B2B Marketing Consulting & Agency Services Blog
A Great 2021 Starts with a Marketing Audit
Learn how your marketing compares with best practices, and how to increase B2B lead gen and sales by 30-300%
If you feel under-served by your marketing resources or would like a report card on their work, an Innovaxis marketing audit will uncover marketing gaps and reveal new opportunities to increase leads and sales.
The audit’s findings and recommendations will form the foundation for your 2021 marketing plan.
Case Studies
Here’s a case study of our work with a manufacturer of induction heating tools, which started with a marketing audit. We then implemented many of the audit’s findings, which increased their flagship product sales by 20%-100% and their ecommerce sales have grown 20% ever year since we implemented it (45% this year).
… Continue Reading >>3 Marketing Partner Best Practices: How Does Yours Stack Up?
As a former head of product management and working with so many clients that have been under-served by their so-called marketing “partner” over the past 14 years, I know what ineffective marketing looks like and how much it can hold you back.
How well does your marketing partner stack up with the following?
1. Being a True Marketing Partner vs. a Vendor
Does your marketing company actively bring new lead generation and thought leadership ideas to you on a regular basis? Do they meet with you on a regular basis and provide monthly reporting? Can they provide useful guidance on even beyond marketing?
2. Thinking Strategically vs. Opportunistically
Does your marketing company developed a comprehensive marketing plan for you every year that identifies the right combination of digital marketing,
… Continue Reading >>#fail: How to Create a Pandemic Marketing Strategy as Tactless as a Maskless Shopper Coughing in the Checkout Line
A global pandemic, civil unrest, out-of-control wildfires, economic disaster, locusts, hurricanes and marathon Zoom meetings: it’s been an apocalyptic year no matter how you spin it.
But marketing rests for no crisis – as they used to say in the marketing department at Pepsi – so let’s wade into some strategies that boldly go where angels fear to tread.
There’s always a “silver lining” if you ignore a substantial percentage of what used to be called “reality” before there was Facebook and the Kardashians.
Here are some tips designed to ensure that your marketing campaign lives up to the standards set by the hot mess inside a dumpster fire wrapped in a train wreck known as 2020.
… Continue Reading >>Innovaxis Is Your HubSpot Gold Partner
After years of helping clients get the most out of their marketing automation capabilities, Innovaxis is proud to be taking the next step as an official HubSpot Gold Partner.
From Pardot to SharpSpring, Marketo, and more, we have worked in a lot of marketing automation platforms. And – simply put – HubSpot is the best.
As the most powerful and intuitive marketing automation software we’ve seen, HubSpot is flexible, agile, and scalable to a company’s needs. HubSpot is a great option for companies who do not have a CRM, but for those that do, the platform seamlessly integrates with existing CRMs for streamlined marketing efforts.
We have used HubSpot for years and have experienced the benefits of the platform firsthand.
… Continue Reading >>Accelerating Your Rebound through Digital Marketing
We are proud to be a member of the Illinois Manufacturing Association (IMA). The following article, written by the Innovaxis content marketing team, appears in the 2020 Q3 Edition of Illinois Manufacturer.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put lives and livelihoods around the world at risk, and Illinois manufacturers have shared the pain. Manufacturers of any size could relate to Caterpillar Chairman and CEO Jim Umpleby when he said the pandemic’s impact was more severe than “any cyclical downturn we had envisioned.”
Crisis-driven orders for medical products, food and first responder equipment have kept some manufacturers busy, but that demand won’t last forever.
Most Illinois manufacturers anticipate a rebound, but they face concerns as they restart operations: returning employee health,
… Continue Reading >>How to Cut B2B Marketing Costs and Increase Leads & Sales
“Reducing marketing spending will, in most cases, only make a bad financial situation worse. You can almost never save your way to profitability.”
– Craig Bloem, Inc.
When the market falters or new obstacles cut into your business goals, are you tempted to cut marketing costs? Be careful not to cut your leads and sales as a result:
Not all outsourced marketing is effective, so how do you select the right partner?
The right marketing partner is a cost-effective way to control costs without losing the momentum that marketing provides for your sales efforts. Here are some key criteria for identifying the partner – and the ROI – that you need.
… Continue Reading >>How to Grow Your Business Out of Uncertainty
If you’re struggling to conduct “business as usual” right now, you’re not alone. Whether it’s a global pandemic or a more ordinary hurdle, uncertainty can be crippling.
If you think of your brand as a story, “uncertainty” is your new villain – your nemesis in times of crisis. But there is a path to a happy ending, and we can help you get there.
Here are four steps for growing your way out of uncertainty.
Step 1. Embrace the Situation
Uncertainty is often a product of unexpected change; finding your way out means accepting that things are different. You certainly don’t have to like it. But there’s a lot of opportunity out there—there always is—though it can be stressful as we work through the churn.
… Continue Reading >>#fail: How to Create Google Pay-Per-Click Campaigns that Pay Off … for Google
A whopping 90% of internet search traffic takes place through the magic of Google, a company so ambitious that it named itself for a mathematical concept that means a number so big we don’t have time to explain it to you.
But that’s no reason not to trust them to help you play the world’s most popular pay-per-click competition, The Game of Google Ads.
This wild bidding war is perfect for the marketer looking to spend as much time and money as possible for results that are as predictable as ripening avocados.
Will your ad strike the right note at the right time with the ripe prospects?
… Continue Reading >>B2B Ecommerce that Drives Sales
Welcome to the transactional side of B2B businesses: ecommerce.
Rising digital expectations make it difficult to keep up with the promise of one-click purchases (ahem, Amazon) but, if ecommerce is right for your business, it can create an entirely new revenue stream to supplement current sales, sell outside your current geographical area, expand into new markets, and appeal to those who want to buy without any human interaction.
Many, particularly manufacturers, have three main concerns regarding ecommerce:
- Channel Conflict: businesses with channel partners and distributors worry that they will be stepping on the interests of partners they’ve built relationships with
- Implementation: it is costly,
#fail: 5 Ways to Fail Hard at Product Management
A dream is a really fragile thing and market research is a death sentence when it comes to really stupid dreams…
Product managers – sometimes referred to as product marketers – are responsible for incorporating the voice of the customer into the development process to produce something – sometimes referred to as a product – that somebody will want to buy, possibly.
What is the big deal exactly? 15-year-olds can do it. We live in a world where it is possible to whip up six-figure profits selling slime out of your parents’ kitchen.
So when you hear the so-called “experts” droning on about things like “product roadmaps” and “market research,” just remember that a dream is a fragile thing and market research is a death sentence when it comes to really stupid dreams like becoming a millionaire by selling rocks or blankets with arms.
… Continue Reading >>