Straight to the Point

Happy 2019! and How to Build a Collaborative Relationship Between Sales and Marketing

2019-01-29T17:35:00.000-05:00

New clients and expanding marketing budgets with existing clients are keeping us very busy this year.

One of our clients, RedSeal, offers a cybersecurity tool for increasing the digital resilience of networks. Two of their senior sales and marketing leaders, Kimberly Baker, Senior Vice President and GM, Public Sector, and Lauren Stauffer, Director Federal Partners and Marketing, were featured in Modern Marketing Today in an article called, Different Tactics, Same Goals: Building a Collaborative Relationship Between Sales and Marketing

Baker noted that a good working relationship between the two teams is not a function of size. Rather, it is a matter of a shared commitment to a single goal.

“Without a strong branding message that resonates with the marketplace, there isn’t much for sales to work with,” noted Baker.

“Marketing warms up the prospect base and then flows the prospect into the sales pipeline. These two parts are connected by a shared strategic plan and understanding of the outcome.”

Since we started working with RedSeal three plus years ago, the company has almost doubled their public sector revenue and have been selected as a Red Herring Top 100 Global company and Deloitte Technology Fast 500. Kimberly was also named a "FedScoop Top Women in Tech."

Let me know if you want to learn more about the program.

Here are a few articles that caught my eye over the past month or so:

20 expert predictions: Here’s what successful marketers will do in 2019, Marketing Land
So what can Apple do next?, Om Malik
Welcome to Voldemorting, the Ultimate SEO Dis, Wired
It’s Not What You Know, It’s How You Think, Zat Rana
From Alibaba to Zynga: 40 Of The Best VC Bets Of All Time And What We Can Learn From Them, CB Insights

If you want to talk about optimizing your 2019 marketing plan, email me and we'll schedule a free consultation.

Happy Holidays!

2018-12-18T17:38:00.000-05:00

Just a few working days before the end of the year and we are in the midst of another busy holiday season.

We wish everyone safe travels and best wishes.

Need a break from the holiday bustle, grab a coffee and read these five marketing articles:

Your 2019 Content Strategy: 5 Trends You Can’t Ignore, Convince and Convert
101 Lead Magnet Ideas to Skyrocket Your Email List, Entice
100 Case Study Interview Questions, HubSpot
HubSpot Wants to Stoke Innovation With $30M Corporate Venture Fund, Xconomy
The Surprising Power of The Long Game, Farnham Street

Fall Marketing Stories. Product Launches and New Clients.

2018-10-25T17:44:00.000-05:00

Fall in DC is my favorite time of year.

Football.

Lower humidity. Normal, comfortable temperatures.

Product launches and new clients.

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” — Albert Camus

All good things.

As per usual, take a quick break from your busy fall schedule and check out these articles:

Why big companies squander brilliant ideas, Tim Hartford
The Long Goodbye (To Facebook), Om Malik
Pivot to traditional: Direct-to-consumer brands sour on Facebook ads, DigiDay
LinkedIn Lead Generation: Definitive Guide (Updated 2018), Angelo Sorbello
Sunk Cost Sinks Ships, Medium

If you need help reaching your sales and marketing goals, email me and we'll schedule a free consultation.

Worldly Marketing Wisdom- What is the One Key to Marketing Success?

2018-09-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

So why am I sending you this newsletter?

My goal every day is to try and live up to the advice of Warren Buffet's business partner.

“Go to bed smarter than when you woke up.”
— Charlie Munger

I try to read as much as I can. About marketing. Sales. Design. Startups. Software. Business. Economics. Personal improvement.

Some of the things I read are crap and not worth sharing. Some, however are pretty good.

With that in mind, take a quick break and check out these articles:

What caught my eye in the past month?

Tesla, software and disruption, Benedict Evans
How the Blog Broke the Web, Amy Hoy
Building a Storybrand: The 7 Prospect Desires Your Business Depends On, MarTech
50 Split Testing Ideas (You Can Run Today!), Neil Patel
The Websites Of 35 Unicorn Startups Before They Became Billion-Dollar Companies, CB Insights

If your marketing plan isn't functioning as well as you'd like, email me and we'll schedule a free consultation.

Which news is more or less worthy of your trust?

2018-09-06T11:07:00.003-05:00

Once again, a good primer on how to determine which news is more or less worthy of your trust.

538: "When To Trust A Story That Uses Unnamed Sources"

Marketing Links for August

2018-08-14T17:52:00.000-05:00

This post will be short, as I'm sure most of you want skip over this part and click on links to five awesome marketing articles.

What caught my eye in the past month?

