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Velocity: The B2B Marketing Blog - A Joyride Through The Mean Streets of B2B

Topic results for "Copywriting"

The white paper is dead…or is it?

At a webinar I presented the other day  I  said that while white papers were still the staple of content marketing, they’re getting really stale as a communications vehicle for B2B.…

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Stan Woods | June 16th, 2009 | one comment

Why we steal from our clients.

In the marketing world, agencies are supposed to be the ‘creative’ ones and clients are supposed to be the dullards who are grateful for a fresh source of ideas.  In…

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Doug Kessler | May 6th, 2009 | no comments

How strong is your B2B positioning?

 

Positioning is one of the essentials of B2B marketing but it’s very rare to see it done well. It’s a simple idea: as a marketer, you should explicitly manage the…

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Doug Kessler | April 16th, 2009 | 3 comments

The Disruptive Idea: that’s what it’s all about

There is so much written about the black art of marketing and even more written about digital marketing (or internet marketing).  Zillions of blog posts. Millions of white papers, books,…

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Doug Kessler | March 24th, 2009 | 4 comments

Digital Velocity in eight tweets: accelerate your online engagement

B2B marketing has become almost synonymous with digital marketing.   If you’re not getting your story out on the web, you’re probably not getting your story out at all.  Now,…

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Doug Kessler | March 8th, 2009 | no comments

7 tips for writing number-based headlines

Recent research from Spurious has proven that every piece of thought leadership content in the world now has to have a number in the headline or it just won’t get…

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Doug Kessler | February 27th, 2009 | 8 comments

17 Strategies to Killer Ads

I stumbled across a great blog today that attempted to categorise advertising strategies. Based on an analysis of  The Advertising Concept Book by Pete Barry, it’s a really useful list…

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Stan Woods | February 13th, 2009 | no comments

Who needs editors?

Google has dis-intermediated the content business.

You don’t have to hire a PR agency to kiss the arses of the editors any more.

You just have to generate content that people really…

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Doug Kessler | February 5th, 2009 | 2 comments

Digital PR: Shut up and listen

A good interview on ScobleizerTV with Joshua Reynolds who oversees Hill and Knowlton’s global technology practice.  Traditional PR firms get a lot of stick lately about being slow to pick…

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Doug Kessler | January 19th, 2009 | no comments

Slugwatch: the power of content marketing

We were just having a really thought-provoking conversation about content marketing with Andrew Findlater and Hooman Bassirian from Reed Business and they told us about Slugwatch, a service for UK…

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Doug Kessler | January 16th, 2009 | no comments

The perfect direct mail list: just 23 companies

I recently received this letter, offering me a personalised number plate with my last name on it:

The author, one Ray Kessler, needs to get rid of his vanity plate fast. …

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Doug Kessler | December 23rd, 2008 | 3 comments

Drop-down positioning at the Royal Opera House

We’re always telling clients that everything you do contributes to your positioning.

A great example from a drop-down menu in a Royal Opera House web form:

That’s just a small sample.  Check…

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Doug Kessler | December 15th, 2008 | 3 comments

Velocity Xmas B2B Technology Marketing Newsletter: the Gift That Keeps on Giving

That’s right, deck the halls - it’s that giving time of year….

In our bumper edition Xmas newsletter, you’ll find:

A super-shiny new White Paper, ‘The Hierarchy of Benefits‘, which identifies one of…

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Roger Warner | December 10th, 2008 | no comments

Opt-Out: Digital Marketing’s punch in the stomach

Marketing used to be all about the upside.  You fired off a message; some people responded; others didn’t.   Net gain.

In the digital world, there’s a downside that’s as painful as…

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Doug Kessler | December 8th, 2008 | one comment

Zappos’ culture: paying employees to leave is great marketing

Saw a fantastic video online today that I thought I’d share.

It’s a presentation by Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, the US online retailer famous for shoes. He talks about…

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Stan Woods | December 5th, 2008 | one comment

Customer Value Propositions in B2B Markets

Andrew Findlater from Reed Business Information recently turned us on to an excellent article in the Harvard Business Review (back in 2006 but still daisy-fresh):

Its called Customer Value Propositions in…

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Doug Kessler | December 3rd, 2008 | no comments

Credit Crunch B2B Marketing: Demand Generation, Lead Nurturing and Online PR

The CEO is stalking the corridors, blood dripping from his Budget Axe — and he’s on his way to the marketing department.  Your department.

How will you defend your marketing plan? “That…

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Doug Kessler | November 28th, 2008 | no comments

Evel Knievel, corporate positioning & corporate message development

B2B tech companies are often run by engineers. Engineers are great at talking about technology, but not so great at translating the technology into business benefits that people actually believe.

Being…

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Doug Kessler | November 25th, 2008 | no comments

Your new content may not be as relevant as your old

All the best B2B tech marketers are mini-publishing houses — they never stop cranking out thought-provoking content on the issues their target market cares most about.  White papers, blog posts,…

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Doug Kessler | November 18th, 2008 | no comments

A really good newsletter

We know we ‘big up’ Pär Almqvist, the Marketing Dude at VNL, quite a bit. But we thought you’d like to see what we consider a really, really good eNewsletter…

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Doug Kessler | November 13th, 2008 | no comments

Microsoft’s baffling “I’m a PC” campaign

Apple got a lot of attention with its “PC vs Mac” commericals.  They were simple, funny, well-scripted and seemed to capture the essence of what Mac people love about their…

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Doug Kessler | November 10th, 2008 | 11 comments

Branding as body language

A friend of ours who also happens to be a God of Branding just sent us an article he wrote ten years ago but could have been written yesterday.  He’s…

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Doug Kessler | November 4th, 2008 | no comments

I beg you: don’t bore the bejesus out of me

Marketing is communication.

