Posted: Jan 27 2012 by Christopher Ryan on our GreatB2BMarketing.com blog in B2B Marketing
As has been stated in works ranging from the Bible to the Beatles, there is a time for every purpose. Sometimes the best course is to persist and push through the obstacle and sometimes the best course is to apply a little dose of patience. Here are some examples of when to practice persistence. Be persistent in setting goals for your marketing programs. Better yet, make them intentions. How many unique visitors will you have at your website? How many inquires ...
Posted: Jan 17 2012 by Christopher Ryan on our GreatB2BMarketing.com blog in B2B Marketer
I was attending a fitness class at my health club this past weekend and the instructor was talking about how full the club was in early January and how many of the people were “New Year’s resolution” exercisers who would probably be absent within a month. He said that many people have noble intentions and set major goals, but they take an approach bound for failure, by overdoing it in the early stages – for example, exercising every day for ...
Posted: Jan 3 2012 by Christopher Ryan on our GreatB2BMarketing.com blog in B2B Marketing
The Fusion Marketing Partners team got together last week to do our year end recap and strategize plans for 2012. The bottom line is that we had a good year. As part of the discussion, we talked about some guiding principles (mantras) for how we will conduct business in 2012. Here is a sampling that might give you some ideas for improvement in the coming year.Focus on the three marketing measurements that probably matter most to your organization: boosting awareness, generating leads ...
Posted: Dec 20 2011 by Christopher Ryan on our GreatB2BMarketing.com blog in Content
I just read an interesting article by Dan Pollatta in the Harvard Business Review, with the clever title I Don’t Understand What Anyone Is Saying Anymore. The premise of the article is that business people speak with so much gobbledygook and industry jargon – it is hard to understand what they are talking about. The topic of communication is important to us at Fusion Marketing Partners because we have to either create compelling messages for our clients or coach them on ...
Posted: Dec 8 2011 by Christopher Ryan on our GreatB2BMarketing.com blog in Marketing Plan
With only about three weeks to go in 2011 I hope you are turning at least some of your thoughts to what you will do in the coming days to ensure that 2012 is your best year ever. I know it is tough to close out the year strongly while simultaneously planning for the future, but it vitally important that you do so. Year-end planning reminds me of the cartoon where the guy is standing in waist deep water swatting at ...
Posted: Nov 29 2011 by Christopher Ryan on our GreatB2BMarketing.com blog in Social Media
Last week, I was seated next to a guy at a business breakfast who told me he was embarking on a second career and becoming a writer. The speaker at the event mentioned social media and the guy immediately stated, “I hate social media. I know social media would be good to help me sell books but I’m not sure if I can bring myself to do it. What do you advise?” The first thing I thought of was to tell him ...
Posted: Nov 17 2011 by Christopher Ryan on our GreatB2BMarketing.com blog in B2B Marketing
With apologies to my excellent English teachers over the years, the headline of this post illustrates why attention to detail is so important in marketing. All of us make mistakes, and I have made many. But keep in mind the old carpenter’s expression, “It is better to measure twice and cut once.” Likewise, it is always better to prevent mistakes in the first place, as opposed to correcting them after the fact. We practice this at Fusion Marketing Partners and ...
Posted: Nov 7 2011 by Christopher Ryan on our GreatB2BMarketing.com blog in Copywriting
Today’s post was motivated by an unsolicited email I received from an outsource payroll company, that made the following two claims:If your business has fewer than 20 employees, statistics have shown that you can save money by outsourcing your payroll operations. On average, 40% of the entire administration time of a small business deals with payroll processing.Both of these claims suffer a credibility gap because neither is attributed to any independent source. The company sending the emai. […] ...
Posted: Oct 27 2011 by Christopher Ryan on our GreatB2BMarketing.com blog in B2B Leads
I just read an interesting article at Web Ink Now, titled New B2B Lead Generation Calculus. Noted marketing thought leader David Meerman Scott revisits that often-debated topic of whether it is better to collect opt-in data before allowing people to download your content, or to make that content available without requiring anything from the website visitor. As Scott explains, “There are those who believe in making content like white papers totally free without registration in order to sprea. […] ...
Posted: Oct 19 2011 by Christopher Ryan on our GreatB2BMarketing.com blog in B2B Marketing
Do you want to make a big difference in your B2B marketing and sales performance? If so, adopt the practice of “intending” instead of “trying”. Most of the time, when I ask a marketing manger to do something, I get an answer like the following: I’ll try to find you the information you need to make this campaign work. I’ll try to generate some leads. I’ll try to help the sales force make their sales targets. You get the picture. The common thread is the ...
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 …
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 …
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 …
You are probably in the process of planning your marketing strategies for the year 2010 including what many term “resolutions.” However, notice that I used the word “intentions” and not “resolutions” in the title. When you resolve to do something, it means you do the best you can. But as Winston Churchill said, “It’s not …
How would we develop and execute a Social Networking Strategy Map? What might the media components be and how would we implement them and measure success or failure?
Some people may say there are seven steps to the media strategy while others would say there are ten steps. For instance, a person might list corporate acceptance …
Laura McGuire, a good friend and former colleague (now CEO of SmartTracks (www.smarttracks.com) had an interesting observation the other day. She said that most of the B2B marketers that she knows can describe their own marketing and sales process in great detail but could not do the same for the buying process of their prospects. …
What are the channels that Social Media Marketing uses to promote branding and amplify marketing communications — and how is each uniquely leveraged?
Everyone on the Internet tends to congregate in certain spots. Financial people like reading blogs about making dough and investing other people’s money. Fly fishing enthusiasts hang out at fishing forums where they can lie to each other about the last “big one” that got away.
As the above illustration shows, there are plenty of places …
In B2B marketing and sales, your brand is extremely important. This article talks about the six key principles to make sure that your brand is compelling and differentiated.
I participated in an interesting LinkedIn discussion exchange today, started by Jeff Blackwell, titled: What Can You Do to Shorten the Sales Cycle? Naturally, this got a bunch of comments, including from your’s truly. Several people remarked on the importance of asking for the order. You’d be surprised how often salespeople neglect to do this. A …
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