Copywriting for B2B: 5 ways it can be used to improve your marketing

It may surprise people just how much of marketing involves writing. But if you look closely, writing is everywhere: in ads, eBooks, landing pages, websites… even video scripts. This means that good writing is incredibly important to making sure your marketing is a success. Even more so when it comes to copywriting for B2B, where the buyer's journey is longer and more complex and relies on a wide variety of marketing campaigns and collateral. Yet copywriting isn't always given the attention that it deserves - it can often be an afterthought, or a task handballed off to READ MORE ›

By |Tactics|
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The ultimate guide to planning and presenting an engaging webinar

Thanks to the advances in technology, the rise of digital marketing, and recent world events, webinars have grown in popularity as people have looked for ways to engage more online. It's likely you've been invited to more webinars in the last 18 months than in your entire career combined. The number of online meeting tools that have popped up - and the Zoom share price - alone is evidence enough of just how big this tactic has become. Webinars are a hidden goldmine of potential for you to meaningfully connect and engage with your audience, prime READ MORE ›

By |Tactics|
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How to brief an agency through the lens of the buyer’s journey

  align.me co-founder Hugh recently appeared on the Growth Colony podcast to share his insights into how to effectively brief agencies and freelancers. The Growth Colony podcast is where B2B founders, CMOs, marketing & sales leaders talk about their successes, failures, what is working for them today in the B2B marketing world and everything in between. Briefing agencies and freelancers is a complicated process, and if you’re not able to get it right it can lead to a loss in profits and time. On the podcast, Hugh shares his expertise on the importance of briefing correctly, READ MORE ›

By |Skills|
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Buyer-centric go-to-market strategy (with a little help from Geoffrey Moore)

This article is something of an essay on my current thinking about buyer-centric go-to-market strategy and has been shaped by a recent conversation with strategy luminary Geoffrey Moore. Why buyer-centric go-to-market strategy? And why now? As a high-school drop-out, I was in a customer service role from 1980 and earned my first sales role in 1983. I was lucky enough to start my career in sales at a company with a deep commitment to soft-skills training, and to work for managers committed to nurturing any skills they'd helped me acquire. I did very well. Not through any READ MORE ›

By |Strategy|
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Here’s why the buyer’s journey isn’t dead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TtNWA3IjvM   Earlier this month, our co-founder Hugh was interviewed on the Pathmonk Presents podcast by host and design/UX expert Lukas Haensch. The Pathmonk podcast is a fast and effective show to sharpen your growth marketing skills. Hugh was interviewed to cast more light on recent statements purporting that the buyer's journey is dead. And as an expert on marketing and sales funnels, it was clear that Hugh could help bring more clarity as he discussed why this statement is categorically untrue. From here, we get an unfiltered view of Hugh's expertise on buyer-centric thinking, the READ MORE ›

By |Strategy|
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A Leaders guide to crossing the chasm post-Covid

Back in 2016, I wrote and shared an article that looked at how you should consider market maturity as an input to setting effective go-to-market strategy. The article was originally triggered by a conversation with the owner of a prospect (later a customer of align.me)  Justin Annesley the Managing Director of local printing company  Inkifingus. Justin was struggling with accelerating his SME print business revenue during a period where traditional printers like his needed to transition from long-run print to shorter run, digitally enabled solutions. Many of his traditional buyers were moving away from him to lower READ MORE ›

By |Strategy|
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Why saying “no” to an opportunity can get you 13% more sales

I want to talk to the topic of sales effectiveness and, in particular, argue why walking away from a bad deal early is a good idea. I could come at this conversation from multiple angles. I could explain why employee satisfaction would be higher if we walked away from bad deals. I could talk about why your market reputation is enhanced by walking away from bad deals. I could mount countless other legitimate arguments. But on this occasion, I want to mount my argument by looking only at the numbers - in particular, resource numbers. I'm going READ MORE ›

By |Strategy|
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A Leaders guide to optimising your technology, people, and supply chains

Over the past few years, the align.me team has been regularly holding events for leaders (both our clients and their guests) to share and collaboratively workshop growth insights. Our objective is to create new networks, refine best practice in B2B marketing and sales, and give a little thank you to those who have entrusted us with referrals over many years. When we brought this group together late in 2020, the global economy was climbing out from the depths to which it had plummeted. And, locally, we were dealing with the aftermath of the early lockdowns. At the READ MORE ›

By |Strategy|
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Why case studies can be your most valuable assets (and how to use them)

We know that B2B has a longer and more complex buying process than B2C, and therefore a longer buying journey. The key element of B2B marketing is connecting with the customer at the point they're at in their journey. Then, moving them onto the next step (and the next, and the next…) It's a careful balancing act that's important to get right. Go too hard too soon, and you can say goodbye to that prospect. Don't make your case hard enough when they're ready, and they'll wave goodbye to you and head for your closest competitor. Usually, READ MORE ›

By |Tactics|
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The absolute basic sales & marketing must-do’s for DIY B2B digital marketing

In a perfect world, businesses across Australia would have access to the means to perform high-quality, efficient B2B digital marketing practices regularly. However, if this last year is anything to go by, for many finances are tight and extra time is non-existent. This means business leaders are faced with the tough choice of where to invest their resources. The reality is that many small B2B businesses can't afford outsourced marketing functions - or professional in-house teams - due to low revenue and the need to be cautious with expenditure. For these businesses, many are moving towards undertaking READ MORE ›

By |Tactics|
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