Is your best B2B marketing idea behind you?
I had the pleasure of attending world-famous photographer,
Jay Maisel's class at
Photoshop World the last two years and absorb his excellent insights into creativity and photography. One of Jay's many points that stuck with me was "turn around, the best shot is often behind you." It's probably not his exact words, Jay is often quite creative in his language as well, but it gives the basic premise of the thought.
Are you leaving something out or too much in?
This creative process and thinking is something we use every day at our B2B marketing agency in Atlanta. The obvious marketing solution is often not the best one. We tend to examine the audiences, the marketplace and the industry, and then we stop to take a look around and make sure we are picking up on every possible angle. Our ability to take a quick "deep dive" on an industry and our client's needs within it, gives us the ability to see solutions where others haven't looked. We like to develop a targeted solution and then we test it with feedback from representatives on both the sending and receiving side of the marketing message. Can it be simplified further? Does it have the impact we envisioned? Are we employing all the marketing tactics available to their full potential? Next, we try and best that solution and many times we do. All it takes is taking the time to "turn around" and see all of the possibilities.
Just look around, the game changed this past year
If there is a silver lining to the past year's cooling economy, it's that more options than ever now exist for B2B marketers to get their message out. Are you exploring all the possibilities in your marketing efforts both inbound and outbound? If you're not, we would like to help you discover a new direction.
Glenn Taylor is a partner and senior creative director of Atlanta-based B2B marketing firm MLT Creative. Located on the east side of Atlanta, GA, with a Northeast office in Rhode Island, Taylor co-founded MLT Creative in 1984 along with partners Billy Mitchell and Craig Lindberg.
Known as the Idea Launch PadTM for B-to-B marketers, MLT Creative's services include strategic planning, positioning, brand development, advertising and sales promotions for business-to-business clients.