for a smart marketing strategy.
7 Ways to Use Your Value Proposition in a Marketing Strategy
Understanding and articulating the unique value your organization delivers to your customers – your value proposition – is crucial for smart marketing. Here are seven ways to use the value proposition insights gleaned from customer interviews in a smart marketing strategy.
What’s Your Value Proposition? Ask Your Customers
Understanding the unique value your business delivers to customers is essential for a smart marketing strategy. Yet many businesses struggle to define their value proposition, especially B2B marketers that sell intangible business services.But defining your value proposition is easier than you think: Just ask your customers.In part one of a two-part post, here’s how Cleveland marketing consultant Jean Gianfagna recommends conducting customer interviews to determine a value proposition.
Why Your Reputation Trumps Your Marketing – Every Time
Why the things people say about your business matter far more than what you say about yourself in your advertising -- no matter how much you spend on marketing.
How to Survive Losing a Big Client: 12 Smart Strategies
The loss of a major client can be a huge blow to your business. But there are ways you can survive – and even thrive – following a customer defection. Here's how to do it strategically.
Marketing Best Practices: Using a CRM System for Marketing
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.
7 Ways Your Best Customers Can Help You Market Your Business
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.
Big News: How to Tell Clients about Changes to Your Business
At some point, almost every business has important news to share with clients about major changes. Communicating big news is a pivotal moment in the customer relationship and it’s essential to do it right.Here are 12 tips for delivering important news to clients about your business from B2B marketing consultant Jean Gianfagna.
7 Reasons Why Referrals Don’t Turn into Sales
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.
How to Turn a Product Shipment into a Branding Opportunity
A product shipment is a golden opportunity for branding. Here are two examples of very different marketers – Nuts.com and Chanel -- who are transforming product shipments from routine transactions into branding and marketing magic in a smart marketing strategy.
How Your Employees’ Public Behavior Can Damage Your Brand
Marketers spend a lot of time and money building their brands. But nothing can hurt a brand faster than bad behavior by a company’s employees in public. Here’s why your employees’ behavior outside the workplace is an important factor in a smart marketing strategy – and how easily employees can hurt your brand and your business.
6 Reasons You Still Need Print in a Smart Marketing Strategy
Do marketers still need printed promotional materials in a tech-driven world? The answer is yes. Here are six reasons why print still packs a punch in a smart marketing strategy.
The Ultimate B2B Content Marketing Tactic? Publish a Book
If you’re a B2B marketer and an expert in your field, there’s a content marketing tactic you should seriously consider: Writing a book. Here’s what makes a book such a powerful element of a smart marketing strategy, as shared by an expert at Content Marketing World in Cleveland, Ohio.
7 Reasons Why You (Still) Need a Blog for B2B Marketing
Here are seven reasons why you still need a blog in a smart B2B marketing strategy, plus a compelling B2B blogging success story shared by Rick Short of Indium Corporation at Content Marketing World 2015 in Cleveland, Ohio. #CMWorld
5 New Rules and 5 Proven Principles for Marketing Success
In this new, technology-driven world of marketing, do the proven principles of marketing strategy still apply? Or are there new rules for marketing success? Here are five new marketing rules created by the enormous impact of technology plus five time-tested marketing principles -- and the reasons to consider both in a smart marketing strategy.
6 Marketing Lessons I Learned as the Mother of the Bride
Brides are spending big money on weddings. According to the Wedding Report, the cost of an average wedding in the U.S. is $25,200. Market research firm IBISWorld estimates that the U.S. wedding industry has grown to $55 billion in annual sales.That’s a lot of cake, tulle, and flowers – and as the mother of the bride, I can tell you from personal experience that it’s also a fascinating example of what works (or doesn’t work) in sales and marketing. Here are six lessons for your smart marketing strategy that I learned as the mother of the bride.
Sales Pitch Fails: 7 Errors to Avoid in Your Next Presentation
You’re about to make a sales presentation to a prospective customer. You have the right experience, the right products and services, and competitive pricing. You’re an ideal fit for the customer’s needs. This should be a winning sales formula. But too often, it isn’t, because vendors make dumb mistakes during presentations that cost them the business. Here are seven things NOT to do when making a sales pitch to a prospect.
B2B Marketing Strategy: 10 Goals that Belong in Every Plan
The most important step in developing a business-to-business marketing strategy is the first one: Setting your goals. Why are you investing in marketing? What do you want that investment to achieve for your business? For B2B marketers, the answer to these questions can be surprisingly straightforward. In fact, in my experience as a B2B marketing consultant, there are 10 critical goals that apply to almost every B2B marketing strategy, whether you’re selling manufactured products, professional services, or commodities. Here are the 10 goals that belong in a smart B2B marketing strategy and why they matter:
7 Reasons Banks Fail at B2B Direct Marketing
Banks are spending big money marketing products and services to small businesses via direct mail. Most of these direct marketing campaigns are terrible. Here are seven reasons why so many banks fail at B2B direct marketing and some lessons for your smart marketing strategy.