Matthews on Marketing

Matthews on Marketing

Five Easy New Year’s Resolutions for Marketing Teams

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For as many years as I can remember, I’ve used the quiet period between Christmas and New Year’s to reflect on the year that’s passed, as well as on what lies ahead. Invariably, I’m surprised at the volume of work done by my team. Those Q1 programs seem like so long ago… Yet for all of the accomplishments, there are the unrealized goals. I often rue how we’ve strayed from good marketing practice in some way. Not being close to the customer. Taking our eye off the competition. Not rigorously … [Read more...]

Marketingspeak: What’s a ‘Buying Center’?

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In B2B sales, there is rarely just one person – or persona – involved in the buying process.  The buying center is a formalization of that concept.  Many people with different roles and priorities participate in purchasing decisions. Unlike consumer buying, where the consumer, either alone or with assistance or influence from acknowledged opinion leaders, makes his or her own purchase decisions, in business buying a group often determines which products or services the business purchases. A … [Read more...]

Marketingspeak: What’s a Tsotchke and How Do You Pronounce It?

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If you have ever been to a trade show, you have probably collected tsotchke, more commonly known as giveaways or swag. The term is the Yiddish word for “toy” or “trinket,” and commonly pronounced “chach-ka” or "chach-kee" but no one in marketing is ever really sure how to say this word. Or spell it. Here are just some of the accepted spellings: tshotshke, tshatshke, tchachke, tchotchka, tchatchka, tchachke, tsotchke, chotski, and chochke. … [Read more...]

How to Format a Press Release

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How can you be reasonably certain that your press releases will contain the requisite information in an appropriate format? The answer is that there is a standard structure for press releases. Your organization will still need to create news and find an interesting angle, but using the standard format assures you have everything the media will need. In this section, we examine the basic elements of the standard release structure. Identifier – When creating a release, you should place the words … [Read more...]

How to Create a Buyer Persona

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To create a successful marketing campaign, you need to become familiar with both the composition and the size of your market. Knowing your market, however, is not the same as knowing your buyers. It is one thing to know which country buyers live in, which industry they operate in—even their age. But, what does that tell you about what they think and what motivates them to buy? In B2B scenarios, marketers are guilty of targeting companies and departments within companies without truly … [Read more...]