B2B Brand Strategy: 3 Tools to Understand What Makes You Different
What makes you stand out from the crowd? And why should a customer choose you, anyway? If you can’t answer these questions about your business, you won’t be able to convince potential customers that you offer the solution they need. An essential part of B2B brand strategy is determining your points of difference, or the compelling things that make your business unique. You can then use these points of difference as the basis of your marketing strategy, informing everything from your website design to your conversations with prospects. How do you determine what makes you different? Especially if your business is in a large city or a highly competitive industry, you may
Inbound and Outbound Marketing: What You Need To Know
B2B marketing generally falls into one of two categories: inbound or outbound marketing. These two terms get thrown around a lot, with some marketers suggesting that inbound is the strategy of the future and outbound is outdated. But is this belief valid? And what do these terms really mean? This blog post will break down inbound and outbound marketing, including the benefits and drawbacks of each strategy. Outbound marketing is what most people think of when they think of marketing: paying to put your message in front of an audience. It includes print ads, digital banners and pop-ups on websites, direct mail campaigns, broadcast advertising, outdoor advertising and cold calling. Outbound
Omnichannel Marketing Avengers: The True B2B Superheroes
by Randy Mitchell, Creative Director Did you ever have superhero aspirations when you were younger? I certainly did. I always wanted to be the Flash. There were two reasons for this longing. First, I thought his lightning bolt logo was pretty cool. Second, I was a chubby kid who invariably finished last in any race. So far, I have not made it into the superhero pantheon. But I am happy to say that I do work with some true marketing superheroes on a daily basis. I call this brave assembly the Omnichannel Marketing Avengers and they have the power to save any campaign. Just like the vaunted Avengers of Marvel comic book and movie
Get Back On Track With These Four SEO Fixes
The Internet is full of guides for B2B marketers who are looking to get their start with search engine optimization (SEO). But what if you’ve made a commitment to SEO already…and it just sucks? Maybe you’ve analyzed your website with a tool like Hubspot’s Website Grader or Moz Pro’s Open Site Explorer and your score was dismal. Maybe your keywords were selected some time ago and search trends have moved on since then. Or maybe you see your competitors dominating search and are wondering how to keep from getting left behind. Whatever the case, you’re looking for some SEO fixes to help your website get back on track. While a total,
Boomm Cleans Up on B2B Marketing Awards
Boomm has been getting some recognition for our marketing work. That’s exciting news for our clients and our agency. Recently, we won five B2B marketing awards from three different competitions. Here’s what we received: Hermes Awards The Hermes Awards recognizes outstanding work by marketing professionals worldwide. Our brochure for ConAgra’s Cottage Bakery artisan bread brand won a Hermes Platinum Award. Boomm also received a Gold Award from Hermes for our work on the blog of Magnetrol International, a level and flow instrumentation provider. This is our second year in a row receiving a Hermes award. AVA Digital Awards This international competition honors excellence in the planning and development of digital communications. Boomm won two
Make Your B2B Video Marketing Stand Out With Silence
What qualities make for great B2B video marketing? A compelling story and strong visuals top the list. But in order for your message to be seen by the right audience, you need to adapt to the way the audience views video. And increasingly, much of the audience is viewing the video with the sound turned off. Over the past couple years, Facebook has become a major platform for video, hosting upwards of 8 billion views per day. But new research shows that as much as 85% of all video watched on Facebook is watched with the sound off. This behavior is encouraged by Facebook’s platform design. As a Facebook user scrolls
Becoming a Boommer
This post was written by Randy Mitchell, our new creative director. Learn more about him here. I still remember the first time I walked up to the vintage house on Catherine Street. The preschoolers were arriving for daycare next door. The Amtrak to St. Louis was shaking the neighborhood as it roared past. And the early-morning workout crowd was pouring into the gym down the block. Clearly, this was not your typical agency setting. So I walked up to the front door, rang the bell and was warmly welcomed to Boomm Marketing & Communications. As it turns out, what happens inside of the house on Catherine Street was even more unexpected than the scene outside.
Creating a Mood Board for a Visual B2B Brand Strategy
Does your B2B brand strategy go beyond words? The look and feel of your website, ads, and product all speak volumes to your customer, and often send a stronger message than your copy or content. In the 1940s, consumer psychologist Louis Cheskin researched unconscious thinking in customers and discovered that for most people, the package and the product are one. He called this “sensation transference”—the idea that on an unconscious level, the visual and other sensory elements of a product or brand become the product, and the mind makes no distinction between the two. If the customer found the label, color, shape, or size of the product appealing, he or
InFAUXgraphic: 2016 B2B Marketing Resolutions
What are your B2B marketing resolutions for the new year? Our latest inFAUXgraphic has 5 things we're resolving to do
Changes to Google+ and What They Mean For B2B Social Media Strategy
Is Google+ dead? As far as social media networks go, it’s never been as robust or popular as Facebook or Twitter, so some people have been asking this question for a while. But this time, there might be some truth to the reports that Google+ is on its last legs. Google has made some changes to Google+ over the past year that should affect your B2B social media strategy and change the way you use the social network. Over the past year, Google has taken many steps to distance itself from the network. The main champion of Google+, Vic Gundotra, resigned in 2014, and his successor, Bradley Horowitz, announced that he