Actionable Marketing Guide Newsletter

Published: Mon, 10/19/15

actionable marketing guide

Dear ,

Happy Monday!

I just spent the weekend at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY. It’s one of the biggest fairs of its kind in the US.

What started as a county fair focused on livestock, specifically sheep and sheepdogs, has expanded to a massive event where yarn and roving (the material used to spin your own yarn) are the main events.

My fellow craftswomen and men are decked out in their latest handmade sweaters and shawls. It’s colorful to see everyone’s handiwork.

In addition to the sheep and wool, there’s a large barn filled with seasonal foods including cheeses, wines and sweets. For lunch and snacks, in addition to the usual food offerings, stands serve lamb cooked a dozen different ways.

From a marketing perspective, it’s interesting to see how different purveyors of yarn and related products display their goods and observe how they create their unique followings.

There are merchants who have lines out of the door where a wait of a half hour to an hour isn’t unusual. Others, by contrast, have only a few people who stop by briefly and keep on moving.

Many shoppers save their money for this event and travel long distances to get there. As a merchant, you want to not only to capture your loyal customers but also to attract new buyers.

As a marketer, take a page from the best of the yarn sellers.

Follow the current trends. The top yarn sellers watch Ravelry, the knitting and crocheting social media site. These merchants create offerings for the current hot patterns. They tailor the amount of yarn and coordinate colors so that buyers don’t have to think. BTW-It increases the average purchase.
Attract buyers with hot designers. Just as book publishers used to send authors on promotional tours, select yarn sellers get their favorite knit designers to help them with their tents.
Take special orders. The better merchants will custom dye the type of yarn a customer wants to the exact color desired.

This week, I’ll be in Boston for MarketingProfs B2B Forum.

Please join Jeffrey L. Cohen and me on Thursday, October 22^nd for 10 Essential Strategies To Blast Off Your Blog. We promise that you’ll leave with great tactics to improve your blog.

In addition, we’re holding office hours where you can get free advice for your blog. My webmaster, Larry Aronson, will be there as well to offer WordPress technical advice.

This week we interviewed Ruth Stevens, coauthor of, B2B Data-Driven Marketing, a comprehensive, practical guide to managing and executing business marketing plans and strategies.

Ruth will be having a book signing this Wednesday at MarketingProfs B2B Forum. Our readers are invited to download sample chapters of B2B Data-Driven Marketing.

We'll be giving away a free copy of B2B Data-Driven Marketing to one lucky subscriber. The winner will be announced in next week's newsletter (details.)

Two weeks ago we interviewed Stephanie Sammons about her book, Linked to Influence, the ultimate resource guide to using LinkedIn to boost your business.

Our randomly selected subscriber, Nagraj, will be receiving a free copy of Linked to Influence. Congratulations, Nagraj!

Download an excerpt from Linked to Influence.

Happy Marketing!

Heidi Cohen

2015 CONFERENCES

The Social Media Success Summit is open for registration. Discover how to use social media to attract and engage quality customers, and quickly grow your business at the largest Online Social Media on the planet.

BTW, if you didn’t get to attend Content Marketing World 2015 live, you can still capture all of the learning. Get the virtual version, study the contents so that you can power your content marketing into 2016 and beyond.

RECENT POSTS ON THE ACTIONABLE MARKETING GUIDE

Social Media For B2B Content Marketing Distribution

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Heidi Cohen in Content Marketing, Social Media

10 Tactics To Maximize Your B2B Content Reach [Research]

Social media remains key to content marketing distribution in 2016.

B2B content marketers use 6 social media platforms on average (not including blogs) to maximize their content reach.

That’s according to Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs 2016 US B2B Content Marketing Trends.

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2016 B2B Content Marketing Versus B2C Content Marketing

Posted on October 14, 2015 by Heidi Cohen in Content Marketing, Market Research Insights

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For B2B and B2C marketers, content remains key to reaching prospects, customers, influencers and the public in 2016 and beyond.

This underscores how the way we use information to improve our lives keeps evolving.

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B2B Data-Driven Marketing – Book Interview

Posted on October 17, 2015 by Heidi Cohen in Marketing, Marketing Metrics

Heidi cohen interviews Ruth Stevens

Q: What’s your best piece of advice for readers looking to improve their marketing?

Pay attention to your customer and prospect data.

For some marketers, data can sound scary—or boring. But there’s nothing more important if you’re trying to gain customer insight, target the right audiences, and measure the results of your marketing investments—which we are all trying to do.

If you are talking to the wrong audience, everything you do is wasted.

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