I’ve been in business long enough to remember the introduction of the fax machine, the word processor, personal computer, mobile phone, Al Gore’s internet, the tablet, smart phone, and all of the related software and apps.

There has been no time period which has impacted B2B marketing more than the last 10 years. One phenomenon I’ve noticed is that many small manufacturers and distributors are substantially behind the curve.

If you want to catch up fast, read “The New Rules of Marketing & PR” by David Meerman Scott. He describes how to use social media, blogs, and news releases. I just picked up his updated fourth edition which is packed with great information. There are more than 300,000 copies in print in more than 25 languages. On the topic of publicity Scott writes:

• “Don’t just send news releases when big news is happening; find good reasons to send them all the time.”
• “Point people to your news releases from your social sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.”
• “Drive people into the sales process with news releases.”

Venmark has been preparing news releases for clients since way before “The News Rules” book was first published. I founded our company in 1976 with a mission to help small manufacturers and distributors compete with large corporations by taking full advantage of their publicity opportunities and, through our highly efficient business model, help them maximize their marketing return-on-investment. In fact, because of our success, I was appointed one of 18 Small Business Advisors to the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Today the opportunity to leverage your marketing budget has never been greater. According to Marta Kagan at HubSpot, a firm that coined the term “inbound marketing,” inbound marketing costs 62% less per lead than traditional, outbound marketing. Moreover, companies that blog get 55% more web traffic because the more you blog, the more web pages Google has to index, and the more pages and inbound links you are likely to have. All of which contributes to higher ranking on search engines and more website visitors.

The way we address this marketing opportunity at Venmark International is to extend the work we have been doing successfully all these years. With respect to news releases and publicity, we have a four-way approach to allow our clients to leverage our work:

• We create news releases to achieve specific marketing objectives for our clients (niche marketing, OEM targeting, attracting distributors, supporting vendors, etc.),
• Distribute them to the appropriate media outlets, generate widespread exposure all over the internet,
• Encourage our clients to post them in a newsroom on their website, and
• Incorporate them into their email campaigns, blogs, and share them on social media.

So, consistent with our evolution throughout the years, we have extended our mission to include the latest marketing opportunities afforded by the internet. And the process has helped our B2B clients develop new business, attract and support distributors and sales representatives, and expand to new market niches in the USA and around the world. We have enabled them to leverage their marketing budgets to compete more effectively and grow substantially.

###

© 2015  Steven M. Stroum