B2B Marketing Blog

“About the only thing that comes to us without effort is old age.”
- noted cookbook author Gloria Pitzer

The best marketers may make their programs look effortless, but don’t be fooled. There is no such beast. Well planned, well executed strategic marketing is a lot of work. But then again, so is filing for bankruptcy, selling off your assets and shuttering your business - which is the alternative to putting in effort. Which makes me wonder why companies bother to invest in marketing activities and then put nearly zero effort into executing them. This is just throwing good money after bad.

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Day in and day out, public relations executives tackle tasks that clients never see. These are the calls, e-mails and research that get the job done, and get the job done well. Here at Schubert, I work with a diverse group of clients ranging from companies specializing in agriculture and biometrics to scientific instrumentation and steel fabrication. Each client brings its own challenges, and every so often, I find myself doing things I never imagined I’d do.

Today, I called the Pentagon.

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“No one plans to fail, they just fail to plan.” It’s one of the oldest clichés on the planet, it’s certainly one of the most time worn axioms in the business universe, but it’s as true today as it ever was. Need proof? Look at what happened to the U.S. Census Bureau when it failed to plan. Now, no one ever cited the government as a good role model for business, but there’s hardly a more textbook case to illustrate the need for planning, and nowhere is planning more important than in communications programs. (more…)

Amid my daily influx of spam and junk e-mail, this subject line stuck out to me like a nun at a Metallica concert. I recognized the sender — Toppers Spa — as a company whose messages I usually delete, even though I willfully subscribe to their e-mail blasts.

Maybe it’s because spring is officially here (according to the calendar anyway), or perhaps it’s because I’m in the middle of a busier than usual work week and subconsciously want a massage. Either way, something about “Spring is a time of renewal” made me open the e-mail and read about this week’s special spa packages.

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The questionable personal conduct of New York’s soon-to-be ex-governor is actually a great analogy for many companies’ PR practices: (more…)

Trade media has offset lost print ad revenue by offering advertisers more online opportunities including a growing number of sponsorships. One of the more popular offerings is “e-newsletter” sponsorships which target their circulation with guaranteed distribution numbers to advertisers. Typically the cost of these e-news letter sponsorships range between $2,500 to $6,000 or more depending on the size of the email blast and the profile of the audience. This cost is significantly higher than passive web advertising in the form of banner ads or print especially when considering the size of the “real-estate” the sponsor purchases in the email. (more…)

When our agency kicked off its blog last May, it seemed like anything and everything inspired me to blog. Current events, other blogs, articles and even just having conversations with my colleagues all made me feel like the forces of the universe were crying out for me to blog … and so I did my best to please them by participating on this blog and others. But for some reason, at the drop of a hat, I lost that momentum and electrifying urge to type away. I felt that way for several months. It begged me to wonder why I went from being so compelled to blog to feeling like there really wasn’t anything I had to say. And for people who know me… it’s very unusual for me to have nothing to say! Could it be bloggers fatigue? Nah. I think I’m too young for that … (more…)

According to “2008 Marketing Priorities and Plans,” the much-heralded report in BtoB Magazine’s December issue, marketing budgets are on their way up. The biggest winners in this marketing lottery are online/interactive media portals, which are likely cheering all the way to the bank (for more information about the online marketing tools poised for the most growth, see Brent Wilson’s post). BtoB marketers are cheering too, and with good reason; interactive media provides a wealth of engaging, innovative ways to reach customers, grow leads, and with the right follow-through, close sales.

I’m as excited to ride the interactive marketing wave as everyone else. As I read the survey summary, though, I was struck by the very last paragraph, which read in part, “The primary marketing goal for 2008 is customer acquisition, followed by brand awareness, customer retention, and other objectives.” That information wasn’t necessarily striking in and of itself, but the placement of the information within the report surprised me.

When did marketing’s actual goals become secondary to the tools used to achieve them? (more…)

“Signs Point to Yes”

Is widespread adoption of new media strategy and tactics really in the horizon for the B2B world? I don’t have a Magic 8-Ball anymore (I swear), but if I did … I’m pretty sure that the response I would see through its blue, bubbly liquid-filled peep hole would in fact be “Signs point to yes.” Why such the confidence? Well, I could easily make lists of reasons — but you are probably still caught-up on trying to figure out the fate of your own Magic 8-Ball, so I’ll stick to what peaked my interest today. (more…)

A recent survey published in e-marketer confirms what savvy marketers have known for years: Word of mouth is the most influential advertising. Buyers trust the opinions of people they know and respect. But where did the referring sources get the information on which their recommendation is based? Usually not on actual experience. (more…)