As the new WNBA champion Chicago Sky enjoyed their well-earned victory parade around the city of Chicago recently, another band of warriors masked up and ventured into the WEFTEC arena for the first time in person since 2019. Despite all the stops and starts in the run up to the Conference, the COVID-19 precautions in place restricting attendance to the vaccinated and the nail-biting decisions of many an exhibitor on whether to exhibit or not, there were plenty of familiar faces to catch up with on the state of our industry.
- Marketing Do's & Don'ts When B2B Trade Shows Return
- Capital Planning In The U.S. Water Market — A Guide For Business Developers
- How The C-Suite Bungles Marketing
- Lessons Learned: Tell Me Something I Don’t Know
- A Guide For Mapping Content To The B2B Buyer's Journey
- Lessons Learned: Stop Selling Your Products
- Creating Content Is Half The Battle (But It Doesn’t Win The Buyer Attention War)
- The Data Problem Marketers Don't Know They Have
- 7 Tips For A Successful Virtual Event Presentation
EMERGING MARKETING TRENDS
Marketing experts are embracing the benefits of the types of services we offer at Water Online. Here are their latest thoughts on the subject.
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![B2Brand Post 10-1 image]( "LinkedIn Shares New Research Into Effective, And Ineffective, Thought Leadership Approaches")
LinkedIn recently published its 2021 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study, created in conjunction with Edelman, which highlights the key challenges and issues in the modern content landscape. Most notably, respondents indicated that the pandemic has sparked a flood of thought-leadership content. The problem is that most of it is subpar.
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![B2Brand post 9-29 image]( "The 95:5 Rule Is The New 60:40 Rule")
Too many B2B marketers think that marketing works through persuasion — by pushing buyers down a funnel by explaining the benefits of a product or service. The problem is that this fundamental misconception sets those people up for failure.
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![B2Brand post 9-28 image]( "The 3 Strategic Pillars Behind Every Winning Content Strategy")
Content marketing appears to be a simple proposition on the surface, but even many experienced marketing professionals struggle with the concept. That’s because a significant amount of work needs to happen behind the scenes to deliver initial success and then keep it on track for the long term.
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![B2Brand post image 9-1]( "Consumers Want Personalized Content, Research Suggests Brands Are Having Trouble Delivering It")
Relevant content is in high demand, but marketers are struggling to keep pace. That’s according to a new study that shows most marketing pros report an increase in demand for content over the past year, while nearly half say effective personalized content could increase brand revenue.
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![B2Brand post 8-30 image]( "13 Brainstorming Techniques To Spur Creativity On Content Marketing Teams")
Selecting topics might seem like it would be the easiest aspect of content marketing, but for many companies it’s the biggest roadblock to success. Brainstorming can be more effective with these creative approaches from Ecommerce CEO co-founder Darren DeMatas.
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![B2Brand Post 8-10 image]( "Why Killing Your Content Marketing Makes The Most Sense")
Content marketing is out of control, which is killing communication strategies across the globe. According to John Pulizzi, author of Content Inc. and founder of thetilt.com, this happens because companies create content for too many platforms.
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![iStock-1223992751-arrows-investment]( "Beyond the PDF: Why B2B Content Marketing Demands An Evolution")
New studies show B2B companies see digital interactions as significantly more important to their customers than traditional sales interactions, yet most B2B resource or learning centers are legacy repositories of siloed assets divided and subdivided by classic, static format types. To be successful going forward, B2B companies will need to create more compelling digital content marketing experiences.
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![iStock-1159143504-call-account]( "The New Rules Of B2B Lead Generation")
While salespeople may be ready for a more aggressive travel schedule coming out of the pandemic, it’s not clear that clients want to get back to that old norm or if corporations will even allow for vendor visits with any regularity. So, how is a B2B salesperson supposed to find new customers when those people don’t want to go back to the old way of doing business?
WATER WE TALKING ABOUT?
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![WaterWeTalkingAboutPodcast-0301]( "Changing The Procurement Process Through Storytelling with Cristina Ahmadpour, MELP, Managing Director (Americas) , Isle Utilities")
Changing The Procurement Process Through Storytelling with Cristina Ahmadpour, MELP, Managing Director (Americas) , Isle UtilitiesWhen it comes to working with utilities, Cristina Ahmadpour says it all comes down to understanding their story, their goals, and working to build a relationship based on trust and understanding.
