12 Observations that will improve your B2B marketing right away: an interview with Mark Schaefer

Last week, our firm had the pleasure of a visit from leading marketing strategist Mark Schaefer. I’ve long admired Mark’s blend of smarts, practicality and humility. In my opinion, his blog grow has the most interesting and connected community on the web.

Mark spent some time sharing his insights on marketing, blogging, networking and social media with our team. Here were some of my favorite quotes:

• “There’s an expectation of free on the web. But you shouldn’t build your business on the backs of other people.”
• “Social success depends on three ingredients:

1. targeted connections – more of them do help
2. catalysts – superb content, delivered regularly
3. authentic helpfulness – you can’t fake that”

• “The single biggest hurdle for corporate blogs? The politics of the client organization.”
• When a client blogs, “you have to deal with ‘what is,’ not ‘what we wish for.’”
• “Blog mentions by customer is the ultimate validation.”
• “I think it’s ok to do social, rather than be social.”
• “There are two conditions that foster a sense of community on corporate blogs:

1. a “celebrity” blogger such as a CEO or
2. a blog that is carefully set up to solve problems and engage prospects”

• “There’s no reason a PR firm can’t do all the blog work for a client. If it’s done right, PR understands the voice of the customer and they are trained communicators.”
• “Blogging is more or less an American thing, though Australia is ahead in some ways.”
• “QR codes are a fad…our generation’s version of the 8-track tape.”
• “When you blog about what you care about, your targets will find you. It’s P2P (person to person), not B2B anymore.”
• “Every marketing strategy or project needs to begin with a simple exercise. Start by “finishing the sentence ‘only we…..’”

You can follow Mark on Twitter here.  If you want to get more of Mark’s thinking behind those quotes, click the video below to hear the whole training session. In the meantime, do you agree or disagree with his assertions?

http://vimeo.com/23213742

To reach Elizabeth:

Phone: 212.840.0017
Email: elizabeth@blisspr.com
Twitter: @elizabethsosnow
LinkedIn: Elizabeth Sosnow