Matt Rickman
Marketing Manager
@MattRickman
Today hundreds of people across the country were treated to a live online seminar featuring George Assimakopoulos (@GeorgeInDc), V.P., Penton Marketing Services and Geoff Livingston (@GeoffLiving), author and marketing strategist.
Penton Marketing Services has developed a six-part web seminar series, Today’s B2B Marketing Roadmap, based upon our tried and true marketing strategies that we implement for customers every day. Here are a few of the key points that came out of this session.
“Research is essential, but a lot of companies are leery for some reason,” Livingston said. “Some even go so far as to say they don’t believe in research. Not knowing your customers will blow up in your face”
Once you have your research - you really know what your customers need. Then you create the strategy and build the plan. Building the plan is where all of your research and strategy manifests structurally in items such as your website, content, marketing messages, SEO, search marketing, social media, etc.. Too often marketers skip the research and strategy steps and jump right into buliding the plan. (we don’t want things blowing up in our faces - do we?)
You have done your research, created your strategy and built your plan. Now it’s time to go-to-market.
“The first moments after a campaign or activity happens - is when you need to start monitoring,” Assimakopoulos said. “It is important to monitor at the beginning and throughout a campaign.”
Once you’ve gone to market your customers are listening to what you have to say. Engagement is a critical step in moving customers through the sales funnel. This is another area where marketers can fall into the bad trap of not listening to their customers.
If your message isn’t resonating with your customers, be prepared to adjust on the fly. (If you have done research properly, these should be small adjustments.)
If you’ve made it this far in the process you should start seeing new customers and new revenue.
The process doesn’t end here though - it’s cyclical and continuous. However by sticking to the process, and not cutting corners, you can assure that your company is top-of-mind when a buying decision is made.
This has been just a glimpse of some of the awesome marketing content that came out of this first session. If you would like to join in on the fun (or watch it again), click here to watch the first web seminar on-demand. We will also keep you informed of the upcoming seminars as well!
Be sure to check out Geoff Livingston and Gini Dietrich’s new book: Marketing In the Round. http://www.marketingintheround.com
Continue the conversation on twitter using the hashtag #roadmap, or send us a tweet on what you thought
@PentonMktg
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