Articles in the 'B2B Marketer' Category
10 Minutes to Better B2B Marketing
I was attending a fitness class at my health club this past weekend and the instructor was talking about how full the club was in early January and how many of the people were “New Year’s resolution” exercisers who would probably be absent within a month. He said that many people have noble intentions and set major goals, but they take an approach bound for failure, by overdoing it in the early stages – for example, exercising every day for
Five Questions Every B2B Marketer Needs to Ask – by Christopher Ryan
B2B Marketing is a tricky business with a lot of moving parts. To do it right, you need the answers to the appropriate questions. Here are five to get you started:
Is what you offer a commodity or a differentiated product or service? This is a critical question because it will determine how you must market to be successful. A differentiated product or service has advantages, but it must usually contend with a much smaller market niche. By contrast, a commodity
A Dose of Reality in B2B Marketing – by Christopher Ryan
Napoleon once remarked, “A general should consider himself successful if half of what he plans comes to pass.” This is not to say that you shouldn’t carefully plan. But the fact is that things don’t always turn out the way you plan (just ask Napoleon about a place called Waterloo). For example, the list is staler than you thought. The webinar topic is not as interesting. The offer is not as compelling. Your vendor misses the mailing or email date.
Don’t Major in the Minors of B2B Marketing – by Chris Ryan
One of the worst ways to spend your day as a B2B marketer is to “major in the minors.” By this, I mean spending your time on activities that have little or no impact on results.
As I write this, it is snowy in Colorado. There are three trucks in our company’s parking lot, scraping snow and sanding the pavement. They have been going at their business for at least an hour and I am impressed by how clean (and sandy)
10 Winning B2B Marketing Habits to Adopt in 2011 – Part Two
Last week, I talked about the first five winning habits you can adopt for more B2B marketing success in 2011. You can find that article here. Following are habits 6-10.
Habit 6: Work your social media plan. This is the year to really make social media work for your organization. If you haven’t already started in social media, now is the time to jump in. And if you are already swimming in social media waters, then this is the time to
Five Characteristics of a Good B2B Marketer by Christopher Ryan
A business colleague asked me what we looked for when recruiting new teammates at Fusion Marketing Partners. Since we pretty much confine our services to B2B marketing, the question could have been, “What are the characteristics of a good B2B marketer?” After taking a little time to think about this subject, here are my top five criteria:
Understands pull marketing. Most of our clients are doing some form of pull marketing. In other words, they want to use marketing techniques that
The Perils of Perfectionism in B2B Marketing
I just read an interesting blog post at BNET, titled, Perfectionism is a Disease, Here’s How to Beat It. I liked the post because this is a pet peeve of mind and the subject mirrored a chapter in my book (How to Create an Unstoppable Marketing and Sales Machine) where I pointed out the dangers of perfectionism.
Perfectionism is one of those issues where a person’s strongest quality can also be their most glaring weakness. Perfectionists often take their work and
Why B2B Marketers Should Focus on Lifetime Value
Too many B2B marketers have a shortsighted view about objectives. They may rightly be concerned with a campaign’s efficiency in generating leads or sales, and evaluate the results of each campaign in terms of the total amount of money spent and the short-term gain achieved.
By contrast, the successful marketer knows that marketing is a long-term process. He knows that the true value of each new sale is not just the immediate profit received; it is in the lifetime value of
B2B Marketing and Baseball – by Christopher Ryan
I’ve seen a number of blog posts and articles lately that use sports metaphors. I think this is true because sports is a common reference point for Americans. People who have no idea who their U.S. senator is or which ocean is on the west coast can name the Super Bowl MVP and they also know who won the World Series. So I got to thinking (always dangerous) about the many ways that B2B marketing is like baseball and some
Sales Lead Management: Are You a Victim of FTFU (Failure to Follow-Up)?
This post involves one of my pet peeves in marketing: the tendency of marketers to spend money and time to generate inquiries and then fail to follow-up (FTFU) on these inquiries. This failure can be fatal to the success of your sales lead management program.
Although it was for a low-ticket service, a recent personal example illustrates the point. I was looking for a guitar teacher to help take me to the next level. I jam with some very good musicians
