Latest Columns

1. Customer-Centered Content Marketing - Part 2 11/15/2023

   It is important to understand that potential buyers are on a journey to solve problems, not necessarily buy something. If you want to be considered as a solution provider, you must be a helpful participant in their problem-solving journey, the entire journey.

2. Customer-Centered Content Marketing Part 1 10/25/2023

   Here is the problem that many of us have. We define the B2B buyer’s journey in three stages: awareness, consideration, and decision. And we define awareness as when a buyer becomes aware of us and our solutions. We then develop content strategies focused on our own products and services which is what buyers seek in the late stages of their journey. We miss the opportunity to build trust with buyers when it is most critical. What we need is a content-marketing strategy that is aligned with the real buyer's journey.

3. The Real Buyer's Journey 10/4/2023

   The single force that has disrupted the way B2B solution providers market and sell is also the most critical to business success, buyers. As buyers discovered and embraced on-demand, digital content to help them solve problems, not make purchasing decisions, they pushed long-held B2B marketing traditions aside, rendering them obsolete.

4. Marketing Through Economic Uncertainty 9/28/2023

   We’re now in the second consecutive year of economic uncertainty. Or is it the third? Despite this pesky funk, there are some signs of improvement and talk among economists of a soft landing. Yet nearly everyone I speak with feels nervous and that is understandable.

5. Plan Like There Are No Rules 9/28/2023

   This is the time of year when marketing leaders and their teams are establishing goals and developing plans to achieve them for the next year. But to offer some intense candor and honesty, many of us are not great at planning. We love to talk about ideas, create entertaining slide productions, and populate complex spread sheets with words intended to convey a strategic vision. But that’s not real planning! 

6. Communicating Your Company Culture And Values When It Matters To Your Target Audience 9/18/2023

   Complex, long-term B2B relationships require more than the adequate delivery of goods and services. Healthy, productive relationships that lead to growth for both customers and solution providers are built on shared values and have a cultural fit at their core.

7. B2B Thought Leadership Content Is More Important Than Ever 2/23/2023

   The 2022 LinkedIn-Edelman B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report was released in December. It is the 5th annual study and I believe it is one of the most important reports for B2B companies and their marketing and sales leadership. I recently spoke to Kate Cooper, Executive Vice President and Midwest Market Lead in Edelman’s Business Marketing practice and she shared some key take aways from the report. 

8. When The Truth Speaks, Take Good Notes! 11/7/2022

   Email marketing is a primary way B2B companies communicate their value and promote their services and products, but when one was the last time you did some list maintenance?

9. Creating Magnetic B2B Content 3/16/2022

   There is a significant groundswell among B2B sellers in employing content marketing strategies to attract buyers. This has created a hyperactive environment in which B2B marketers feverishly crank-out content to compete for share of voice and fuel what they perceive to be an insatiable appetite for content among their target audiences.

10. Venturing Into The Twilight Zone: The Emotional Dimension Of B2B Marketing 2/14/2022

    B2B marketing material does not have a reputation for being deeply engaging, entertaining, or something that strikes an emotional chord with its audience. And like the Twilight Zone, we find emotional B2B marketing hard to understand and fascinating, but few of us are willing to travel there.