Mark Hanley, president of Massachusetts-based consulting house I.T. Strategies, recently asked me for my opinion on the state of the market for printed brochures. Do printed sales materials have a future or are they on their way out? It’s a great question, and one which is brought up time and time again by marketers in meetings I attend.
Imagine your company’s new brand expression is the Sydney Opera House. Designed and built by the professional architects you hired to replace your tired old building, the new structure is a thing of beauty. It’s visionary, one-of-a-kind. It looks great. And it’s memorable. In fact, your employees and customers are already complimenting you on a job well done. But will your Opera House still be impressive 12 months down the track? Or will it have become an eyesore that will have management wondering whether it was worth spending all that time and money?
With exhibits to design and logistics to plan, it’s easy to see why so many trade show marketers neglect social media. Budgetary concerns and tough sales targets make it easy to write off social media marketing as an ‘optional extra’ for a trade show.
Social media and trade shows, however, can work together very well. With the right strategy, the right tactics, and the right best practices, your business can turn every trade show into a lucrative sales opportunity using social media marketing. Continue reading
B2B companies have had mixed experiences with blogs. In fact, we’ve seen countless blog deaths among our B2B clients. These unfortunate blogs were usually started by enthusiastic marketing departments keen to display a vibrant corporate culture—a more human side of the company—to stakeholders in an attempt to build trust and engagement. That’s a great aim, but there are many challenges and pitfalls Continue reading
The United States is a more culturally diverse nation than it’s ever been before. Together, cultural minorities comprise nearly half of our overall population: 56 million Americans are Hispanic, 34 million are black, 20 million are of Asian descent, and 45 million have roots either in the Middle East or Eastern Europe. The numbers are growing daily.
For businesses, these figures are tremendously important. If your communications strategy is culturally homogenous, you run the risk of alienating a large share of your audience. But it’s challenging to run a campaign that resonates with people from different cultural backgrounds. Continue reading
My colleagues and I were recently thrown a challenge by one of our clients to identify and describe its key stakeholder personas in half a day. On first thought, and despite our in-depth knowledge of the company and its industry (offshore engineering services), it seemed an impossible task, especially because the company has several business areas and various customer types within each of those business areas. But always up for a challenge, my colleagues and I planned a high-intensity session with the outcome of clearly defined buyer personas representing the most important revenue streams. Continue reading
There’s a particular value that your company will need to wholeheartedly adopt in order to compete for the attention of the today’s B2B buyers: the idea that, by helping others to achieve what they need to, you will be better able to achieve your own aims.
You see, what really drives today’s B2B customers is receiving help to achieve the goals that have been set by or for them. If you can be seen to help them, they’ll buy your products and services. Of course, the kind of help we’re talking about isn’t just about products and services. You can also help people by recognizing them or supporting their careers (for example, by promoting their achievements and widening their personal web footprints on your Voice of Industry platform). Continue reading
In the coming years, we’re likely to see a lower influx of new recruits to the job market. It is also widely predicted that the financial crisis will likely decline before long. So the hunt for the best employees is about to begin!
As a consequence, employer branding has suddenly become a strategic focus for B2B companies. Many are already now starting to position themselves to grab their share of the scarce resource of the future: talented people. For that, a compelling employee value proposition (EVP) becomes very important. Continue reading
Beloved by sales departments the world over, trade shows are an excellent platform for marketing your business. From exhibition signage design to simple deal-making tips, read on to learn six immutable tips for successfully exhibiting at a trade show.
1. Don’t be too ‘salesy’
Many an inexperienced salesperson has blown great opportunities at a trade show by approaching it with the same mentality as they would a typical sales call. While trade shows are undoubtedly about sales, they rarely reward a hard sell mentality.
The reality is that trade shows are excellent for generating leads, and equally good for converting new leads into customers, but only if you have the right outlook and marketing approach. Continue reading
With all the capabilities possessed by a modern corporation, and the decisive importance of employees as a success factor for more than 90 percent (my own estimate) of medium-sized to large companies, why is employer branding so neglected? Continue reading