On a recent conference call with a prospective client, the Vice President of Sales chimed in with a question: “How many touches do you think it takes before someone becomes a lead?” In the most diplomatic tone I could muster, I responded by stating that I didn’t think there was… Read More
Tag Archives: B2B Marketing
Infographic: 29 Tips to Improve B2B Email Campaign Performance
An email campaign that fails to perform up to expectations could be failing on any number of fronts. The list could be bad (in which case, no attempted “fix” of the email itself will make that much of a difference.) The offer could be uninspiring, or buried deep in the… Read More
Forrester thinks Content Marketing Isn’t Working – They’re Half Right
Over at Forrester Research, Vice President Laura Ramos recently talked to Advertising Age (“Marketers Still Struggling to Get Results from Content Marketing“) about what she perceives as a general lack of return from the investment so many companies are making in content marketing. It’s a fair characterization to say that… Read More
How the Answer to One Question Can Tell You How to Market Your Technology
One of the first questions I ask any prospective technology client is the following: “Imagine your product on a spectrum. At one end of that spectrum are commodity products – CRM, for example – people know these products exist, they understand the problem that the products solve, and they recognize… Read More
SiriusDecisions Thinks Websites Will Generate 71% of All B2B Sales Leads by 2015. I Disagree.
SiriusDecisions wrote an insightful article last week about the acquisition by Marketo of Insightera (a Web personalization platform), and included was the following projection: “By 2015, we expect to see 71 percent of b-to-b organizations’ new inquiries coming via the corporate Web site.” The point being made by the article’s… Read More
Marketing to the Person, Not the Business: The Critical Importance of Personal Value
Dave Brock wrote an excellent post recently (“I’ve Never Ever Sold a Computer or Piece of Software”) on what technology buyers really buy. His point (crudely distilled) is that while most of us believe that customers are buying our products and services, in fact what they’re really buying is more… Read More
Email Marketing 101: No-One Cares About Your Product
An effective email campaign has one goal and one goal only: getting the reader to respond. This means that, in order to succeed, every word of copy should be focused on selling the offer, i.e. the primary reason why any individual would want to respond. Unless your offer and product… Read More