Are you marketing to business decision-makers? Here are my top 10 recommendations for developing a smart business-to-business (B2B) marketing strategy, based on the tried-and-true principles of B2B marketing and my experience as a marketing strategy consultant. ...
View MoreBlogging is one of the most powerful ways to market your company. But only a few of the 156 million people who are publishing blogs achieve a big following. One is Chris Brown, owner of Marketing Resources & Results, a full-service marketing consulting firm in Northeast Ohio that helps companies attract new customers. Chris has published the blog Branding & Marketing since 2006. She’s written more than 900 articles on marketing strategy, marketing tactics, branding, social media, and market research. Last week, she reached a major blogging milestone: 10,000 subscribers. In this interview...
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Bloggers wield enormous influence in many markets and smart marketers strive to get bloggers to write nice things about them. But outreach to bloggers can be tricky. Many bloggers resist overtures from marketers and other outsiders. Here are five do’s and four don’ts when approaching bloggers to write about your company, product, or service, from my perspective as a blogger and a marketing consultant who advises clients on social media. ...
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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...
View MoreAre you getting the results you want from your website? Whether you’re a business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) marketer, a great website is essential for a smart marketing strategy. Here are 10 ideas to boost the marketing value of your website through higher traffic, better search engine rankings, and more effective engagement with your customers and prospects. ...
View MoreNearly every marketing consultant is advising their clients to create a blog. Why? Because blogging is one of the best ways to increase website traffic and improve search engine rankings. But let’s be honest: Blogging can be a big commitment. A smart marketer has to ask, is it worth the time and effort? Can someone prove that it really works? And what can you do to increase your odds of success, especially if you’re in business-to-business (B2B) marketing? Here’s how traffic to my website skyrocketed in one year thanks to the addition...
View MoreSmart business-to-business (B2B) marketers work hard to create and keep great relationships with their clients. In my last post, I shared the story of how a new B2B sales rep nearly destroyed a 10-year client relationship with my marketing agency by making six crucial mistakes in the first meeting. But transitioning a legacy client to a new sales rep doesn’t have to be a sales minefield. When handled well, assigning a new rep to a key account can be an opportunity to increase the client’s satisfaction and boost sales. Here are 10 things...
View MoreAre you getting a good return on your investment in marketing? Could it be better? One way to find out is to conduct a top-to-bottom review of your entire marketing plan to determine what’s working and what isn’t. This process is sometimes called a marketing audit. I’m often asked to guide audits as an independent marketing consultant and I recently shared advice on how to do an audit effectively. What specific factors should you assess in a marketing audit? Here are 40 questions I recommend for evaluating the effectiveness of your marketing and...
View MoreIf you break into a cold sweat at the thought of walking into a business networking event as a complete stranger, you’re not alone. Networking is essential to building and growing a business, especially for business-to-business (B2B) marketers who participate in professional associations and trade shows. But it takes skill and experience to feel confident in a networking situation, and it takes careful planning to capitalize on the value of networking for lead generation. Here’s what I’ve learned about personal marketing and successful networking at B2B events, and 21 tips you can use...
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