Here we cut the world of B2B marketing into digestible nuggets of inspiration, highlighting courageous individuals and ideas approximately two times a month. Want to contribute content to our blog?
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7 Interview Questions for Your Next Marketing Hire
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January 22, 2019
Leadership, whether you're the CEO, chief marketing officer or chief financial officer, can typically be boiled down to three fundamental tasks: Set the vision, build the team and allocate the resources. Arguably, all three are equally important, yet in this CMO-centric column, we've focused more on the first and third, closely examining the strategic and budgetary choices that modern marketers...

Show Don't Tell
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January 16, 2019
There are two brand videos below. Each is only a few minutes long. Both use emotion to tell a story. But I think you will find that one of the two clearly stands out as a better story - and consequently a better brand story overall - for that company. (Warning: Spoiler Alert) Of course, it's subjective but I'm guessing...

Yes, TV Advertising Is Still Effective
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January 14, 2019
When Jonathan Beamer took over as CMO of Monster nine months ago, he found a brand that, despite "ten years of neglect" from both a product and marketing perspective, "was still one of the strongest in the job search category." He credits this residual strength to Monster's original insight, "that people desperately want fulfilling work," which remains as true today...

The Key to Your Brand's Success: Highlight Its Problems
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January 10, 2019
The other day, I was speaking with storytelling guru and "father of modern branding," David Aaker. One of the best ways to create a "signature story" for your brand, he said, is to magnify the problem that your product or service addresses. As David's advice was kicking around my cranium, I came across the story of cloud backup and data...

How to Tackle High Expectations for New CMOs
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January 7, 2019
From the moment a new chief marketing officer starts a job, the expectations for improved marketing performance are outrageously high. The CEO is looking for simultaneous upticks in brand metrics and demand generation. The head of sales wants leads that almost close themselves. The HR chief is expecting instant improvements in Glassdoor ratings and an influx of highly qualified recruits....

You Show Me Yours...
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December 19, 2018
When was the last time you perused an article, read a book, watched a movie, or caught an episode of your favorite TV show? Chances are, you do one or more of those things every day. Although some may be dramatically better than others, they all tell a story. In fact, stories—in one form or another—are all around us, at...

Why a CMO Needs More Than One Job
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December 17, 2018
You don't get to be a CMO by being afraid of adding yet another responsibility to your plate. Successful marketing programs often touch so many aspects of a business from customer experience to employee recruiting, investor relations to product development, that it is easy to imagine your above average CMO already being stretched beyond capacity. So, it is with some...

Nothing Beats a Face-to-Face Meeting
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December 12, 2018
About a month ago, a trusted advisor recommended that when we conduct online meetings—whether it's with internal staff, clients, partners or prospects—that the medium should include a video link so that everyone can see everyone else on the call. We tested this out and found that once everyone gets over their initial (and natural) hesitation of being on-camera, the net...

Going High-Touch in a High-Tech World: Q&A with Zoom CMO Janine Pelosi
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December 10, 2018
Just about 50 years ago, futurist Alvin Toffler predicted that as our lives became increasingly dominated by technology, we'd feel an increased desire for human interactions. This "high-tech/high-touch" phenomenon is embodied in the rise of social networks, both of the virtual and physical variety (just look at the increase in associations and trade show attendance). It also helps explain the...