100+ Blog Post Title Templates That Grab Attention, TwelveSkip
How Long Should Your SaaS Software Trial Period Be?, Tomasz Tunguz
The Hyperfragmentation of Retail and Why the Biggest Winners are Digital Ad Platforms, not Microbrands, Namrata Patel
15 Mind-Blowing Stats About GDPR, CMO.com
Ultimate Cognitive Bias Survival Guide, Geek Wrapped

If your marketing plan isn't functioning as well as you'd like, email me and we'll schedule a free consultation.

World Cup Fever?

2018-07-10T13:12:00.003-05:00

The World Cup is the most watched sporting event in the world.

3.2 billion people (almost half of the world’s population) tuned in to watch four years ago in 2014.

The semi-finals are this Tuesday and Wednesday, so I'm sure that some of you will be sneaking out to watch or keeping track of the games on your phones or computers.

Before you run out of the office, read this month's top marketing articles:
The Compounding Returns of Content Marketing[100% Must Read], Tomasz Tunguz
Casper Marketing: How a Mattress Company Went from Zero to $750 Million in 4 Years (Case Study), SleekNote
The Amazing Psychology of Japanese Train Stations, City Lab
ClassPass’ Founder on How Marketplace Startups Can Achieve Product/Market Fit), First Round
You See What You Want To See, Of Dollars and Data

If your marketing plan isn't functioning as well as you'd like, email me and we'll schedule a quick call for a free consultation.

Almost Summer. Working on your tan? Then read these relaxing marketing articles and learn something new.

2018-06-20T09:18:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure if June qualifies as summer or not. Some people classify summer as July and August, but that seems a little short.

However you think about it, June is definitely the month to be outside as much as possible enjoying the sunshine and warm weather.

Are you on the beach working on your tan? Then read this month's relaxing must-read marketing articles:

Blogging a Comeback: How We Rebooted Our B2B Blog From 3K to 50K+ Organic Monthly Pageviews (and Growing) [100% Must Read], ClearVoice
Invisible asymptotes, Remains of the Day
Reality check: Americans are tuning out of TV, Axios
Does anyone care about your new product? (Doing market research with Google’s Keyword Tool), Andrew Chen
Memes That Kill: The Future Of Information Warfare, CB Insights

If you have a few marketing priorities that aren't getting enough attention, message me and we'll schedule a free consultation.

#TBT: British Telecom Social Media Case Study

2018-05-31T08:00:00.000-05:00

I've started to do some "Throw Back Thursday" (#TBT) type updates of old posts. This is a fun concept from Instagram and Facebook, and I thought I'd try it here.

This is one of my first case study blog posts back in 2010 while I was working with Strategic Communications Group. We did some of the first social media based campaigns and wanted to evangelize the concept with other technology and telecom companies.

____________________________________________

One of our goals as an agency in 2009 was to build up some compelling case studies on social media that we could share with our clients and our prospects. We’ve used social media to engage, educate, and entertain key audiences, and generate measurable results for a variety of customers. A few seemed to stand out as particularly good examples of how social media can be used to support a variety of business applications like lead generation, sales cycle support, customer service, employee morale, influencer/media relations, etc.

Almost two years ago, we started developing a pilot social media program for BT Americas. Working with their creative, innovative marketing team, we've executed a measurable, successful, strategically aligned campaign that's been recognized internally as an example of social media marketing excellence.

What do you think? I'd love hear your thoughts- leave a comment if you have a moment...

Situation
In the United States, British Telecom (BT) sells connectivity to Global 2000 companies. Connectivity is a commodity that prospects typically think about only when they need more—for example, when expanding facilities, whether domestically or in another country.

Goal
BT wanted to boost top-of-mind awareness, so when potential customers need to add telecom capacity, they consider BT. If not exclusively, then at least in addition to giant firms like AT&T and Verizon—which have far more advertising dollars to spend.

Solution
BT has a strong commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Knowing that virtually all of BT’s prospects have CSR programs, Strategic created a CSR blog where BT’s thought leaders can interact with like-minded people in other firms, including top-tier prospects. Through targeted social media interaction with key customers and prospects, building deeper relationships with customers like PepsiCo and Wal-Mart becomes a bit easier.

Results
CSR Perspective serves as a bridge, allowing BT’s field marketing force to stay in front of key prospects with shared values. A typical scenario: BT’s CSR executive reaches out through social media channels to counterparts at prospect’s organization and arranges a sales meeting with a prospect’s CSR exec and CFO. Thanks to relationships like these, when prospects need connectivity, BT is on the short list.

#TBT: Government Marketing in an Age of Social Media

2018-05-18T10:00:00.000-05:00

I've started to do some "Throw Back Thursday" (#TBT) type updates of old posts. This is a fun concept from Instagram and Facebook, and I thought I'd try it here.