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![Richard Restuccia]( "Reaching 100,000 Potential Customers Through Podcasts, Webinars And Blogs With Richard Restuccia, VP Water Management Solutions, Jain Irrigation")
Reaching 100,000 Potential Customers Through Podcasts, Webinars And Blogs With Richard Restuccia, VP Water Management Solutions, Jain IrrigationWhen Richard Restuccia started his first Company blog back in 2010, who would have thought that his content syndication efforts would lead to a training and engagement practice now generating over 100,000 views of Jain Irrigation’s podcasts, videos, webinars and website content.
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![WaterWeTalkingAboutPodcast-2-09]( "Nurturing Through Relationship Marketing With Simone Callioni, Global Lead Project Development, Aquatech International")
Nurturing Through Relationship Marketing With Simone Callioni, Global Lead Project Development, Aquatech InternationalRecognizing that the majority of sales presentations in the water industry put participants to sleep, Callioni began experimenting with a new breed of engagement – one he refers to as relationship marketing, utilizing modern communication tools and dependent on the deep knowledge from within his organization seldomly shared with others.
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![Visually Selling Your Water Solutions]( "Visually Selling Your Water Solutions: Pictures Worth A Thousand Words with Zac MacFarlane, Director | Senior Environmental Engineer, Pure Group")
Visually Selling Your Water Solutions: Pictures Worth A Thousand Words with Zac MacFarlane, Director | Senior Environmental Engineer, Pure GroupHow many international models are heading up companies in the water and wastewater industry? As the youngest environmental engineer in New Zealand, Zac MacFarlane is bringing a unique appreciation for aesthetic design to visually showcase the installations and success stories of Clemens Water Engineering and the Pure Group.
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![Converting Complexity Into Value]( "Converting Complexity Into Value Your Customers Will Understand With Wim Audenaert, CEO And Founder, AM-Team")
Converting Complexity Into Value Your Customers Will Understand With Wim Audenaert, CEO And Founder, AM-TeamWim Audenaert, CEO and Founder of AM-TEAM, explains the hardware and software tools he uses to translate the deep science behind his company’s mission into commercial value for the water industry. Among other advice, Wim encourages listeners to be authentic and not overthink their narrative.
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![Revolutionizing Water And Wastewater Industry Marketing]( "Revolutionizing Water And Wastewater Industry Marketing with Björn Otto, Founder, Interius Solutions")
Revolutionizing Water And Wastewater Industry Marketing with Björn Otto, Founder, Interius SolutionsRecognizing the conservative and technology-focused nature of the water and wastewater industry, Björn Otto shares some of the modern marketing methods he deploys to help companies grow within the context of the water and wastewater market.
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![Developing Messages And Themes In Support Of Your Mission]( "Developing Messages And Themes In Support Of Your Mission with John Farner, Chief Sustainability Officer, Netafim")
Developing Messages And Themes In Support Of Your Mission with John Farner, Chief Sustainability Officer, NetafimJohn Farner, Chief Sustainability Officer for Netafim and previous Industry Development Director for the Irrigation Association, discusses the importance of being mission driven in your communication strategy and shares some examples of how to successfully develop and deploy marketing tools and messages built around themes in support of your business development outcomes.
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![A Lesson For Water Equipment Suppliers]( "A Lesson For Water Equipment Suppliers In Elevating Your Marketing To The Next Level with Antoine Walter, Senior Business Development Manager, Georg Fischer")
A Lesson For Water Equipment Suppliers In Elevating Your Marketing To The Next Level with Antoine Walter, Senior Business Development Manager, Georg FischerAntoine Walter, Senior Business Development Manager for Georg Fischer, discusses his unique marketing approach with Adam and Jim. As Antoine explains his interest in the topics and guests he engages with to create his (don’t) Waste Water podcast and associated compilation book, his passion for our industry and the method behind his creative and entertaining madness shines out.
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![Influencing Tips From Around The Industry And Beyond]( "Influencing Tips From Around The Industry And Beyond With Reese Tisdale, President Of Bluefield Research")
Influencing Tips From Around The Industry And Beyond With Reese Tisdale, President Of Bluefield ResearchAs President of Bluefield Research, Reese Tisdale has a unique view of the water sector, interacting with water utilities, vendors, investors and industrial customers. Reese shares his opinions on who in the water sector is telling their story right and offers up some examples from other industries that we in the water sector could learn from.
