Marketing often gets a bad rap. It’s the first thing to go when times are tight, and the last function to get the attention it deserves. And yet, it’s one of the most vital functions for any business, large or small. One of my favourite sayings is “without marketing, you have no market.” No target…
At one time, company owners and executives considered marketing to be a luxury. Now it’s generally accepted that it’s an essential investment in the growth potential of your business. And, as with all investments, you need to see a return for your money. How do you identify which inbound marketing channels are most likely to…
I’ve blogged often enough about the value of niche marketing, having strong customer personas and targeting your prospects clearly. So it should come as no surprise to learn that one of the benefits of doing these things is that it puts you in the position to leverage the various stages of the customer’s buying cycle.…
With social media giving no signs of slowing as yet, B2B companies that don’t have a marketing plan that includes this aspect are probably losing out on more business than they realize. That doesn’t mean you should rush out and create profiles on every platform you can think of, however. For one thing, there are…
It’s one thing to know who your target audience is, and another thing entirely to reach them effectively. All the research in the world won’t help you to do that unless you apply it, and this is where so many companies go wrong. Certainly, you can identify your target market segments and create customer personas,…
These days branding is everything. It’s not only the branding of your company that is important, but a personal brand that carries significant weight can make a big difference to your profitability. Customers want to buy from someone real. Someone who knows what they are talking about, and who has an established reputation in the…
Corporate branding isn’t just for corporates. That’s the #1 mistake small businesses make—thinking of themselves as “small.” If you’re small, you’ll stay that way. Small clients, small contracts, small sales—and small profits. You get the picture. But when you want to build a 7-figure business, it’s important to win corporate clients that will work with…
Scalability is a term that’s very familiar for most companies in the technology world. We all understand how scalability applies to a network, a system or a process to enable expansion and contraction to meet the demands of the business. What’s less familiar for many IT professionals, however, is how scalability applies to the marketing…
One of the most important drivers of any inbound marketing program is the targeting of customers in various stages of the buying cycle. Or the sales funnel, or whatever you want to call it. But it’s different in the travel and tourism industry. Or is it? Not really. A couple of years ago, Google came up with…
Driving traffic is everything. Without it, your company is dead in the water. And although social media is a great way to build brand awareness and encourage conversation about your products and services, when it comes to driving traffic to B2B sites, research shows that fully 80% comes through search*, compared with less than 5%…