Marcoms

Is your B2B website building the bottom line? Part 3

Galen de Young of leading B2B marketing agency, Proteus, recommends six steps to check how effective your B2B website is at pulling people in and keeping them engaged.
Content marketing is one of the most powerful tools for B2B marketers, most of whom likely have content development as a substantial part of their 2010 marketing plans.
But before you [...]

Making B2B marketing work, Marcoms

Direct marketing in B2B: integrated approach creates higher impact

Many thanks to Michelle Cavé for this insight into how one of the world’s top agencies implements a strategic approach to direct marketing.Â
When it comes to generating a return on investment from direct marketing campaigns, half the challenge often is just being heard. But getting the attention of business decision-makers isn’t about shouting the loudest. [...]

Making B2B marketing work, Marcoms

Mapping audiences in B2B markets: building a marcoms strategy

B2B markets are complex structures consisting of different audiences that influence customers’ buying decisions. Marketers need to understand who these audiences are, how they influence one another and the significance of their influence on buying decisions.
Mapping audiences and their connectivity within a ‘sphere of influence’ is the first step in creating a marcoms strategy that [...]

Making B2B marketing work, Marcoms

B2B marketing: throw away the begging bowl

Time and again, I hear about B2B marketers continously having to justify their existence within the organisation.
During the past 18 months or so, this demand has risen to painfully loud levels and has been accompanied by huge cuts in marketing-spend.
At a time when margins and market share need to be heavily protected – let [...]

Making B2B marketing work, Marcoms

B2B marketing and sales: bridging the divide

The graphic below is from Geoffrey Moore’s book, Crossing the Chasm, and illustrates how new technology is typically adopted by the market.   

The bell-curve can also be used to develop synergy between marketing and sales, creating a united approach to customer-management – building sales, margins and loyalty
Where do I sign?
Although it’s concerned with the marketing of new technologies, the principles of the Adoption [...]

Making B2B marketing work, Marcoms

Getting B2B results: John Deere, DM & WOM

The Ultimate Skid Steer Smackdown: a DM campaign for John Deere by GyroHSR
When John Deere wanted to move into a new category of earth-movers, GyroHSR conceived a campaign centred around head-to-head contests between JD and the competition. The following article looks at how the campaign evolved and the results it delivered.
Since its launch in April [...]

Making B2B marketing work, Marcoms

A B2B message from The Man in the Chair

It might be hard to believe, but the print ad below is 50 years old.
Promoting the business, professional and technical magazines published by McGraw Hill, the message is as fresh and relevant today as it was fifty years ago: sales start before your salesman calls.
In July this year, the Business Marketing Association staged a ‘live’ version [...]

B2B buying motivators, B2B sales, Brands, Making B2B marketing work, Marcoms

B2B marcoms: using funnels to create relevance and accurate positioning

Developing marketing communications for relevance throughout the buying cycle
The graphic below is from a whitepaper by Tippit Inc and it illustrates the phased nature of the B2B buying process. It’s such an important graphic for marketers because it provides a roadmap for developing and positioning marcoms that are relevant for each phase in the buying process - ranging from initial awareness through [...]

B2B buying motivators, B2B sales, Making B2B marketing work, Marcoms

Re-positioning B2B brands: a quick case study

  

The leopard cannot change its spots

In other words, basic characteristics cannot be altered.
Oh, yes they can…
The spots on these ‘leopards’ were changed to fingerprints as part of brand re-positioning for clients demonstrating biometric-based access control solutions at Europe’s biggest corporate security show in 2006.
This was just part of a campaign to influence market perceptions [...]

B2B sales, Brands, Making B2B marketing work, Marcoms

Market reflections: managing B2B brand perceptions

What are ‘market reflections’ and why do they matter?
Think of the brand as a reflection of your company in a mirror. You hold the brand up to this mirror and it reflects everything the company represents in the market. You don’t see the brand staring back at you, you see what the market sees.
When an end-user [...]

B2B sales, Brands, Marcoms