As far as SEO goes, there’s a wealth of business intelligence that can help you optimize your approach. We’ve discussed some of that in the past. Play your B2B marketing cards really well and you may just end up on page one of a Google search for your targeted keywords. However, that’s one battle, and not the end of the war.

We live in an imperfect world, and that means we can only have imperfect information. So, there is no sin in using inherent knowledge and a little imagination to finesse a marketing strategy or to get a decision just over the tipping point.

Marketing automation tactics are some of the most useful tools marketers have at their disposal. However, they always come up as a subject of debate in many offices. A “should we, shouldn’t we?” type of debate that usually involves someone mentioning budgets at least 31 times, someone citing potential changes in company processes and training, and everyone posing as the obligatory skeptic questioning whether marketing automation is really necessary or not.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of those areas of marketing that still scares quite a few people. 

When we get into conversations about competitive marketing intelligence with our clients, they’ll often say something like, “Nope. No. We don’t need that. We just did that six months ago. We tore through all of the information on our competitor’s solution. Right down to the specifics of the hardware and software and how they’re listed. We know exactly what’s on the market now, and we have a pretty good guess about what competitors are going to bring to the market in the near future.” 

If I were to ask you what analytics is, you’d likely have a different answer from others reading this article.

Leadership positioning is one of those marketing subjects that generates a lot of attention. A quick internet search will reveal more instructional “how to” content than anyone can possibly read. Unfortunately, some of the content is contradictory. Some of it focuses way too much on tactics and ignores the strategic considerations. And, all of it can cause marketers to lose sight of the forest while focusing on the trees. 

Marketing is all about standing out, creating a unique identity for your brand, and communicating the value your brand offers to potential customers. However, all of these things are extremely hard to achieve if you don't know what you're up against.

Your social media marketing can be more effective if you take the time to understand your target market. With a little time spent on market research and analysis, you can focus your posts to be more in tune with the changing needs of your target audience.

We get it, research can be boring, but marketing research and analysis is the foundation of an effective marketing program, and you do it every day!