Nine Questions to Develop Your B2B Branding Strategy
January 27, 2010
The first step in developing a branding and positioning strategy is to determine your starting point through a series of nine questions:
1. What is the scope of your branding problem—is it to position an entire organization or simply to position a product or series of products? Read more
Bridging the Gap Between B2B Marketing and Sales by Christopher Ryan
January 20, 2010
If you are a marketing manager at a company that uses direct sales representatives, these people can be either your best friends or worst nightmare. Chances are they are somewhere in between, but the point is they can make your life easier, or they can be a constant source of irritation. In fact, careers can be shortened when marketing and sales don’t work together in a productive manner. Read more
Integrate B2B Marketing or Die – by Lee Ann Fleming
January 13, 2010
Smart companies understand that in order to get the best value for their marketing dollar, their campaigns must integrate. By that, I mean marketing, sales, public relations and corporate social networks must all work together as a strategic whole in order to be effective in this, the second decade of the 21st century. Too many companies are still working in the ten-year-old model of separating efforts into “marketing,” “PR,” and “sales” departments, and some are still leaving their web sites up to the IT staff. This is not only expensive, it’s counter-productive. Read more
Why Do Social Media Marketing? – by Bill Petro
January 11, 2010
My previous article discussed What is Social Media Marketing, describing the different channels used and distinguishing it from Search Engine Optimization.
Now we turn to the more important question:
Why are companies doing Social Media Marketing?
There are several compelling business reasons why leading edge companies are doing this. These are reflected in the following questions:
- How do we improve our marketing dollar Return on Investment?
- What do we do to achieve Competitive Differentiation?
- In what way do we accomplish Massive Awareness?
Let’s talk about each.
To Blog or Not to Blog? – by Christopher Ryan
January 11, 2010
My colleagues and our clients at Fusion Marketing Partners sometimes ask a question that was rare just a few years ago: should I begin blogging? I’ve been a blogger for some time, so people assume that I always recommend blogging, but actually, in many cases I do not. Let’s start with six good reasons you should consider starting a blog. Read more
Grab the High Ground in B2B Marketing – by Christopher Ryan
January 4, 2010
Any competent military commander will tell you that it is usually better to be positioned on higher ground than your enemy because it is much harder to attack uphill and is easier to inflict pain upon your enemy from a higher position. This is just as true whether your competition is wearing combat fatigues or office attire. In the world of B2B marketing and sales, failure to grab the high ground won’t lead to your physical death but it can lead to the death of your company’s revenue plan, profit margin and aspirations. Read more
