The AV Marketer

Marketing in the digital age is no easy task—and it’s only getting harder. Your customers are researching and self-educating online long before they want to hear from your sales team. And even people who are visiting your site stay largely anonymous. That leaves you without enough information about the personality and needs of your potential customers.

Many marketers think of their process as a funnel. You spend time and resources to attract a large group of potential customers at the top of your funnel, and then a much smaller group of people come out the bottom of the funnel as converted customers. Then you start again with a whole new group of people at the top, wash, rinse, repeat.
But the funnel model leaves out one key marketing reality. Unlike an actual funnel where what comes out the bottom has no impact on what goes into the top, the experience of customers at the bottom of your funnel can have a big impact on whether they come back—and whether they refer other people to your company.

For businesses focused on marketing themselves to other businesses, social media marketing might feel unnecessary or out of scope. Or maybe, since it’s a bit outside your normal tactics, you worry that your team doesn’t have the expertise to execute a social media marketing strategy successfully.

Well, do we have good news for you.

Not only can social media have a big impact on B2B marketing, it’s probably not as hard or time-consuming as you think. Here are five tips to maximize your business-to-business social media marketing efforts and grow your online presence.

Even in the digital age, there is value in meeting customers, clients, and prospects in person, and trade shows offer excellent opportunities. Even with more digital marketing tools available than ever, 30 percent of companies reported plans to increase their trade show marketing budget last year. The only way to get a return on that investment, though, is to have a solid plan going into your trade shows, including a digital marketing plan that will give you all the bang your buck has to offer. Here are three marketing strategies to get the most out of your trade show budget and experience.

In the workplace of just a generation ago, the Rolodex was about as advanced as client management got. For some people, old habits die hard (my mom still swears by her Rolodex, and it is embarrassing). For the rest of us, there are plenty of digital tools and automated workstreams to help you track and cash in on big opportunities.