This is one of my first blog posts back in 2007. Pretty terrible, no headline, etc.

Clearly, the impact of social media has changed from those early days.

...I recently moderated a panel discussion at a AMA-DC event in downtown DC entitled "Government Marketing in an Age of Social Media". The panelists (Jay McCargo, Toni Lee Rudnicki and Mark Root) were in general agreement that there has been minimal impact of "social media" among government marketers. However, all three agreed that web 2.0 marketing techniques will become more acceptable in time among the government contracting community.

This article in GCN backs this theory up: Web 2.0: Second verse, different than the first

Spring has Sprung...Finally.

2018-05-16T08:47:00.000-05:00

After the winter we have had, I'm heading outside to rebuild my Vitamin D stores.In the meantime, here are this month's five must-read marketing articles:

The Law of Shitty Clickthroughs, Andrew Chen
Why Winners Keep Winning. (hint: cumulative advantage), Nick Maggiulli
This Is The Most Valuable Commodity of the 21st Century, Inc.
Six Important Points About the State of B2B Content Marketing [Infographic], MarketingProfs
Divine Discontent: Disruption’s Antidote [100% Must Read], Strategery

If you have a few marketing priorities that aren't getting enough attention, email me and we'll schedule a quick call to review Honeycomb's capabilities.

Must-Read Marketing Articles for Your Spring Time Pleasure

2018-04-19T10:34:00.001-05:00

April Showers Mean More Must-Read Marketing Articles!Spring seems to have finally arrived.

Regular baseball games are being played and the NBA playoffs have started.

Am I going to pass along some great articles about how to make your marketing better, faster and more measurable?

You bet I am.

Take a few seconds and check out these excellent readings:

How Winners Really Differentiate, Andy Raskin
How To Systematically Reduce The Risk & Uncertainty Of New Ideas, Strategyzer
A Marketing Budget Example that Covers All Bases and Ensures ROI, Adhere
101 Sales Email Templates You Can Use Today To Close More Deals, Reddit Marketing
Humanity’s remarkable economic history, CapX

If you have a few marketing priorities that aren't getting enough attention, email me and we'll schedule a quick call to review Honeycomb's capabilities.

March Marketing Madness 2018

2018-03-20T09:42:00.001-05:00

Got your brackets filled out?

Should be an entertaining month of basketball with upsets, Cinderellas and, maybe, Virginia not winning it all.

A few years ago, Honeycomb client Ostrato asked us to create a fun video to celebrate the NCAA Tournament.

Click the image to watch...

After that video production, we helped Ostrato execute a "startup pivot" and rebranded the company as ParkMyCloud, which has been super successful, leading to high numbers of new clients and a new round of funding.

While you are watching your favorite teams and updating your brackets, take a few seconds and check out these articles:

Unilever CMO Keith Weed: Three things all marketers can do to eliminate ad fraud, Marketing Week
7 Mistakes You’ll Make in Marketing Performance, MarTech
Five Big Business Trends to Watch in 2018, Fortune
Google Tag Manager Checklist – 68 Ways To Prepare A Website, Reddit Marketing
Startups are cheaper to build, but more expensive to grow – here’s why, Andrew Chen

If you have a few marketing priorities that aren't getting enough attention, email me and we'll schedule a quick call to review Honeycomb's capabilities.

Fall is my favorite time of year.

2017-11-07T12:03:00.003-05:00

Football.

Lower humidity.

Normal, comfortable temperatures.

Product launches and new clients.

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”

— Albert Camus

All good things.

So, take a quick break from your busy fall schedule and check out these must-read marketing articles:

Flywheel Effect: Why Positive Feedback Loops are a Meta-Competitive Advantage, Medium
5 Hardest Things in Conversion Optimization, CXL
23 Free Blogging Tools That Will Make You a Better Blogger, Jeff Bullas
Uber's New CEO, Ben Thompson
The Ultimate Guide to Making Smart Decisions, Farnham Street

Fall of the Wall between Sales and Marketing?

2017-09-13T17:20:00.000-05:00

The relationship between sales and marketing is fraught with distrust and misunderstanding. Sales people are reluctant to share any information about their sales activity and funnel, while marketers are blindly messaging market segments without direct feedback from sales teams and their prospects.

This situation may be changing.

The deployment of powerful cloud based tools to sales teams, like Salesforce, and to marketing teams, like Hubspot, have allowed companies to break down these silos and foster trust and communication.

The opportunity now is to build a transparent data-based funnel from lead to close to referral and track how, where and when your sales and marketing dollars are working...and not.

