When it comes to your marketing, sometimes it’s important to stop doing what you’ve been doing. And start some new things. In the book Good to Great, Jim Collins says that great leaders are disciplined – they not only have a to-do list, but they also have a stop-doing list. Here are some marketing things to stop doing and some you should start.

What Marketing Things You Should Stop Doing

(Because doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity.)

1. Stop anything that doesn’t yield results.
2. Stop pay-per-click ads – your money could be better used elsewhere.
3. Stop paying for SEO (search engine optimization). Spend it on content.
4. Stop using proprietary platforms and technology for your website.
5. Stop running those ads/attending trade shows just because you always have.

What Marketing Things to Start Doing

1. Start understanding your customers – create marketing personas and use them.
2. Start tracking engagement of prospects and customers.
3. Start tracking conversions of prospects-to-customers.
4. Start becoming a part of the social media conversation.
5. Start creating great content, including a company blog and videos.

What’s on your marketing do and don’t lists?

Like many of you I’m enamored with Pinterest, but I can’t help but ask, “Can Pinterest benefit B2B Marketers?”

Pinterest is a social media site that allows members to create boards for images that they like. You can name the boards whatever you like, and assign them to a category from a list of pre-determined by Pinterest. Over time as you find images that you like, you pin the images to the appropriate board. Popular board categories are used for recipes, fashion, books, wedding planning and home decor.

I’m excited about the possibilities of Pinterest on a personal level. I have folders at home that I organize my ideas into, including books to read, places to go, recipes to try (that’s a large recipe box), home improvements, gardening, and things to buy (including fashions I like). The folders happened because I would tear out images of things and places I liked. Over time these accumulated and I wanted a place to put them.

The popular uses for Pinterest mentioned above are all consumer categories. So what uses might those of us who work in B2B Marketing have for Pinterest?

1. Use Pinterest for Collaborative Branding Exercises

hen we work with clients at New Incite, we sometimes go through a branding exercise to identify what images and concepts work for their industry, their customers, their employees. The client clips relevant images and pastes them on a board. Colors, concepts and styles bubble up from these boards – why not do them on Pinterest? When you create a board you have the option to invite other individuals to contribute to it; this is a great way to get virtual teams involved.

2. Market Research on Pinterest

Crowdsourcing is on the minds of marketing research experts. Pinterest would seem to lend itself to market research, especially since the adoption rate of Pinterest has been pretty fast. Pinterest was founded in December 2010 and was named as a top ten social media site by October 2011 with over ten million visits per week.

3. Pin Favorite Designs or Campaigns

Marketing experts could use Pinterest to display favorite campaigns and designs. These could illustrate your or your firm’s style, which could help a prospective client choose the right marketing partner. But, to comply with Pinterest’s etiquette criteria of not being self-promotional, you should not create boards that only display your designs. That might be tough for marketers, who are by nature self-promotional.

4. Event Image Collages on Pinterest

I like what Karlie Justus suggests in the Social Media B2B blog post 4 Reasons For B2B Marketers To Explore Pinterest – that you could use Pinterest for trade shows. Karlie recommended a board for best tips for trade shows. But what about taking it a step further and creating a board for each show or conference you’re involved in and making that collaborative? You could invite people to pin photos and “best images” to represent their memories of the show. This could be a great way to engage people you meet at a conference or trade show after the event and at the same time “crowdsource” the look and feel of the event for future marketing.

These are just a few ideas about how B2B Marketers can use and benefit from Pinterest. Feel free to comment below with more ideas!

It’s critical that qualified prospects find your business on the Internet. If you’re not getting found, you’re losing leads and potential revenues.

1. Your website uses outdated programming code.
2. Your website doesn’t have relevant content.
3. You use flash in your website.
4. You have too many big images in the wrong places.
5. Your images are not properly tagged.
6. You don’t have SEO metatags.
7. You don’t properly use headlines.
8. No one links to your website.
9. You are not connected to others on social media.
10. Your page URLs aren’t keyword rich.

