A Marketing-Communications & Creative Agency
Why should a tech company consider hiring an external marketing firm? One of the most important reasons is that an agency will be made up of team members with years of combined expertise in diverse marketing skill sets. Finding a single person or building an internal team with all of this experience will cost far more than partnering with a marketing agency.
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Marketing is not an exact science and can seem very abstract. On top of that, the marketing industry is evolving at a much quicker pace than other areas of business. Social media, smartphones, and ad block features in web browsers are just a few of the things that have greatly impacted the efforts of marketers. Buyers also behave much differently today than they did in the early 2000’s.
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When marketing and sales teams are in sync, both departments benefit and, ultimately, sales increase.
In tech companies, sales and Marketing can seem very similar. If you went to college for marketing, chances are you have also taken a variety of courses on sales. This is because both roles are crucial to growing revenue and generating new business. In fact, in smaller tech companies, often times sales and marketing are combined into one department. Even in some larger tech firms, there may be one VP over both sales and marketing.
You may be wondering, “if they are so similar, why separate them at all?” Great question. If you have ever worked in sales or marketing, you may have looked down on your counterpart and thought, “if they would just do their job, my life would be easier.” This raises another important point: sales and marketing people don’t always get along. Why is that? Another great question. We’ll address both of these questions and share ways for two of the most important departments to be in sync and cooperative.
Nearly every business has written a press release at one time or another. We have worked with a few clients in the past that didn’t really see the need or value of producing press releases. This could be for a number of reasons. Some of our clients were not wild about writing press releases because they saw them as extra work with little to no payoff. Some perceived press releases as something only large companies do. Most of our tech clients saw the value, published press releases, and enjoyed growth.
Before sharing the five ingredients you should include in your press releases, it’s important to understand “the why.” Why are press releases important and how can they benefit your business?
John Centofanti will be presenting at WordCamp Kent on Be the Expert: Growing Your Business by Educating Your Audience.
This session will focus on how to grow your business by educating your customers and providing value. You already know that your audience is looking for an expert to help grow their businesses. Find how to help your audience succeed and build your expertise at the same time.
Don’t fake it ’till you make it. Learn it ’till you earn it. This session will give you practical ways to grow your own business and your reputation.
Join John and others at Kent State University June 9-10 to catch his full presentation. Don’t miss out!
New website features, styles, and trends appear daily. Some disappear quickly and others become a standard which other sites follow for years.
Best practices for websites may be technical or related to design and content. Some standards have remained for years, while others change year after year.
Think of some website features or styles you’ve experienced:
John Centofanti will be presenting at WordCamp Toronto on Brand Positioning: Growing Your Business by Finding Your Niche.
This session will cover how to develop your own brand, how to position it in the marketplace and attract the right clients. It will also cover ways to develop messaging for your business.
The session is interactive. John will use the branding principles presented with a volunteer to help a real business. This is a condensed version of the work Creative Stream Marketing does with all new clients to prepare their business for effective marketing. This will be easy to understand and practical, regardless of your business size or your expertise.
Many tech companies refer to their offering as a product, others call it a solution, and still others refer to their service. What’s the best way to market your offering?
If you are routinely charging different rates or prices for your offering, chances are, you don’t have a product.
This may not sound like an important point to discuss, but it can influence a prospect’s perception of your company and affect whether he or she buys from you or not. I’ve worked with SaaS companies, software companies, and others who have some type of tech solution. Here are some common scenarios:
Often, these terms are used interchangeably, with no sense of consistency or clarity.
Including software screenshots can help or hurt your marketing.
Many tech companies develop proprietary software that includes dashboards to help users monitor some aspect of their business in real time. Many of these dashboards have interactive or static graphs.
As tech companies develop print and digital marketing materials, it’s common to include screenshots of these dashboards. The dashboards can create a lot of value for the users. It’s understandable that the developers of the software want them included in marketing materials.
If your banner ad is seen by 75,000 website visitors, do you get a good return—or any return—on your investment? It depends.
Paying for a banner ad on a website other than your own can be very profitable or a waste of your marketing dollars. There are a few things to consider before saying yes or no to banner ad opportunities.
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