Posted: 27 Jul 2010 by cryan on our GreatB2BMarketing.com blog in B2B Marketer
This post involves one of my pet peeves in marketing: the tendency of marketers to spend money and time to generate inquiries and then fail to follow-up (FTFU) on these inquiries. This failure can be fatal to the success of your sales lead management program. Although it was for a low-ticket service, a recent personal example illustrates the point. I was looking for a guitar teacher to help take me to the next level. I jam with some very good musicians ...
Posted: 19 Jul 2010 by cryan on our GreatB2BMarketing.com blog in B2B Marketing
How to Generate Revenue from Your Dead Lead Pool Most companies have a database of contacts that have gone stale. We refer to these lists by different names, including the dead lead pool, lapsed customer list, or inactive database. But whatever we call it, this group of people/companies often have significant revenue potential. In other words, the dead leads are not so dead after all. Like the legendary Phoenix bird they can rise from the ashes to help make your revenue goals ...
Posted: 9 Jul 2010 by cryan on our GreatB2BMarketing.com blog in B2B Marketing
As a CEO or business owner, you have some tough decisions to make about your marketing and sales operations. Traditionally, this has involved hiring one or more marketing personnel, and paying them a salary (sometimes with a bonus) as your in-house marketing department. I worked in this model for two decades, earlier as a marketing manager and later as the marketing (and sometimes sales) department head. In many ways the in-house model works well, but it does have its challenges. Fortunately, ...
Posted: 29 Jun 2010 by jleavy on our GreatB2BMarketing.com blog in B2B Marketing
Clinically speaking, a manic depressive disorder is defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated mood. Some manic episodes include increased energy, activity, with rapid talking & thinking, followed by sustained periods of unusual, even bazaar behavior. That would describe some social media personalities. They don’t post to their blog or text to their friends or colleagues for weeks at a time. They don’t reply to messages sent to them nor do they participate in the ...
Posted: 25 Jun 2010 by cryan on our GreatB2BMarketing.com blog in B2B Marketing
Why You Need to Explore the Pull Marketing Model Imagine the next meeting of the local B2B marketing group, and you stand up and say. “‘I’m Chris R and I used to be a pusher.” Not a pusher of drugs of course, but a pusher of marketing. Most of us who have been in the B2B marketing world for any length of time cut our teeth on the “push marketing model.” We made a living by tracking down sources of suspects, ...
Posted: 16 Jun 2010 by cryan on our GreatB2BMarketing.com blog in B2B Marketing
The Pareto Principle as Applied to B2B Marketing According to our friends at Wikipedia, the Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule and the law of the vital few) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Pareto observed that 80% of the peas in his garden came from 20% of the pods, and he went on to apply this formula to many other areas, ...
Posted: 7 Jun 2010 by cryan on our GreatB2BMarketing.com blog in Content
It is said that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” While this can be true, it is also true that a mere handful of words can have more power and impact than a thousand pictures. Words allow you to form pictures in your mind that are sometimes as real and vivid as the actual images they portray. This is why people often tell you the book was better than the movie. Words help you develop your imagination. Doubt the power of ...
Posted: 3 Jun 2010 by jleavy on our GreatB2BMarketing.com blog in Marketing Strategy
The title “Don’t Drop Your Drawers on the Web” may seem harsh at first; the provoking title is really meant to get your attention. This post talks about not trusting every community site blindly with your personal information just because it’s popular or used by almost everyone you know. A little vigilance is in order. Keep in mind, telling someone or a community of people, your location also lets them know where you are not. Just because a community site profile ...
Posted: 24 May 2010 by cryan on our GreatB2BMarketing.com blog in B2B Marketing
Of all the talks and presentations I do about B2B marketing and sales, perhaps my favorite is called How to Bridge the Gap Between Sales and Marketing. This is a subject that resonates with both the marketing and sales audiences, as well as CEOs and business owners. We have some fun with the presentation but the message is deadly serious: marketing and sales need to be in alignment for the business to reach its potential. We talk ...
Posted: 14 May 2010 by jleavy on our GreatB2BMarketing.com blog in B2B Marketing
Let’s talk about being noticed in the social media community; being noticed without being obnoxious or looking desperate that is. Getting noticed in a good way is beneficial for business. Organizations work hard to position themselves as the experts in a certain field, the authorities, the go-to-guys, the ones-in-the-know. Here are some quick ways to begin to establish credibility in the social media stratosphere. Identify the influencers in your business sector and comment on their blog posts. Posts such as “Great post!” ...
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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