The Marketing Maven: Industrial Marketing Blog & B2B Marketing Tips

How to Make Marketing Work in a Challenging Economy

In a challenging economy, you must find new ways to make marketing work more effectively, get more out of marketing investments, and measure and account for marketing decisions. In short, you must make changes. Doing the same things in an uncertain environment and expecting the same results is a strategy headed for disappointment.

How can your company be one of those success stories that market and grow their business during challenging times? The following strategies will help you allocate marketing investments to better performing programs that will carry your company through uncertain times, and beyond.

Ten Tips for Using Media Mentions

Companies work hard to get press. The public relations professional is always busy: pitching story ideas to the media, cultivating relationships with editors, setting up interviews, writing articles, distributing press releases. In short, helping their company brand stand out, be unique, get noticed.

Do You Need an Online Marketing Agency?

Whether or not you currently work with a traditional marketing agency, you may want to consider retaining an agency with expertise in online marketing. With your customers and prospects using the Internet regularly for their work, your marketing mix should be shifting more to online programs. An online marketing agency can help ensure your investments are aligned with your objectives, and that you get positive results from online programs.

Marketer's Survival Guide for Tough Economic Times

If you are like most companies in the industrial space, you are concerned about the economy.  Your company is experiencing rising costs and your management is paying close attention to orders and wondering what 2008 will bring. 

From my past experiences working in manufacturing, when things get tight management starts to cut expenses.  Unfortunately marketing is often on the target list. 

So what's a marketer to do in the industrial space who might not be working in an environment where marketing's importance to the business is not entirely understood or appreciated?

Read our latest white paper:  Pragmatic Business Strategy - Nine Ways to Make Marketing Work in Challenging Times.  Don't wait till the CFO comes knocking looking to freeze or cut your budget.  Evaluate your current plan now and be prepared to demonstrate how you have the right marketing mix to take your company forward in uncertain times. 

Industrial Marketers Should Be Well Versed in Old and New Media

I attended the DMA B2B conference in Orlando last week.  One session I sat in on was given by Russell Kern entitled, "Turn Demand Generation Disasters into Epic Victories".  One thing Kern pointed out is that you've got classic direct marketing and new online marketing.  The principles are actually very similar but the langauge used around each is different.  Many of us in industrial B2B marketing have been around when voicemail was the great communication tool.  It was evident from some in attendance at the conference that B2B marketers still have some catching up to do on the new media side. 

The key for industrial marketers is to bridge between the old and new media.  And for most marketers it means learning more about the new tactics and terminology and how they can be leveraged for your business.  If you don't, you risk losing share for your company as online is where engineers and industrial buyers are spending their time for product discovery, evaluation and supplier research.  Read more about the media usage trends for your audience in GlobalSpec's Engineering Trends Survey Report.