Most companies view marketing as an expense item. In fact, we’ve seen a number of companies scale back on their marketing efforts to hire more sales people with great contact lists. That works until they have exhausted their network. Without a strong marketing program, your sales team is going to have limited reach.
That is where marketing kicks in. Marketing is all about extending your brand’s reach and paving the way for the sale.
Some manufacturers believe that inbound marketing for online lead generation does not work for complex, long lead-time products. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, inbound has been proven to actually shorten the sales cycle. We wrote about this in a recent blog post titled Manufacturing and Inbound Marketing – The New Power Couple.
Let’s take a look at a case study that generated great results.
That was my first reaction when I read the latest report titled “The Drive to Transform Powers a More Inclusive Buying Dynamic” from industry research firm IDG. This year’s report revealed that there are on average 21 individuals involved in a new enterprise technology purchase! Gulp.
Many companies don’t like the idea of entering into award competitions because they think it’s too self-promotional, expensive and/or time consuming. Some CXOs are skeptical and don’t believe awards matter but winning makes your company shine and sets it apart from your competition.
There are many marketing firms for hire however; hiring a marketing agency should not be taken lightly. The right agency can help find new customers by boosting your brand awareness and generating new leads. On the other hand, selecting the wrong team could end up being a big waste of money and resources.
To blog or not to blog, that is the question. There is so much hype about video marketing and misconceptions around blogs, many firms are reevaluating the value of blogging. The hype around blogging a few years ago created a misconception that you had to develop 3-4 blog posts per week to realize the benefits. Nothing could be further from the truth. For B2B companies, one longer form (600-1000 words) blog post per week can significantly boost your business.
In our business, we are part of product launch teams all the time. Well planned launches tend to meet expectations while poorly planned launches struggle to gain traction.
In this post, we are not talking about the customer-facing activities that can make or break a new product launch. We are focusing on what goes on internally, behind the scenes, that can sabotage even the best launch.
New technologies such as AI, analytics, machine learning, robotics, and the Internet of Things (IoT) - the hallmarks of Industry 4.0 - are fundamentally changing the manufacturing industry. These new technologies are essentially digitizing the entire industry.
“Our customers love us but they won’t talk.”
We hear this all the time but in many cases, this statement just isn’t true. Many organizations believe that Customer PR = Press Release but it is so much more than just a press release.
