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We, as marketers, can all agree that design (use of graphic elements) is an important part of marketing communications. This is true because we, as humans, are extremely visual. We judge others based on the way they dress, assume colorful edibles are delicious and often consume products that have a fancy packaging. When deciding on [...]

For those of you who have not yet had an opportunity to visit HP’s MarketSplash site, you should. It is basically a one stop, web based, design and print fulfillment service for small to medium sized businesses. Users are able to order custom or pre-made marketing creatives (business cards, postcards, letters etc…) on the site. [...]

While browsing though my RSS feeds this morning, I came across an interesting, but dubious article. It was an article written by Eric Clemons, Professor of Operations & Information Management at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The article, Why Advertising is Failing on the Internet, strongly expresses the Internet will shatter all [...]

The current economic conditions, intensity of rivalry and reduced consumer spending makes all marketing initiatives seem like uphill battles. As veterans of marketing wars, you are all probably accustomed to fighting uphill battles. Fighting under the overcast of massive media clouds and content contamination, maybe uphill battles are the only battles in a marketing war. [...]

I heard a bad answer given by a presenter at a direct marketing event once. His answer was “nothing” and he was right from a technical viewpoint, but clearly wrong in terms of the marketing process. He was answering the question in relation to the design of web landing pages, but this is applicable to Email, Direct Mail and most marketing mediums.

Clearly the campaign creation process is substantially different and involves taking a different approach to campaign goals, creation of content and the campaign offer.

1) Campaign goals are different

Typically, B2B campaigns are not motivated by an immedate sale. They usually involve human interaction as an end goal;

* schedule a Webex
* get a meeting with a decision-maker or influencer
* give a free consult

For most B2C campaigns, success depends on how much sales increase. For most, the sale is usually immediate and is done directly from the Personal URL. Purchases mostly happen without a conversation with your sales staff. E.g. buying a pair of Nike sneakers, a book from Borders, etc.