Category : Marketing Strategy

M3 Publishing > Marketing Strategy
25Oct
nick-morrison-FHnnjk1Yj7Y-unsplashUnlocking Sales Success: The Power of Thought Leadership in Engaging Prospects
By In Content Marketing, Marketing Strategy

Unlocking Sales Success: The Power of Thought Leadership in Engaging Prospects

In the fast-paced world of modern business, making a lasting impression and capturing the attention of potential clients is a challenge that every company faces. The traditional ‘sales pitch’ is losing its effectiveness, as prospects are becoming more discerning and selective about who they engage with. To succeed in this competitive landscape, businesses need to explore innovative ways to stand out, add value, and establish credibility from the very first interaction. 

How do I stand out more?

This is where the “Profile Booster Package” offered by M3 Media Publishing really comes into play, revolutionising the way businesses engage with their prospects. At the heart of this strategy is the creation of insightful and compelling thought leadership articles. M3 Media Publishing’s approach involves interviewing business clients to gain a deep understanding of the challenges and pain points their customers experience. These interviews lead to the creation of three thought leadership headlines, which become the focal points of the subsequent articles. 

The choice of magazines for publication covers a broad spectrum, including Business, Property & Construction, HR, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Export, Marketing, Social Impact, and an Over 50’s lifestyle magazine, ensuring the right audience is reached. The impact of this approach is profound. By providing thought-provoking and solution-oriented content, businesses can not only demonstrate their expertise but also offer something of value to their prospects. Each article is meticulously crafted, with links to the client’s LinkedIn profile, website, and a corresponding case study, creating an internet funnel to measure response—an invaluable tool in modern marketing.

How can it grow my business?

The real magic, however, happens when these articles are strategically integrated into sales conversations. Instead of the traditional sales pitch, businesses can engage prospects by sharing their thought leadership content. This approach shifts the conversation from a ‘salesy’ interaction to a meaningful discussion about the challenges and solutions presented in the article. It provides a non-intrusive way to establish credibility and demonstrate value.
The result? Prospects are more receptive, as they appreciate the thought leadership offered by the business. They are more likely to exchange contact details and set up a subsequent consultative discussion. This approach not only increases the chances of conversion but also builds trust and fosters long-lasting client relationships.

In an era where authenticity, value, and credibility matter more than ever, M3 Media Publishing’s Profile Booster Package can be a game-changer for businesses seeking to elevate their sales success. It transforms initial discussions with prospects, making them more engaging, insightful, and effective, while removing the traditional sales pitch from the equation. By offering valuable content and expertise upfront, businesses not only stand out but also win the trust of potential clients—a winning strategy for today’s competitive market.

To find out more, please get in touch by emailing david@m3publishing.co.uk.

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3Apr
business exhibitors affected by coronavirusCan Business Exhibitors Survive Through Worrying Times?
By In Marketing Strategy

Can Business Exhibitors Survive Through Worrying Times?

The outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) is creating a dramatic domino effect that’s affecting many aspects of people’s lives and businesses.

With people being urged to undertake social distancing and to self-isolate, many significant events and gatherings across all industries are being cancelled or postponed.

In fact, data intelligence company, PredictHQ, published figures indicating that concerns around COVID-19 led to a 500% surge of cancellations and postponements of significant events in February alone.

Whilst there’s certainly been losses for events companies, what is the key to exhibitors looking ahead and preparing for the future?

“While the government are trying to safeguard industry, taking a proactive approach is imperative for any company looking to insulate itself against the potential economic downturn that looms on the horizon,” suggests David Lomas, from M3 Media Publishing.

The Value of Re-Evaluation

In a 2018 report, the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) found that most companies participating in B2B trade shows and exhibitions, allocate 40% of their marketing budget to such events.

This amount dwarfs the 8% that is spent on ‘general online marketing’.

“With such a contrast between the amounts invested in either sector, even a small adjustment between the two is likely to have a big impact on a company’s online presence,” suggests David.

“With events and personal, face-to-face meetings all but eradicated, it is crucial that businesses adopt or enhance their digital strategy for prospecting and engagement.

The Value of Digital

“Digital could be the best avenue for businesses to refocus their resources from exhibitions, trade shows and events,” says David.

“It is also a great opportunity for businesses to generally review their marketing strategies, gain a competitive edge, and ensure that every penny is being spent in the best possible way.”

“It is vital to maintain a sense of normality during these turbulent times, but anything you do to stay ahead of the curve will give you an edge over competitors that are slow to react”

David Lomas, M3 Media Publishing

Digital marketing also has some distinct advantages over other forms of communication.

“It allows you to reach people in their own homes, where it looks like many people will be forced to stay, and requires no physical interaction.”

“What’s more, is that it is easy to measure the return on investment.”

