Latest Columns
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Outperforming The Competition With An Underdog Attitude
3/23/2022
We love underdogs. Remember when the US hockey team earned a gold medal with an astonishing defeat of the Soviet Union in the 1980 Olympics? Or how about the perennial underdogs, AFC Richmond, coached by our favorite uber-optimist Ted Lasso.
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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.
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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.
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If You Want Effective Inbound Marketing, Start With Understanding Your Buyer
2/1/2022
For Erin Moore, from Trew Marketing, the road to sales success begins with in-depth customer persona development. Shortcutting this all-important first step nearly always results in poor results when trying to attract and sustain the attention of prospects throughout long, complex buyers’ journeys. Read more to hear how she does it!
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Are You Transforming? Your Buyers Are!
1/25/2022
Transformation has earned buzzword status in modern B2B marketing and sales vernacular. B2B organizations are undergoing digital transformation, sales transformation, business transformation, and perhaps a few others too. But what’s behind the buzz? Buyers!
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Taking Our Own Buyer’s Journey In Search Of Marketing Technology
1/11/2022
Last year, B2B companies allocated over 26% of their marketing budgets to technology and Forrester estimates that over $25 billion will be spent globally on marketing automation technology alone in 2023.1 What that tells me is that many of us will be embarking on our own buyers’ journeys in the next year or two.
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Is Your B2B Social Media Program Like A Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone?
12/13/2021
For years when a B2B company expressed an interest in starting a social media program, I often cautioned them that it was like a self-licking ice cream cone. Were they prepared to continuously put fresh scoops of content on their page? However, my advice was wrong!
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Is It Time To Defrag Your MarTech Stack?
12/6/2021
At any point on a typical day, at least a dozen applications are open my computer. Adopting each one came only after careful consideration, but each was primarily evaluated on its own merits and its ability to integrate with other applications received less attention. Over time it became fragmented and my MarTech stack looked more like a Jenga tower on the verge of collapse. If your experience is similar, it might be time to defragment your suite of marketing technology tools.
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Getting Better Results With B2B Thought Leadership Content
11/16/2021
B2B companies that have embraced content marketing using thought leadership inevitably wonder if it really makes a difference for their businesses. If you read our first article on this topic, you learned that thought leadership does influence buying decisions. This article examines how we can more effectively engage buyers with thought leadership and achieve better results.
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Reframing The Relationship Between B2B Sales And Marketing
10/8/2021
Exploring ways to improve the relationship between sales and marketing in B2B businesses is like venturing into the Sahara on foot without water. Rarely do business leaders intentionally set out to change marketing and sales operations, to include organizational structure and processes. We too easily retreat to the risk-free zone of “but that’s the way we’ve always done it.” However, the harsh truth is that this modus operandi is fraught with risk.