If you own any of the ten reasons people don’t find you on the Internet, it might be time to update your website. At New Incite, we create cost-effective websites that include organic, white-hat search engine optimization (the kind that doesn’t get you de-listed by Google!) and great relevant content and images, that also allow you to maintain the content if you wish to moving forward. Contact us today to get a quote for updating your existing or creating a new website that will get your business found online!

Ask your customers for testimonials and recommendations on LinkedIn first. Then you can repurpose them for your print pieces such as one sheets and for your website.

In my opinion there is little reason to ask for testimonials outside of LinkedIn. I recommend that all my clients get recommendations on LinkedIn first. Here are some of the reasons why:

1. In order to get recommendations, you must be connected to your customers. (Please tell me you are connected to your customers!)
2. LinkedIn recommendations are viewed as more credible than others you provide on your print pieces and on your website, because they have to be entered into LinkedIn by the author, not by you.
3. By getting LinkedIn recommendations first, you can then pick and choose and repurpose (and edit) them as testimonials for other marketing pieces.
4. You need at least three recommendations to have a Linkedin profile that is 100% complete.

As always before starting to write on this topic, I Googled other current opinions. Here are some helpful resources:

Chris Brogan’s blog entry Elements of a Good LinkedIn Recommendation.

Liz Ryan’s Huffington Post Letters of Recommendation vs. LinkedIn Recommendations

LinkedIn’s video on recommendations (less than1 minute)

For more information about LinkedIn, please visit New Incite’s LinkedIn resource page, and contact us about our LinkedIn individual and company profile completion and optimization services.

There are several trends bubbling up to the top for B2B Marketing right now. If you’re not addressing or implementing them in the near future, you could get left behind by your buyers and your competition.

Online content is more important than ever in getting found on the Internet.

Now is the time to write articles, start blogging, create video, write whitepapers and eBooks, post slideshows and presentations. Not only should you write and post them, but you should share them and get your contacts buzzing about them. Google loves that.

New website programming languages make it easier to get found online.

Your legacy website may be holding you back from getting found on the Internet. If your site isn’t taking advantage of the latest website programming code and features, the search engines will have a more difficult time finding it. In old or legacy sites, the code is predominant or “heavy”, which makes it tough for search engines to find text, figure out what your site is about and index it for the right keywords and phrases.

Transparency and telling your story engages prospects and helps them trust you.

Do you believe that the less you tell your prospects the better? Have you left off your physical address because you don’t want to limit your audience? Do you have no employee photos and bios on your site? You must subscribe to the mushroom “keep them in the dark and feed them sh*t” approach to marketing. Let me tell you, in today’s world of total transparency and people who buy because they like your story – you are not establishing trust with your marketing presence.

Mobile shopping and buying will dominate marketing within the next few years.

When you update your website, make sure you include compatibility with mobile devices or a capability to create a mobile version or application. From what the marketing gurus are saying, you’re going to want to offer mobile sooner than you think.

So, B2B marketers, will you get left behind? Readers – feel free to add other trends that you think could put B2B Marketers in a position of getting left behind.

If you’re just getting started in blogging, it’s not easy to know the basic features you need to include in your blog. There is a lot of information on the Internet about how to blog and about blog features. This post is designed as a checklist for those of you getting started.

9 Basic Blog Features

Here are nine basic features you need in your blog (plus three options):

1. A blog name (the more creative, the better!)
2. The author’s photo (smiling of course)
3. Author name and a brief bio or About page (after reading a blog post, this is the 2nd thing visitors look for)
4. Blog categories that help visitors understand this blog’s content at a glance
5. Blog archives so a visitor can see by date how long the blog has existed and the volume of posts
6. A way to subscibe to the blog (typically an RSS feed). Feedburner seems to be a top choice.
7. A way to share the blog via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and more
8. A tag cloud which displays themes that the blog posts cover
9. Commenting. Most blog platforms such as WordPress and Blogger include this.

Optional - A blog logo (it’s great to brand the blog with a graphic or image, but not necessary from the start)

Optional - A unique URL that matches the blog name (you can host the blog right on your website which drives more traffic)

Optional -  Ways to follow, connect to or contact the author. If the blog author is on social networks, provide links to their profile.

What do other bloggers think about this list? Are there any other must-have blog features, in your opinion?

