Landing a new client is always great news for business-to-business marketers. But once the celebrating is over, it’s time to get serious. The way you begin a new client relationship can have a big impact on how long you keep the customer. Here are 10 ways to start off on the right foot with a new client in a smart business-to-business marketing strategy....
View MoreIf you’re a business-to-business (B2B) marketer, white papers can be a powerful way to demonstrate your expertise and differentiate your company from competitors. In part three of a three-part series, here are 11 ideas for using white papers as marketing tactics in a smart B2B marketing strategy....
View MoreWhite papers are one of the best ways to market a business or professional services company. But there's more to developing an effective white paper than just writing about what you know. To create a white paper that supports a smart marketing strategy by establishing your credibility as an expert in your marketplace and positioning your company as a preferred solution provider, you need to plan carefully and think strategically. In part two of a three-part blog post, here are 10 tips for creating a great white paper from my...
View MoreOne of the best ways to engage and keep social media followers is to make them feel special. Here are seven ways to show some love to social media followers in a smart marketing strategy....
View Moreour company’s brand represents the value customers receive when they interact with your business. It's a promise: When you choose to purchase from us, this is what we will deliver to you. When you break that promise – through defective products, shoddy workmanship, or poor service – you might lose the customer. But in this age of social media, you might also lose your reputation. Remember the musician who made a YouTube video about United Airlines breaking his guitar? It got more than 12 million views and spawned a whole culture of...
View MoreA smart marketing strategy is critical to the success of your business. But many companies have misconceptions about marketing that can hamper their ability to successfully promote their products and services in a competitive marketplace. Here are seven marketing misconceptions I often see in my work as a marketing consultant that can limit the effectiveness of your marketing plan and cause you to miss sales opportunities....
View MoreThere’s a simple business communication tactic that can have a huge impact on how your clients and prospects feel about you and your organization: The handwritten personal note. Here’s why personal notes are so effective in building strong client relationships and six tips for using personal notes in your smart marketing strategy. ...
View MoreOne of the most difficult marketing challenges is differentiating a service business from its competitors. One strategy is to market the knowledge and experience of the firm’s employees. Another is to focus on how the firm's employees make customers feel. Case in point: Tom, my UPS delivery guy. Here are 5 lessons in how to create loyal customers from a UPS driver in Cleveland....
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Permission-based marketing is now at the heart of relationships between companies and their customers and prospects. People opt-in to receive your emails, like your company on Facebook, subscribe to an RSS feed from your website or your channel on YouTube, or follow you on Twitter or LinkedIn. But having permission to market to someone isn’t a license to bombard them with marketing messages. In fact, not knowing when to shut up is a classic marketing mistake. Here’s how over-marketing can kill a customer or prospect relationship and 7 ways to avoid this...
View MoreThe 2011 Social Media Habit Report by Edison Research and Arbitron, reported on Hubspot last week, provides a wealth of statistics that prove the ubiquity and influence of social media. But what’s most fascinating about this new research is the window it opens on the habits of the 46 million Americans who check social sites several times a day. Who are these habitual social media users? And what can marketers learn from their extraordinary level of engagement with social networks? Here’s what this important study shows and three takeaways about social media for...
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