Five Signs of Hope in Marketing Land

Some people think Spring is the season of hope. I think it’s the season of mud and discovering, as the snow melts, that your neighbour’s large dog has added more fibre to its diet. The true season of hope for marketers is now: as the year winds down and a new budget, however inadequate, throws a come-hither look and invites us to have our way with it. Hope, while never a strategy, is at least a raw ingredient.

Of Dogs and Big Data
We have discussed the uncomfortable fact that our clients and prospects are not always truthful in their survey responses. This marvelous post from Mark Schaefer’s {Grow} blog takes this a step further with some great lessons for those of us staring at mountains of data without a clue what it all means. Also there are amusing photos of dressed-up dogs. By the way, if you don’t subscribe to {Grow}, you should.

Fun with Bankers
Those of us who labour away in Canada , held a muted celebration of our country’s 147^th birthday  last July, as it brought with it the long-dreaded anti-spam legislation that effectively silenced our little Eloqua engines. Yours truly headed back to the world of lumpy mail, but didn’t come up with anything nearly as clever as this campaign targeting senior bank execs from the always interesting minds at Earnest. Well done!

The Problem with Sales is it’s So Salesy
If 2015 is going to be a year of selling complicated stuff to small businesses, do yourself a giant favour and read this Marketing Sherpa post before you finalize your go-to-market plan.  It confirms what you probably already know, which is that sales people are not actually as helpful as they could be in educating prospects and helping them make good decisions.  Bring the chart to your next meeting with sales. Make a few copies.

Put This on Your Sucky Website To Do List
You doubtless have a long, long, long list of things you need to get done on your sucky website. I’m sure sales and that helpful lady in accounting have been quietly sending you all sorts of great ideas, broken links and videos they found on Facebook. But I would say a great place to start is where the money is: your ecommerce.  This post on B2B Marketing is a great overview of the Accenture study that tells us B2B buyers want a B2C experience when they purchase online. Go give them that in 2015.

Just Between Us Girls…
One of the dirtier secrets in B2B marketing is the glacial adoption of digital and the general lack of skill most of us have in the realm of pixel dust and optimization. I don’t know a lot of B2B marketers who aren’t quietly trying to figure this stuff out on the fly without tipping anyone off that they are actually not entirely sure what they’re doing. If that is you, go pour a big mug of cocoa, check out the infographic below (if you click you go to a much better version) and then download The Noob Guide to Online Marketing from Unbounce. It’s been around for a while, and you need to Tweet to get it, but it’s one of the best primers I’ve seen and I go back to it often, particularly when I’m trying to explain all that digital tosh to a Corporate Overlord. The little wheely thing quite blows their minds.

Unbounce – The DIY Landing Page Platform

BizMarketer is Elizabeth Williams
You can reach me at escwilliams@gmail.com
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