7 Common B2B Social Media Marketing Mistakes
Social Media has become a hot topic for marketers and currently much of the success is being seen in the B2C space. To help out my fellow B2B marketers, here is a list of 7 common mistakes that B2B marketers make when jumping feet first into social media marketing. Read more
The #1 Way to Improve Customer Loyalty and Satisfaction
I have stated many times that the role of marketing is to help our companies gain and keep customers. This is a unifying principle for both marketing and sales teams and should act as the starting point for all of our discussions. Next the question becomes- how do we do it? And who does which piece?
In B2B marketing organizations, the single most important way to keep customers is to build satisfaction and loyalty. The best way to get new customers is through positive referrals from existing customers. So, how do we build customer satisfaction and loyalty? By cultivating satisfied and engaged employees.
This is not my idea. It is not highly complex. It makes sense to anyone who hears it. Yet, how many of us measure it, take steps to improve it, and hold ourselves accountable for ensuring this feedback loop is active, constructive and ultimately effective?
5 Steps to Achieve Lead Generation ROI
While social media is the hottest topic in B2B marketing these days, we should not lose sight of why we are all here: to help our companies sell stuff. In this article I will argue for the importance of and the 5 steps to create marketing ROI through demand generation. Social media is hot mainly because it is new news to lots of folks in marketing and across our organizations that “the customer is indeed in charge”. Customers decide when and how to engage with us in the buying journey. Online lead generation is one of the best ways to identify customers early in the journey and produce a solid and predictable return on investment. Read more
Social Media and the Case for Marketing Optimism
Recently, I have read and participated in many conversations on the new optimism spreading through B2B Marketing organizations. In many ways, Social Media is simply another proof point of the power of customer-driven, inbound marketing. But now, we are seeing a whole new class of converts.
Push vs. Pull
The battle has raged within B2B Marketing departments since the dawn of the web: push vs. pull, traditional direct marketing vs. newer inbound techniques like search. The truth of course lies somewhere in the middle. A strong campaign includes a combination of both push and pull. For me, the strength of inbound marketing techniques lies in the power of giving up control to the customer. When we allow our prospects to tell us what words they use, where and how they search for solutions, what their pain points are, and when they are ready to engage, sales and pipeline opportunities appear- almost miraculously. Or at least predictably. Read more
The Objectives for the B2B Marketing Insider blog
Since I think it is important to set objectives, I am going to lay them out here. I realize my first blog posts are a bit self-indulgent but since I am only talking to myself and a few friends, I hope you will allow me these few introspections until I grow my followers and hopefully start to dispense pearls of wisdom that become widely shared across the web.
I also hope to lay these down publicly and will re-visit these objectives and report out to you how well I am doing.
Why am I in Marketing?
As I traveled the course of my career, often times in unexpected directions, I have found myself asking the question of why I do what I do. Since most of us have found ourselves in a position or a company that is not exactly on the path we imagined when we were younger, it makes sense to ponder what exactly has delivered us to the place we stand.
