B2B Marketing Blog
July 2009 Archives

Why emails need to be professionally written

July 27, 2009 9:48 AM | By Richard Bush
The email I received from Yahoo today is a good example of how not to write one. (You’ll see it at the end of my post): I had to read almost every paragraph at least twice to understand it and even then I was confused whether they were doing this for my benefit or for their own benefit...
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U-shaped long flat bottom gets its confidence

July 22, 2009 11:27 AM | By Richard Lloyd
I’m in the mood for dancing. Yes the Nolan Sisters are back and my U-shaped recession prediction with a long flat bottom (well sort of prediction) wasn’t far wrong.  However, using the replacement of an anticipated, but sadly lacking Smiths reunion, with a coming together of the sibling kind isn’t probably the most accurate way to proclaim that maybe the worst is over. But, like The Nolans, B2B marketing is looking like it’s got its confidence back.How is it for you? What are you finding? More than seven months ago I posed the question: are we more creative when times...
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Why branding gives marketing a bad name

July 21, 2009 11:35 AM | By Joel Harrison
About ten years ago, when B2B Marketing wasn’t even a germ of an idea, I had a conversation with a close friend about branding that is vividly etched in my memory. My friend worked for a global audit firm that had just proudly unveiled its new identity to staff. To say he thought the whole thing was a bit of a waste of money would be the understatement of the century. “All they’ve done is simplify the name, put it lower case and add a full stop at the end,” he said, completely incredulous. “And for that they got paid...
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Data Q&A: CRM

July 17, 2009 3:18 PM | By Meg de Jong
Do modern CRM systems help or hinder the process of managing marketing data? What steps should marketers take to ensure they maximise the potential benefits and minimise the disadvantages?...
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Take control and don't take no for an answer - you own the shop

July 15, 2009 10:22 AM | By Stuart Small
I was recently chatting to a marketing manager who works with a major US owned corporate. They realised that their UK site could be vastly improved. They suffered from high bounce rates (users immediately exiting their site back from a home or landing page, low conversions, dead-end links, etc, etc). However any changes they requested on the site, however small, required approval from an HQ Communications team in the US, that took weeks and weeks to execute and often involved several sign offs.Now imagine a general manager of a UK shop who owned the P&L for the business. What if...
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Time to think different

July 8, 2009 10:32 AM | By Andrew Dalglish
The last 12 months have been defined by change. The foundations of our economic system are slowly being rebuilt, political power is shifting and accountability has become the keyword in all walks of life. The field of B2B marketing is no exception to this zeitgeist. Our change is based on the recognition that in economically difficult times the business goal becomes short-term survival – simply holding on until the sun shines again. For many this means a change of focus from strategic to shorter-term, tactical activity.So how does this relate to market research? Well, research is often seen as a...
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You can't beat getting up close and personal with clients

July 8, 2009 10:24 AM | By Scot McKee
Corporate hospitality. Is it going to flourish as companies try to secure the loyalty of their clients in the face of difficult economic conditions, or is it going to die as budgets are cut and redirected to the tried, tested and instantly measurable? I’ve never really been big on corporate hospitality. I don’t have the slightest idea how cricket works. I have a similar problem with the ‘Corporate Golf Days’. So either I’m not personable enough to be invited on corporate hospitality days or I avoid them because they get in the way of getting on with it. But that’s...
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