WOW! 45% of Marketers Report Lacking an Effective Marketing Strategy

by Mary Coombs on July 30,2014

According to an article in MarketingProfs, by Ayaz Nanji, entitled  2014 Marketing Automation  Benchmarks and Trends, nearly 45% of global marketers report that lacking an effective strategy hampered their marketing efforts ...and these are people who already have marketing automation. This statistic is astounding to me!

Isn't the job of global marketing to create and implement an effective ...

Fifteen Signs your Marketing Strategy May Need Professional Help

by Katie Coombs on July 23,2014

If your marketing strategy is impacted by one or more of these phenomena, it may be time to seek professional help!

5 Ways to Create an Alignment Between Marketing and Sales

by Mary Coombs on July 19,2014

To achieve alignment, you need an agreement. Sales and Marketing are on the same team. Okay, let’s be 8ceb4538-729f-46f1-9932-2c56f0189fa5honest: At most companies, it doesn’t actually feel that way. According to a Corporate Executive Board study, 87% of the terms Sales and Marketing use to describe each other are negative. According to our own research, 59% of marketers admit that they have no formal agreement with sales to determine both teams’ responsibilities, so it’s no wonder that sales and marketing alignment isn’t happening.

Figuring out how to unify sales and marketing isn't easy. But once you figure out the basics, you've opened the doors to tremendous opportunities for growth and learning.

Why your marketing should generate more qualified online leads.

by Mike Coombs on July 17,2014

The marketing strategy blog post I probably shouldn't write.

For small and medium sized business...

Lots of firms do not have a clear, bottom line focused marketing strategy for qualified online leads.

(Despite the fact they could win on the web!)

2 Things Profitable Sales & Marketing Professionals May Want to Know

by Mike Coombs on July 11,2014

A couple of recent personal experiences have generated this post. Here are my two main points that sales and marketing people in small-to-medium size businesses may not know:    

You can sell with social media.

(If you know what you are doing.) 

That’s not the conventional wisdom of a lot of sales and marketing professionals (for good reason). And...

What's the Future of Social Selling?

by Mary Coombs on July 8,2014

As SocialSteve wrote in his blog post, Time To Rethink Social Media, “Facebook is changing the way it treats brand’s posts and their distribution (or lack thereof)."  You really can’t blame Facebook. Free business advertising doesn’t make for a sustainable business model, and I believe their shareholders would agree. So pony up some dough or don’t bother with a Facebook page for business.

So where does that leave social selling? My money is (and always has been) on LinkedIn!  And here's why...