Sean Parnell
B2B Messaging Under Duress: 3 Recommendations for Managing COVID-19 Communications
Your clients have a lot of things to worry about right now. First of course, is protecting the health and safety of their employees and others around them.
But while that’s the priority, the economic risks are hard to separate from our other worries right now. Your clients, like all of us, are navigating the health threat while also scrambling to keep it from spilling over into a threat to their businesses.
How do you communicate with them without simply adding to the noise, or worse – creating the impression that you put profits ahead of public health?
Here are three recommendations on how to communicate with your customers or prospective customers during this crisis:
Share the State of Your Operations
Your customers need to know if there are changes to your capacity or availability.
... Continue Reading >>The ABCs of SEO
It is most wise to beware of companies promising you the world in the form of a 1st page or #1 Google rankings. These inflated claims often come along with a range of dubious Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tricks that the major search engines have long factored in to their algorithms. The results might not be just disappointing they can cause irreparable harm to legitimate businesses. This is called “black hat SEO.” Just ask JC Penney.
We believe that good SEO or “white hat SEO” is a product of high quality, original site content combined with a collection of proven best practices for site management and link building. Our methods produce sustainably high organic search results for our clients and also lay the groundwork for successful Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaigns.
... Continue Reading >>B2B Storytelling that Cuts Through the Clutter
In a world full of countless, noisy marketing messages vying for our attention from a multiplying list of platforms, many companies mistakenly try to compete with messaging that is louder. HEY! LOOK AT US, LOOK AT WHAT WE CAN DO!
Meanwhile, your prospects are struggling to figure out whether you are a good fit for helping them do what they do. Hey, look over here! Look at what we need…
Brand Story marketing, adapted from sources like Donald Miller’s book, Building a StoryBrand and Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, reframes the traditional view of marketing, placing the customer at the center of the message rather than the company.
... Continue Reading >>Tell Your Prospects a Better Story: Theirs
Do you want prospects to see you as just another vendor or a trusted business advisor?
Many companies make the same mistake in their messaging and branding: they lead with their products and services, features and benefits. You know Sandler preaches against this, so why is it so… everywhere in marketing? It’s the same tired story. Prospects have heard it so many times… blah, blah, blah. It’s just noise to them.
Problems Solved vs. Features & Benefits
Lead with the problems you solve and the people you solve them for instead – and you’re likely to find prospects who want to share their problems with you.
... Continue Reading >>Innovaxis Named to List of Chicago’s Top Marketing Consultants
As a B2B-focused digital marketing firm with a track record of creating lead-generating marketing content and strategy for a wide variety of businesses, we are proud to have been named to a list of the top marketing and consulting firms serving Chicago.
The ranking, created by Seattle-based research firm Expertise, used 25 variables across five categories that include reputation, credibility, experience, availability and professionalism to establish its list. The agencies on the list were culled from a starting point of more than 600 marketing consultants serving Chicago.
B2B Expertise that Drives Lead Generation
Our president Sean Parnell said the ranking reflects the hard work and specialized expertise that the Innovaxis Marketing team brings to its B2B clients both in Chicago and across the United States.
... Continue Reading >>30 Proven Formulas for Writing Headlines
As mentioned in our recent blog, The Formula for Headline Success, the book Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples is an all-time classic and must read for all marketing professionals.
Here is another excerpt from the book that I feel is essential for B2B marketers and copywriters: 30 proven formulas for writing headlines that generate results.
News Headlines
Begin Your Headline with the Word “Introducing”- Introducing a New Generation of Affordable Art Materials for Student Artists
- Introducing a New Way to Help Bridge the Gap Between What You’ve Saved and What You’ll Need During Retirement
- United Airlines Proudly Introduces Something Shockingly Amazing…
3 Steps for Applying the Merlyn Principle in Business Planning
In T.H. White’s The Once & Future King, Merlyn explains how he predicts the future: “Now ordinary people are born forwards in Time… But I unfortunately was born at the wrong end of Time, and I have to live backwards from in front, while surrounded by a lot of people living forwards from behind. Some people call it having second sight.”
If you want to predict the future of your business, then start by developing your exit strategy and work backwards. Here are three steps for doing so.
Step 1: Create Your Exit Strategy
It can be uncomfortable to explore the answers to questions like, “How long will I live?
... Continue Reading >>B2B Lead Generation Demystified: New SEO Guide Available
SEO is easier than you think when you understand what works: apply these best practices to increase lead generation by 30-300%+…
Creating B2B website content that ranks high and generates leads shouldn’t feel like a baffling exercise in hit-or-miss tactics. High keyword rankings and sales leads are built on practices that leverage expertise in Google architecture and the unique demands of B2B marketing.
Our new guide offers you the best of both, combining more than 16 years of Google experience with deep knowledge of B2B sales and marketing best practices.
Learn how to update your website to reach the right prospects. Overcome your fear of Google algorithm updates and learn techniques that may leave you looking forward to them.
... Continue Reading >>A Better Way to Market Your Brand & Accelerate B2B Sales Growth
So many companies make the same mistake: they lead with what they sell and why they’re good at it. While this may sound counterintuitive, leading with who you serve and what problems you solve resonates with prospects and customers in a far more powerful way – especially when you craft a compelling story around the needs of your clients.
Messaging that Doesn’t Put the Solution Before the Problem
The problem with the traditional approach to messaging is that it only works if the products, services and solutions you sell align exactly with what your prospects think they need. What if they don’t know what they want? What if they’re wrong?
... Continue Reading >>Farewell, Adobe Business Catalyst – What’s Next?
At this time two years ago, we encouraged B2B companies to use Adobe Business Catalyst – our website content management system (WCMS) of choice.
Sadly and unexpectedly, Business Catalyst announced that they will end-of-life the platform by March 26, 2020. Adobe originally wanted to pull the plug in 2018, but pushed the date back as torches were lit and pitchforks were being sharpened. This leaves more than 700,000 websites currently hosted on Adobe with the daunting task of migrating to another platform.
Choosing a WCMS for your B2B website can be a struggle. There are so many – trendy platforms entice you with promises of do-it-yourself website designs and minimal prices.
... Continue Reading >>