Sean Parnell
New Product Development: Do You Feel Lucky?
It happened again. We’ve observed another software vendor that released a new product that has generated almost no sales
in the first year and which faces an increasingly grim outlook.
How
does a vendor with an otherwise successful track
record in their bread-and-butter market fail so miserably?
The answer is a lack of insight into both
channel and end-user requirements—insight that could be
obtained through primary market research.
We’ve seen this scenario play out time and time again, with millions wasted and many people fired. Two
instances come to mind where products were launched with no evidence of market or channel demand,
How to Drive ROI with ECM Marketing Strategy
“Marketing doesn’t work” – statement from a document imaging reseller to us in 2012.
He was 100% correct: marketing without a strategy, with poor execution and being disconnected with sales most certainly does not work – and this is the most common form of marketing that we’ve encountered.
So, what does work?
The Marketing ROI Formula
Based on our 16 years working in the ECM industry with over 50 companies, plus our 20 years of business-to-business (B2B) marketing experience, here’s what we’ve found to be a successful marketing formula:
- Marketing Strategy: creation of a comprehensive marketing plan that answers how marketing will achieve your lead generation,
Adobe Business Catalyst: Far Better than WordPress for B2B Small Business
Update: Adobe has announced the end of life for Adobe Business Catalyst as of March 25, 2021. Contact us to learn the best options to migrate your website.
As an Adobe Business Catalyst partner for over five years, I’m often asked why this web content management software (WCMS) is so effective for business-to-business (B2B) marketing for small and mid-sized (SMB) businesses. Having worked with WordPress for numerous years, as well as Joomla, Drupal, Modx, Umbraco, Miva, Adobe Muse, American Eagle, Ruby on Rails, Tridion, HubSpot, and good ol’ straight HTML, here’s why Adobe Business Catalyst continues to make so much sense for our clients and for us (this is an Adobe Business Catalyst website).
... Continue Reading >>Interview with Our Founder Sean Parnell
Our founder, Sean Parnell, was recently approached by a casting company seeking entrepreneurs in Chicago to take part in a commercial for a major credit card company. They asked some good questions, so we thought we’d share his answers. Enjoy…
Q: Tell us a little about yourself. What do you like to do for fun? Passions? Hobbies?
A: By night, many know me as Chicago’s historic bar expert by night: I wrote Historic Bars of Chicago and Created the Chicago Bar Project. By day, I run a marketing consulting agency that I founded 10 years ago. My wife is from Colombia, so we travel there often with our 7-year-old son.
... Continue Reading >>B2B Mystery Shopping Questions & Qualifications
Unless you have a monopoly, you face competition. So, what do your competitors charge for their products and services so you can compare their value proposition to yours?
Competitive Pricing
In business-to-business marketing, you probably won’t find your competitors’ price list on their websites. Even if they sell software or cloud solutions and do advertise their pricing, it’s often only a baseline: pricing for basic products or services without any customization or significant volume – and so they do not advertise their true pricing following bundling and negotiation.
If you’d like to find out how your competitors really price out their products and services, as well as insights about their selling process,
... Continue Reading >>What Goes Into B2B Marketing Blogging?
In order to turn blogging into a lead generating machine for our business-to-business (B2B) clients, a lot goes into every single blog post and web page that we create.
For the vast majority of our clients, weekly blogging can turn into gains of over $100,000 in new business per year.
Recipe for Success
Here’s the recipe for a successful B2B marketing and lead generation effort:
- We thoroughly research all relevant keywords (usually at least 700) and prioritize the top 1, 3, 10 keywords to focus all content generation, organic search and paid search initiatives
- We evaluate our client’s website to see how all existing content can be optimized so they get a lot more lead generation from what they already have,
How to Self-Administer an Adobe Business Catalyst Site
If you need to transfer the administration of your Adobe Business Catalyst (ABC) website to yourself, here’s how to do it.
1. Sign Up as an Adobe Business Catalyst partner
- Go to the ABC home page: http://www.businesscatalyst.com
- Click on “Partner Program” in the main menu and “Get Started for Free”
- Create an Adobe ID and click “Sign Up” (you are not charged to be a partner)
- You may need to use an email other than one designated as an admin email in your website’s ABC back-end
2. Create a Temporary Site & Obtain Your ABC Partner Code
- You will be prompted to create a new ABC website
- You will need to do this only to get past the initial screen and can delete this later
- Once in your partner portal,
B2B Marketing: 3 Components
Marketing can seem very complicated but it doesn’t have to be. Marketing is three things: strategy, inbound marketing and outbound marketing. Here they are explained along with critical success factors.
Strategy
Critical Success Factor: be holistic with goals – remember the 4 Ps of Marketing:
- Product/service Portfolio: have all your target market needs?
- Placement: channels strategy and referral sources, push vs. pull
- Pricing: cost plus vs. market based
- Promotions: get the word out (what most people think of as marketing but it’s only one “P”
Strategic vs. A La Carte B2B Marketing
If you realize that marketing your business powerfully can create a competitive advantage for you that generates higher levels of revenue and profitability than sales can do its own, then we congratulate you. You’re about to take a big step, especially if you understand that you can’t go it alone anymore.
To select a marketing company that is best suited for you, there are two primary options: an à la carte vendor or a strategic marketing partner.
À La Carte B2B Marketing
Some businesses prefer to purchase marketing services just as they would purchase office supplies. Maybe it’s a website, a brochure or a series of blog posts. They want a specialist: a web designer,
... Continue Reading >>Website Strategy: Performance vs. Design
Are You Satisfied with How Your Website Performs?
B2B buyers today spend a great deal of time educating themselves about a business issue and possible solutions. When a visitor lands on your site (if they can find it), you’ve only a few seconds to convey that your product or service is relevant and your company is an authority. If you do, you will generate quality sales leads. If you don’t, you’ll never make it to the shortlist.
It All Starts with Strategy
A website that delivers quality leads, a healthy conversion rate and increased sales, begins with strategic planning.
To perform, your website needs to go beyond looking good and being easy to navigate to making it possible to accomplish your business goals,
... Continue Reading >>