B2B marketing is bad communication.

That’s how your audience thinks about everything you put out.

Their expectations couldn’t be lower.

They’ve waded through thousands of case studies and brochures and web…

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Doug Kessler | October 31st, 2008 | no comments

Playing in the creative sandbox

Despite living in a ‘creative’ world, most agencies are pretty linear.  They take the brief, then they do the creative.

Velocity is a bit different.  When we do consulting engagements –…

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Doug Kessler | September 16th, 2008 | no comments

Buff Your Pitch Up. Google Suggest & B2B Content Marketing

It’s funny, but oftentimes we marketers are our own worst enemy when it comes to marketing ‘ideas’.  In my time I’ve had the pleasure of conceiving some truly dreadful press…

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Roger Warner | September 9th, 2008 | no comments

The C word: the importance of confidence in B2B marketing

A great website. Lots of white papers and thought leadership content. Case studies and customer testimonials. Great campaigns and creative. Awards, editorial coverage and analyst attention. They’re all important to…

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Doug Kessler | September 4th, 2008 | no comments

A Different Kind of Growth Equity Investor Needs a Different Kind of Web Presence

Don’t know about you, but it’s Friday evening and we’re offski. Peroni awaits. We’re celebrating the launch of a brand new web site for Kennet.

This is our latest and greatest…

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Roger Warner | July 18th, 2008 | no comments

Marketers everywhere - get a little mobiThinking

…check out mobiThinking.com, which was launched today to help the world’s marketing community to better understand the opportunities and challenges presented by mobile marketing. (Note: it’s web marketing Jim, but…

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Roger Warner | June 16th, 2008 | no comments

New Velocity B2B Marketing Newsletter Available!

The latest edition of our semi-regular newsletter update is now available. It’s packed with goodness inside, including our star new white pager, Marketing, Meet Sales, which offers eleven ways to…

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Roger Warner | May 23rd, 2008 | no comments

The Velocity B2B Social Media & Web Engagement Mind Map

We’ve been working on a number of ‘web engagement’ programs lately, where we’ve been helping clients to increase their web ‘footprint’ in order to improve their general SEO and awareness…

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Roger Warner | May 21st, 2008 | no comments

B2B lead generation with thought leadership content: ditch the web-to-lead forms and win

Here’s an experment for you to try.

Open your web stats app and check out which pieces of content are your top performers over the past month. (By top performers, I…

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Roger Warner | May 16th, 2008 | 4 comments

Velocity at Pecha-Kucha night

Intrepid Velocipedes Doug Kessler and Stuart Rothwell attended the first ever D&AD Pecha-Kucha night last night.  Nine creative supremos (mostly digital marketers), each delivering their first Pecha-Kucha presentation to a…

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Doug Kessler | April 18th, 2008 | no comments

The power of “You”: the 2nd person singular in B2B copywriting

Most B2B technology copywriting is so boring because its so neutral. The best copywriting looks the prospect squarely in the eye and says, “I’m going to sell to you and…

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Doug Kessler | April 4th, 2008 | one comment

Big Eat: Pay-per-click as haiku

In literature, there are novels, short stories, poems and — the ultimate distillation of thought and emotion — haiku. Three lines. Seventeen syllables. In marketing, there are white papers, brochures,…

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Doug Kessler | December 7th, 2007 | no comments

What’s the freakin’ (Power)point!!??

What’s the point of Powerpoint?

A crutch to help you through an uncomfortable challenge (public speaking)?

A useful visual aid to convey stories?

A pain in the butt, killed to death, hackneyed, eyesore,…

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Roger Warner | November 26th, 2007 | one comment

Hot potato: the holy trinity of technology marketing

To celebrate the launch of a whole new Velocity, Doug (our Creative Director) has put pen to paper to get a bunch of important stuff off his chest…

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Roger Warner | November 18th, 2007 | no comments

Abbreviations, Acronyms & Jargon

We just got an email shot from Savvion, a company that does a good job in its marketing…

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Doug Kessler | October 20th, 2007 | no comments

Recent papers

The B2B Content Marketing Workbook

Content Marketing is probably the single most important weapon in the B2B marketing arsenal. This eBook takes you through velocity’s approach to the art. Download it and see what you think…

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Doug Kessler | June 9th, 2009 | 5 comments

A B2B Social Media Checklist

You’ve just published a great piece of content. Don’t just stick it on your website. Use social media to drive people to it (and vice versa). Here’s a one-page checklist to help you socialize your content, driving traffic and downloads…

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Doug Kessler | March 12th, 2009 | no comments

The Benefit Hierarchy in corporate positioning & corporate message development

Managing the relationship between value and credibility is the key to good corporate positioning and corporate message development…

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Doug Kessler | November 25th, 2008 | 8 comments

Riding the Hype Cycle

Gartner’s Hype Cycle maps a curve that describes the way new technologies become adopted by the marketplace over time. Here’s how you should ride it to your advantage…

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Roger Warner | July 10th, 2008 | 5 comments