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Published on Wednesday 17th of August 2011

What's Special This Coming September?

If this September is anything like the last one, a lot of organizations are going to be ramping up their B2B marketing efforts. Last year, when the end of summer came around, the search volume for business-to-business marketing in the United States started to increase, reaching its apex near the end of September. In Canada, we observed similar results, as you can see in the charts.

The summer months, in comparison, are much more relaxed. Many people take their vacations and put off major B2B marketing projects until the fall. This means the competition is lower at that time. But when this September comes around, what are you going to do to stay ahead?

The Slowdown and Marketing Strategy

The economy has experienced another slowdown this summer. Is it time to halt your B2B marketing? Make no mistake, this time it will be most challenging for the companies that target federal clients. Private businesses have mostly recovered since the last economic crisis. A good indication of this is a recently released report by Gartner: Quarterly IT Spending Forecast July 2011 that claims that dispite of the economic climate worldwide, IT spending forecast has been revised up from 5.6% to 7.1% quarter over quarter. That means no cutting back on B2B marketing and instead adopting an aggressive marketing strategy to get ahead.

A report published a few years ago by BMO Financial Group investigated how Canadian businesses were affected by the global economic recession. It indicated that the most successful and least impacted organizations all had few things in common: they were always seeking to expand into new markets and unknown markets; they were refocusing their customer bases and getting rid of non-core business; and they were not afraid to forego the familiar and embrace the risks that can ultimately lead to further success.

Therefore, use these times to go on the offensive. Ramp up your B2B marketing, introduce new products, and spend a lot of effort making sure they’re in your customers’ minds. By taking a weaker economy head on, not only can you plow through the tough times, but you are ideally poised for rapid growth the moment there is an upswing.

This coming September, your competitors might be considering all of the above. Don’t fall behind, call Direct Objective to grow your customer base and expand into less familiar B2B marketing tactics or strategies.

CATEGORIES:

B2B Marketing    Market Slowdown    Marketing Action Plan    B2B Marketing Strategies    

Published on Monday 6th of December 2010

The 5 Major Shifts of B2B 'New Marketing Evolution'

A very interesting 2010 is wrapping up, and the marketing industry is facing some major changes moving forward. 2010 was nowhere near as financially tough for many as 2009, but the recovery, while starting to show signs of hope, is still hampering firms. In response to the economic downtown, as well as new, emerging technologies, companies have undergone a major shift from the old marketing regime in a process we’ve coined New Marketing Evolution.

We’ve identified 5 major consequences of New Marketing Evolution to consider as we head into 2011.

1. The definition of marketing, transformed: During the last 2 years, the marketing industry has undergone a significant shift. The mindset of the potential clients has changed and if you or your company continue employing the old methods, you may quickly fall behind the curve. The key changes:

2. The competitive landscape is more spirited than ever, for three reasons: (A) the economic situation leads to less buying power, thus decreasing the number of potential consumers or clients, (B) a smaller world approach brings a lot of new competitors from international markets that were not present in our market before, and (C) the high pace of changes and the consolidation of technologies creates inherently new competitors, both direct and indirect. For example, the introduction of Apple's iPad imposed competition not only on eBook readers, but also on laptop, notebook, wireless phone, and portable entertainment devices. And in the first quarter of 2011, iPad will have its own breed of competitors; already, just two weeks ago, HP released the Slate.

3. Internal pressure to use fewer resources and deliver faster: Marketing budgets usually shrink or almost disappear in slow economies, but the need for good leads to fill your pipeline is still there. You just need to work harder with the limited resources you have in hand. Look again at the table above and notice how new B2B marketing strategies are designed for efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

4. The new marketer must master technology and create original content: While a lot of marketing is performed online nowadays, there are a hefty amount of tools that can be used to research, measure, and automate the marketing process. You need to learn them quickly, master them, and on top of that produce creative content. Here is the shift in the approach:

If you’re not producing creative, original content through a company blog, or a Twitter account, or a sales presentation, or any other part of your marketing campaign, then why should a client listen?

5. Delivery = ROI: After you’ve spent time developing and implementing a well-targeted, carefully-researched, meticulously-refined marketing solution, you’ve only just begun. It is not enough to just spend time on delivering marketing activity; you must listen to your target audience, collect and analyze marketing results, deduct what the return on investment is and how it can be improved for future marketing activity.

Marketing Evolution may have created a more competitive and constantly changing environment, but it has opened the door for customization, unique interpretation, inspiring interaction, and creativity. New technologies and techniques allow new B2B marketing strategies to build closer relationships with clients than ever before. How your company evolves with New Marketing Evolution is up to you.

CATEGORIES:

Marketing Evolution    B2B Marketing    New Marketing Strategies    B2B Marketing Strategies