The Marketing Maven: Industrial Marketing Blog & B2B Marketing Tips

Planning for 2010: Common Marketing Mistakes and How to Fix Them

2009-11-18T11:34:59-05:00

By now you should be deep into your marketing planning for next year. If you don’t yet have a strategy for 2010 and a marketing plan being developed around it, you’re already making one of the biggest marketing mistakes by moving into the year ahead without a plan. You need to get started now. Otherwise, you will likely fall behind competitors who are moving forward, be forced to make hurried decisions without the support of good data, and waste precious marketing dollars on ineffective programs. To prevent this gloomy situation and put your company in a position to start out strong in the year ahead, here are some common mistakes to avoid when planning for 2010—and how to fix them.

Five Tips for Better Lead Management

2009-11-16T09:14:08-05:00

One of marketing’s biggest mandates is to generate sales leads, and often a large percentage of the marketing budget is allocated to this task. But no matter how good a job marketing does on the lead generation side, and no matter how qualified the leads are, the ultimate value of sales leads is determined by your company’s ability to manage them through the marketing and sales process—and convert them into satisfied customers. Follow these five tips to increase the number of leads you turn into sales and the number of qualified leads you generate.

What You Need to Know About Social Media — Part II

2009-11-10T15:37:07-05:00

Last month, in Part I of this two-part article series, the Marketing Maven introduced social media and its relevance to the industrial marketer—the what, why, how and when of using social media to support B2B marketing efforts. You can read the article here. This month, we delve into the most popular social media tools for B2B: Blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Our angle is pragmatic, focusing on what each tool is, and why you might want to use it. As for getting started with any of these tools, it’s simple: just visit their Web sites and establish free accounts.

Complimentary Webinar: Preparing Your Company for Success in 2010

2009-11-04T16:29:17-05:00

In challenging times, many companies are unable to increase their marketing investments or are forced to cut marketing spending. The important question to ask during a downturn isn't whether the economy will recover - it always does. But will your...

Federal TAA Program Can Help Manufacturers Recover From Tough Times

2009-11-02T08:45:11-05:00

There’s no arguing that it’s been a difficult year for manufacturing. Few companies have managed to avoid some sort of decline in business. The good news is there is help available in the form of the Trade Adjustment Association for...

What You Need to Know About Social Media—Part 1

2009-10-26T10:04:56-04:00

As if you weren’t busy enough and resource stretched, now there’s this buzz about using social media as a B2B marketing tool. Many companies are starting to experiment with social media to gain a greater understanding of how it can be integrated into their overall marketing strategy to support marketing goals and objectives.

2010 Marketing Planning Tools

2009-10-21T12:00:20-04:00

Marketers face a particular challenge in planning for 2010: the economy is on the verge of recovering, yet your budget for 2010 may be in flux. The challenge is that you cannot control the economy and you may not be able to establish a fixed budget at this point. But you can control how you plan for 2010 and in doing so put yourself in a position to surge when the economy begins to grow again. Now is the time to make sure you understand recent changes in the industrial sector marketing climate, evaluate your current marketing programs, and put in place the most effective strategies for 2010—whatever your budget might be or what the economy does.

Learn The Facts Behind Third-Party Traffic Estimation

2009-10-21T11:37:16-04:00

When planning marketing programs, industrial marketers want to know what the statistics are behind a proposed online marketing program. However, to comprehend what these statistics really mean, a marketer must understand a few key components about how these statistics are...

10 Low-Cost Tactics to Market Your Business

2009-10-15T14:58:51-04:00

With many budgets getting crunched, marketers may need to pay special attention to low-cost marketing tactics that can help their companies. Many of these ideas can be implemented using your current resources and some extra elbow grease in the form of time and hard work. And they can all help raise the visibility of your company and make your overall marketing more effective.

B2B Marketing Summit Presentation: Lead Generation Success

2009-10-08T15:28:13-04:00

Earlier this week GlobalSpec's Chris Chariton, Vice President of marketing services and product management, and lead management consultant Mac McIntosh presented at Marketing Sherpa's B2B Marketing Summit in Boston. The presentation was well received, and generated much interest. The slides...