Following are Hoffman blog posts on best practices in B2B marketing communications. In these posts, Hoffman has captured insights gained from hundreds of client engagements over a 30-year period. The posts include advice on development and use of white papers, B2B marketing trends, marketing associations, marketing video, sales guide development, and more. We add a new post weekly, so check back for more ideas. We welcome your feedback on these articles.
White Paper Audiences: More Than You Thought Last week, we covered the four primary white paper applications. In this post, we’ll cover one of these applications in more depth: use of white papers to inform a wide variety of potential audiences (besides customers). Organizations typically target white papers to a defined external audience, such as […]
Top Four White Paper Applications A few weeks ago, we posted four blogs on the craft of white paper writing. These posts covered the pros and cons of hiring freelancers to write your white papers, lead generation strategies using white papers, the optimal length of a white paper, and whether to take risks when developing […]
The Definitive B2B Sales Guide Outline Introduction Last week, we described the top six tips for developing effective sales guides. In this post, we describe the eight specific types of information you should include in the sales guide. This can be tailored to the specific needs of your company. It is particularly applicable to companies […]
Effective Sales Guides: Top Six Tips “I…sell elevator buttons. I specialize in the fourth floor…I’m such a good salesman that I could sell one of my fourth-floor elevator buttons to the owner of a three-story building.” – Jarold Kintz Although selling elevator buttons is a tough business, Mr. Kintz is unlikely to benefit from sophisticated sales […]
Investing in B2B Marketing Video: Top 6 Recommendations We’re finding that a B2B marketing video is a tool that is becoming almost essential for lead generation and sales closure. Inc. Magazine thinks it’s important as well: In a recent article, it reported that 93% of all B2B customers watch online video, while 43% of all […]
Monitor B2B Marketing Trends: Don’t Get Stuck in a Rut Last post we explored general-interest marketing associations as a source of inspiration. In this post, we’d like to focus on the main-stay of many of our customers here at Hoffman—B2B marketing. We’ve all been there. There is a new product or service to launch. All […]
Today’s Marketing Associations Aren’t Your Grandfather’s Oldsmobile Oldsmobile grew to become its own worst enemy as a brand over the years—many perceived it as the ultimate geezer-mobile [1]. Heck, it even had “old” in its name. While we know the financial collapse over at GM had more to do with discontinuing the Oldsmobile line, is […]
White Papers: Freelancer or Agency? Don’t Roll the Dice Part 4 of a 4 part series on white papers – for more information on the subject please visit part 1, part 2, and part 3. You’ve got too much riding on your white papers to take big risks. Even if you generally like the idea of […]
White Paper Length: The Myth of the Two-Page White Paper Part 3 of a 4 part series on white papers – for more information on the subject please visit part 1, part 2, and part 4. Is There Such a Thing as a Two-Page White Paper? Is a two-page document the Loch Ness of white papers? […]
Ten Strategies for White Paper Lead Generation Part 2 of a 4 part series on white papers – for more information on the subject please visit part 1, part 3, and part 4. White Papers: The Primary Driver of Successful Lead Generation Studies have shown that white papers are the information source that business leaders seek. […]