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Showing posts from August, 2020

Getting Started with Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a misused and misunderstood buzzword. Some think it means to call up a Kardashian, pay them a bunch of money, and get them to share an Instagram post about your product or service. While this is an example of influencer marketing, it is more of an outlier, especially for smaller businesses. Small businesses have much better options when it comes to influencer marketing. First, what is influencer marketing ? Here’s a good definition from the influencer marketing platform, Tapinfluence … Influencer marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on using key leaders to drive your brand’s message to the larger market. Rather than marketing directly to a large group of consumers, you instead inspire/hire/pay influencers to get out the word for you. This form of marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach and engage audiences not normally available to your business. Street Teams I play the drums and have a bunch of friends who have gone on tour. Do I re

How Agencies Can Improve Marketing Proposal Processes

As anyone who works in digital marketing will tell you, the vast majority of the proposals that you write will be rejected without you ever hearing back. This high failure to success rate can be very demoralizing, and you can end up feeling like you are flogging a dead horse by spending a large amount of your time putting together doomed proposal after doomed proposal. Improving your proposal uptake success rate is difficult as you will almost never receive feedback for why your proposals are so consistently failing to get the gig. First of all, let us take a brief look at why experts say that most marketing proposals end up falling on deaf ears. The most common marketing proposal writing sins Most unsuccessful marketing proposals are rejected out of hand for one or both of the following reasons, regardless of the viability of the ideas contained within them: 1. Failure to Captivate the Client’s Interest It is highly likely that cramming your proposal full of too much inform

COVID-19: What It Means for Your Marketing (Research and Reports)

It’s not post -pandemic, its intra -pandemic. We’re still in it, and the implications to marketing are long-reaching. One of the ongoing regimens we maintain at Convince and Convert is the continual review and analysis of research reports from dozens of sources. It’s part of what allows us to base our ideation and recommendations on data as opposed to just good ideas. It comes as no surprise this year, the annual glut of, “What new in [insert topic here] for 2020” articles and trend analysis were quickly rendered obsolete by early March. The majority of the data collection for all the year-end research reports happened in the third and fourth quarter of 2019 to capitalize on the typical New Year’s planning frenzy and publishing cycle. COVID-19 changed everything. Marketers were starting from scratch and all our  previous “norms” were tossed out the window,  whether we believed it or not. All those thoughtfully administered surveys, painstakingly analyzed, identifying the key ta

The 10 Best Marketing Strategies to Reach College Students

One of the best purchases I ever made was signing up for Spotify Premium in college. I even remember when it happened, in March 2014. I had just signed a job offer for after graduation and Spotify released premium pricing for students. It was beautifully serendipitous and we’ve been in a committed, monthly-fee relationship ever since. In fact, now I pay for a family plan and have gotten all my family members (and maybe some roommates) hooked on it. Moral of the story: if you market to college students early, they can become your most loyal customers. Look at Apple! The shiny-fruit company consistently gives discounts to college students, creating lifelong Mac users. If you’re not completely convinced that college students are a valuable market, here are some stats before we dive in… Why market to college students? College students are a huge demographic in the US, consisting mostly of 18 to 24-year-olds. These young adults have spending power: the 15M group spends more than $200B

Kaon Interactive Aims To Drive Engagement Through Visual Storytelling

Kaon Interactive , a 3D interactive sales and marketing engagement solutions provider, uses its High-Velocity Marketing Platform to effectively communicate a business’ value to their buyers, aiming to help marketing and sales teams create applications that deepen buyer engagement, reduce expenses and accelerate sales deals. Back-Of-The-Box Details The Kaon High-Velocity Marketing Platform is designed to provide users with the tools to create interactive applications that can be applied at any stage in the marketing and sales lifecycle. These applications aim to help marketers improve their messaging through immersive storytelling experiences that engage buyers with custom 3D product tours, videos, configurators and more. Marketers can elevate their buying discussions by providing their buyers with necessary product/service knowledge they need to make a purchasing decision. Who It's For The platform is designed for sales and marketing teams who need an immersive way to int

5 Case Studies on How to Optimize B2B Influencer Engagement on LinkedIn

With over 700 million community members in 200+ countries and territories, LinkedIn is without question the place for businesses to do business. With 91% of marketing executives using LinkedIn as a content source (SocialPilot) it's easy to understand why 94% of B2B marketers using LinkedIn to distribute content (CMI). In fact, there's been a 50% year over year increase in content shared on the LinkedIn platform (LinkedIn). With many social network options, LinkedIn has proven to be an effective choice for B2B marketers. A study from HubSpot showed that traffic from LinkedIn generates the highest visitor to lead conversion rate, 277% higher than Facebook and Twitter. While there are robust opportunities to connect with potential customers on LinkedIn, the platform is busier than ever, making it hard to stand out. There are also challenges in terms of reduced organic visibility and the trend towards distrust of sales outreach and what brands publish directly. With so much info

Sales Pipeline Radio, Episode 219: Q & A with Ashley Welch @Somersaultus

By Matt Heinz , President of Heinz Marketing If you’re not already subscribed to Sales Pipeline Radio , or listening live every Thursday at 11:30 a.m. Pacific you can find the transcription and recording here on the blog every Monday morning.  The show is less than 30 minutes, fast-paced and full of actionable advice, best practices and more for B2B sales & marketing professionals. We cover a wide range of topics, with a focus on sales development and inside sales priorities. You can subscribe right at Sales Pipeline Radio and/or listen to full recordings of past shows everywhere you listen to podcasts!  Spotify ,   iTunes ,  Blubrry , Google Play , iHeartRADIO , or Stitcher This week’s show is called “How Design Thinking Can Help You Sell More.”  Our guest is Ashley Welc h, Co-Founder of Somersault Innovation . Ashley starts us out with describing her business and tells us what design thinking means as it relates to effective sales teams. Somersault Innovation is a sales en