Frontline Perspectives

Most marketers know that having a database is important to their organization’s marketing efforts. But creating one, maintaining it and using it effectively are much easier said than done. To ensure you’re getting the most sales from your lead generation efforts, here are seven tactical things every marketer should do right now with their marketing database…followed by one piece of advice on strategy. Read more »

This question generally strikes fear (or anguish) into most of the marketers I talk with…because they don’t know what the competition has been doing. They know who the competition is, and once a year they might look at the list to think about market share as they prepare for a management meeting.  But regularly assessing what the competition is doing isn’t on the marketing radar at all. Read more »

I think every marketing person needs this written on a T-shirt to remind them what their customers are really thinking. Read more »

This is a little tale about the influences in my life and my choice to become a designer.

First off, neither of my parents are designers, but they both work with their hands, and have an acquired skill set and have taught me a lot about being creative. My mom was a hairdresser whose salon was a little place my dad built for her — yes, with his own hands. When I’d come home from school or on the weekends I would pop into the shop, say hello to the ladies and start sweeping up, washing hair and making tea. My parents taught me about humility, creativity, business and people skills. Read more »

…and hire a customer experience manager.

While this may sound like a play on words, it is a serious problem for many B2B companies today. Think about it: as you read this, your customer service team is down the hall answering calls and e-mails about orders, account issues, product problems, pricing questions, etc., right? Most customer service managers can tell me what percentage of their calls fall into each of these categories and how quickly the team can “resolve” these problems. Customer service is designed to react to each person who raises a hand with an issue. Read more »

As global sales continue to rise for most of our clients, the need to translate (and localize) has become increasingly important. It seems like a daunting and expensive venture. As with most marketing efforts, walking before you run will help you make the right decisions and keep information about your company’s solutions from getting lost in translation.

First, what do your international customers look like? It is not uncommon to find that the size of the company, the titles and functional responsibilities of decision maker(s), and the buying cycles are different from your customers in the U.S. You can’t effectively target new business without understanding who’s buying.

Read more »

Test different messages in ads to ensure a strong response.

Sponsoring an industry trade publication e-newsletter is an effective lead generation opportunity for many of our clients. In addition to being a good source of quality leads, this type of advertising opportunity can provide a lower cost method of reaching target niche markets.

First, look at the key industry publications that represent target markets. What online media options are available for the publication? Review the editorial calendar to understand the best timing options for the type of message that you are considering. What placement opportunities are available (header, side or in-line)? Read more »

Linking is a key component for a powerful Web site.

Linking is an extremely powerful component in developing a rich and relevant Web site. Current research indicates that the Google algorithms put as much or more weight on the quality and number of your inbound links as they do to the quality of your content.

Some things to keep in mind as you develop your linking strategy:

Choose sites that are relevant to the same keywords as your site. When these sites link to you, your site is a more powerful piece. For example, if you’re a medical equipment manufacturer, looking for sites that have content about medical equipment safety, repair, usage, design, etc., would make for strong link choices. Read more »

I’m getting ready for a week of vacation – to a family cabin with no internet connection (a blessing and a curse).  On this vacation, I’m taking two months of publications to catch up on (I’m a little behind). The stack is about 27 publications high. Read more »

Products and services can take a long time to develop.  No matter what, they always take longer than most of the team plans.  It’s easy to lose track of the details when your team has been up to their ears in engineering problems, QA issues, or legal discussions.

Here’s a list of some of the things we’ve seen get missed during countless launch plans with clients.  Don’t get caught without making sure these are done before your sales team hits the street. Read more »