Move Over 2016, New B2B Content Marketing Trends for 2017 Are Here!

As the significance of content marketing continues to grow in the B2B industry, marketers have loosened their purse strings to make more room for it in their budget for the new fiscal year. A report released by PulsePoint and Digiday found that by 2017, content marketing and native ad budgets will grow 59 percent and 46 percent respectively; potentially outpacing search and social budgets.

Key Elements Needed to Build Your Brand

Branding is important for every company in every industry. While many B2B manufacturing companies don’t worry about their brand development strategy, it is vital to recognize how important it is to have a solid, recognizable brand.

Is Your B2B Brand Strategy on Target?

Branding is about much more than defining your company and developing products or services. In fact, a recent survey from BuzzStream found out that nearly half of consumers stated they will quickly unfollow a brand that engages in too much self-promotion. It translates to all business relationships—even in B2B, people are interested in what they get from the relationship, not what you are offering. Companies often get caught up in their own B2B branding strategies and goals, which leads to shameless self-promotion and a real disconnect with the target audience.

An Efficient, Effective, Affordable, and User-Focused Web Strategy to Complement Your B2B Inbound Marketing Efforts

The purpose of a website has transformed drastically over time—what was once considered optional, high-tech, and even fancy, is now indispensable to even B2B industrial manufacturers. And, so is the need to constantly update it.

Basic web redesign is just not efficient enough to keep up with the dynamics of the marketplace, changing customer expectations, and advancements in technology.

Aligning Sales and Marketing Via Your CRM Is a Sales Enablement Best Practice   

Got leads? Great! Now what? You might have more than a few in-house sales enablement resources that can help you organize and optimize your next steps. But you probably have one of the best sales enablement tools, quite literally, already at your fingertips—and you don’t realize it. But we’ll discuss that a bit further in this article.

Do You Have the Right Tools to Catch 'Em All? We're Talking Inbound Leads, not Pokémon!

Inbound marketing relies heavily on content creation to attract target audiences. However, attracting is just the first step of the process. To be able to transition from attracting to converting, and then from closing to delighting, you will need much more than just content.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has once again appropriated $250,000 for the Smaller Business Association of New England’s (SBANE) Matching Grant Program for industrial manufacturers. The Massachusetts State Legislature has appropriated these funds for the purpose of providing high-powered consulting expertise to small and medium-sized Massachusetts-based manufacturers undergoing a business transition.

What You Need to Know about the Difference between Outbound and B2B Inbound Marketing

For manufacturers today, it can be difficult to stand out in a crowded industry. There are two separate marketing paths for them to try to reach their target prospects: inbound and outbound. Most manufacturers still prefer to use outbound marketing, which involves reaching out to other businesses. It may seem like this traditional way of marketing works; after all, most companies have been using it for decades. However, you may be missing out on attracting a lot of potential business through a process known as inbound marketing. So, you may want to consider using B2B inbound marketing in your industrial marketing strategy.

Manufacturing in Massachusetts is alive and well at 150 year old company!

As an industrial marketing agency for more than 25 years, I have the privilege of working with some of the finest manufacturing companies and individuals in New England. I was pleased to be invited to Hardware Products Company 150^th year breakfast buffet on Thursday, by Ted White, president of Hardware Product Company. Jay Ash, Secretary of Housing and Economic Development for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts also visited the company. 

Get Moving on Your Mobile Marketing Strategy for B2B

Did you know that smartphone users typically check their phones 150 times a day? This is just one statistic that communicates the importance of mobile communication in today’s marketplace.

If you think this doesn’t apply to B2B brands, think again. Just like the average consumer, business professionals are never too far from their mobile device. In fact, according to a survey of B2B decision makers, 42 percent of researchers use a mobile device during the B2B purchasing process.