For help on blogging, social media, online (and offline) marketing,  please contact us via our website form or call author Jennifer Beever, New Incite, at 1-818-347-4248.

Over the years I’ve assembled a book of sample one sheets that I use to review with clients. With these 1-sheet samples I’ve been able to point out some of the “Do’s” and “Don’ts” of creating marketing one-pagers. The sample book has been a hit at the 1-sheet workshops that I help teach for ProVisors. Below are the one sheet do’s and don’ts:

One Sheet Do’s

Do be strategic. A one sheet or one pager isn’t just about copy, design and printing. What are you selling? How is it positioned against the competition? What is unique about it?

Do have a great headline. People buy based on emotions. Your one sheet headline can be an immediate emotional grabber to get their attention and get them to read more.

Do have some personality. Boring colors, conservative design, staid business copywriting, boring details about your product or service. SNORE! What’s your story? What makes me want to read this one sheet?

Do include testimonials. You can say whatever you want about your product or services. What really matters is what others say about it.

Do design with the Z in mind. (See my previous blog post about this, Do You Zee What I Zee?) People read ads and one sheets in a Z format, so have a great headline at the top, a scanable, easy-to-digest mid-section , and your call to action in the lower right corner.

Do use a professional designer. Look at samples from the designer. Talk to references. Make sure they are not churning out the same or similar designs every time – you want to stand out, not fade out along with everyone else.

Do include a call to action. If your one sheet just says what you do or simply describes a product with no call to action, ho-hum! What do you want the reader to do? Scan a QR code and view a custom landing page on their smart phone? Pick up the phone and call you? Go to your site to get the free whitepaper about a product or service? Ask them to do something and make it worth their while.

One Sheet Don’ts

Don’t use up all the space on the one-page. A little white space is a good thing. Too much text, graphics, bullets, and other stuff will turn off the reader.

Don’t use clip art for your one sheet images. I didn’t think you would. But don’t!

Don’t be text-heavy. People don’t read much anymore. They are inundated with information. You have seconds to get their attention and engage them with your message.

Don’t pose artificially for your photo. A nice haircut, nice clothes, a confident smile are good. Posing with your chin on your hands or your head tilted in a weird angle is not good.

Don’t use ubiquitous business photos for your 1-pager. The photo of the handshake (with no people attached). The photo of the courtroom columns. The photo of the gavel. What else – hourglasses, ostrich with head in sand, eyeglasses or pen on top of financial report. Been there done that!

Don’t try to say it all. Don’t include your past, present and future including who you were, who you want to be, your product or company’s entire history, every product detail or specification, where you got your degrees, what awards you’ve received, what associations you belong to, where you were born, etc. Focus on three things: 1.) what message will get people’s attention, 2.) what will get them interested in you, and 3.) what will get them to act on your call to action. By the way, your call to action may be for them to go to your website to get all those details you wanted to include on the one sheet!

Don’t leave your marketing one sheet on the shelf. Insert the one sheet in mailers. Take it to trade shows, conferences, and presentations. Include it with proposals and invoices. Make it a downloadable PDF from your website.

For more information on one-sheets and to see some sample one sheets at the end of the post, go to my previous blog entry, 5 Secrets of Creating Successful One Sheets. For help on your one sheet or more information about New Incite’s One Sheet production services, please contact us via our website form or call us at 1-818-347-4248.

Lead, follow or get out of the way. When it comes to your competition, if you’re spending too much time and energy watching the competition, you’re just following them. Or, at best, you’re looking laterally at business opportunities in an attempt to keep up.

In Good to Great, Jim Collins writes that great company leaders never talked about competitive strategy. They were not focused on what competitors were doing, but on getting the right people in the business and on excelling at their core competencies.

One way to lead in your marketplace is to know what your customers need that they can’t get now. Another way to lead is to stay ahead of opportunities for your business and your industry, because sometimes your customers don’t know what they need. They don’t know what they don’t know. It’s up to you to tell them.

W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne take this a step further in their book Blue Ocean Strategy. Companies that find their blue ocean of opportunity (bypassing the bloody red ocean of competition) can do so by looking at applying their product or service to non-customers. They may be able to gain new market share that competitors don’t have.