“Exhibitors have an understanding of how their actions drive success,” concludes David. “They now have an opportunity to really understand what digital marketing can do to alternatively help their company excel, either now – or in the future.”

Marketing Aspects Magazine appreciates David Lomas’ contribution.

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19Mar
marketing strategy - keep calm and carry onCould Marketing Guide You Through Turbulent Times?
By In Marketing Strategy

Could Marketing Guide You Through Turbulent Times?

As the coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread across the UK, and the world, it is leaving a lot of people nervous about the future. The mantra continues to be to “keep calm, and carry on”.

For those of you with businesses, why is it important to keep a level head, focus on the future and ensure your business is in an appropriate position to ride out the storm?

Stormy Waters

The global economy has already taken a significant hit and there’s a good chance things will get worst before they get better.

Does this mean you should batten the hatches? Absolutely not.

Now is a great opportunity to take stock and consider your next move, while we hope for the best and prepare for the worst

One of the key areas that should be worth considering is your digital marketing strategy.

With personal face to face meetings all but eradicated, this is a chance to develop strategies to enable you to stay in front of your audience, many of whom are likely to have time on their hands through caring, social distancing and self-isolating.

One major benefit of strengthening your digital marketing activity is that it’s measurable.

Not many other forms of corporate communication can offer the same level of insights that digital marketing can

By bringing a sense of normality to your customers, clients, prospects and peers, not only could it give a competitive edge over others slower to react but also cement your position as a versatile, accessible thought leader navigating others through troubling times.

To discover more about adapting and strengthening your digital marketing options, please contact us.

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16Jan
MSN 2019Marketing Aspects Magazine is Media Partner at MSN 2019
By In Marketing Strategy

Marketing Aspects Magazine is Media Partner at MSN 2019

 (MSN 2019) was previously known as Prolific North Live, and is the largest marketing expo outside London, which covers the broad interests of marketing and media.

That makes it an ideal fit for M3 Media Publishing to partner with them, via our Marketing Aspects Magazine.

 

The Importance of Content in Marketing

We talk a lot about the importance of content, but that’s because it really does matter.

One of the topics we’ve discussed is the way that content and expos complement each other, and how digital and physical marketing activities dovetail to maximise opportunities.

MSN 2019 provides us with the opportunity to put our words into practice.

The expo provides professionals from across a range of marketing disciplines to come together. It’s also an excellent opportunity for buyers and suppliers to connect with different marketing businesses.

 

We aim to showcase the power of content, and the huge potential of content marketing in raising the awareness of target audiences and helping businesses engage and connect with them

 

In this, we have our own unique publishing platform in Marketing Aspects Magazine.

At the expo, you’ll find us in the Media Partner Zone.

 

About MSN 2019

promises to be an unmissable opportunity for anyone connected to – or interested in – marketing and its various strands.

Expect to see key figures representing leading brands in the world of marketing. There’ll be seminars and workshops to attend, along with expert speakers and dynamic demos.

For its networking value alone, MSN 2019 is a key event in the marketing calendar, and a dynamic destination for making new contacts and meeting potential prospects and clients.

It is run by Prolific North, an independently-owned publishing and events company based in Manchester, and event specialists Don’t Panic Event Management.

Marketing Show North runs for two days, on 27 and 28 February 2019, in EventCity, next to the Trafford Centre, Manchester.

For more information about Marketing Show North 2019, or to register, please visit .

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9Dec
marketing challenge pitchMarketing Challenge: Could You Become Pitch Perfect?
By In Marketing Strategy

Marketing Challenge: Could You Become Pitch Perfect?

At our Marketing Challenge Breakfast events, we focus on real life marketing issues and use the actual problems that our attendees face as the basis for problem-solving discussions.

At our most recent event, held at The St James’s Club, in central Manchester, our guests had a lively, roundtable discussion looking at how to re-position an events and destination management company.

Why focus on one business’ issues?

Because, by looking at what kinds of issues are involved, and with the help of our marketing partners, we can help shed a light on various aspects of business and marketing strategies.

Making it real makes it more immediate, and accessible, for our attendees.

 

Our Marketing Challenge events are multi-faceted, not only looking at one business as a case study and discussing possible solutions, but also involving everyone attending looking at how they present their own business offering

 

Striking the Right Pitch

Another major aspect to the Marketing Challenge event is encouraging attendees to think differently about how they market themselves, and even what marketing means.

For example, what do you understand content marketing to mean?  Is it restricted to material you publish or broadcast online or in print, or can it encompass your own, personal business interactions?

What about when you pitch yourself to others? How can you stand out from the crowd?

Our answer: storytelling.

 

We encourage attendees to look at different ways of talking about or introducing themselves and their business; to focus not on job titles, or overused ways of describing their service or product but using a story about the value they bring to their customers

 

What challenge did the customer face? What was the result of your help? How did this impact their business?

