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The professional services market is unique because not only do professionals provide services (instead of products), their services often require a complex sale.

What is Academic Marketing?

Cognition is defined as “The mental faculty of knowing, which includes perceiving, recognizing, conceiving, judging, reasoning, and imagining” (The American Heritage® Stedman’s Medical Dictionary).

You may not think that the Web is relevant to your B2B business, but if you did some research you would find that it is most certainly relevant to your customers. And, if your business is relevant to your customers, then the Web should be one of your most important sales tools.

There has been a lot of talk lately about authenticity, especially authentic leadership and authentic brands. It all seems very straightforward, but the concept of authenticity is much more complex.

When a person works at a company for a while, it's easy to start thinking that his company is the universe. He begins optimizing the work to suit him, at the expense of his customers.

Sales tools are one of the most important deliverables of any marketing department. This begs the question: Why are they usually so bad?

Perhaps no piece of unsolicited business, marketing, or sales advice is more common than "specialize or die". It seems so obvious, but it's incredibly hard to do.

Most B2B companies want to increase their revenue. And most of them try to accomplish this by increasing sales efforts. How is this done? Typically by adding sales staff or increasing advertising. But, is this the best approach?

Lead scoring is becoming more and more commonly used in the lexicon of today's business. However, there seems to be some confusion as to what exactly it means.

Recently there has been a debate raging as to whether B2B branding is relevant. Some even state that micro-brands and one-to-one communication make brands unimportant.

For many companies, there is a considerable gap between communications goals and communications results.

In last month's newsletter we covered key reasons why communications strategy fails in execution. Most notably, execution is complex, and the strategy is typically merely adequate. However, these are not the only reasons that communications strategies fail.

Virtually all companies have a logo. It may just be the company name in a specified font. Or, it might be an elaborate combination of graphics. Perhaps it is a clean, professionally designed corporate mark.

Every company, whether growing or stable, whether organically evolving or actively acquiring other companies, faces the challenge of keeping its brand integrated.

With the advent of interactive communications such as email, online advertising and blogging, print has taken it on the chin. Fewer clients request it as part of their communications strategies, and fewer agencies recommend it.

In a recent article entitled "The Myth of Brand Engagement," marketing professional Cam Beck claimed, "The sad news is that your company's brand isn't nearly as important to your audience as it is to you."

All the talk of lead nurturing is pretty exciting. Who doesn't want to increase their sales by following up with prospective clients that aren't quite ready to buy? There is just one hitch: leads are people, and you can't nurture people you don't know.

We once worked on a project producing a company's corporate video. When it was finished, one of the employees said, "This video is so good and polished that it makes me feel like I work at a real company."

What if we said we had a "great offer" or an "amazing product" to tell you about? What would be your first reaction?

Do you own the compelling content on your Web site? If you do not have an active blog or newsletter section, you likely rely on content from other resources to deliver fresh content and value to your readers.

In the current economy, most employees show up to work every day knowing there is no guarantee that their efforts will secure their jobs or that things will not get worse before they get better.

Are you currently making the case for marketing dollars? When discussing the end result of good marketing, most people think of increased revenue and brand recognition.

In this sluggish market, it's easy to go through the motions at work when budgets are tight and creative initiatives are few. While it's good to clean out old files or catch up on billing, too much administrative time on your hands can dampen your creative spirit.

Pardot's Prospect Insight is quick and easy to setup, but also offers advanced functionality. Most companies can use a B2B specialist to maximize their investment in the system.

Both missions and revivals try to attract converts. However, they work in very different ways. The "downtown mission" of movie lore attracts people by offering food and shelter. And, usually in unspoken exchange, they seek to convert these people.

One of the most desired features of any Web site these days is a functional, easy-to-use content management system (CMS).

What makes a great logo design? It is a combination of technical, strategic, and aesthetic factors that combine in just the right way. Often, if the typography were just slightly larger, or the color were just a shade brighter, it wouldn't work.