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Your Buyers Have Already Shortlisted You—Or They Haven't
Part 3 of our four-part series on the evolving AI search landscape and what B2B leaders need to know to stay competitive.
How to Right-Size your Marketing Budget and Get C-Suite Alignment – Part Two
Tue, Jul 7, 2020 — Part Two: Aligning Priorities and Spending with the CEO and CFO Part 1 of this article looked at best practices for determining optimal marketing spending levels. In part 2, we look at how marketing leaders need to align with the CEO and CFO on marketing spending priorities. To help answer this question, I’ve turned to marketing strategy and budget expert Peter Mahoney, CEO of Plannuh, Inc. Peter has decades of experience managing marketing teams, strategy and budgets, including managing a $150M annual budget at Nuance. Peter started Plannuh in 2017 to address the pain and suffering companies experience managing marketing budgets and plans with disconnected tools.
How to Right-Size your Marketing Budget and Get C-Suite Alignment
Tue, Jun 23, 2020 — Part One: Determining Optimal Spending Levels and Overcoming Key Challenges Marketing budgets make CEOs and CFOs uncomfortable. They often are large, have lots of complicated moving parts, and their impact can be hard to measure and attribute to marketing. Marketing budgets commonly range from low single digits to 15% of revenue (and even higher for companies undergoing rapid growth). And by the way, there is no one “right” benchmark for marketing budgets. In this two-part series, marketing strategy and budget expert Peter Mahoney and CMO Jeff Loeb will pull from their experience and share tips on right-sizing marketing budgets and preparing for challenges you may encounter.
Finding the Sweet Spot in B2B Markets
Fri, May 1, 2020 — Narrowing Focus to Drive Demand In a prior blog post, I discussed how a lack of market focus can lead to poor marketing campaign conversion rates.
Can Your Business Thrive Despite Changes in the Economy? Part 2
Wed, Feb 26, 2020 — Time to Hide or Double Down? Riding the 2020 Wave Establishing order in the midst of chaos can be most elusive, wouldn’t you agree? Just ask poor Chip Diller, the do-gooder ROTC cadet portrayed by Kevin Bacon in the seminal college movie classic, “Animal House.” Surrounded by fleeing masses in a parade gone wrong, and about to be bulldozed by a stampeding crowd, Diller thrusts out his hands and, gathering as much gravitas as possible, shouts, “Remain calm. All is well!” before he’s swarmed by the crowd and trampled into a facsimile of “Flat Stanley.”
Diversity Drives Innovation, Growth and the Bottom Line
Tue, Oct 22, 2019 — By Yvonne Brown and Tom McCrary Diversity is increasingly on our minds. Indeed, US census data indicates that our population is becoming more diverse, estimating that by 2042, whites will no longer be a majority of the population. An important business corollary—and a significant opportunity—is that diversity in an organization drives innovation, growth and bottom-line improvement.
Finding ‘Grand Slam’ Clients Using an Ideal Client Profile to Build Your Business
Mon, Oct 14, 2019 — A Practical Implementation Guide for Small- and Mid-Sized Business Executives Mark Coronna, Area Managing Partner & CMO, Chief Outsiders with Todd Eberhardt, CEO, Dynasty Leadership Consulting Somewhere in the historical development of Marketing language the concept of an Ideal Customer Profile emerged. You can find frequent discussion of this concept if you are reading marketing blogs today—it is definitely a “buzz” term, and legitimately so, if you understand the power of the concept and apply it to your customer acquisition programs. We’d like to discuss how to practically implement the concept of an Ideal Customer Profile and talk about why it’s important, as well as how it can dramatically impact your business, when applied to your Marketing and Sales programs.
Why a “Failure to Communicate” is a First Step to Going Out of Business
Wed, Sep 25, 2019 — What Business Execs Can Learn About the Power of Authentic Conversations Mark Coronna, Area Managing Partner & CMO, Chief Outsiders with Matt McKnight, President, McKnight Advisors If you’ve ever seen the Paul Newman movie Cool Hand Luke, you might remember the hard-boiled egg eating contest, but that’s another subject. The iconic line we all remember, after several failed attempts to bring Luke in line, is when the prison warden remarks, “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” Knowledge, open communications, as well as procrastination are highly linked to business performance. Having hands-on and personal real-time knowledge of what’s going on in your business is a challenge and having the confidence and willingness to do something about what you’ve learned is another.
The Millennial Food Shift: How CPG Food Companies Can Rescue Their Market
Wed, Aug 28, 2019 — Never before has the kitchen been so lifeless. For generations, the once-centerpiece of the American home has become much less important – marginalized by Millennials and younger generations who choose to order up their nourishment with a few silent taps of the cell phone rather than the clank of pots and pans. Seemingly overnight, this phase shift in eating habits has roiled the business models of food-oriented consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies. They can no longer count on being a key ingredient in the daily lives of today’s consumer. So how did this happen? And what can CPG companies—and the grocery stores that peddle their wares—do to regain mindshare in the public consciousness?
How to Generate Winning Results with PAC
Wed, Jun 19, 2019 — Most of us have heard of the Five P’s of Marketing (Product, Price, Promotion, Place and People) and how getting those right is essential for success. Certainly, all of these have a role and are important, but for small to mid-sized companies, experience shows that PAC is the biggest driver of success. These are: Product Audience Communications Executing well on PAC provides your business with focus and a market-informed approach. The PAC mindset creates a differentiated product and an activating message that reaches those most likely to buy. Consistent revenue and profit growth naturally follow.