Blue Spur
Read. Stay as long as you like. Visit often. For one-on-one help, just ask.
Prove Your Expertise
It's not enough to run a catchy add that says your an expert. When dealing with savvy business to business buyers, you need to prove it. Proving you're the expert involves information - Communicating your expertise to the world through white papers, e-books, and even newletters.
Succeed with Marketing Allies
Often, creating an effective marketing initiative within a company can be difficult. Care must be taken to insure that stakeholders in the management group understand and foster the attitudes necessary to support the initial expense and subsequent follow-through of the marketing effort. To do this, marketers must form key alliances within the company. Often, those with whom you need an alliance most are unwilling to spend the time and effort necessary to form that alliance.
A B2B Key to Establishing Expertise
A case study is really a story. A story about a company faced with a decision. The plot of the story is the circumstances leading up to the decision. The drama of the story is the fears and concerns of the main characters as they consider the consequences of their decision. The climax of the story is point of decision - the solution they decide to impliment. The resolution is the result of their decision - how it impacted the individuals and the company.
A well-developed case study has three components:
Cut Marketing to Grow Your Company? Huh?
Why is it that when times start to get rocky, companies that have finally started to show a little progress in their branding choose to cut marketing? I mean cut it off completely - pull the e-brake - bring all activities to a screeching halt. Is it just the easiest place to cut back? Do they really feel that cutting back on marketing activities will increase revenue? Will their sales force suddenly become more effective without on-going support from marketing?
My experience has been that companies who choose to cut marketing when times are bad, don't live to see better times. They begin a death spiral from which they never recover.
CMO Council Survey
According to Marketing Management, CMO Council findings revealed "only 10% of respondents to a recent survey said their marketing groups are 'highly influential and strategic' within the company."
What's the deal?
Isn't the marketing arm supposed to be the most influential and strategic department within a company? Isn't marketing where we look for customer knowledge, brand messaging, product development direction, sales messaging, product knowledge, market forecasts, competitive analysis, pricing strategy.... The list goes on. I know. I've spent the last decade and a half making sure all those things are being done correctly. And that's why I don't get it.
If only 10% of marketing groups are providing influence and strategy, what are the other 90% doing?
