I missed a message from a client a few days back. Thankfully it wasn’t urgent, but it led me to question whether we are benefiting or being besieged by the multiplicity of ways we can be reached nowadays. The client had sent me a note via WhatsApp, but the fact that I hadn’t seen it […]
Category: B2B strategy
B2B marketing is a fiendishly complex puzzle: here’s how to solve it
It’s been said that if consumer marketing is a game of draughts, then by comparison B2B marketing is 3D chess. That’s because B2B marketers have to overcome a myriad of complex challenges that consumer marketers rarely face: The decision-making process is infinitely more complex for a business compared to a consumer B2B marketers have a number […]
How creating an emotional reason to purchase can trump a rational one
Insurance is dull, no matter how marketers try to dress it up. Renewing your annual insurance policy is a grind akin to queuing at the bank, or filling the car up with fuel. The less time you spend doing it the better. Indeed any time you spend doing it is resented. Yet once a year we are […]
How to get better, faster, cheaper work from your creative agency
Imagine a client that wants to launch a new product that helps cats sit on mats. The Marcomms Manager at the client briefs their agency. After two weeks of locking themselves away, the agency turns up at the Marcomms Manager’s doorstep and unveil their meisterwork concept. Visual: Cat sat on client’s mat. Headline: “The Cat Sat […]
How to crystallise your proposition
Your proposition is the single-sentence answer to the question: “Give me one good reason why I should buy your product”. Remember, you’re only allowed ONE reason. It’s the elevator speech for someone only going up one floor. That single sentence ideally should have only ONE verb and ONE adjective. Finding that one good reason is deceptively difficult. […]
“You say it best when you say nothing at all?”
In Professor Byron sharp’s recent piece in Campaign (“Why the best response to Covid-19 was to stop advertising”) the Prof rails against the endless hand-wringingly earnest advertising many big brands put out in the wake of Covid. In the article he is quoted as saying that it is “embarrassing arrogance” that marketers would think people were […]
A refocus on brand as a long-term sales driver
In recent times, CMOs (under pressure from their CFOs and CEOs) have increasingly – wrongly – shifted focus and budget away from long-term brand building, and towards short term growth through sales activation. In part this is because the impact of sales activation is easier to measure (e.g. PPC rates), increasing pressure for MQL volumes […]
Blockbuster B2B Marketing
Last year Peter Weinberg and Jon Lombardo at the LinkedIn B2B institute published their excellent “2030 – B2B Trends” report. Not every B2B marketer will have the time to work through every argument and nugget in the report’s 43 pages which is a shame as it’s closely packed with good advice. So with due deference to […]
The Death of B2B Hyper-targeting
Over the past few days I’ve been publishing my precis of the excellent LinkedIn B2B 2030 Trends white paper from Peter Weinberg & Jon Lombardo. Parts 1 and 2 can be found here (A Refocus on B2B Brand as a Long Term Sales Driver | LinkedIn) and here (Blockbusbuster B2B Marketing | LinkedIn). This is […]