Audience identification is the essential first step for all marketing and communications
The first step in any effective marketing or communications program is audience identification. Audience identification is the process of understanding an audience – their hopes, fears, motivations, influences, questions, problems and aspirations and the language they use to express all...Read More
Good Job! Complimenting Competitors in Marketing can Tip Sales in Your Favor [Research]
Research out the Fuqua School of Business involving 4,000 people finds complimenting competitors likely to tip buyers in your favor I’ve had many clients and former employers that were sensitive to any mention of the competition over the years. Among...Read More
Corporate Communications is Taking More PR Work In-House, finds Survey; Media Relations Gets Even Harder
Corporate communications departments are taking more work in-house. It’s a trend that mirrors similar patterns seen broadly in the marketing for the last several years, where CMOs have slashed agencies in favor of in-house teams. Some 47% of respondents said...Read More
The Competition and Industry Gets a Vote on Your Marketing
Situational awareness is a concept I first learned in the military. It’s the idea that most environments that warrant a military presence are fluid and dynamic. You can’t get so focused on what you’re trying to do – that you...Read More
Where and How B2B Marketing Generates Leads it Likes [Study]
Email remains a top channel for producing leads in B2B marketing, according to a survey data from a report by Chief Marketer titled Top B2B Lead Gen Trends. That’s no surprise perhaps for veteran marketers, but it’s the mix and...Read More
How to Get the B2B Marketing Persona Right [UML]
The term “buyer persona” has reached peak interest in the last five years, according to Google Trends. If B2B marketing isn’t careful with how these are sourced and created, then interest could plateau or decline. Personas ought not be viewed...Read More
The Buyer’s Journey and Why Content Marketing is a Thing
By the time a customer talks to sales, they are 90% through the buyer’s journey and close to a purchase decision; content marketing is more important than ever. In January 2013, I was licensed to skydive. For a variety of...Read More
5 Takeaways from a Study on Social Media Sales
by Frank Strong Some 40% of social media users have made purchases online, or in stores after interacting with content on social networks. This according to a study by the Vancouver-headquartered Vision Critical titled: How Social Media Drives Your Customers’...Read More
What If Warren Buffett had a YouTube Channel?
by Frank Strong Warren Buffett doesn’t have a YouTube channel. Or more accurately, his company Berkshire Hathaway, doesn’t have a YouTube channel. One might credibly argue, the holdings company, which has recently, if not oddly, gone on a strange buying...Read More
Market Research Mistake: Falling in Love with an Idea
In a perfect world, one grocer might have begun their market research with a null hypothesis: “The null hypothesis assumes that any kind of difference or significance you see in a set of data is due to chance.” Instead of setting out...Read More
