BASICS EVERY BUSINESS SHOULD TACKLE


As part of Washington Business Tonight’s Consulting series, I was asked to talk about three common marketing mistakes that small to mid-sized businesses often make. These can be summed up by “Do, Reach, Say.”


Watch the interview here and let me know if you agree!

B2B companies under $2M in revenue don’t need to hire a marketing person, much less a Chief Marketing Office

This is a reprint of a post I wrote earlier this month as a guest blogger for the Entrepreneurial Execution Project run by Professors Waverly Deutsch and Craig Waitmann of the University of Chicago Booth School’s Polsky Entrepreneurial Center.

At the risk of being permanently shunned by my marketing peers, I want to go on record as saying that B2B companies under $2M in revenue don’t need a marketing person. A refugee from consumer packaged goods brand management, I’ve spent the last five years consulting to both B2B and B2C companies primarily in the $2M-$40M in revenue range. During that time, I’ve encountered plenty of fabulous start-ups under $2M in revenue, none of whom needed me. Yet.

Here’s why. When you start up what do you really need from a strategic marketing standpoint? You need a positioning strategy, which is the foundation of all good marketing. It lays out:
1. Why your product/service is notably different than what is currently in the marketplace.
2. Who your core target customer is.
3. Who your competition is. Read More -›

Words Aren’t The Only Way To Communicate To Your B2C Customers


Recently, one of our B2B clients decided to invest a significant part of their marketing budget to exhibit at the Licensing Expo in Las Vegas. The client is essentially an engineering company which produces a piece of equipment used to execute in-pack and on-pack consumer promotions, such as putting toys in cereal boxes.


As the team prepared for the show, we looked at the attendee list, as well as the vendors who would be located near our booth, like Hello Kitty and Dreamworks. We decided that changing the company’s original video of the actual equipment in action to better align with the show’s marketing orientation would be a solid investment, despite the additional cost.


We created an animated video of a whimsical machine putting toys in cereal boxes. This would be more in keeping with the tenor of the Licensing Expo, and also better highlighted the consumer aspect of the client’s value proposition.


The animated video helped draw attention to the booth during the show, and the client has since put the animation on its website’s homepage. An added bonus was that they have also created a screensaver from the animation that can be used by employees and also sent to customers.