12 Thought Leaders in Marketing that Permanently Changed My Life
This is me in Torbole, Lake Garda, Italy
I have made a big decision in my life. Well, it’s a big decision for me at least. Already for a couple of years I have been dreaming of creating my own company, and I finally made that decision.
My wife is calling me crazy, but I’m going to do it anyway. As of January 2014 I won’t be working for an employer anymore.
It wasn’t an easy decision. I mean, I live extremely close to work, I have a decent pay, and lot’s of extra’s. But I’m going to do it.
Why am I doing this? Because I got really, really passionate about something. Read more 
Are You Into Digital Marketing Patchwork ? Build a Digital Culture instead
This blog post gives you insight why fragmented digital marketing efforts are not giving the expected results. It explains how the C-suite must work together to build a digital culture, and create new opportunities.
Companies have been investing in digital, but in many cases as silo-run initiatives. By changing your company culture and leading the coordination of digital initiatives, companies can reap the benefits of digital to lead the competition.
Many companies have developed e-commerce, e-business, social and mobile strategies. These strategies usually haven been developed by business leaders out of fear, having seen the likes of Kodak, Barnes & Noble or Blockbuster fail to adapt the digital era.
Travel agencies, book stores, newspapers, and video renting are all industries that have been erased because of digital. Read more
The Shocking Truth about Sharing Company Secrets
A few days after I had trained some people about sharing on social media, I received an email from an account manager.
He was afraid we would be sharing too much details about what we do with customers. He was afraid we would give away to much information to competitors. And I heard the same remark of CEO’s holding back on press releases about customers wins because it could hurt the business.
This is an often heard dilemma: you make great new customers, you create fantastic webinars for customers, you do thought leadership speaking slots, and make customer cases. But by sharing this content publicly you are afraid you are providing valuable information to competitors. And that might hurt your business.
I do understand these reasons, I used to think the same. But companies that keep thinking like this will soon be gone. If you don’t want that, you’ll have to make a cultural shift to being open and authentic.
Let me explain you why… Read more
“You have to” versus “You Should” Marketing
Are you into “marketing patchwork” ?
You have to do social. You have to do mobile. You have to do content. You have to do inbound. You have to do digital. You have to do blogging. You have to do thought leadership. You have to do SEO. You have to do Apps. You have to do customer experience. You have to do context. You have to do community. You have to do gamification.
You have to be home on time.
You have to do Buyer Personas. You have to do brand journalism. You have to do opt-in. You have to do authenticity. You have to do collaboration. You have to do 1-1. You have to do collaboration. You have to do analytics. You have to do big-data. You have to do automation. You have to do Social CRM. Read more
5 Real Reasons Why CEOs Cut Your Marketing Budget
Digital disruptions are causing marketers to rethink their position within the company. The increasing expectations from customers, social media, mobile and globalization are giving organizations great opportunities, to those who are willing to change.
Many struggle with this change. Few have been able to position themselves to capture the real business benefits.
I think this change starts with strong leadership and a change of mindset. If you do not have that leadership and mindset, your CEO will keep cutting your budget. Here are 5 Misconceptions about Marketing, understood by those that will make the change, neglected by those of the past.
Budget cuts are yours by those who neglect. Read more
How to get started with Content Marketing in B2B? The Educated Approach
In order to be successful and rise above the clutter, serious B2B companies are starting to pay more and more attention to content marketing.
B2B companies devote large budgets to placing ads in industry publications or building large and expensive booths at trade shows. With marketing budgets under pressure, and with classic marketing techniques being less and less efficient, being found and being relevant to buyers has become the mantra of many marketers.
If content marketing is becoming critical to your company, it is time to start taking it seriously.
This blog post is not intended to give you a step-by-step detailed guide on how to do this. There are many great resources out there.
It does however try to guide you on what you should do before diving into developing your own content marketing strategy. Read more
A Motion to Kill Content Marketing
The word “content” in Content Marketing deserves more credit. Will you vote ? (image : Amsterdamnewspolitics)
Whenever I talk to fellow marketing managers about Content Marketing, I feel as if the word “content” in itself just kills the whole conversation.
When the word content is used, people think of text. They think of paper, copywriting, layout, online and print. Some are more informed, and know that content marketing is more than the output of content creators.
Content marketing is all about providing customers with answers to their questions. The format in which these answers are delivered to them is irrelevant. By providing these answers, you lift your brand to become a company that is seen as a go-to-resource for knowledge and insight. By providing these answers you become a trusted party to which they’ll turn to when they have a problem, a question, an opportunity.
And doing that, my friends, is scary stuff for marketers. Read more
Aligning Marketing and Sales Systems: Building the Right Foundations
Too busy to build foundations, Too busy because of the wrong foundations…
Many B2B companies haven’t integrated their marketing and sales systems.
You have tools for marketing planning, events, webinars, email, PR, marketing automation, websites, document management, CRM, ERP, … Your customer services department also has its own systems, also containing customer touchpoint data. And the finance department is also sitting on similar data.
The effect? Dispersed contact databases, standalone CRM implementations and Excel import-export nightmares. These situations are more the rule than the exception.
We all know we need to integrate these systems. But how do you move towards integrated systems, to the benefit of the business? Read more
The End of the Bling Bling Marketer
Every morning the bling bling marketer would go to work. He felt good, as in ‘on top of the world’. He really liked his job. Nice pay, nice colleagues, and he only lived like a few blocks from work. He’s married to his beautiful wife, and has two children, a boy and a girl. Just perfect.
Usually he would start his morning at the coffee machine chatting away, always with a big smile. You could really see he loved his job.
Designing a Sticky Marketing Funnel
Image : http://www.supergluecorp.com/
Sticky marketing funnels can fix marketing funnel deficiencies or broken funnels. They are designed to do that. But before I explain you how to do that, let me ask you a question.
How well do you understand your marketing funnel? I’m not sure if this is on your mind today. Maybe you’re just to busy. Busy creating ever more stuff. More marketing stuff. Because that’s what people expect from you. Because that’s what you’ve always been doing.
You consider what you do to be a good revenue contributor. And you feel good about it that they work. You might be great in attracting attention to what you have to offer. They might enjoy your marketing. They might like you, follow you, subscribe to you.
But do you “move” your buyers to consider to purchase your products? And how many do not considering you? Do you know why you didn’t move them to consider you? Read more