The idea is to boil this down to something very concise, little more than a strapline, that can hook listeners in.

When we ask our event guests to perfect their own individual story as a pitching device, we’re really asking them to create and draw on their own content, as a valuable, personal marketing resource.

 

Are You Pitch Perfect?

Our Marketing Challenge events focus on how both business and marketing strategies can work in real situations. It’s not cold and theoretical. Ultimately, it’s about people coming together to learn from each other.

If you want to attend a future Marketing Challenge event, please contact us.

Read more about our recent Marketing Challenge event by visiting Marketing Challenge Event Champions Differentiation





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5Oct
Marketing challenges at the Marketing Challenge eventMarketing Challenges: Should You Think Differently About Pitching?
By In Marketing Strategy

Marketing Challenges: Should You Think Differently About Pitching?

M3 Media Publishing’s recent Marketing Challenge event, held at The St James’s Club in Manchester City Centre, focused on storytelling as a prospecting tool.

Pitching to prospects, or even starting a conversation, can be an important part of your marketing strategy, and it should involve content.

 

The Marketing Challenges of Storytelling

What sort of introduction should you make when meeting potential prospects?

You might provide an answer that may just be a job title or role.  You may describe the nuts and bolts of what you do.  Instead, you should capture concisely how you help others.

 

The legacy of what you do is what counts. If you have substantially made a difference to a business, or saved or made them lots of money, that will immediately get your potential prospect’s attention

 

How does this translate into a narrative?

It’s like constructing a plot. How many films or books have you seen where they begin with something riveting and explosive? They might even begin with a climactic event, then work back to show you how this event has come to be.

In our recent Marketing Challenge event, we encouraged our guests to look again at how they communicate on a personal level, and how to leverage storytelling to help them become pitch perfect.

 

What Content Marketing Means

One of the marketing challenges is that people don’t always realise that certain aspects of their communication and interaction are marketing activities.

 

Content marketing is not restricted to words or images, or things posted online or put into print, as it can also be about the verbal delivery of content

 

This is one of the ways our Marketing Challenge events set out to challenge thinking: it’s about how marketing is integral to your business objectives.

It’s not simply to do with whether you choose to spend your budget on campaigns, or enlist specialist help.

 

You are marketing yourself whether you intend to or not, by the very act of communicating to others about your business

 

That means that it makes sense to make this marketing activity count.

What marketing challenges do you face?  Contact us to find out how we can help you think differently about addressing them.

Alternatively, to discover more about our Marketing Challenge events, or to book onto a future event, please click here.

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24Sep
business prospectingWhat is Challenging Your Business Prospecting Success?
By In Marketing Strategy

What is Challenging Your Business Prospecting Success?

Business prospecting has certain things in common with a much older form of prospecting.

The California Gold Rush began in 1848, drawing approximately 300,000 people to what became a frantic scramble for gold.  For many of these prospectors, they relied on basic, labour-intensive techniques to extract gold from streams and riverbeds, such as panning.

Later, more advanced mining technology allowed people to recover the modern-day equivalent of billions of dollars of gold.  However, by the end of the Gold Rush, relatively few prospectors had significant riches to show for their efforts.

 

In business prospecting, competing for the attention of potential prospects, it can also feel a touch primitive, involving lots of energy for little return

 

What if there a was a way of striking a richer seam of reward, using more sophisticated methods to attract prospects?

This is what dynamic content marketing offers.

 

Is There an Alternative Route to Prospecting Success?

There’s a potentially valuable online business audience looking for answers, for guidance and for things that will make their lives easier.

How would you get their attention? How do you attract, engage and connect with these valuable business leads?

 

Like the original Gold Rush prospectors, do you run with the crowd? Are you attending the same networking events as everyone else, or looking for the same kind of contacts, the managers and decision-makers?

 

What if there was an alternative route to success, a different map to lead you to the richest seams for prospecting?  And what if you could use it to partially pre-qualify your prospects?

This is where using powerful content can make a difference.

Content marketing is the map to your gold seam. But there’s a twist.  You supply the map to your prospects, so that instead of you spending all your time looking for them, it brings them to YOU.

 

Will You Take the Marketing Challenge?

What’s the best way of discovering alternative routes for business prospecting, how to use content to attract your target audience, and how to help you build useful and potentially profitable relationships?

M3 Media Publishing’s regular, dynamic Marketing Challenge events, held at The St James’s Club in Central Manchester, answer these questions and more.

The Marketing Challenge event, on 3 October 2018, focuses on how you can avoid the competition when prospecting.  To attend this event, or to discover more about future events, please click below:

 

 

For an accompanying read about our previous events, please visit:

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