They say you’ve got to spend money to make money. But even “they” can’t possibly approve of flushing money down the drain all in the name of a few quick sales.

Blogging. Writing social media posts. Promoting your company’s products on its homepage.

(Editor’s note: This is Part 2 in a two-part series about how a relationship with an inbound marketing consulting firm can fail. In Part 1 we covered five ways the client can be at fault in a failed partnership.)

If you’ve stumbled on this article, you’re probably reassessing the way you approach sales/marketing efforts and feeling a little unsteady. Perhaps one of your biggest sticking points is, “How do I reach the right people in a digital space with an intangible product?”

A better question (or two): “What is a buyer persona, and how will it help me reach those people?”

A buyer persona is a semi-fictitious profile of your ideal customer. It consists of market analysis, current customer data, and hypothetical situations. A buyer persona touches on key information that could affect your marketing message, such as: 

• Demographics
• Consumer behaviors
• Consumer goals/objectives

Although relatively similar, buyer personas and target markets are not the same -- buyer personas are much more specific. Furthermore, SaaS buyer personas are different from regular buyer personas. And SaaS buyer journeys and marketing strategies greatly differ from traditional marketing strategies.

Here’s what you need to know about selling software as a service in the modern age.

In order for your company to succeed, you have to be recognized. Creating brand awareness for your B2B company will help drive business and increase sales.

Is your B2B company the best-kept secret in the country? If so, I bet you would like to change that. Here's how.

Content marketing creates and distributes valuable, relevant, and consistent content that your customers will enjoy and learn from. It reaches potential customers and builds awareness of your current offerings.

How do you know if you’re reaching potential customers and building awareness of your current offers? By setting and analyzing goals.

Don’t create content for the sake of creating content -- that’s a waste of your time and resources. Content marketing must have clearly outlined and measurable goals in order to produce ROI.

It’s one thing to produce content that you find interesting. It’s another thing to produce content that your audience will find interesting.

And it’s yet another thing to produce content that Google finds “interesting.”

Blog posts add immeasurable (OK, actually very measurable) value to your company’s website. And although the content you choose to write about is crucial, there is another element that sometimes gets overlooked.

We’re talking about blog post titles.

Did you attend Manufacturing Marketing World 2020? 

The 2020 version of this manufacturing and B2B marketing conference was held remotely due to COVID-19. But hey, there’s a silver lining -- each webinar is now available on demand! (See below.)

We’ve recapped MMW 2020 for those who missed all the actionable tips and insights for modernizing your marketing:

One of the best ways to increase your company’s website traffic is to keep an updated and relevant blog. Your blog posts are an important part of educating your current and potential customers, and position your brand as a leading authority in your industry.