It’s puzzling to me that B2B Marketers will often deploy a plethora of campaigns and produce an endless stream of content or social media updates without the very basic minimum, well-produced content library that every prospect is seeking when researching their next partner, product, provider, or service. The base of your content must directly feed your buyers’ journey. If you don’t… and your competitors do… you’re going to miss your opportunity to establish your business
Smarketing: Aligning Your B2B Sales & Marketing Teams
With information and technology at our fingertips, the buying journey has changed immensely. Buyers now do their research long before ever speaking to a sales representative, which means marketing plays a bigger role than ever before. Learn more about the importance of “smarketing” for your business and why you should be aligning your sales and marketing teams. What Is ‘Smarketing’? Smarketing unifies your sales force and marketing teams. It focuses on aligning goals and missions
What Is MarTech? Marketing Technology: Past, Present, and Future
You may get a chuckle out of me writing an article on MarTech after publishing over 6,000 articles on marketing technology for over 16 years (beyond this blog’s age… I was on blogger previous). I do believe it’s worth publishing and helping business professionals better realize what MarTech was, is, and the future of what it will be. First, of course, is that MarTech is a portmanteau of marketing and technology. I missed a great
How Is Digital Marketing Feeding Your Sales Funnel
When businesses are analyzing their sales funnel, what they’re trying to do is to better understand each phase in their buyers’ journey to identify what strategies they can accomplish two things: Size – If marketing can attract more prospects then its plausible that the opportunities to grow their business will increase given that conversion rates remain steady. In other words… if I attract 1,000 more prospects with an advertisement and I have a 5% conversion
Marketing Campaign Planning Checklist: 10 Steps To Superior Results
As I continue to work with clients on their marketing campaigns and initiatives, I often find that there are gaps in their marketing campaigns that prevent them from meeting their maximum potential. Some findings: Lack of clarity – Marketers often overlap steps in the buying journey that don’t provide clarity and focus on the purpose of the audience. Lack of direction – Marketers often do a great job designing a campaign but miss the most
Upstream, Upselling, and Downstream Marketing Opportunities For Business Growth
If you asked most people where they find their audience, you’ll often get a very narrow response. Most advertising and marketing activity is associated with the vendor selection of the buyer’s journey… but is that already too late? If you’re a digital transformation consultation firm; for example, you may fill out all the details in a spreadsheet by only viewing your current prospects and limiting yourself to the strategies you’re proficient at. You might do
The Six Stages of the B2B Buyer’s Journey
There’s been a lot of articles on buyer’s journeys over the last few years and how businesses need to digitally transform to accommodate the changes in buyer behavior. The phases that a buyer walks through are a critical aspect of your overall sales and marketing strategy to ensure that you’re providing the information to prospects or customers where and when they’re looking for it. In Gartner’s CSO update, they do a fantastic job of segmenting
Publicfast: Find Influencers, Build Campaigns, and Measure Results
My firm is working with a manufacturer right now that is looking to develop a brand, build their ecommerce site, and market their products for consumers with home delivery. It’s a technology that we’ve deployed in the past and one key factor in expanding their reach was identifying micro-influencers, geographically targeted influencers, and industry influencers to help build awareness and drive acquisition. Influencer marketing continues to grow, but the results are typically aligned directly with