Category: How to market systematically
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The future of marketing is unified data
For several years now, the most persuasive case studies in marketing innovation have been around unifying the company's view of the customer. Being able to see every message and interaction a customer has experienced is very challenging because it requires a system. Small companies have some advantage in having fewer people and data flows to…
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Traveling with our customers
Yesterday I spent hours researching a major prospect. I came up with a matrix of about 25 people who could have knowledge or input into the problem we solve. Getting from the people most troubled by the problem to the people capable of buying the solution will be a long and tricky journey. MathMarketing: The…
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How to start the ball rolling toward group behavior change
Business-to-business marketing is always about changing the behavior of several people at once. Getting a champion is great, but at some point, you have to precipitate a larger movement through the company. The legal and purchasing departments have to get on board. You have to arm your champion with the tools to realize big change.…
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How brands make conversation
I have a print of this Hugh MacLeod cube grenade on my office wall, but sometimes I have a really hard time starting a conversation with my prospects. Now I find that Noah Brier has developed a good system for creating what he calls an Interest Graph for brands. If you share my frustration and…
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The context of marketing today
The world wide web changed marketing forever. It didn't change human nature, but it certainly enabled behaviors seldom important before. Having a static web site isn't healthy for a business anymore. We have to think about the digital implications in everything we plan and do. I highly recommend this article by Bud Caddell, who recommends…
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Is there better data in the big data?
Who has been joined by where, when, why and how. Don't collect data indiscriminately. Instead, figure out what you could do for your customer when you know more. Then look for these types of data. 1. Who the customer is as a person: name and contact information. 2. Where your solution will be used… as…
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How to travel with your prospects
In general, businesses have to push back constantly against the tendency to be focused on a transaction. The job of managers is to make sure every transaction occurs for the right reason and supports better and more sustainable transactions. Forrester: B2B Marketers Have a Blind Spot, 2012-Jul-26, by Jeff Ernst You need to recognize that…
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Using systems to measure an ad’s like-ability
It turns out that Digg established, and Twitter and Tumblr are now using, systems that reward advertisers for creating ads their users like. Although like-ability is no guarantee of effectiveness, it's still valuable. We can't persuade someone who doesn't like us, and as David Ogilvy said "you can't bore people into buying your product." So I…
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Finding something to talk about, that’s a marketing job.
I love the "blogging is like jogging" quote below. Marketing has got to start pulling more and more practices from journalism, which is good because there are a lot of under-employed journalists. You can see what our local guys have been doing at the Lone Star Awards. The definition of "interesting" is "of interest to…
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You’re invited to Next-Level Networking, June 30, 9 a.m. in Houston
If in Houston, you're invited to join me at a $10 workshop called Next-Level Networking on Saturday, June 30 from 9 to 11 a.m. Connecting with other people at a gathering is usually challenging for all of us, and my friend Durwin Sharp has developed an approach and a tool that helps us get more…
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