So don’t waste a lot of energy on the competition. Know where they are at and what they offer. But look to customers and even non-customers to expand your markets.

When it comes to your B2B online marketing, make no mistake. Headlines make a big difference. Here’s what CEOs and CMOs need to know.

On every website page or blog entry you have an opportunity to include headlines. Search engines like headlines, and the more keyword rich the better. Headlines are designated in HTML code as H1, H2, H3, up through H6.

Bad Online Headline Examples

All too often, headlines on webpages are omitted altogether or written poorly. For example, a home page may have no headlines at all. The About Us page may have a headline “About Our Services,” when it could say “About Our Printing Services” or “About Our Printing Services for Realtors.” Instead of “Why Hire Us?” a headline could say “Why Choose ABC Printing?”

Blog Post Headlines that Work

When it comes to blog posts that you share with your connections on social media, the post headline is even more important. It should contain some keywords and at the same time be interesting enough for people to click on the link and read the post. The post can include some interesting subheaders to break up the post text that include keywords as well. These subheaders make a post easier to read and more keyword rich for the search engines.

Headlines that include numbered lists seem to get the most click throughs and popularity. Looking at a list of  popular blog posts by Hubspot (a well-known marketing software company), 15 of 24 of Hubspot’s most popular recent blog posts have headlines that include numbered lists, such as:

• 5 Awesome Landing Page Lessons From Real Life Examples
• 5 Tools to Battle Social Media Content Overload
• 25 Eye-Popping Internet Marketing Statistics for 2012

Headlines that include in-the-news celebrity or politician’s names also get attention and are definitely examples of “gaming the system.” Again, Popshared.com’s list of popular Hubspot headlines shared this week on social media include:

• How a 9-Year Old Successfully Newsjacked the GOP Primary
• How You (and Rick Santorum) Can Fix a Damaged Search Reputation

For an additional resource on writing effective headlines, check out Copyblogger’s page How to Write Magnetic Headlines.

Your website and blog post headlines matter!

They make a difference in whether or not you are found online. For more information about great headlines or for help with your online marketing, please contact us at New Incite today.

Santorum photo from Flickr, Some rights reserved by Gage Skidmore.

Lady Gag photo from Flickr, Some rights reserved by TJ Sengel

B2B CMOs must break out of the marketing silo (ivory tower?) and lead, among other things. The way people buy has changed forever. That means new roles and challenges for CMOs.

Why? Marketing is now with “the people” (Read my previous post about “citizen marketing,” B2B Marketing Trends I’m Thankful For). Individuals are online posting their reviews and their opinions about brands, companies and people. Employees (sometimes without direction or guidlines from their employer or managers) are publishing content and connecting with customers and colleagues. It is up to CMOs to provide direction, guidelines, and much more.

CMO’s must be more proactive and responsive than ever, especially in the following areas:

1. Branding must be crystal clear. If the people don’t “get” your brand, how can they share it online?
2. Content is more important than ever. If content about your product or company doesn’t exist because you didn’t provide it, customers and employees may very well create their own. (See my post on this, What Do You Do When the Social Media Horse Has Left the Barn?)
3. Understanding, recommending (and sometimes using) technology is a must. Twitter, Hootsuite, Adobe AIR, Radian6, mobile and more – CMO’s have to be on top of the best opportunities to promote and monitor  their company and products or services online.
4. Results and information must be analyzed and interpreted, and the closer to the customer or prospect the better. Sure secondary market research is great, but nothing beats primary research – monitoring what your customers say, do (and think?) on a real-time basis. We can now do this, thanks to social media.
5. Leading by communicating the marketing strategy is critical. Again, without direction or content, your employees and customers will fill the void.

Below are some links to articles or studies that I found while pondering this topic. I hope you find them helpful. And, please comment – what do you think CMO’s need to do moving forward?

Forbes article The CMO Role: What A New Study Of Marketing Chiefs Suggests

The Executive Summary of the IBM Study on CMO Roles

Book by David Aaker, Spanning Silos – The New CEO Imperative (can’t wait to read this – such a critical topic)