Laurence Minsky
Chicago
As seen in:
Harvard Business Review,
MarketingProfs,
CMSWire,
BusinessMirror,
The European Business Review
Covers:
advertising, brand development, brand activation, social selling, marketing
Marketing and Advertising Consultant and Contractor, Book Author, & College Professor
Articles by Laurence Minsky
The Missing Link in Content Strategy? A Chief Content Operations Officer
Content chaos is killing efficiency. A Chief Content Operations Officer brings order, strategy and SEO sanity to the enterprise. Leadership alignment needed. Without executive ownership of content operations, brands face silos, wasted budgets and scattered strategies. AI strategy fragmented. Companies lacking centralized content leadership often deploy inconsistent AI tools, which drives inefficiency and higher costs. SEO at risk.
How to Make Sure Your Social Media Strategy Succeeds: Take a Cross-Discipline Approach
Listen NEW! Listen to article Sign in or sign up to access this feature! Social media is now a mature practice integral to the success of virtually every B2B organization. But, although other key marketing communication disciplines have clear "owners"—advertising is responsible for "paid," public relations for "earned," and marketing for "owned"—social media doesn't have one.
Are You Doing the SWOT Analysis Backwards?
The SWOT analysis is a recognized tool to identify an organization, department, product, or service’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Yet, despite the tool’s wide use, it’s often conducted ineffectively, making the analysis less than insightful with no clear path to action. Part of the problem lies in focusing on internal factors — strengths and weaknesses — first.
Are You at Risk of a Mid-Career Rut?
It might sound odd, but people need the most help not at the beginning of their careers, but in mid-career — especially when it comes to making decisions. That’s a key finding from a research study coordinated by one of us (Julia). The study asked 500 college-educated adults in professional careers (representative of 16% of U.S. adults) to indicate the degree of their agreement with statements about their behaviors when making important work decisions throughout their careers.
Before You Make a Tough Decision, Imagine How You’ll Have to Sell It
Most of the time, the best decisions respect or reinforce the norms and values of your organization. That gets you buy-in and commitment. But how do you raise the odds of doing this? One approach is to run through a simple mental exercise – before you actually make a decision that will affect many parts of your organization. It’s basically testing your options for resonance. Imagine you are making a presentation. Your audience consists of people who will be affected by your decision.
Hunter or Hunted? How Digital Media and GDPR Increases Importance of Inbound B2B Sales
Today, through prior digital and social media research, organisational buyers approach their vendor sales teams much more informed. Hence, it is indispensable for B2B sales to focus on becoming a valued and trusted partner early in their customer’s decision journey. Such could be achieved through six strategic steps, which the authors elaborate on in this article. Long gone are the days of information asymmetry where the sales person had more information than the customer.
Don’t Let Emotions Screw Up Your Decisions
Think about a time you were weighing an important decision at work or considering a big expense such as a buying a house, making a hefty financial investment, or a starting a new business. Such decisions are inherently complex, and — no matter how much experience we have making them — working through the pros and cons of each choice can be overwhelming.
When it Comes to Cyber Security, A Step Ahead is a Step Out of Harm’s Way
Marketing in the digital arena is one great balancing act. On one hand is the need for data, including customer personal data to create a customised product experience, and on the other is the looming invisible threat of data breach and cyber attacks. In this article, the authors elaborate on and provide crucial measures to ensure that you’re a few steps ahead in cyber security and a great deal out of harm’s way.
The Intelligent Way to Prepare Your Sales Team for AI Adoption
For any salesperson, Artificial Intelligence (AI) poses a dual, but opposing threat. First, it could take away from their focus on their assigned mission to generate the sales and revenue that is the lifeblood of the corporation and, on the other side, it could replace them, making their jobs redundant and unnecessary.
What is Brand Activation and Why Marketers and Consumers Should Care
Marketing, along with the market and all its innovations, is also imperatively evolving. In this article, the authors elaborate on brand activation and show how CEOs, CMOs, and others can align marketing disciplines to better drive prospects toward transaction; leverage data to develop more effective strategies and creative; and design solutions that improve business results and marketing ROI.
When Aiming To Be At The Top In Social Selling, Start At The Bottom
In “How B2B Sales Can Benefit from Social Selling,” an article I wrote with Keith Quesenberry for the Harvard Business Review, we cited a LinkedIn survey that “found that B2B buyers are five times more likely to engage with a sales rep who provides new insights about their business or industry.” We also found that the earlier the sales rep engages with the buyer in the buying process, the more likely it is that he or she will win the sale.
Where Business-to-Business Sales Start
Outbound business-to-business (B2B) sales are becoming less effective. A recent survey found that connecting with a prospect now takes 18 or more phone calls; callback rates are below 1 percent; and only 24 percent of outbound sales e-mails are ever opened. Meanwhile, 84 percent of B2B buyers now start the purchasing process with a referral, and peer recommendations are influencing more than 90 percent of all B2B buying decisions.
How B2B Sales Can Benefit from Social Selling
Outbound B2B sales are becoming less and less effective. In fact, a recent survey found that connecting with a prospect now takes 18 or more phone calls, callback rates are below 1%, and only 24% of outbound sales emails are ever opened. Meanwhile, 84% of B2B buyers are now starting the purchasing process with a referral, and peer recommendations are influencing more than 90% of all B2B buying decisions. Why are more and more buyers avoiding salespeople during the buying process?
Good Cybersecurity Can Be Good Marketing
Recent research conducted by IBM among global boardroom and C-suite executives in 28 countries found that better cybersecurity is among their top technology priorities.
Marketing & Public Relations Books
Marketing & Public Relations For 50 years Kogan Page has been providing marketing, advertising, sales and PR professionals with the great ideas and practical advice they need to be the best at what they do. Here you’ll find free guides, case studies, original research and articles from our author experts. Subscribe for weekly updates by selecting 'Marketing' on our newsletter form and follow us on Twitter (@KPMktng) for the latest information. View all Marketing & Public Relations
How B2B Marketers Can Get Started with Social Media
Many B2B CEOs still believe that social media isn’t right for them. And it’s no surprise. The attention being paid to social today mostly focuses on reaching out to consumers. But social media marketing can offer B2B marketers a range of benefits if they take advantage of it, from increasing engagement and influencing decision making before the sales call to customizing sales messages and enhancing their company’s reputation.
How You Make Decisions Is as Important as What You Decide
Conventional thinking has suggested that leadership positions go to those who aggressively plan their careers with a keen eye for building the right skills to reach top jobs. Others believe that leaders are born, not made. But according to research one of us (Julia) conducted for her book Pivot Points, the key differentiator between the career arc of someone who becomes a successful business leader and the average person is consistency in how the person makes major decisions.
Rotary Strengthened Their Brand by Simplifying It
It’s no surprise that simplicity sells. Too many options can overload short-term memory, inhibiting the ability to process information, creating cognitive overload. In addition, excessive options can spark feelings of remorse after transactions as customers continue to wonder if they had made the right choice. But creating “decision simplicity” presents only part of the brand simplicity picture.
What Does Your Brand Sound Like?
Branding is one of the top concerns of CEOs and CMOs, and smart firms are investing as much as ever on branding initiatives — even online. For instance, back in August, eMarketer reported that in the digital area alone, U.S. advertisers will spend approximately “$17.46 billion on branding, or 41.6% of total digital spend.
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