Opinions, best practices and research into B2B marketing strategy and practices

Credibility

Credibility is the degree to which your company or brand is deemed trustworthy and believable. To establish credibility, there must be little or no disconnect between your company’s delivered competencies and offerings and the picture you paint for the outside world.
With online customer testimonials playing an increasingly important role in buyer behavior and with attitudes towards corporate spin or propaganda hardening, credibility has become an important parameter for a company’s success.

Efforts to build and sustain credibility must be ongoing and response must be immediate if that credibility is threatened. B2B businesses can earn extra credibility by representing the industry rather than the interests of a specific company—and by becoming an industry advocate instead of a salesperson.

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Why bad English-language writing is bad for business

by Laura Matheson
Disorganized English language letters - pink on a white background

Customers and potential customers judge you and your company by the content you produce – and if you’re marketing to an international audience with poorly-written English-language material, you can expect to be judged harshly. In an era of ever-increasing concern about fraud and personal data safety, badly written content could be scaring away even more potential customers – and making you look like a twit.

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Why it’s worthwhile to be an industry advocate – or 8 reasons to stop talking about yourself!

by David Hoskin
Person with open mouth talking into a can - being an industry advocate

Shifting the perspective of your communications and taking on the role of an industry advocate can bring many benefits for your company. Offering customers valuable, objective advice on your industry can boost your credibility, website traffic, social media engagement – and give you better sales leads.

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Five ways clear ‘opt-outs’ encourage subscribers to opt-in

by Laura Matheson
Red exit sign giving users the option to opt-out

Many companies are still reeling from the tightened requirements for subscriber consent in marketing. The turbulence that accompanied the full implementation of GDPR has prompted some less-than-ethical marketers to devise creative ways to prevent users from opting out or unsubscribing. The assumption being that un-willing subscribers are better than reduced list sizes.

But making it simple to leave is part of the equation for convincing people to stay.

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Why ‘should’ can take a long walk off a short pier

by Laura Matheson
swimming pool ladder bright blue yellow

Hot on the heels of an exceptionally hot European summer and CNN naming Copenhagen as the best city in the world for swimming, the nearby beaches and harbors are still teeming with people cooling off in the open water. When I complain about the heat, I’m often told, ‘You should go for a dip!’

The only valid reason I can see for swimming is to avoid death by drowning – but that ‘should’ stops me in my tracks. It carries a sense of obligation, judgement, pressure and, most of all, guilt.

I don’t like to swim, but I should.

Should is for things we don’t want to do. Should is based on the expectations of others. Should is inconsistent with our own values and how we want to behave. Continue reading →

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How to create affordable testimonial videos for employer branding

by David Hoskin
Employee testimonial videos

Most marketing or HR directors would love to have several high-quality employee testimonial videos to support the company’s employer branding efforts – particularly when it comes to recruitment. They also say, however, that it’s one of those difficult and expensive tasks that they just don’t seem to be able to manage with available resources. Frankly, I disagree that producing testimonial videos for employer branding is difficult – or expensive. Continue reading →