3 Rules When Selecting your Event Sponsorships

Adam Gelles, Publisher
Event sponsorships have long been a tool for B2B marketers to connect our sellers with buyers. As we return to in person events, selecting the right event sponsorship investments are evermore critical. Over the years, I’ve managed both small and large event sponsorship budgets from $50,000 per year all the way to several million dollars per year. But there are 3 cardinal rules that I use to evaluate event sponsorships and sponsorship ROI. Rule #1: Industry Impact As companies grow, the position of a company in its industry grows in importance. Choosing the right event can demonstrate your leadership in… Read More

3 Keys to Select an Exceptional PR Firm

Adam Gelles, Publisher
Public relations is a key tool for B2B brands to go to market. And selecting the right PR firm is critical to your company’s success. Over the past decade, I’ve been involved in about 100 PR agency selection processes. Here are 3 areas I recommend to review when evaluating a public relations agency partner. Industry ExpertiseIt goes without saying, but industry knowledge is a must-have for a successful PR effort. As PR firms spread their wings and add social, content marketing, and other adjacent services this requirement is ever more important. My key, make sure there is a managing partner… Read More

3 Keys to Ensure Marketing Planning is Aligned with Company Goals

Adam Gelles, Publisher
All too often, I see businesses whose go to market is not aligned with their overall goals and objectives. This is a function of marketing planning not taking into account business, revenue and margin goals of a company while being developed. Here are 3 keys to ensure your marketing planning efforts align to your company’s goals and objectives. Start Planning with Business ObjectivesTo begin your marketing planning effort, start by identifying the top 3 things that are important to the business. Is it revenue growth? New account acquisition? Once these are selected, put a quantitative goal in place for each… Read More

How to Take a Demand-Generation-Driven Approach to Content Marketing

Adam Gelles, Publisher
How do you know you’ve created a great piece of content? Pageviews? Social shares? A thumbs up from stakeholders? Those are all strong indicating metrics; but deep down, we all wish our content generated more leads. A demand-driven approach to content makes that possible—generating it as well as capturing demand for your products, services, and solutions. ‘This article explores a content marketing philosophy that will help you generate Sales-qualified leads (SQLs) while becoming a leading bra… Read more from the source MarketingProfs: How to Take a Demand-Generation-Driven Approach to Content Marketing, Published by: Tom Whatley Read More

3 Marketer Types Your Marketing Team Must Have to Succeed

Adam Gelles, Publisher
Over the years I’ve been inside hundreds of marketing teams – both large and small. But there are common traits to teams that have marketing excellence. It’s having great people. But more importantly it’s having great people in the right roles grouped together properly. One of the tools that we use at The B2B Marketing Company to help clients’ marketing teams excel is mapping team members to 3 key marketer archetypes. This is important since teams that fail to have all three archetypes have much lower success.  Type #1: The Doer This person has the personality and work ethic to get stuff done.… Read More

3 Tips to Manage Content Marketing Effectively

Adam Gelles, Publisher
Measuring the success of content marketing programs is a fundamental challenge for many B2B marketers. Beyond the typical volumetrics (e.g., page views) how can marketers successfully measure content marketing in a way we can understand its impact on business. Here are three tips to help your marketing team measure content marketing success. Tip #1: Measure in Context Different types of content require different tactical measures. A tent-pole research white paper and an article for SEO have two different goals. And they should be measured differently. The former’s consumption is determined by your distribution strategy, while the latter is designed to… Read More

3 Lessons to Align PR and Content Marketing

Adam Gelles, Publisher
Thought leadership is a key marketing strategy to help companies grow. But in many organizations, content marketing is handled by either corporate communications (potentially via a PR agency) or by the marketing team. But keeping both teams on the same page for thought leadership efforts is critical to success. Here are some lessons I’ve seen over the decades to ensure that PR and Content Marketing Teams and their shared efforts (e.g., thought leadership) are executed with excellence. Lesson 1: Plan Together There are really two key sides of content marketing planning. The editorial plan (e.g., storytelling frameworks, calendars, etc.) and… Read More

3 Keys to Successful Marketing Planning

Adam Gelles, Publisher
As much as B2B marketing constantly changes, the more it stays the same. The ritual of annualized marketing planning is an important one to chart our GTM tentpoles, align our strategy across various marketing and communication channels, and align our teams on business and revenue goals. Over the last decade, I’ve written close to 50 marketing plans for clients. Here are some key things I’ve seen that create success for marketing planning. Key 1: Inclusive Participation Marketing is a collaborative process. Therefore, planning it should be as well. For larger teams, strategic offsite meetings are a powerful tool for the… Read More