Want to learn more about how Honeycomb works with our clients to build this kind of sales and marketing infrastructure? Email me to learn more.

What caught my eye in the past month?

How to Write Engaging B2B Headlines: Analysis of 10 Million Articles Shared on LinkedIn, BuzzSumo
How to Write Marketing Blogs Your Clients Will Actually Read, Jeff Bullas
5 Psychological Principles of High Converting Websites, KissMetrics
B2B marketing budget planning tips, FierceCMO
Learning to Learn: You, Too, Can Rewire Your Brain, The New York Times

Dog Days of Marketing?

2017-08-10T09:46:00.001-05:00

This month's Straight to the Point post will be short, as I'm sure most of you want skip over this part and click on links to five awesome marketing articles.

What caught my eye in the past month?

Flywheel Effect: Why Positive Feedback Loops are a Meta-Competitive Advantage, Medium
Study: Thursdays are best for email engagement, FierceCMO
10 Brilliant Examples of How to Open Your Blog Post With a Bang, Pollock
Hooks: An Intro on How to Manufacture Desire, Nir and Far
The Daily Routines of Famous Artists and Scholars, The Big Picture

If you have a question about marketing, the clients we work with, or the services that Honeycomb Consulting provides, just contact me here.

Why Read This Post?

2017-07-21T09:11:00.000-05:00

For the past 10-15 years, marketing has been undergoing a series of shifting changes in strategy, tactics, feel and tone.

As you know, the basics of human communication are eternal, but the methods by which we, the professional marketers, reach customers are constantly being tested, improved or discarded.

Keeping up to speed on the latest techniques is a challenge for all of us. The whole reason I started my newsletter, "Straight to the Point" six plus years ago, was to share the articles I felt were important for my fellow marketers and non-marketing business leaders to read.

Here are a few that caught my eye this week:

The Best Ways to Market Your Business on LinkedIn [Infographic], Social Media Today
Cognitive Bias Survival Guide: Manage the Mind to Make Better Decisions, Geek Wrapped
10 Brilliant Examples of How to Open Your Blog Post With a Bang, Pollock
Identifying top analytics talent in a competitive environment, Marketing Land
Words on Words: Books That Will Improve Your Writing, Gregory Ciotti

If you have a question about marketing, the clients we work with, or the services that Honeycomb provides, just email me at jeff@honeycomb-consulting.com.

New Honeycomb Website!

2017-06-12T17:06:00.000-05:00

As last, we finally updated and refreshed the Honeycomb Consulting website. Please take a look and share your thoughts and feedback. Greatly appreciated!

My first marketing projects back in the 1990s were hand coding and designing websites. The technologies available today make that process much easier, quicker and cheaper.

Here are a few client websites we've worked on over the last few years, in various capacities:

RedSeal- https://redseal.net
ParkMyCloud- http://www.parkmycloud.com/
Scarab- http://www.wearscarab.com/
Priveo- http://www.priveo.me

After checking out the new corporate site (www.honeycomb-consulting.com), spend a few minutes perusing these must read articles:

20 of the Best Website Homepage Design Examples, HubSpot
10 Brilliant Examples of How to Open Your Next Blog Post With a Bang, Michael Pollack
CMO audit series, Part 3: Media channels (it’s not what you think), MarTech Today
263 Self-Driving Car Startups to Watch, Comet Labs
How the Bitcoin protocol actually works, DDI

Drop me a line if you want to hear about our latest marketing projects or discuss your upcoming marketing priorities in the second half of the year.

Spring Has Sprung...Finally

2017-05-11T10:52:00.000-05:00

Sometimes it is hard to concentrate when the sun stays out longer and weather gets warmer.

Take a few minutes and check out these must read articles:

7 of the Best Mother's Day Ads We've Ever Seen, HubSpot
Intel, Mobileye, and Smiling Curves, Stratechery
7 steps to help you prepare for a marketing cloud/email service provider transition, MarTech Today
This Sales Plan Moves the Needle on Every Success Metric, First Round Review
The Four-Letter Code to Selling Just About Anything, The Atlantic

April Showers Mean More Must-Read Marketing Articles

2017-04-25T10:10:00.001-05:00

Spring seems to have finally arrived.

Regular baseball games are being played and the NBA playoffs have started.

Am I going to pass along some great articles about how to make your marketing better, faster and more measurable?

You bet I am.

Take a few seconds and check out these excellent readings:

68% of consumers prefer brands to communicate via email, Fierce CMO
How Google Analytics ruined marketing, Tech Crunch
19 content marketing ideas that aren’t blog posts, 500 Startups
Pivot Survival Tactics from Kabam's 3 Near-Death Triumphs, First Round Review
Words on Words: Books That Will Improve Your Writing, Gregory Ciotti

If you have a question about marketing, the clients we work with, or the services that Honeycomb provides, just send me an email.

