The pitfalls of a growth goal as a business strategy Many companies decide they want to grow at one point or another. Here are a few things to watch out for. Proceed with caution. You can’t necessarily force growth to happen Seems obvious when I say it that directly, doesn’t
Social media for Scientists and Engineers We’ll focus on LinkedIn because it’s generally considered the B2B platform of choice, but much of this can apply to other social platforms as well. Why would I want to do anything with social media in the first place? Here are the two
How to Sell Engineering Services Opinions from an engineer Here are 8 of the most important things you need to do to sell engineering services: Keep the fluff away Start from where they are Build trust Engage people with a need Focus on LCV
Social media marketing for engineering companies Trying to use social media marketing for your engineering services or software development company? Check out this article before you go too deep. Why? Because: it’s really easy to spend a lot of time doing it poorly you might not pick
Digital marketing for sales support Digital marketing for supporting sales is very different than digital marketing for generating sales-ready leads. Sales support implies your sales team is already making initial connections with potential customers and they need supporting content to facilitate their process. Does your sales team feel like they’re
Building brand awareness with digital marketing Ever think that if you could just help people become more aware that your company exists, your sales team would have a way easier time selling? Then this article is for you. Focusing on building awareness of your company is a different animal
Navigating digital marketing efforts Every situation is a little bit different, but there are some core elements that you’ll probably want to make part of your digital marketing efforts. First and foremost, digital marketing is a team effort. The main players generally include: Marketing navigator, company leadership, sales, SMEs
Search marketing FAQ For small B2B services companies (e.g. software development, engineering). Can I do an SEO overhaul? Why can’t I just optimize for SEO and be done with it? This is a common misconception. As an outsider this makes sense (and you might be hearing things from
Content Marketing FAQ How do I know if content marketing makes sense for me? This is the single most important question for you to figure out for your business. Here are some indicators that would suggest content marketing makes more sense for you: The problems you solve with your products/services are
Inbound marketing vs outbound marketing – for B2B services These are two drastically different philosophies. There’s nothing preventing you from using both strategies at the same time. Be careful though, if you’re resource-limited on the marketing and sales side, there’s a good chance you’ll want to choose one as
Sales Leads for B2B services - FAQ This FAQ is focused on small (less than ~100 employees) companies that provide B2B services (e.g. software development, engineering, etc). What are the different categories of leads I should be thinking about? While there’s no universal precise definition for different types
Inbound marketing FAQ for B2B services Just starting to think about inbound marketing? Below are answers to some foundational questions. This FAQ is geared toward the B2B world (software development, engineering services, etc), but much of it applies generally as well. Why does inbound marketing fail?
The problem with marketing plans for small B2B companies If you run a smaller B2B services business (e.g. software development, engineering, etc), especially one with less than ~100 employees, you’re going to want to get real, quickly. You don’t have the energy, time, or money to waste that some
Pros and cons of content marketing For B2B services companies. Content marketing seeks to provide useful information, where the long term goal is to be so helpful that people trust you enough to want to do business with you. Pause. Re-read that first sentence. Content marketing has been
Tired of traditional sales methods? Inbound & content marketing might help Why? Content marketing: you may appreciate content marketing because it helps you be more useful and less annoying to your potential customers. Inbound marketing: you may like inbound because it totally flips the selling scenario around. Instead
Inbound Marketing – what's the risk of waiting to get started? My theory is that breaking into the top few spots on Google/Bing will become harder and harder over the next several years. This makes it harder for new companies to enter the market.Before we get too far, let's
Good reasons and bad reasons to overhaul your website For engineering & software development companies If you work for or run a small'ish (<100 employees) engineering or software dev company, you've probably already had a website for many years. There’s also a decent chance that your website
Pros and Cons of Inbound Marketing Inbound marketing is a method that focuses on trying to position yourself ahead of when someone (a potential customer or customer) has a need, so that when they do, they can find you. This approach primarily leverages search marketing and content marketing. There
Digital Marketing for IT services Marketing IT services is challenging. The sales cycle is long and complex, the sales price is high, and you’re selling services more so than products. Here’s what you want to keep in mind for digital marketing in your small/medium-sized IT company: You need to build
What data to capture in your CRM, and why - for marketing and sales It’s true, capturing data in your CRM isn’t the most fun thing to do in the world. In fact, it sucks. It’s tedious. So why do it at all? In one word: feedback. CRM
How to get started with digital marketing For engineering / tech companies Do you head up a mature company with lots of technical experience? (if you're heading up an early-stage company, you'll probably want to check out How to bootstrap your marketing instead) Are you getting
How to make digital marketing less frustrating Marketing can be very frustrating. Especially for those with an analytical mindset. Why? Because it involves a high degree of uncertainty, complex human behavior and partially-observable information. Marketing (especially for smaller, services-oriented companies) is way less deterministic than that of other
Selecting a marketing consultant What to look for and what to watch out for Quick poll - Vote to see how your peers voted Considering bringing on a marketing consultant? They're not all the same. You might be asking yourself: isn't there an inherent bias
Is Lead Generation Sales or Marketing? The short answer: lead generation is the responsibility of marketing. Usually. I say “usually” for 3 reasons: There’s fuzziness to the term “lead”. There’s at least one exception to the rule that comes to mind. There’s an is-ought problem that you might
Digital marketing for engineering companies A no-BS framework, tips, and insights about what's different for engineering companies. Many presidents / founders / CEOs don’t like the word “marketing”. It puts a bad taste in their mouth. I don’t blame them. I used to be an engineer, and
Why you need a niche for your engineering or software development services company, and what to do about it For Engineering Services, Software Development, and Industrial Automation Companies The main reason you need a niche: survival as a business. Your customers and the market as a
How should your marketing Actually help you as a Business Owner? As a business owner of a small-medium tech/engineering/manufacturing company, you’ve got a lot on your plate. You care about all aspects of the business. There are so many moving parts to make it all work together, from
How can marketing actually help salespeople? You (a salesperson) don’t value marketing. Why? Because marketing isn’t focused on the right things (they’re likely doing some of these things). So what should marketing be focused on to earn your respect as a salesperson? If you work for a B2B company with
Why your Marketing Machine is Broken This article applies to small B2B services companies with a complex sale (e.g. IT, engineering, software development companies). Some marketing sucks. Why? Because it’s ineffective. Let’s make sure we’re on the same page. Here’s what I think your marketing should
How do you determine the true value of a new customer? Want to really figure this out? Then get ready to live with some amount of uncertainty and some amount of qualitative value, not just quantitative. Lifetime Customer Value (LCV, or sometimes denoted as LTV or CLV) is