March Marketing Madness- Got your brackets filled out?

2017-03-16T08:30:00.000-05:00

Got your brackets filled out?

Should be an entertaining month of basketball with upsets, Cinderellas and, maybe, Villanova winning it all.

A few years ago, Honeycomb client Ostrato just put out a fun video to celebrate the NCAA Tournament. Click the image to watch...

After that video production, we helped Ostrato execute a "startup pivot" and rebranded the company as ParkMyCloud, which has been super successful, leading to high numbers of new clients and a new round of funding.

In fact, ParkMyCloud is a finalist for DC Inno's DC Tech Madness bracket style startup competition. You can vote for them here and check out all of the other successful DC startups.

While your watching your favorite teams and updating your brackets, take a few seconds and check out these articles:

The Four-Letter Code to Selling Just About Anything, The Atlantic (Good background on “Most Advanced Yet Acceptable”)
7 Email Marketing Predictions for 2017, Campaign Monitor
5 Content Marketing Predictions for 2017, Convince and Convert
The Best Time to Send Emails (Here’s What Studies Show), Optin Monster
40 Things Every Startup Should Do To Scale Up, Inc42

Is February The Worst Month?

2017-02-23T15:08:00.003-05:00

Cold (-ish).

Dreary.

No football.

February isn't my favorite time of year.

But that doesn't mean I'm not reviewing the new marketing related content and passing along a few posts I like.

Take a couple of minutes and check out:

12 Best Practices For Writing Website Copy That Actually Converts, Reddit Marketing
5 Content Marketing Predictions for 2017, Covince and Convert
The Most Surefire Way I’ve Found to Win Enterprise Deals, First Round Review
The Best Time to Send Emails (Here’s What Studies Show), Optin Monster
5 tips for sending an email blast without getting blacklisted, Marketing Land

Happy Holidays!

2016-12-15T12:32:00.003-05:00

Getting closer and closer to 2017, and everyone starts to think about the year ahead.

Most of Honeycomb's clients have been planning and budgeting for months.

As far marketing predictions go, mine is easy: the more context there is, the higher the ROI.

The effectiveness of a generally oriented blog post or email is not-so-slowly dying. Being as relevant as possible to a prospect's, or customer's, current situation, even psychology, is becoming more and more important. Tracking opens and clicks are important, but measuring daily or weekly active users to ensure consistent engagement until conversion. Instead of just bringing you to this blog post, we should optimize it so that you engage, subscribe, share, and keep opening it up.

In the meantime, grab a cup of hot coffee and check out these must-read 2017 marketing predictions from other marketing experts:

6 Marketing Trends for 2017, Chief Marketer
5 Content Marketing Predictions for 2017, Convince and Convert
2017 Marketing Predictions You Won't Have Read Elsewhere, Marketing Tech News
6 Marketing Trends for 2017, Chief Marketer
60+ Content Marketing Predictions for a Successful 2017 [E-Book], Content Marketing Institute
7 Email Marketing Predictions for 2017, Campaign Monitor

November Marketing Links

2016-11-17T07:00:00.000-05:00

Heading into the last 45 days of the year, I'm starting to see more and more prediction articles for marketing in 2017.

While they are all important to read and take note of, let's not forget how many election day predictions we read...and we know how accurate they turned out.

Maybe next month I'll pass along a few predictions of my own.

As per usual, take a quick break from your busy fall schedule and check out these must-read marketing articles:

The importance of emotional mapping in B2B marketing, Fierce CMO
Inbound Marketing Effectiveness Report, Act-On
Maximizing User Adoption by Understanding Behavioral Economics for Startups, Startup Management
27 SaaS Products for the Marketing Department, David Cummings
Infographic: Cognitive Bias Codex (How many biases do you have?), Ritholtz

...And Fall

2016-10-04T16:17:00.003-05:00

Fall in DC is my favorite time of year.

Football.

Lower humidity.

Normal, comfortable temperatures.

Product launches and new clients.

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” — Albert Camus

All good things. Take a quick break from your busy fall schedule and check out these articles:

Poll: Executive responsibility for content marketing strategy growing, Fierce CMO
5 Growth Hacks to Supercharge your Invite or Referral System, SaaS Growth Strategies
Execs Create Thought Leadership Content to Stand Out, eMarketer
Study: Customer network effects can improve B2B data accuracy to over 95%, Fierce CMO
Infographic: Cognitive Bias Codex, Ritholtz